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The glass glows orange before collapsing inwards into a soft goop. You cut the fire immediately and hold out a hand and not a second passes before you feel a slim pair of needle nosed pliers drop into your glove. She knows you too well. You grip the top of the test tube and pull it up slowly. The glass stretches like taffy and with a snip from the pliers you pinch and twist a closed top into the glass piece before unceremoniously tossing the top into the wastebin with a clatter. You let out a prideful sigh and gently remove the freshly made ampule from it's cradle beneath the hood and set it into a segmented tray half-filled with rows of similar vials. You know exactly how many without needing to think about it. Twelve. It peeves you.
"Done for the day, my dear." You say with forced calmness stepping back and letting your tools clatter to the table.
"Another half-batch." She whispers hoarsely.
"Indeed. Though I refuse to accept the blame for this, even enacting his ridiculous demands attempting to recycle what we can!" You fling a hand in the direction of the globe. Red droplets gathering and falling from the top. "At most this will make another one to two doses. All because these buffoons he uses as cheap muscle couldn't procure the simplest chemicals I needed."
You feel your frustration mounting. You slam the table, making the table jump and with it the vials. The sudden noise and violent jostling of that precious cargo makes all the Anarkists and even your lovely nurse jump and freeze with widened eyes. A smile you can't control etches itself on your face as you point to the youngest you can see.
Your own mind recalls his features. The Anarkist you helped in the tunnels. His face without a shadow of the bravado he had in the tunnels now.
"Me?" He says without breath.
"Come. Here."
He approaches with obvious dread on his face. The sight makes your skin tingle all over. He stops just before the table and you clamp his shoulder with a thick glove. His wince makes your heart flutter.
"You're to pack these as your employer instructed. I want it in the back waiting for pick up as soon as possible because I refuse to be in this suit a second longer than necessary, I'll be holding you personally responsible for calling your employer once the shipment is taken away."
"But I don-"
"Shhhh." You coo, reaching into your sleeve and extracting a small copper nozzle. "Do you know what this is?"
"Y-yes, sir."
"Good. Now sometimes when I'm... sealed in this suit. It makes me nervous. I get claustrophobic. It scares me, the idea of being stuck in this thing." You cycle clean air through the hose and let it puff into his face. He tries to withdraw but you hold his head in place. "Now I've opened up about my fears... should we open up yours?"
