Kai couldn’t leave his brother worried. It would only be worse for his health. Kai walked the bike back to his home and saw Asa laying on the cot in their house. Their house was barely one bedroom, but Asa and Kai mostly slept on the cot in the ‘living room’ because it was easier to get anything for Asa if he needed it.
“Hey.” Asa sat up slightly when he saw his brother. “Where did you go?”
“I was just saying hi to Gio.” Kai sat on the floor next to the cot where his brother was. “I have to go for a few days and I promise I’ll be back.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Asa sounded panicked. “Are you going to be in danger because I don’t think I can handle the idea-”
Kai cut him off and smiled at his brother.
“No, no danger.” Kai said. “It’s going to be something good. Plus, Gio is going to stay with you.”
Asa’s face lit up ever so slightly when he heard Gio’s name for the second time.
“I don’t want you to go but I can’t stop you, can I?” Asa tried his best to smile at his brother.
“That’s right.” Kai winked at Asa and helped him lay down completely.
Kai kissed his brother on the forehead and was about to get up, until his brother lightly reached for his forearm.
“You’re not doing whatever you’re doing because of me, right?” Asa looked up at Kai with sad eyes. “I don’t want to be the reason you get hurt. Again.”
“You worry too much. Everything is going to be okay, I promise. By this time next year, you’re going to forget you were ever sick.” Kai said.
“If I don’t die by then.” Asa immediately regretted what he said when he saw Kai’s expression.
“Don’t talk like that. You’re going to be okay and I’ll make sure of it.” Kai got up. “I’m going to be back. The only thing you have to worry about is not missing me too much.”
“You know that’s impossible.” Asa grinned. “Be careful.”
Kai grabbed a few things he thought he might need and headed out. Gio’s map was surprisingly straightforward. However, Kai knew he wouldn’t be able to hit all five hospitals in one day, so he would have to eventually figure out where he could sleep without getting killed. Kai was hopeful though, hopeful that he would find some Sigma-B. If it was used for a really rare condition, then people probably didn’t take it.
Kai kept a pen and notepad in his backpack, so he could try and keep track of how far things were, but it was still a little difficult. He had to rely on the small compass he found one time next to a dead body. Not ideal, but necessary. Kai also had a watch that surprisingly still worked, so he could calculate distance.
Kai started out hopeful, but that feeling slowly went away each time he couldn’t find anything in the hospitals. The smell of death in some hospitals was so pungent that Kai’s eyes watered, but he kept on going. He checked every inch of each hospital he went to. Kai managed to check out three of the five in one night, but there was no way he would make it anywhere else. It was already well into the evening.
Kai saw a city a few miles away from the last hospital he went to, and made his way over. He found a secluded alley with one of the less disgusting dumpsters he had encountered while scavenging the west, so he hoisted the motorbike into it. He couldn’t risk it being stolen, and he couldn’t have the noise that came from it alerting anyone.
Kai walked into the city and it was more than eerie. Some cities and towns in the west looked better than others, while some were in shambles. They were most likely used as dump sites or they were some of the first places impacted by the outages that eventually made their way across most of the west. The one Kai found himself in sent chills down his spine. As soon as he walked into an abandoned convenience store, a body greeted him. He almost stepped on it due to the lack of lighting outside.
Kai took out his flashlight and shone it at the body. The blood still looked fresh. Kai needed to be careful a find a safe enough place to sleep for a few hours. He kept his hand over his flashlight to make himself not as noticeable and continued to scan the streets.
Kai spotted a mall not too far from where he left Gio’s bike, so he made his way over. The mall was big enough for him to find somewhere mostly safe. He kicked some broken glass away from a window and entered through that. The mall was quiet, which was good. He stopped searching for a place to stay when he found a movie theater in the mall. There were so many theatres within the movie theatre, that he would surely be safe.
Kai quietly opened the door of the movie theatre and hopped over the concession stand to get past the blocked off entrance. He didn’t want to be too obvious, so he chose one of the theatres that wasn’t at the very beginning or very end. It was down one of the halls and seemed subtle enough.
