A moment of peace (Perfect Humans, Part 8)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

”So let me get this straight, I try for several days to find a way into this damn prison and you just walk out after your girlfriend lowered your body temperature to a point where it seemed like you’re dead?”

”Basically, but she’s my ex-girlfriend”, I say. Alexander looks a bit done with the world. ”How did it work out with the embryos? All distributed?”

”Yeah, the last I heard was that all the women are now pregnant. In nine months, we will have many, many primary babies born to secondary parents. The government will go postal.”

”Mission accomplished I’d say then.” My weak smile isn’t returned by Alexander. Instead, his face turns very dark.

”This one, maybe. But our hideouts got raided. Luckily, I could warn all the members, so nobody was arrested, but many are now very discouraged. Did you tell them where to find us?” The question hurts a bit, but I understand why Alexander must think that.

”They asked me only a few questions, but I didn’t really tell them anything. At least I thought so. Somehow, they scanned my brain and got the actual answers they wanted. I didn’t know that they could do this.”

”Technology has come far”, Alexander says and frowns. ”But I’m glad I wasn’t wrong about you. If you had turned out a traitor, nobody would have trusted my knowledge of human nature ever again.”

I laugh. ”Yeah, that would have been horrible.”

”Guys, I don’t want to interrupt you”, Claire chimes in, ”but we really need to move. And Hel, you’re shivering again. You need to be somewhere warm where you can rest. Is there a safe place where you can go? Alexander, do you have a car parked somewhere around here?”

”Yes! Of course. Follow me.”

We follow Alexander to his car, where I let myself fall into the car seat and turn the heat on. Never has warmth felt so good like in that moment.

Claire and Alexander get in too and we start to drive down the road. Slowly, I start to drift asleep.

The sound of the stopping car wakes me up. I rub my eyes and look outside. It is already dark and the house we parked in front of has no porch light.

”Welcome to the last safe house we have left”, introduced Alexander. ”It is small but I am sure it will be enough to get through the next few days.”

The door squeaks a bit and the air inside the house smells like nobody has opened a window in quite some time. As the light flickers on, I notice a thick layer of dust on the furniture.

”You aren’t here that often, are you?” I ask Alexander. He shakes his head.

”This house is meant for the absolute state of emergency, I never allowed someone to come here with me. After everything is back to normal, I will have to find a new emergency shelter. It’s a shame. But please, make yourselves comfortable! The kitchen pantry is stocked with food that will probably survive a nuclear winter and there are two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. I hope you two are fine with sharing a bedroom? I’d hate to sleep on the couch.”

”I think we’ll be fine, thank you”, Claire says and vanishes into the kitchen, presumably to get some food. My growling stomach commands me to follow her.

”Got anything edible?” I ask Claire who turns around to me, holding a can of chicken soup.

”Alexander is right, the best before date on this thing says it will perish in 10 years, but I highly doubt that it will change much after that. Do you want some? I don’t think I can stomach the whole thing.”

”Sure, I’m starving.”

I sit down at the table and watch Claire prepare the soup. While it’s heating up on the stove, she looks through the cabinet, finds some noodles and adds them to the soup. Finally, everything is done and she puts it down on the table in two bowls.

For some time, we just sit there and slurp our soup.

”I’m sorry that I made you a fugitive”, I finally say the thing that has bothered me since we left the prison. ”Because of me, you can’t return to your previous job. I know how much you loved being a nurse.”

”I never wanted to be a nurse”, Claire says. ”I wanted to be a doctor. But they wouldn’t accept me to med school. Being a nurse was the closest I ever got. So maybe it’s good that I helped you escape, now I can fight for my right to become a doctor. Who knows, maybe your resistance group is actually able to change something.”

”Mhm, I hope so”, I say and return to eating my soup.

”Oh, by the way, you still owe me lunch. This soup doesn’t count. I want an expensive dinner in a restaurant where we need to wear fancy dresses. Don’t forget that.”

”Never”, I laugh. ”I would never think of taking away the reward I promised my savior!”

Now Claire laughs too. Her eyes sparkle as she looks at me. Suddenly, everything is very silent.

”Do you want to go up to our room?” Claire asks.

”Absolutely”, I reply.

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No science tag this time! Couldn’t find anything scientific to include in the story but needed to push the plot forward a bit. I hope you guys don’t mind.

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