The Human Pet: A Sci-Fi Romance

Part 27

Tarak

My pet is playing some sort of game with me.

Pets only get a maximum of three strikes before termination. With her already having one strike and now her running off-leash, the danger of the situation hits me.

I must catch her. Saving her life depends on it.

When a door opens and we fall into the room, I rejoice as I run toward her. All I need to do is catch her and carry her away.

Something seems off about this place. Bandages are stacked high, and there is the awful stench that I associate with hospital rooms. Displayed on the wall unit is an enlarged image of a scourge's bandaged nose.

Am I in a medical room? This shouldn't be possible. Medical rooms are usually marked and clustered together so that non-medical scourges cannot easily access them.

My attention is drawn back to the wall unit where the nose is splayed across it. Something about the nose looks unnatural. Why? Is it the fact that the nose has tape on it? Or that the nose is... Too small?

"What's a pet doing in here," yells a scourge wearing a gown and gloves. "It could contaminate everything! Grab it!"

Only then do I notice other things in the room. Two scourges wearing gowns and masks scowl at me and my pet like we are a disease or something. On the table between them, a cloth covers a big burly scourge...

Suddenly I put everything together. This isn't just a medical room. We have interrupted a surgery.

The surgeon glares at me and my pet. "You and that thing are not gloved or scrubbed and could be carrying germs! Get that thing out of here."

"Summon security," the other surgeon tells the wall unit.

No! Another mark on my pet's record could mean her termination. We must not be here when security arrives.

I grab her from behind, pulling her against me while also folding one arm around her neck. My hold is firm, but I do not apply pressure. This is not meant to hurt her but only meant to get her under control and out of here as fast as we can.

My pet is smart because she stiffens the moment my arm brushes the skin around her neck. She gasps and takes tiny little breaths, and I can hear her heartbeat spike, racing. Even though I'm not restricting her breathing, her fear is.

Just hold on, pet, I will let you down. I start to go toward the door when a familiar voice calls to me.

"Tarak?" says the voice coming from the surgical table.

What? I gaze at the table where the mass in the middle sits up.

The scourge with the unnatural taped-up nose, my boss, stares straight at me.

My only hope is that he won't remember anything with anesthetics, so since I have my pet in my arms and security is probably on its way, I run out of the room.

Two burly scourges are in the hallway, and they stand shoulder-to-shoulder, trying to block the exit from this hallway with their bodies. I need to get my pet away, so I hurtle at them, bumping them with my shoulders and knocking them out of the way.

They shout at me to stop, but I keep running.

My pet's heartbeat thumps so loudly, roaring like an engine, drowning out the sounds of everything else around us, even the ones chasing me.

The odds are so against us. Maybe my boss might not remember, but what about all the other scourges?

I do the only thing I can do, which is run—down hallways, past my workplace, even past my quarters—and into Rigel's office.