Anni shrugged. "If you're just going to the kitchen it doesn't matter. We could talk to Arnie about getting eater from the towers or something later."
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Somi nodded. "Well, follow me, but be quiet!" Then she lead Sturg into the factory, keeping to narrow spaces and passages between the walls and under the floors and staying in the shadows in the way only paramites can do. She would look in the cafeteria and the R+R and the grinders, and then maybe the stockyards.
She lead Sturg by secret ways that only the animals knew about.
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Krik had a piece of paper and was scribbling down information about meeches with one hand while continuing to search for information with two other hands.
Eventually he was satisfied and he laid down his pen, switched off the computer and headed downstairs and out to the stockyards where he'd seen the meech. He found its footprints (matching them with what he'd found on the computer) and followed them away from where he'd attacked it. The tracks were joined by another animal: a paramite if he wasn't mistaken... Maybe the meech had chased after it for food? But why not finish him off first? Puzzled, he followed as the tracks lead into a low passage heading into the basement of the factory. He pulled a torch out of his bag and continued.
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Dionysia awoke on the floor in the store room. She moaned painfully and looked around. Dr Krik was gone, but he'd left her aching all over and feeling sick.
She hated the times he ran tests on her. For those few minutes it was like he stopped caring about her, and started treating her like some common worker. She thought all vykkers were like that: when they were working they forgot all about their friends and only saw their work. It must be horrible for Krik, she thought, to come out of that working fervor and realise he'd hurt her till she passed out. It was probably his guilt that made him run off without waiting for her to recover to see that she was alright. She smiled to herself: she would have to be nicer to him later to show she had no hard feelings.
Clutching her painful arms around her chest, she staggered out of the room and down a flight of stairs. The walls seemed to be spinning around her. She felt so dizz she had to stop for a few seconds and regain herself. Her head was throbbing and she felt so sick...
Eventually she made her way to the R+R and stumbled along the rows of beds before flopping down limply onto one and clutching a sheet around herself as she lay, shivering and groaning.
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