Kai breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no one else was in the theatre. He couldn’t remember the last time he had gone to the movies. It was way too long ago and, even if Kai did remember, it was probably a movie his parents wanted to see and dragged him along.
The seats had the ability to have the armrests lifted, so Kai felt relieved that he could sleep in a somewhat normal position. He placed his bag behind him and relaxed against the cushions. He tried to ignore the amount of dust floating around, which was illuminated by his flashlight, when he sat down. He didn’t bring the phone he and Asa had for emergencies, but felt like it may be necessary if he had to go to the east. They mostly kept it off because they had limited minutes, and it wasn’t always easy to charge it. Besides, they didn’t know enough people to have more than a few numbers in their phone.
Kai fell asleep after an hour of staring into nothingness.
He didn’t know how long he slept, but Kai was awoken by a sound. It was in the distance, but Kai didn’t want to wait and find out what it was. He checked the time. 5:32am. Good enough. Kai got himself up and quietly exited the theatre through a back door at the end of one of the hallways.
The sound got louder and it almost sounded like an engine. Kai didn’t want to round the corner to confirm or deny his suspicions, but he had nowhere to go. He cautiously poked his head out of the alley he was in and saw that he was right. It was a truck from the east. They were dumping some trash in the city. One of the men in the truck got out, his uniform pristine and clean unlike any of Kai’s clothing, and shoved a body out from in front of the wheel. It looked like they drove over it and backed up to move it away. Kai was disgusted with the east. They had such little regard for the people living in the west.
The only good thing about what he witnessed was that Kai figured that he could try and hide in the back of one of the trucks if he needed to get to the east. For now, Kai had seen enough. He went through the alley and used his compass to find the dumpster where he left Gio’s motorbike. He checked to see if anyone was around before he took it out and went on his way to the fourth non-functioning hospital.
Kai parked the motorbike in a discreet location and headed into the hospital. As soon as he entered, he could tell he wasn’t alone. A commotion was coming from one of the hospital rooms. Kai has weapons, but he found some scalpels on the ground, so he took them. Kai peered through the small window to see, what he assumed to be, a gang. They had someone tied up in a chair and were taunting them. Kai got closer to the window to overhear.
“When I say I need my shipment, it means I need it now. I know those dirty soldiers in the east gave you some.” A burly looking man slapped the person in the chair, nearly knocking him off of said chair.
“Honest, he didn’t. Really.” The man pleaded.
“What’s the white powder under your nose, then? Flour? Like we have had flour in the west within the past five years?” A lanky man hovering over the person in the chair retorted.
“If you aren’t going to tell us, then I’m going to have to cut it out of you.”
If there was something Kai hated almost as much as the east, it was the gangs that were in the west. They were uncommon, but still prevalent. People mostly tried to be peaceful and live as well as they could in the west, but gangs made that difficult. They made everyone seem bad. That wasn’t what the west was. They weren’t all monsters. Kai had only killed in the past out of self-defense, or to protect Asa. He wouldn’t kill someone innocent, but those men that were about to kill the man in the chair were far from innocent.
“Leave him alone.” Kai opened the door of the hospital room. “He really doesn’t have anything. I just saw one of the east’s trucks out there and it looks like they were dropping something off here. They were literally just out in the city less than a mile from here.”
“And who the fuck are you?” The burly man focused his attention on Kai.
“I’m a nobody, dude. I just came here to see if I could find any dope and, shocker, I couldn’t. This place is wiped. Go to the city. You’ll have more luck there.” Kai cooly responded.
“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, or else your brains would be splattered all over this room.” The burly man shoved Kai aside.
Before they left, the lanky man eyed Kai.
“‘I’ve seen your face,” He said, “If you’re lying, I’m coming for you.”
Once the men left, Kai ran towards the man in the chair and untied him.
“Thank you so much.” The man sobbed onto Kai’s shoulder. There was no way this guy was a drug mule.
“No problem.” Kai helped him up. “You have somewhere to go?”
