Wilma ran down the hall, every nerve painfully on edge, her senses attuned both in front of her, looking for the Mangolians, and behind her, making sure that Buck was following. He ran along just back of her left shoulder, but the difference to her was painfully obvious. Their partnership, their radar for each other, was completely absent. Their working relationship had been honed over his couple of years in this time to a fine art in which words often weren't necessary. Then they had taken that on in recent weeks past just friendship and were closer than ever.
But not now. In this crisis, he was with her physically, but that was all. He truly didn't know her at the moment. That hurt, even though she knew it certainly wasn't his fault. It also worried her about their escape. How effective a team would they be when challenged without that unspoken bond, almost reading each other's thoughts at times, their actions seamlessly and effectively fitting together?
She was also so worried about Buck in general that it was almost giving her a headache herself. He was clearly completely puzzled but with growing suspicion, the unknown picture of a whole new world already beginning to form in his mind, and her heart went out to him. They had to get out of here and get back to the Searcher. Surely Dr. Goodfellow would have a solution. They could hook him up to the OEI. There was some treatment, some research the doctor would know. They could do something to help him. This couldn't be permanent. And if it was, she promised herself, he could adjust again given time and support, and she would be there for him all the way. But hopefully it wouldn't be necessary.
An additional worry was whether he should be doing things at all at the moment like tackling guards and running around with an obvious head injury, but there was nothing she could do about that. They had to get away. His very active participation was required. She just hoped that they weren't making things worse.
Up ahead, two Mangolians rounded the corner of the hall, walking along talking to each other. Wilma and Buck both fired, and they dropped to the floor. Buck looked at his weapon, though he didn't stop running. "Pretty impressive," he said. "So just how do they make a gun with adjustable effect?"
"Later," Wilma hissed. She rounded the corner.
"You need to get that on a T-shirt," he grumbled, leaving her own curiosity piqued and unanswered.
They only encountered a few more isolated Mangolians and, once, a pair of androids along their way. The androids failed to respond to the stun settings at first and required a second shot at increased power before they collapsed with the electrical sound of snapping circuits. Buck turned his head to look at them oddly, but he did at least keep going.
Their luck ran out just before the main exit of the building. A group of ten was standing there in conference, including Anderin. Wilma slammed to a halt at the previous corner as she saw them, trying to work out strategy and approach. Buck for the first time went past her, charging right on around the corner, shots blazing. He managed to take down three in that first flurry before the Mangolians could start returning fire. He ducked quickly back around the corner, pressing against the wall beside Wilma. "Planning to join this party?" he asked her.
"I was working out a plan."
"I thought you said we already had one. Charge and fire."
She snapped off a shot around the corner, dropping one more, then dodged a return. "Outnumbered this far, one of them is likely to get a chance to shoot us before we could take down all of them. It's better to have a strategy."
His head jerked around, looking behind them. "Well plot quickly, then. We've got more company." He fired, taking out the two who had appeared behind them. "We're probably going to get more company pretty soon, too. If this is their building, they're bound to notice this battle and call in reinforcements. You think the odds against us are going to go down?"
He was right. She sighed, then shot again around the corner. "Okay. I wish we had some kind of distraction."
She regretted the words as soon as she said them. Buck may have been without his memory, but he was still Buck, and any statement like that was pure challenge. "Hang on. One distraction, coming up."
"Buck!" She grabbed at his arm too late. He whipped around and ran back the other direction. After he rounded the previous corner, she heard three laser shots, and then there came a hard explosion. The lights flickered and went out, daylight coming in the entrance now their only visibility. Alarms went off.
In the next second, he was beside her again. "As you're so fond of saying, keep moving." He pushed her on around the corner into chaos. Anderin had stepped over to the wall, trying to get a communication panel to work. The others were looking every direction. Lasers blazing, Buck and Wilma managed the charge for the door, Mangolians falling right and left. They exited the building at a dead run. In the next second, Buck's stride faltered as he looked around this extremely modern, pure white city. Wilma knew it couldn't resemble any design he was familiar with.
The reaction was only for a second, and then he picked up pace again. "This way!" Wilma urged. The citizens of the city looked at them curiously, but no one outside of their government building seemed to know what was going on. Wilma kept running, heading in the direction of the edge of the city. A few kilometers outside city limits, their shuttle waited. Buck, next to her, was wide eyed, his head nearly on a swivel as he looked right and left, but he kept going.
"What did you shoot back there?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Beats me, but it looked like some kind of control room. I noticed it when we passed it down the hall a minute earlier. Lots of computers, lots of lights. Really impressive computers. It reminded me a little bit of a transformer substation."
"A what?" she asked, running along.
He grinned at her. "We don't have time for explanations at the moment, Wilma. You do know where we're going, right? Other than just getting out of here?"
"Yes," she replied. "Just stay with me." She raced on through the city.
They were free. For now.