Samantha wasn’t an overly emotional person. Her choices were generally based on fact and logic, not her feelings. Though, she didn’t lack morale or care about others. Unlike some of her colleagues, she didn’t do her work in search for money or power. It had always been about knowledge. Knowledge that could be used for the good of mankind.
After what happened on Olduvai, she did react emotionally. The guilt was suffocating her. Guilt over not having noticed that Dr Carmack was doing human experiment on C24, over all the people who had died due to that and what she had done to her own brother. Yes, he hadn’t turned into a monster, but she had still injected him with an experimental gene therapy.
Last time the twins had gone through a trauma together, John had been the one to eventually flee. This time, it was Sam who fled. She left the hospital while her brother were gone and before being officially released. Though she had no idea where to go. She had no home or friends on Earth and John were her only family. Her entire life had been on Olduvai and it was all gone now. Without money, she wouldn’t get far, but the only legal way for her to get money would be to contact UAC and she didn’t want anything further to do with them. Which was why she ended up stealing her brother’s card. She only used it once, to get cash, knowing she’d be easy to track otherwise.
After having traveled with different modes of transportation and to different locations for four days and she still hadn’t seen the slightest sign of John, she decided to stay in the town she had arrived to. She didn’t have much choice either, she was still injured and traveling pretty much non-stop for four days with very little sleep had not done her any favours. At the moment, Sam wanted some pain killers and sleep, she should probably eat too, but her appetite had been gone since they came back to Earth. Once she found a shabby, but cheap, motel, she payed for a room and went straight to the bed. Hopefully, she’d get some sleep and hopefully it would be peaceful.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have that luck this time either. Sam did sleep for a couple of hours, but woke up shaking and sweating, having had yet another nightmare. Her heart were racing and her entire body were in so much pain that she couldn’t help to whimper. Once she had calmed down, she remained in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Why had she survived? What gave her the right to be the one getting out alive and unchanged from Olduvai? It had been better if someone else had survived. But it had been her and John had sacrificed too much for her to take the easy way out, even if she might want to. At the moment she wasn’t sure what she wanted other than sleep. Peaceful sleep. And staying away from her brother. If she remained with him, she would just hurt him even more. She didn’t know how, but she knew she would. She had to be a jinx of some kind.
Sam was deep in thoughts when she heard a thump on her door. It was of that kind that she wasn’t sure if it was a knock or someone just happen to bang something against the door. With some difficulties, and a grimace of pain, Sam got up from the bed and unlocked the door, opening it slightly to see if there was anyone outside it.
She’d left. He had gone to shower and change clothes, he didn’t want to explain why he was covered in blood but didn’t have a scratch on him. He was still trying to deal with what she’d done to him, injecting him with C24, but he could understand it. It had saved his life, saved hers and stopped Sarge from getting through and doing god knew what to Earth. At least he would never have to go through the arc again, he’d never have to go to Olduvai again. Putting on a set of scrubs, he went back to her room and went in.
He cursed under his breath, looking around and asking one of the nurses if she’d been taken for tests or anything. The nurse told him no and John thanked him before heading out to the main lobby. No sign of her. A thought hit him and he checked his pockets, finding his card gone. Son of a bitch, she’d taken his card. Maybe he could find her that way. Heading for a phone, he called the card company and they told him where it’d been used last but it didn’t do any good. She could’ve gone anywhere, there were buses and trains and taxis. How the hell was he going to find her.
Getting some real clothes, he couldn’t go back for his things because UAC would nab him and he’d never get away if they found out the truth about him, he started tracking her down. She was good, she’d learned not just from him but from their parents and the scientists and everyone she’d worked with. But while she was good, he was better. He did this for a living, he’d find her.
It took him days and he wasn’t sure he was ever going to find her but he did finally track her down to the small town she was holed up at. The hotel manager wasn’t going to tell him anything until he slid a few bills across the counter to him. Now he was standing outside her door and knocking. At first there wasn’t any sound and he wondered if she’d already bolted but then there was shuffling and the sound of the chain being slide across and the bolt turning.
“Sam, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” He was angry, angry that she’d run, angry that she’d left him behind even if he could understand it.
