Chapter 10: Harvesting the Kidneys

Alyss looked around the now full cafeteria, brimming with bloodied lab coats. She'd never seen so much blood in one place, which surprised her, considering where she used to work. A thought then crossed her head.

"Hey, Jack? When do you usually go out on missions?" Jack looked at her, pondering the question.

"Hm…I guess we go out whenever we feel like it. There's no set time, but sometimes we get a tip of a repossession in progress." Alyss nodded, rather bored by his answer. She hoped there was some kind of over the top computer system thing that randomly assigned them.

"Uh huh…so in the end, those shirts of yours come down to who's luckiest in finding targets," she mumbled sarcastically.

"Pretty much," Jack nodded rather cheerily. Alyss brought her palm up to her forehead.

"Alright then…well, how about tonight we go out on one of your little strolls. Maybe make a little game of it. Whoever gets the part first wins." She smirked at him, waiting to see how he'd react to this. She kind of figured he'd say it was too dangerous and try to get her to stay behind.

"Sure, why not?" he shrugged. Alyss' eye twitched, disappointed by his reaction. Then another idea popped up.

"Okay, cool. And maybe we can bring Hadner along with us?" she said with a wink.

"…On second thought, there probably aren't any repo's out tonight…" his voice sank with dejection. Alyss was satisfied.

"I'm just kidding you," she chuckled, flicking Jack's nose. Jack grumbled and Alyss got out of her seat. As she passed Jack on her way out, she patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll have a great time," once again giving him a quick wink. Jack blushed. Alyss laughed in his face and joked that he liked her, to which he calmly replied he did not. "Whatever you say," she called, waving to him as she walked off.

Jack and Alyss jumped from one roof to the next. As they ran across the rooftop, they gradually increased speed, like they were having a race. After a few transitions to different roofs, Alyss tripped on the way to the next. Jack stopped and went back to check if she was okay. She grabbed his extended hand and pulled him to the ground, then jumped up and ran ahead.

"Sucker!" she called back at him. By the time Jack realized what happened, she was a full roof and a half ahead. She laughed to herself. "Man, I can't believe he fell for that. What a mor-" she was about to say as he ran out ahead of her. "H-Hey! Get back here, dammit!" She chased him, but tripped when she tried to jump to the next roof. This time wasn't a trick, however. She was falling down to the alleyway below. As she fell, she wondered if this was where she would die. She cursed herself for letting it end so quickly and stupidly. As she prepared to hit the pavement, she found that she was floating. She looked up to find Jack holding her hand, hanging off of a fire escape. How did he get here so fast, she thought to herself.

"You need to be more careful," he said to her with an exhausted chuckle.

"It's not like I asked you to save me…"

"Alright then," Jack replied, loosening his grip. As he did, Alyss' free hand shot up and clung to his arm. Jack smiled slightly. The next thing Alyss knew, Jack had pulled her up onto the fire escape and let her down safely. "Maybe we shouldn't race next time." Alyss looked away, a little flustered that she'd grabbed his arm like that.

"Yeah, sure, whatever…"

They continued to jump from roof to roof, a bit slower this time though.

"When do we find a Repo?" Alyss called to Jack. He shrugged.

"I'm sure we'll find one sooner or later." Alyss was not pleased.

"Yeah, well I'd like to find one sooner, cus I'm getting bo-"

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Jack and Alyss stopped abrubtly. They looked down into the next alleyway and saw a Repo reaching his hand into a woman's now openly bleeding abdomen. Before Alyss could say anything to Jack about finally seeing some action, Jack was already sucker punching the Repo in the back of his head. The Repo crashed to the ground as Alyss managed to get down the fire escape. The Repo stood up. His mask was unlike most other Repos'. His was reminiscent to some kind of demon. The eyes were large and round with a white light hiding his real eyes and glowing in the darkness. The mask's mouth was round with four huge teeth bared, two on top and two on bottom. From the sides of the mouth and behind the eyes came what appeared to be tendrils. The outfit was black, as with all Repos', but it looked oddly different. The strangest part was that it seemed to have a cape. Upon closer inspection, Alyss saw that it was two wings folded down. On the end of his sleeves seemed to be claws, presumably gloves.

If someone described this Repo to Alyss, she would've laughed at them and told them they were crazy, but seeing it in real life, Alyss felt something she hadn't felt in a long time; fear. There was something about it that was scary to her. It completely lacked human features. It was quite simply a monster.

Jack raised his hands out in front of him, taking up a stance that implied he was prepared to fight this Repo-Monster.

"Didn't think I'd see you again so soon…" Alyss was confused. Had Jack met this thing before? The creature retorted with a strange bubbling sound and leaped at Jack, attempting to swipe at him with its claw. Jack managed to connect his fist to the thing's face, but the creature had succeeded in its attack as well. Blood ran down from Jack's forehead to his neck. As the blood flow passed his eye, it looked almost like he had been cut there instead. He rushed the creature, but it jumped up and kicked off of his shoulders, leaping to the walls and escaping to the rooftops. Alyss tried to go after it, but then she noticed Jack stumble. She caught him and laid him down against the alley wall.

"Jack? You okay? Come on, he's getting away," she tugged at his arm, trying to pursue the horrific thing. Jack shook his head.

"The woman…" he said weakly. "Check her organs…" Alyss did as she was told. The woman was dead, without a doubt. Her intestines were scattered all over the alleyway. Alyss sifted through the cadaver until she found the organ with a barcode. She pulled out a pair of lungs and brought them over to Jack.

"I think I found 'em," she presented the lungs to him. Jack's face went pale.

"Put them back…"

"What'd you say?"

"Put them back," he demanded, forcing himself to stand up.

"Are you kidding me?" she screamed, throwing the lungs aside in anger. They made a squishing sound as they collided with the walls and fell to the cement. "Isn't stealing organs what you do? Why would you just leave them for another Repo to come and get? What the hell is wrong with y-" she stopped her rant. Jack's green eyes were upon her, somehow holding her in place.

"I said put them back. Do not make me repeat myself." He turned and walked off, wiping the blood from his face on his sleeve. He muttered something to himself. Alyss stood there in confusion and repeated what she heard:

"'I have enough of GeneCo's lungs already'?"