Unequal

by B. E. Sanderson

  She nearly screamed again, in anger instead of fear. Except the sounds outside her door made it plain no one could spare the time for her impotent rage. Everyone had better things to do, including her. This new hospital held dozens—maybe scores—of patients who needed her. Beyond the door and past her fright were the people she was supposed to eventually train. With one well-placed explosive device, the DOE had thrust them into their jobs untrained.

  Levering herself up, she gave a passing thought to the pounding in her temples. The headache, too, would have to wait. With a silent thanks to Crispin for leaving her clothed, she scooted off the bed and shored up her jangled nerves. It won’t get any better the longer you wait. She forced one foot in front of the other. One moment at a time would have to be her existence for the foreseeable future. Once night fell again, maybe she could let the fear overwhelm her. Maybe by then, someone else would come and claim the leadership position so she could let herself fall apart. Until then, this hospital was her responsibility.

  This hospital. One of the two left in the city and the Citizenry aren’t aware of we exist. She stopped as her hand closed around the door handle. If this is a secret place for the Unequals, where did all the victims come from? The niggling idea in her head spoke volumes, but she didn’t have time to listen to it. Later, she would talk to Justin. If she could find him.

  And then something rose like a fetid bubble in her mind. If he’s still alive.

  Except he had to be. His presence on the other side of the city was improbable. His presence at the sight of a major DOE offensive was impossible. Unless his superiors figured out who he really was. If they had, every possibility existed they’d put him at the epicenter. What better way to dispose of a problem the size of Citizen Executioner Jenner?

  A shriek issued from beyond her door silencing the question. Rue had to block everything else from her mind. One thing remained for her to focus on—the care of her patients.

  Pulling the door open, she stepped into chaos.

  Crispin hadn’t moved her far from the carnage, even if the few steps he’d carried her seemed farther. Outside was the very triage area she had spent most of the night in. Everything was the same, only the patients had changed. Instead of a compound fracture on the left, a young woman lay struggling for breath. The space once occupied with a burn victim had been filled by old man with a crushed skull.

  What now? Without time and patience to ask, she waded into the thick of it.

  Prescribing heavy doses of painkillers for those who could bear them, Rue stopped at every bed. She treated the collapsed lung and gave orders for the massive brain injury to be moved upstairs where he could pass out of life in peace. The burn cases had been replaced sometime in the night with blunt-force trauma patients—as though the fires had been put out and, in their absence, the buildings simply collapsed.

  After too short a time filled with too much activity, the number of new cases slowed to a trickle. Rue spared a moment to absorb the events of the past twenty-four hours.

  And threw up in the nearest garbage can.

  “You okay, Doc?” said a voice above her.

  After the heaving subsided, she gazed upward to see a brushy-brown beard she hadn’t glimpsed in weeks.

  “Bruno?” As a smile spread through his too thin beard and up into his eyes, a lump rose in her chest. In all those weeks, she’d been too busy to spare him a single thought. He could’ve been in the middle of this fight and she wouldn’t have known it.

  “Your weary eyes don’t deceive you.” He gave her a hearty wink. “And my weary eyes are uplifted by the sight of your pretty face.”

  “A man of flowery words? I never would’ve pegged you for one.” Despite the events she continued to reel from, her mouth stretched into a grin. For the moment, it felt right to stand in the middle of mayhem, smiling up at the gentle mountain. “I’m sorry I didn’t miss you before this.”

  The words came out before she could stop them, but her heart told her they were right. To say she had missed him would’ve been insincere. He didn’t deserve insincerity.

  “You’ve had a lot thrown at you in a short time. I didn’t expect a few short meetings to make me your highest priority.”

  “Where were…?” She reached up and touched his face. The great shaggy beard he sported at the time they met was a few weeks past being shorn. And his mane of hair had been cut. “You were with the Equals, weren’t you?”

