After the Second Fall Pt. 02.1

Lilith wanted to run, but settled for a very brisk walk. The pair didn't see anyone until they rounded the last corner and entered the large hallway leading to the medical wing, which was quite full. In total, there were around a dozen people, about half of which seemed hurt. Lilith's step faltered for a moment, but she quickly righted herself, then took a moment to mentally catalogue the injuries as she made eye contact with each of them. She had a feeling she should stay and see how they were doing, but her feet kept her moving and she was soon through the double doors.

Down the sterile white hallway and around a corner, the women found Stash guarding Surgery One, the Complex's primary operating facility. "Ma'am," Stash said, raising a hand to stall her, but she sidestepped him and walked up to the door, looking in through the window.

The operating area was large, with enough space for four operations to proceed simultaneously, should the need occur. Like the hallways, the floors, walls, and ceilings were a glossy white, which gleamed brilliantly as they reflected the overhead lights. Dr. Shepard was leaning over an enormous body that was too small to be an Adam. He was working frantically as his assistant handed him tools and pads and who-knows-what-else in rapid succession. It was clear things were not going well, and Lilith's stomach began to drop. Even as she watched, the doctor slammed down a tool into a metal bowl and pulled a sheet up over the head, then stepped away disgustedly.

Lilith's knees collapsed at once and she fell against the door, which opened, spilling her into the surgery. Cassidy was there to scoop her up, but Lilith hardly registered anything that was going on around her, even as the doctor gently pulled back her eyelids.

After a quick examination, he said tiredly, "She will be fine. It was likely the shock of losing someone. I take it they were close?"

"No idea," said Cassidy.

"What?" shouted Lilith as her subconscious registered what had been said. She quickly wriggled out of Cassidy's arms and onto the floor, then raced to the bed. Pulling back the sheet, she saw it wasn't John, but Loren. She would probably feel guilty later for the relief that flooded through her, but for the moment, she didn't care. "Where is John Rogers?" she almost shouted.

Taken aback, Dr. Shepard pointed to the opposite corner of the room where several additional gurneys had been pushed together with white sheets draped over top, five in all; only one had a body of similar size.

Lilith would learn later that John's skull had fractured badly when he hit the block wall, and that he had already passed when he arrived in the surgery. In the moment, Lilith put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her wind, finding breathing very difficult. She was quickly led to one of the chairs on the wall where Cassidy let Lilith scream into her shoulder.

When the top of the bell sounded, Lilith wasn't ready to face the world, but she pushed back anyway. "Cassidy, please find me a towel." Without another word, she walked stiffly to the nearest trash can and retched violently into it, heaving until there was nothing left. Finally done, she made her way back to Cassidy, accepted the towel, and cleaned herself up as best she could.

"Thank you for being here for me and John." Taking Cassidy's hand, she walked over to the corner, taking deep breaths to steady herself. With a shaking hand, she pulled back the sheet to reveal John's face, which was pale and rigid in death. The two women stood there silently for some time, saying goodbye in their own ways, before Cassidy reached out to touch his shoulder. Having done so, she looked down at Lilith, but failing to find words, nodded once and walked back toward the door.

Lilith eventually pulled the sheet back up while letting out a quaking, shuddering breath, and closed her eyes as tightly as she could. When she opened them, she walked around the gurney to see who laid on the other four.

The first was a man she had seen, but didn't know, dressed in Maintenance greens.

The second man worked in Logistics as a clerk; his name was Mitchel... something.

The third was wearing the blue and brown of the PET department, and Lilith's breath caught, but then she saw the blonde hair and realized it wasn't Rosie or Maggie, and she let out a relieved sigh -- more guilt to be processed later, but for now, fuck it. The poor girl's face was almost unrecognizable, but Lilith was fairly certain this was Irena Kohlkraft, Loren's First. Shaking her head sadly, Lilith covered her back up.

Under the fourth sheet was Alfred Fetching. "Fuck."

Doing an about face that would have made a military officer proud, Lilith walked back to Doctor Shepard, who was now treating what looked like a broken arm. "Doctor, a word."

