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A quick survey of the area tells me there’s definitely no way Kendrick and Keys left via the same route as Doc and Neil. They just couldn’t have gotten to them without going all the way around the building, and if Keys hit his head, Kendrick likely took him to one of our pseudo-clinics around town before coming back to check on Doc and Neil. Head injuries can be deadly, and even though Kendrick doesn’t much care for Keys, he wouldn’t leave him in that kind of state.
That comforting thought cements my decision to hunt down Doc and Neil first. Since I don’t see any proof that Kendrick was injured, I have to go to where the worst of the blood leads.
Before I head out, I climb back up into the Burrow and find what’s left of the dorms. My contacts are dry and gritty, so I should really find my glasses. I shouldn’t have slept in the lenses in the first place, but I didn’t trust Sun Yi enough to let myself walk around half blind with her there. Turns out my distrust was well-founded, but no sense fretting about that now.
By some stroke of luck my glasses sit in their case, completely untouched in the chaos. I even find a small stash of weapons that I’d hidden for just such an occasion. One gun goes into the back of my elastic waistband while another joins my stolen knife in my kangaroo pocket. It’ll be awkward to draw from there, but you never know when extra firepower could come in handy. Sadly, I don’t have a spare baseball bat, so I guess Merrill is staying at Sun Yi’s until I can get him back. That is if Samson Ramsey didn’t steal him.
Okay, so I’ve got destructive devices. I’ve got my glasses. What else do I need?
I spot a dust-covered backpack wedged under a fallen beam, and it hits me that Doc and Neil were cut off from the medical supplies. They might need some of that, so I take the backpack and make my way to the med bay. I have no clue what might be important, so I just shove whatever still looks sterile into the bag.
There’s some open packaging littering the floor here. From the looks of it, someone did some triage. Steri-strip wrappers and half a roll of med wrap lie scattered on the concrete.
Good on Kendrick. He patched up Keys before they left.
I’m almost back on my mission when I catch something odd out of the corner of my eye: tiny scrape marks on the floor in the back of the supply room that seem incongruous with the random destruction caused by the explosions. These scrapes have direction and purpose, and when I test the brick in that spot, I find that it’s loose. After jiggling it a bit, I get it out of the wall and find a small treasure.
Neil’s laptop.
Sweet! I’ll still need Keys to dig into the files, but I’ve got the actual device. That means that neither the cops nor any snooping Vipers have it. Into the backpack it goes, a tight fit with all the other crap but well worth it.
One last glance around, and I think I’ve got everything. Time to go find my boyfriends.
I turn on my heel and run smack into a massive, tattooed chest.
“Kendrick!” I squeal and laugh and jump into his waiting arms. “Baby, I was so worried! Are you guys okay?”
He blinks his wide, brown eyes and gives me a once-over that reminds me I look like shit. “Bun, what happened? We heard about Sun Yi and checked out your house, but we couldn’t find any clue where the Cobra took you.”
I scoff and wave off his concern. “Oh, I’m fine. He thought he’d kidnap me and torture me and all that, but I’m smarter than the average bear.”
“Bunny, honey, they beat you to hell and back.” Doc’s admonishing tone tells me I’m in trouble for that. “And I’d wager you aggravated things by being a brat. C’mon. Let me take care of some of this before we go much further.”
I look around and realize they’re all here. Doc, Keys, Neil, Kendrick—all four, safe and sound and together.
Well, together, anyway. Doc’s pallor doesn’t suit him, and he’s holding his side funny. Keys has a dirty bandage on his head, and poor Neil squints a bit as he looks at me. His bandaged arm and slight limp tell me that Kendrick must’ve been the only one besides me who escaped the blast without any major injury.
That tracks, though. Nobody can hurt my Daddy.
“C’mon, Bunny. We’ve gotta get out of here. We just need to grab—Oh, shit!” Kendrick sets me down and stomps over to the loose brick in the wall. “Fuck! Someone got to it.”
“You mean the laptop?” I ask, pulling it out of the backpack. “I found it.”
Neil and Keys throw their arms around me. “Yes, Bun! You’re the best!” Neil kisses me and grabs the computer. “Okay, Kendrick, let’s book. We need to find someplace secure, with electricity and wi-fi, so Keys can do his thing.”
Kendrick nods, and after I let Doc fuss over me a bit and tidy up the worst of my injuries, we all head out into the night.
My giddiness at finding everyone is overshadowed by Doc’s lethargy, Keys’ unusual quietness, and Neil’s limp. My guys are hurt. The Cobra did this. That means the Cobra’s gotta pay. At this point, he owes me a lot of blood and pain if I’m going to even things out. An eye for an eye, y’know. I figure if I rough him up a bit, maybe find a way to hurt him beyond physical pain, too, that’ll tip things in my favor.
Since Keys is playing the Quiet Game, I let Kendrick and Neil fill me in on what’s happened since we all got split up. Each added detail to their suffering fuels my rage, and by the time we get to a safe stopping point for the night—an old hotel, crumbling and condemned but suitable for our needs—I’ve got a list of tortures I plan to enact on Ramsey next time I see him. Ripping off his fingernails or clamping his balls just doesn’t seem like enough for all the pain he’s caused me and mine, but it’s a start. Maybe throw in some electrocution or waterboarding …
All the thoughts of torture get my little Bunny motor running, and by the time we get settled into some adjoining rooms, with Keys working on the computer in one room and Doc on a medical supply run with Neil, I can barely contain myself. I throw myself at Kendrick in the other room, hoping for some of his temper to temper my rage, but he shuts me down with swiftness.
“We can’t right now, Bunny. I’m worried about Doc and even Keys. Neil’s probably more or less okay, but those two got the worst of things. Doc refuses to let me get a good look at his side, and Keys still has memory issues and trouble with his words. He’s getting better, but he’s not …Keysagain yet.”
I really missed something here. Kendrick doesn’t worry about Keys, like, ever. And why isn’t Doc letting Kendrick check him over?
Without missing a beat, I leave Kendrick in favor of hunting down my favorite almost-physician. I catch him on his way back in with Neil. The younger man is carrying a huge bag stuffed to overflowing with I.V. bags, bandages, and bottles of meds. I note that Doc is even paler now, more sluggish, and his usually bright green eyes are dull.