  His nodded his head solemnly. “We go where we’re needed.” Bruno cast a wistful glance out the window. “I wish I could’ve helped those who needed me most.”

  “You were the one who took Hubert’s place at the hospital?” She asked the question, but she didn’t need him to confirm what she already guessed. “Did you know what the DOE was going to do?”

  Bruno’s big shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I got word something bad was going to happen. I didn’t… I had no idea… If I’d known…”

  “If you had known, you couldn’t have gotten anyone to believe you without giving yourself up.” Two separate questions sprung into her mind, warring to be the first asked. In the end, the most pressing won out over the more personal. “Was Justin with you?”

  The big man shook his head. “The last I saw of him was a few days ago. He told me to get out of there. I tried to warn people but…”

  From the look in his eyes, he’d made several attempts to encourage people to leave. Rue didn’t need to ask her second question. One of those people had to be Kyle. If her friend had listened...

  “They wouldn’t leave.” His breath stuttered in his throat. “So many people.”

  She didn’t have the heart to tell him Kyle had escaped too late. The details would hurt the gentle bear of a man. He’d done the best he could, but sometimes the best shepherd can’t lead sheep away from where they’re comfortable—even if the manger is on fire.

  Patting at his arm lamely, she sought for the right words, but Bruno had been at this longer than she had. He was already past the pain she couldn’t quite surmount. In the end, he was the one who put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. Her face was against the rough flannel of his shirt before she realized she was crying.

  “They’re beyond this world of ours now,” he said into her hair. “All the more reason to make sure they didn’t die for the wrong reasons.”

  “They died for no damn reason. He killed all those people… for what?”

  Rue found herself supremely grateful he didn’t ask who she meant. He simply shook his head. “Winston never needs a reason. But you’re wrong in this case. He had one when he gave the order to destroy the hospital. What the sick bastard had in mind may never discover. Whatever the reason, I don’t want those people to have died for him. Their deaths need to mean more than the whims of a madman.”

  Pushing herself away, she looked into his steady blue eyes. “He’s my uncle. Did you know before you left?”

  Bruno nodded. “Yes. And it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me. DNA and genes. They might’ve given you his eyes or his hair color or some allergy, but they didn’t make you who you are.”

  “Who he was once made me who I am.”

  “That was then, this is now. Stop beating yourself bloody trying to force the past and the present into one place.” He brushed a thumb over her chin.

  Right then, she didn’t feel so sisterly toward him. The last time she saw him, he was this brutish looking man with the soul of a playful puppy. His eyes told a different story. The playful glitter was buried deep alongside the brute, leaving a man who didn’t appear to feel very brotherly toward her either.

  “There you are.” Rue turned to see Crispin striding toward her, more panicked than she could imagine him being.

  “What’s wrong?” Bruno said before she could get the words out.

  Crispin shot a glare toward the bigger man and then turned toward Rue. “There isn’t time to explain. Justin needs your help.”

  “To blow
up another section of the city?” Rue longed to snatch back the snide words. Not that they weren’t what she felt but as both men stared down at her, she realized they weren’t the words either man expected of her.

  “He didn’t…” Bruno began.

  Crispin didn’t say a word. He grabbed her hard by the arm and gave her one short shake. “The hospital wasn’t Justin’s doing.”

  “Then what’s the problem?” Her free hand swept out to encompass the rows of beds. “I have work here. If he’s in trouble, take Bruno. Better yet, let him get his own damn self out of it. Hundreds of people died yesterday. Hundreds more are injured. If this wasn’t his doing—”

  “I told you, I don’t have time to explain.” With his hand wrapped tighter around her upper arm, Crispin pulled her toward the exit.

  “Leave her be.” The bear stepped forward, his words a growl worthy of his name.

  “Fine. I didn’t want talk about this here in front of everyone, but Justin’s hurt. He needs medical attention.” Crispin nodded at her and then tilted his head toward Bruno. “Not brute strength.”