The doctor thought about objecting, but saw her determination and excused himself from his patient. As they stepped away, she began directly. "How many casualties?"

"If you mean Complex staff, then six dead, of which I am aware. I assume that the Adams responsible have been put down, but I can't speak to that. We have about a dozen lesser injuries, from fractures to lacerations."

Lilith nodded. "Where is the rest of your staff?"

The doctor shook his head helplessly. "I haven't seen Dr. Micah since early this morning, nor his assistant. Our two orderlies were here when the alarm went off, but I haven't seem them since, so it's just been Samantha and I."

"The clinic doctors didn't come over?" He shook his head again and Lilith scowled, but it wasn't directed at the man in front of her. "Thank you, Dr. Shepard. I will send for some additional help."

Walking purposefully through the door, Lilith motioned for Stash to follow, and the Adam quickly fell in behind her. "The alarm should have sounded in the Meister's Office, so we're going to the main entrance to meet the constables that are probably gathering there. Hopefully, she is already getting them organized, but I want to make sure."

As expected, Cassidy was talking with the chief, who hustled off quickly as Lilith approached. "We're setting up a perimeter," she explained, "nobody in or out."

"Good. Do you need anything from inside?" The Meister shook her head, so Lilith led Stash back through the huge doors.

"I need to know what happened, so we're going to round up some of your brothers and make that happen. Will they be in their dorms?"

"Probably not. Protocol is for us to help in the case of an emergency, so they're probably around. If I had to guess, I would suggest the training arena; it's where we spend most of our time, so they might have headed there when the alarm stopped."

A couple hundred beats later, Lilith walked through the arch at the head of the training yard, quickly counting fifteen current and former Adams. When they saw her and Stash, the giants moved toward them, forming a loose ring. "I know this isn't everybody, because I don't see Pip. How many Adams are missing?"

Stash had already been working that out and answered quickly, "Besides Pip, six Adams and two retirees are unaccounted for."

"Two are dead," one Adam volunteered in a no-nonsense tone. "Cutter jumped Pappy as they were leaving the yard. Rover and I saw it and put him down," he said, nodding his head to the Adam next to him.

"What's your name?"

"Mars, ma'am."

"Was this before or after the alarm sounded."

"After, ma'am."

"Thank you, Mars. Anyone else?"

The rest shook their heads as she looked at each in turn.

"Okay, then I need you all to help me figure out what the flying fuck is going on. Stash, who are the two meanest fuckers here?"

"Not including myself, ma'am, that would be Rover and Chaz."

"Good," Lilith said, looking at each in turn. "I want you everywhere you normally go, your dorm included. We need to know where the other Adams are, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is still some dangerous shit going on. If you come across some rogue assholes, fuck them up."

"Yes, ma'am," the two Adams chorused, and with a shared look bordering on glee, they departed quickly. "The same goes for the rest of you. Pair up and get out and about in the rest of the Complex. When you find something, bring it to me in the Courtyard."

The circle quickly dissolved, leaving only Mars behind. "I guess you're the odd man out, so you get to come with us." The Adam nodded and the three of them walked quickly to the Courtyard with Lilith's anxiety building the entire way. Instead of the massacre she had feared, she found a couple hundred people chatting in small groups. For some, it seemed exciting, but most looked anxious, nervous, or outright scared.

At the presence of the Adams, a ripple of energy went through the crowd. Lilith looked around, then strode over to the lunch tables where she would sit with John and the others. Burying the sorrow that tried to break free, she motioned for Stash to lift her onto the table, which he did, albeit a little hesitantly. The table was a bit wobbly with her on it, so Mars held one end while Lilith steadied herself on his shoulder; even on the table, he was still taller than her.

Lilith allowed a couple hundred beats for the crowd to move closer to the makeshift podium, then shouted, "I need to know what is going on, and I need to know now. If you have information, form a line in front of me; if not, make your way to the other end of the Courtyard. Move!"

Over the next bell, events began to arrange themselves in her mind, although there were still definite holes in the timeline. For example, no one seemed to know what set off the chain of events, but once it was going, things happened very quickly and in multiple places.

Through it all, the question that kept bugging Lilith was, 'Where the fuck is Pip?'