Unchipped: Kaarina by Taya DeVere

Author:Taya DeVere [DeVere, Taya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DVM Press
Published: 2020-08-31T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4 — AMONG THE SHEEP

Kaarina walks into the remote part of the city, her socks damp but not soaked in her summer sandals. She hasn’t found her shoe, but would look again on her way back. She sits down on the frost-covered park bench, shifting restlessly from side to side.

The crooked pharmacy sign is unlit. No blue suits stroll down the blue tile road. The moon shines its weak yellow light through the wispy clouds. It’s too early to be here. She knew it would be, but she couldn’t stop herself from running through the woods and back into the city as quickly as she could.

Leaving Rocky alone at the barn made her chest hurt. If the Yeti and his black market crew were to come back, the gelding wouldn’t stand a chance. Yesterday, Rocky’s fight against the uninvited visitors had saved his life, but it had also sapped his energy and worsened his infection. It might be too late, even if Kaarina could somehow succeed in tracking down Markus and getting another batch of antibiotics. And food. Her stomach aches when she thinks of her nightly crisp bread.

But how is she to find Markus? Knocking on the Chipped’s doors would be the quickest way to get the attention of the guards. To get her on the troublemaker list.

Going into the pharmacy herself is not an option either. The building glows with blue light because it’s connected to the city’s CS. It would shock her until she passed out or even died. It’s hard to tell what the blue light would do to her in the long run; she’s never tried to find out.

She’s stuck on this park bench. Sitting in the dim blue light. Waiting.

She taps her foot on the concrete ground. When the wind picks up, she tightens her hoodie strings to protect her neck and forehead from the icy breeze. The humming of the tile road fills her ears. Both sandals now tap rapidly against the hard ground.

When the park lights flicker on, blue light mixing with yellow, Kaarina jumps up. It’s almost morning. She paces around the bench.

Markus lives here, in this part of the city, but there’s more than one road leading to the downtown area and the Server-Center where he works. She’ll need to catch him before he gets there. Just a quick pop into the pharmacy, maybe one or two vegan granola bars, that’s all she’ll ask. She’ll pay him later–next week, or even tomorrow. Hell, she’ll spend a day with him if that’s what it takes, but it has to be later. Do the Chipped get days off from work? Which days? Are Sundays still a thing?

A tall building rises in the distance. In the field next to it, long rapeseed stems sway slowly in the wind. It’s been two years since she ran away from the Chip-Center. While she stands and stares at the building, memories flash through her anxious mind like a surgeon’s knife.

Nurse Saarinen kneeling by the toilet, emptying a white lump of flushed-down, half-melted pills from a secret strainer.

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