  “If you’re taking her out of this building, I’m coming with her. It’s not safe out there.”

  “As if it’s safe anywhere in the city at the moment.” The tone in Crispin’s voice finally changed her mind. If her former rescuer had changed from jovial to strident, Justin must really be in trouble. Bruno, on the other hand, wasn’t prepared to budge. He positioned himself between Rue and the exit, his arms crossed over his ample chest.

  “Fine,” Crispin said. “Come with. In fact, if you weren’t being so pigheaded, I would’ve insisted. We might need some muscle before this is over.”

  He pulled again, but Rue resisted. “I have to tell someone where we’re going.”

  “I can’t tell you where we’re going. Not yet. Even if I could, you wouldn’t be able to tell them.” His eyes scanned the hallway around them. No one could be seen from where they were standing—at least no one who was currently upright. From several beds away, a man tossed in his sleep. Farther down the room, a woman moaned. “We don’t know who all these people are.”

  “No, but I can tell you they’re all too sick to spy for the DOE.”

  “You never can tell who’s working for the agency.” Neither one of them moved until Crispin finally relented. “Fine. I’ll tell you. But not until we get in the transport.”

  “And what am I supposed to tell the people here?”

  “Nothing. If everything goes right, you’ll be back before anyone realizes you’re gone.”

  She glanced toward the end of the hall. Somewhere down there, the Unequals who’d assisted her all night and throughout the day were resting. They’d done an amazing job, but none of them were really trained for this— they were barely trained to the extent Rue had trained herself in her first year. Leaving them to deal with the mess seemed cruel.

  “We have to move.” He pulled at her arm again. “The longer we stand around here, the worse Justin gets.”

  Those words did it. She gave one last look and allowed Crispin to lead her down the stairs toward the garage with Bruno trailing reluctantly after. Three floors down, a transport waited. The humming of its engine reverberated through the structure.

  “You were expecting to zip out of here without any fuss, weren’t you?”

  “I wasn’t expecting an argument, if that’s what you mean.” He pulled open the passenger door and helped her inside. “You and Justin have had your differences, but you’re a doctor. Love the guy or hate him, you’re supposed to help.”

  Guilt washed over her. As much as she hated to admit it, Crispin was right. She shouldn’t have been such a bitch about helping anyone who needed her. No one forced her to take the Hippocratic Oath, but not saying the words in public didn’t exempt her from adhering to them. In the basement under a destroyed hospital, lay a little room where she’d made the oath to herself. The room was gone, her oath remained.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered as Crispin climbed into the driver’s side and Bruno lowered himself into the back seat. She could see the big man in her mirror and he looked as abashed as she felt.

  “Apology accepted.” Crispin gave her the old grin he’d been lacking. “Let’s get to work and see if we can’t save a life today.”

  She smiled in return. As they exited the hospital into the dry morning, smoke drifting from the ruined hospital chased that small happiness away.

  “Was he hurt in the—?” She didn’t need to say the word. Both men ought to understand. After all, she couldn’t possibly be referring to anything else.

  “No.”

  “The aftershocks?”

  “No.”

  A hand shot past Rue’s face to grip Crispin’s shoulder. His face twisted in pain for an instant before he shrugged off Bruno’s hand.

  “He should really learn to relax. He’ll live longer.” Rue began to turn her head toward Bruno, but Crispin’s hand shot out to hold her firm. “Don’t worry about him. He’s fine.”

  But she couldn’t help herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bruno slumped over onto the seat. “What happened to him?”

  “The stress. He’s been a busy guy lately. Running information and supplies for Justin. Warning hospital employees—”

  “I don’t think he’s breathing.”

  “It would be better for him if he wasn’t, but he’s simply sleeping. As I said, he’s been busy. He deserves a long rest. Maybe if he takes some time to sleep, he’ll be smart enough to shut the hell up.”

