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“Casserole Surprise,” I read from the package a White Rose volunteer handed me, along with a bottle of water to mix into the dried food. I raised a skeptical eyebrow as we sat down at one of the tables.
“What’s the surprise?” John asked, amused, as he looked down at his own packaged meal, which said Homestyle Lasagne.
The casserole was a rather unappetizing-looking mush, but I gamely popped a spoonful into my mouth.
“That it’s worse than you expected,” I replied, wrinkling my nose, and John chuckled.
A second later, he took a bite of his lasagne and grimaced. “You’re right.”
Still, it was food, and we’d gotten used to eating almost anything during our long journey to the Valley. We finished our meals without further complaint, though my stomach gave an unpleasant lurch as I swallowed down the last bite.
As we stood to leave, Kimmy entered the room and informed us that Gizzi was ready for me. She led us outside again and into another one of the garrisoned warehouses. This one was full of various computers and other tech, and a woman with deep skin and square glasses sat at the centre of it, fiddling with a handheld device that I briefly recognized as something I’d seen Neil use before as a doctor. He’d used it to adjust the hormone and vitamin levels in our people’s implants, but he’d never had the ability to turn off people’s trackers, so Gizzi’s version must have permissions the regular devices didn’t.
A memory of how the device gained access to an implant flashed through my mind, and I shivered. It had never looked pleasant.
“Have a seat,” Gizzi said without preamble, nodding at a chair she’d set next to hers. “I’ve set everything up, so we should be good to go. The process takes a while, so get comfy. Sit with your back to me.”
John sat in the chair and pulled me onto his lap, with my back facing Gizzi. His arms tightened around me protectively as Gizzi withdrew a long, extremely thin needle from a bag on the floor. She attached it to her handheld device with a cable.
“What exactly do you have to do?” John asked, eyeing the large needle. “Are you gonna hurt her?”
“It’s uncomfortable, I won’t lie,” Gizzi replied briskly. “But we have an anesthetic gel that should kill the pain.”
She spread the cooling gel at the base of my neck, where it connected to my spine. Neil had once told me that they inserted the implant there to make it exceptionally difficult to remove, even by a talented surgeon. It risked serious damage to the nerves and the spinal cord, possibly even paralysis.
I’m sure that was Julius’s idea, I thought bitterly.
The gel instantly made the area go numb, and the insertion of the needle merely felt like an unpleasant pressure rather than truly painful. The needle stayed there as Gizzi tapped away at her device, evidently growing absorbed by her work.
I leaned my head against John’s shoulder as she worked, surprising myself with how tired I felt. It had been a long, strange, terrifying day, but I was back where I was supposed to be.
“Does it hurt?” John asked, stroking my head. The gesture made me sleepy. “Looks like it should.”
“No,” I answered with a sigh. “Even if it did, I wouldn’t mind.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Close your eyes.”
“I should stay awake,” I said, but my eyes fell shut anyway.
“There you go,” he murmured, his lips still pressed to my skin, his hand still stroking my hair. “I’ll wake you when we’re done, my love.”
It was a mark of how at ease he made me feel that, snuggled against him, I dozed off with a giant needle sticking out of my spine.
“Attention, White Rose outlaws: this is a message from the Sire you once swore to serve. The one responsible for your miserable existence.”
The magnified male voice jolted me awake, and John was instantly tense beneath me. Gizzi froze, her brow pinched in a deep frown. By the look of our surroundings, I hadn’t slept for long.
“We’ve let your little encampment exist because we saw no point in destroying our own warehouse district,” Julius continued. “We intended to eventually reclaim the valuable supplies you stole from us once other, more serious threats were dealt with. However, you’ve transgressed against our Sole Survivor, and now there must be much more severe consequences for your rebellion.”
Translation: we didn’t take you seriously until you stole our propaganda figurehead.
“Right now, there are two heavy artilleries outside your barricade. When I give the order, they’ll fire rockets on your little squatters’ paradise and crush your resistance the way it deserved to be crushed. All of you will be made examples of.
“However, there is a way to earn a temporary stay of execution for your doomed cause. Return the Sole Survivor to us, and we will leave you unharmed. Resist, and we will spare no man, woman, or child. You have half an hour.”
I jolted again, making a move to stand, but Gizzi put a firm hand on my shoulder to keep me seated.
“I’m not done,” she protested, but there was fear in her voice. “If you pull out the needle now, you’ll undo all my progress.”
