The Perfect Machine: Kingdom Of Glass (GxG

12. She Left Me

"Are you alright?" I ask Harlow as she has been quiet ever since we came to this abandoned building. They are re-establishing it into another shopping center, yet on this very night, there is nobody here. We rest in one of the new shops as we hide behind a counter.

"I just have a headache," She sighs.

"Yeah, the heat, lack of food and water the last few days doesn't help," I shrug, but now we have filled up our stomach with food and water.

"Can I ask you something?" I wonder and she lifts her head as if she is watching me. I know she isn't, but it just feels like she sometimes does.

"What makes you believe that they needed to send you to the military? I mean, thinking about your condition?" I ask, and she takes a full breath.

"They do a lot of things in the military, even experiments and maybe they saw an opportunity in me for doing that," She shrugs.

"As we are prisoners, they can do whatever they want," She says tragically.

"That is not right," I frown.

"I know, but you know how the government is like," Harlow huffs.

"Unfortunately, I do," I say as I take a piece of cookie to comfort myself of the thought that I am for now safe. I mean, look at the odds, an entire country against a schoolteacher and a soldier who has lost her sight. Her knowledge is impressive, though, but we can't fight. I feel like we are doomed to be caught. Harlow keeps rubbing her forehead intensely, which worries me.

"Try to rest and I will keep guard," I say as I lay my hand on her knee. She nods and stretches out onto the floor and uses the backpack as a pillow.

***

I rush awake as someone shakes me to wake up and look right at Harlow, who put her hand over my mouth. I can hear my own heart drumming in my ears as she put her finger over her lips.

"There is someone here," She murmurs as she snatches the katana. I stare at her, baffled in the darkness as I can't hear anything or anyone in that manner. It's just silence.

"Harlow, there is nothing," I say, annoyed and lay back down on the ground. My eyes are as heavy as concrete, and I can't keep them open. My body is merely failing me.

"Where are you going?" I ask as she jumps over the counter. I get up on my feet to look for her, but it's pitch black in here.

Following a moment of battling the desire not to follow her, I do, for the fact that I'm now concerned. Maybe she is correct, and there is somebody here, or she is going insane. I know people in war have struggled a lot with paranoia and other mental health issues. I don't want to see her get hurt.

"Harlow?" I whisper, but no response. I hear quick strides behind me, and as I turn, a firearm is pointed at my head, which makes me shrink.

"I got her," A deep voice says. He turns on the flashlight on the helmet and blinds me with the sharp light.

"Get down on your knees!" He demands, and his harsh voice causes me to do it accordingly.

"Who you got?" A woman asks over the man's radio.

"It's Hernandez," He answers.

"We need Harlow, so keep looking for her," She groans in disappointment, and the man pulls out a bond and puts them on my hands.

"Get up," He says impatiently and pulls me up from the ground as if I was weightless.

"Where is Harlow?" He inquires.