“Yeah, I do. I just wanted to come in here and see if I could find any medical supplies, honest. I used to know those guys, but kept my distance when I saw what they were capable of. They somehow think I’m part of the east.” The man sighed. “Thank you again.”
“Here.” Kai handed the stranger a scalpel. “If you see them on your way back to where you came from, get them in the femoral artery.” He touched the part of his thigh that would be best to slice into. “They’ll bleed out in minutes.”
“I’m glad to know there are still some good people around here. I’ll see you around.” The man thanked Kai once more before he dashed out of the hospital.
Once he was alone, Kai checked the hospital. Nothing. He was almost completely hopeless, but he knew he still had a chance to find Chi at the hospital that was actually functioning.
Kai was wary of the men he encountered, so he decided to lay low for a while. Kai knew the people of the west weren’t inherently bad, they had to do whatever they could to survive. It wasn’t humanly possible for every person in the west to be a bloodthirsty monster. The east caused everything. They were the ones that needed to be held accountable.
After a few hours passed, Kai made his way to the last functioning hospital. He really hoped that Chi was there. He would beg if he had to.
When Kai approached the hospital, he felt a glimmer of hope. The hospital seemed decently maintained and it appeared to have a lot more electricity than the whole town where Kai lived.
Kai set Gio’s motorbike down behind a dumpster and made his way into the hospital. He adjusted his shirt and smoothed out the non-existent wrinkles.
The building had definitely experienced its fair share of break-ins, but it was patched up well.
“Hi. How may I help you?” A woman dressed in casual clothing asked. The hospital must have stopped caring about uniforms, and Kai didn’t blame them. Maybe there were uniforms at one point, but they were probably stolen.
“Hi.” Kai offered the woman a friendly smile. “I know this is a really odd request, but I wanted to inquire with one of the doctors of this hospital about a medication.”
“There is only one doctor now.” The woman’s smile fell. “It’s sad, but we do what we can. We had to close off all of the other floors to be functional.” She said. “Doctor Wang is with a patient now. Would you like to wait for him here?”
“Yes, please.” Kai nodded and sat at a seat the woman motioned to.
The wait was much longer than Kai anticipated, or maybe it felt that way because he was eager to get medication for Asa.
“ I hear you have a question about some medication?” The doctor sat in the seat next to Kai. “I’m hoping you don’t want me to give you some oxy, or something, because I can’t. Literally. A lot of our medications were stolen.”
Kai looked from Doctor Wang’s nametag to his friendly face. “No drugs, I promise.” He couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. “Have you ever heard of the condition Sigma-B? Maybe it’s considered a disease. I don’t really know.” He paused. “Alternatively, maybe you know about the antidote called Chi?”
“Sigma-B?” Doctor Wang adjusted his glasses. “Must have missed that part in the curriculum.”
“I wouldn’t blame you. It’s a very rare thing. I’m asking because my brother has Sigma-B and he’s going to die if I don’t get him Chi. It’s still unknown if Chi will work for his condition, but it’s my best shot.” Kai began to sound very desperate.”He’s all I have and I’m afraid he’s not going to make it if I don’t act fast.”
Doctor Wang sent Kai a sympathetic nod. “I’m so sorry, but we don’t have any Chi here. We barely had a supply as is and it’s gone now.”
Kai’s heart dropped. “Did someone take it? I can hunt them down. I’m sorry for sounding crazy, but I have no other option.”
Doctor Wang shook his head. “It wasn’t stolen. We only had a few antidotes here and they got used.”
Kai forced himself to nod and stood up. “Well, thank you anyway.” He said.
Just as Kai was about to leave, Doctor Wang stopped him.
“Something tells me you’re not giving up that easily.Take these.” The doctor handed him a bag. Kai only caught a quick glimpse, but he saw various antiseptics and other first aid. “Good luck out there.”
“Thank you.” Kai said before he exited the building. He needed to go see Gio before he left and give him his bike back. Gio was going to be less than enthused to hear that Kai wasn’t successful in finding Chi. Kai also wanted to see Asa one more time, just in case he didn’t come back. Kai had to go east.
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