by The Eurostar
Edulcore Cicciotto:
Turner is on the ground, his hands over the chest, blood spilling out.
Voices are coming from the outside corridors. I clearly recognize Walker's.
Eddie, my son, finally in my arms for the second time in my life, crying.
Zap.
Eddie was in my arms. It was my best chance, the best chance I ever had, in the few months I have been a "guest" here, to take him and bring him to safety, away with me.
But the person I am holding now is not Eddie, it's Turner.
What could I have done? Leave him there? Could he have defeated all of them? Maybe. Could he have survived? I don't know.
But Walker is a strange beast. He seems to know all and well in advance. Sometimes I have the impression that, for everything that happens that he doesn't like, he is able to turn back the clock and undo it. So I made my choice.
I touched Turner and activated the Gaia unit, the backpack the mysterious woman gave me. A backpack that is really a pocket transporter, and I bet much more. Those girls, she and Crasher, have access to a technology much more advanced than that of the EPS. Who are they?
And who is this Turner, who first appeared before me just after my abduction by Malvan-X, telling me lies to have me surrendered spontaneously to the MCCA, and then attacked me and the circus on our way to Thunder City? And now he has just saved my life. He knew that I would have brought him, and not Eddie, to safety.
I am too good. It will get me killed one day, I am sure.
The Gaia unit burns over my shoulder. A few instants, and the gray nothingness that surrounds us disappears, and we are in a meadow, a gentle breeze bending colorful wildflowers, pines not far, a blue sky over us.
What is this place?
Turner has passed out completely. He is losing a lot of blood, and he has two bullets in his chest.
I shred my EPS suit to make bandages for him.
Evidently the Gaia unit has shorted out. Made for a man and a kid, it couldn't support the weight (or mass?) of two adults. If I don't want Turner meet the same fate of this device, an appropriate thought for an electrical being, I need to find a doctor.
There is a small track crossing the meadow, heading down the slope toward the pine forest. I hope it will bring me to a village.
I take Turner over my shoulders -- oh, my God, how much he weighs! -- and follow the footpath.