  Rue slapped Crispin’s hand away. She stared disbelieving at the man driving her away from the Unequals, away from safety. He appeared to be the same Crispin she’d been working with for weeks. He smelled the same as the man who’d rescued her from the DOE. The tone in his voice told a different story.

  Crispin has become a totally different person.

  Who was he really? The kind and funny man she found herself attracted to? Or the man with the cruel mouth who was currently pressing a button on the transport’s console? As he settled a plastic disk over his nose and mouth, a soft hiss emanating from the vents answered the question.

  Her eyelids grew heavy, but she didn’t bother to fight it. Whatever drug he was administering via aerosol would affect her whether she struggled or not. The final question, as everything grew black, was whether Crispin was making sure she never got the chance to struggle again.

  TWENTY- FOUR

  “Time to wake up.”

  The voice hit Rue seconds before the smell. Urine and feces and fear rose up all around her, clogging her nose and burning her eyes.

  “Wake up, Rue.”

  She screwed her eyes shut tighter. She didn’t need to open them to know where she was and who was speaking. He’d spoken pretty much the same words the last time he’d awakened her in this place. If she opened her eyes, it would make the whole mess true. If she kept her eyes closed, maybe she could pretend the past weeks had never happened. Justin and Bruno had been a dream. The hospital explosion had been a nightmare. Her Uncle Howard could still be the man she loved and not a monster.

  A finger gentled a few strands of hair from her forehead. A palm cupped her cheek and turned her face. She could feel his soft breath against her jaw.

  And a capsule of ammonia was opened beneath her nostrils.

  With one hand, she knocked it away. Choking against the bitter odor, she glared into Crispin’s eyes. “Enough. I’m awake.”

  His lips spread into a grin. “I suspected as much, but I needed to be sure. Someone wants to see you, and he’s already pretty pissed I had to knock you out in the first place.” Crispin touched her cheek again and she fought the urge to cringe. “But after he sees you again, he’ll understand. You wouldn’t have come willingly, would you?”

  She didn’t bother to offer an answer. He couldn’t have really expected one. Instead, a single word sprang off her tongue. “Why?”

  “Why what? Why didn’t I believe you’d be a
willing participant?” The words flowed from his mouth, but his eyes told her he was being deliberately obtuse. The bastard. “Why am I doing this, you mean? I don’t think we have time to go into it, sweetheart. The boss is on his way, and he doesn’t appreciate waiting.”

  She closed her eyes and her mouth. Seeing Crispin this way made everything more horrible, but she didn’t want to discover what he’d do after she laughed at him. Of course, I really don’t have anything to lose, do I?

  “You sound like one of those dime store novels my uncle used to read to me for fun.” The whole situation was too ludicrous, and the look on her former friend’s face was enough to send her right over the edge. As laughter bubbled forth from her, an angry flush bloomed across his already ruddy complexion.

  She was still laughing as the door to her tiny cell opened. Once she saw the man who walked through—the man she had once adored and idolized—any hope of ever laughing again died.

  “Uncle Howard,” she said on what could be the last breath she’d ever take.

  “Darling Rue.” He tipped his head toward her as though their meeting was some kind of social occasion.

  So many things about her uncle had changed Rue never once recognized him as Hank Winston on the newsfeeds. Howard’s hair had been longer. The curls she once played with had been shorn away, replaced by stiff bristles graying near the temples. Howard’s smooth skin, kissed by the sun they used to play under, had become lined and craggy. Where smile lines should’ve graced a face in its forties, she saw the damage a tightly clenched jaw could do to a handsome man.

  “Cat got your tongue?” If he was attempting to create a pretense of familial glee, he failed.

  Rue glanced sideways at Crispin and then up at Citizen Equalizer Winston. The older man gave a brusque tilt of his head and her false friend strolled from the room. Before Crispin left, he gave her a cheerful grin and a wink—both of which she had considered charming before. Now, she wanted to slap the grin away and gouge out the deceit behind those half-lowered lids.