keep going. We’re not too far away now. Did you want me to carry the backpack, Marcy-san?”

I’m not going to get anywhere there.

I shook my head, pulling myself slowly to my feet. Akira watched me favor my left arm with what I assumed was an inquisitive look behind her dark glasses.

The memories of being shot seemed so distant. The thing that seemed to stick out in my memory was the bullets tearing through Mike’s flesh. I knew even my photographic memory had been subtly altered by the short intervening time, but the emotions that surged up every time the imagery came to mind was as vivid as when it had happened, and the nicked musculocutaneous nerve laughed in savage remembrance of those events whenever I moved my left arm.

We walked in silence for a...

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