Roborant: (n.) A strengthening medicine; a tonic; a restorative.


"Annie, shit, I screwed up. You gotta get outta there. Now!"

Auggie's voice was the last coherent thing she knew before the loud noise splattered blood across her and the world around her descended into chaos. She ducked behind a stand of shelves and listened to the sharp sound of bullets cracking through the air and pummelling against every available surface. When she took a second to peer back out into the centre of the room she could see the pool of dark red around the body of her informant. Damn it. One bullet straight to the forehead. That hadn't been an accident; this was planned.

"Annie, talk to me," the voice in her ear demanded shakily and Annie took an unconscious breath of relief. "What's going on?"

"It was an ambush," she said hastily, retreating further into the safety of her little corner as a new round of bullets thundered against the concrete just beyond her shelter. "Jamair is dead. They've got me pinned down in the building. At least four men and all of them have very big guns."

"Okay, just stay calm," Auggie said but he sounded more like he was telling himself than her. "We're going to get you out of there, Annie. Extraction is already on their way. Do you see any way to get out of the building?"

"They're on all the doors," Annie said, risking a look out and quickly jumping down again when the semi-automatics went off. "All the windows are thirty feet up. Auggie, I'm not seeing any way out of here."

"We're gonna find something, I promise," Auggie said but she could tell he was distracted. "I'm looking. Just don't get shot while I'm looking, okay?"

Annie chuckled weakly but fell silent when she heard a voice jeering at her from across the main room in Spanish. At that moment she wished she wasn't fluent enough to understand the death threats. Trying to tune the voices out, she scanned every inch of the building that she could see from her shelter, looking for any possible escape. All she could see were blank steel walls and dusty metal shelves.

"They're closing in, Aug, I'm not gonna get out of here," Annie said anxiously. When she tried to lean out and get a better look, a bullet left a dent in the metal of the shelves and a chorus of amused laughter rang out in the room.

"Yes you are, Annie," Auggie said roughly in her ear, his voice hard and frantic. "Yes you are. Don't talk like that. This is my fault and I'm getting you out of there. Just stay with me." Annie tried to make a break for the next row of shelves and then drew back with a muttered curse. "Annie?"

"I'm fine," she answered quickly, quietly.

"I've got it!" Auggie said, so loudly that Annie flinched. "Annie we've got it. There's a service tunnel in the south wall. If you can get there, it'll get you out of the building."

Annie took a quick mental stock of the cardinal directions and then looked toward the south wall. It was the wall to her right, a good twenty foot shot. From this angle she couldn't see any sort of door in the wall, but she had to trust Auggie. This could be her only hope. Auggie had never steered her wrong before. "Okay, I'm going to try it," she murmured, breathing deeply to calm herself and kicking off her shoes.

Before Auggie could respond, Annie bolted sideways behind the shelter of the next shelf, gunshots on her heels. "Annie? Annie, are you still there?" Auggie's voice was quivering, and she recognized the sound as fear. Auggie was scared.

"I'm here," Annie said as laughing Spanish voices echoed around here. She could see a man coming closer and she knew she was running out of time. She jumped up and started running again, trying to not focus on the thunderous claps of bullets around her. She had just dodged around the last shelving unit and she could see the small slat in the wall where she figured – prayed – the service tunnel would be.

A fire seared across her side, tearing through the fabric of her dress and burning her skin. An involuntary scream broke from her lips as she clasped a hand over the wound. The pain startled her and she stumbled, crashing down to the floor in a heavy heap. Laughing rang out around her and she hastily dragged herself back behind the shelter of the shelving row.

Annie checked her side, seeing the torn flesh along her ribcage and the blood staining her skin. It sent a stinging pain through her with every breath, making her afraid to move the slightest bit. She tried to talk to Auggie but then realized the piece was missing from her ear. Panicked, she looked around frantically and saw the little flesh coloured chip lying on the ground where she'd fallen. She leaned back against the shelf, dizziness filling her brain and making her world tilt dangerously. Around her she could hear footsteps coming closer.

"Annie!" The haze in Annie's brain shifted, and she squinted over in the direction of the voice. It was coming from the earpiece on the floor, crackling and distant, but she would recognize it . "Damn it, Annie, answer me!"

Like some sort of healing draught, Auggie's voice flooded into Annie's head and cleared away the drowsiness. It was just a little gunshot wound, not enough to stop her from getting back to Auggie. Only a little bit further and she'd be to the escape. She had to get back, if only to make that fear in her best friend's voice go away.

Pushing the pain to the back of her mind, Annie tucked her feet underneath her and leapt forward. Another shot singed her calf but she kept running, sliding to a shaky stop beside the slit in the wall. With a grunt she kicked three times at the little steel door until it swung in and revealed a narrow passageway behind it. She heard angry shouts behind her as she slipped inside and crashed the door closed behind her. The tunnel was small, forcing her to crawl on her stomach to get through it, but for the time being she was safe from gunfire. She dragged herself, struggling to breathe without injuring herself worse, until she reached a hole at the end of the tunnel. There was air coming through it and when she shoved against the covering it fell away. A strangled noise left her as she pulled herself through the opening, the rusty metal edges scraping along her skin, but a minute later she was scrambling across the alley concrete.

She was free.

Stumbling to her feet, Annie jogged for the street and bolted down the pavement, ignoring the startled looks people were sending her. A block and a half away she heard a screech of tires and a black van pulled up onto the curb beside her. When the door flung open, a man shouted, "Walker, get in," and she complied without thought. The moment she had landed on the floor of the van, the door shut and the engine growled as they roared back onto the road.

Annie clutched at her side, gasping and panting and fighting the nausea that came to her every time she inhaled. Above her she could faintly make out a voice saying, "This is extraction team. You copy us, Auggie? Yeah, we got her. We'll be back at Langley in twenty." A wave of relief swept over her. Auggie knew she okay, he didn't need to be scared anymore. She would see him soon.

Thoughts of her best friend were relaxing and she let them carry her off into the darkness, knowing that when she woke up again he'd be there.