The AI once again had to stifle his disappointment. The size of the store had made his expectations grow. But, as things turned out, size did not equal quality. There were many things inside the shop, yes, but few had anything to do with medicine.

What kind of medicinal supplies store was it supposed to be? Adam couldn't see half of what was shown on the outside display. Was it all a lie, in an attempt to make gullible people enter? If it was, then it was scarily effective. Both of them seemed to have believed what had been shown.

The layout of the store was much more standardized. Small shelves littered the place in neat rows. Each came up to about Troy’s chest, making it possible to overlook the entirety of the store area easily. Not the most aesthetic design choice, yet the AI could guess the utility of it. Everybody could be seen. Nothing could hide without crawling.

And… it also provided ample sight into what each row had to offer in supplies. As one came closer to the back of the store, where the cashiers would be, the quality of supplies became higher. Adam could not understand this one but chose to ignore it.

‘Go to the back immediately,’ Adam sent, spurring on the man. Troy would have likely reached the same conclusion if given a few more seconds of thinking time. Yet, from earlier occurrences, it was clear that less time needed to be used.

There was no need for a repeat of last time, after all. Having thought it out a near-countless time already, Adam fully understood how lucky they had been to escape. It was only through improper handling of the situation, that the police officer had left them enough time to escape.

Troy had begun the standard head-turning, giving the AI brief snapshots of what was where. It was a quick way to catalogue the location of every product in the store, with only the mild side-effect of causing a stiff neck for the man. As luck would have it, it also only required a slight focus from the AI, allowing him to continue his own indulgences.

Another fact which had allowed them to escape was more… unforeseeable. From what had been explained later on, they had been hit with the standard dosage of sedatives. It was enough to stop people from using specific limbs, with a diminishing effect the further from the impact-point one got.

Without the antidote applied, the effect was supposed to last for upwards of five hours. For Troy? It did not come close to reaching five minutes. From a gasped explanation, the man apparently thought the sedatives were weak. Adam knew that they were exactly the strength they had been supposed to be.

Somehow, Troy had a resistance to it. The AI had yet to ask, but he presumed the man to have had contact with the medicine before. Or maybe something akin to it. Troy had already shown that he was susceptible to a few other medicines, discarding the theory of his body just having natural immunity. When would Adam ask about it? When the time was right.

Two rows were left. Eleven had passed. By that point, none had shown real promise. Yes, there were perhaps a few objects or whatnot which would be taken if time allowed it, but nothing of the true target had been found. That was not good. If they didn't-

‘Go back and to the left instead!’ Adam positively shouted. Feeling it necessary to hasten the process, the AI put emotional tonings into his voice, this time using the distressing emotion. There had also been some anxiousness mixed in, causing just the perfect reaction.

There it was! The object they had searched for, for so long. The first clue had been a poster on the side showing it off. If that was only that, Adam would have had a much more muted reaction. No… it was what sat beside it that made the AI reach so anxiously.

And Troy had seen it as well. When the man’s eyes honed in on it, he positively sprinted towards it. On the row, just beside the image of the sought object, were the objects themselves!

Or, well, the two couldn't actually see them. They could see the boxes that contained them. Adam was sure that it was them. They had found countless of them empty. So many looters had come before them, and this time… this time there was a whole bunch left.

The floor was a bit slippery, letting the young man slide to the end, stopping at the precise place he needed to stop. Adam had expected Troy to look happy, yet the man was much closer to stress.

“Which do I take?” Troy asked. His voice was fast. The man’s pulse was accelerating. Excitement? Closer to dread. “Oh, god, I don't know what to do.”

Using a deity’s name. Must have been stressed indeed. The young man had the habit of correcting anybody close when they used that name while stressed, for whatever reason. It was slightly ironic that he was making the same mistake, but Adam felt no need to state that currently.

‘Take the closest one, and then calm down a little,’ Adam instructed, not wanting to deal with the man having another panic attack. Those were extreme annoyances since the young man had the habit of becoming a sulking mess. Not the greatest state to be in, when the time was of the matter.

A deep breath was had before the hyper-ventilating continued. Adam was just happy one good one came out, as the man took one at seemingly random. Actually… The AI kinda wanted the man to put it back and take another. The box was slightly pushed in on one of the corners. It was not too serious, yet it was still not in full mint condition.

…

No, it would only make the stress accumulate faster. Looking at the time, they had been in the store for one minute and thirty-six seconds. The AI would prefer they got out as soon as possible, yet…

‘Stop in the next row and get some of the neuroleptic pills. With that, we have everything,’ Adam sent. The young moved to obey. There looked to be a quick mental debate about going the long way around, before Troy seemingly decided to just go over the rows. With them being so low, it was not too hard to vault over them.

That could have been dangerous. While more serious stunts had been performed, the risk of a sprained ankle was a serious thing. Adding that together with the fact that Troy was carrying a relatively heavy box, and it did not begin looking good.

Nevertheless, the journey was not too far. Troy took out the small bag he had on his back. It was not close to big enough for the box, yet Adam saw no problems with that. It was big enough for the smaller objects, so there were no larger dangers to have.

A good twenty seconds were spent piling in a massive amount of pills. A good fifty packs of them. Adam would have loved to say it would last them a long time, yet examples had shown that Dr Hale could get through ten in a day. Enhancements were the worst sometimes since their upkeep requirements triple-folded when damaged. Enhanced regeneration, that just redid the damage continuously, making it all a loop of wasted energy expenses. And, from what had been heard, it was also extremely painful. Constant medication was the only real solution, and the dose needed to keep growing larger. Resistances were negative sometimes.

Troy put the final pack in reach into the bag and zipped it up as quickly as possible. Putting it on his back again, the man looked ready to run. And, that was exactly what Adam had planned to order.

Well, until the sight of a police car came into a stop just in front of the entrance. The door was open a bit, allowing the two of them to see the car door on one side opening. A few quick words were exchanged. It took a few moments. In those moments, Adam took action.

Recollecting the map of the building, the AI scourged everything he could about its exits. There was one on the top of the building, two fire exits on either side and then there was the front door. The top one would require them to go up a floor, and the two on the sides would require that they got through a series of rooms that would leave them utterly exposed.

… They had to go through the front. There was no chance of that now. If the officers followed the logic from before, they would be entering the building within the next twenty seconds. Troy would be seen the moment they did that.

‘Get down on your stomach, and don't make a sound,’ Adam immediately ordered, after having thought it over. There was an exit to the storage in the back. If the officers didn't find them in the front, then they would likely enter the backroom, allowing Troy to run by undetected.

Remaining undetected was the hard part. Troy was clearly still having it hard getting his breathing under control. The flashy manoeuvre and reality of the situation were apparently not doing well on him. Stress should have been eliminated. Would calming words be effective?

Adam doubted they would be heard, as the door being slammed open reached the young man’s ears, the contact gave a thump which sounded like the more powerful version of a boot hitting the ground. The AI was unsure if that was proper procedure, but was more focused on the amount of sound being put out.

“And stay right there!” an older man's voice shouted. Subtlety was clearly not in the current list of priorities, as that stomping did not stop. “You’ll be scrap the moment you open that mouth of yours!”

Clearly not having the best of days. Adam felt no sympathy, instead of seeing it as the perfect opportunity. From the loud steps, the AI was accurately able to identify where the man currently was. He was walking down the middle, going through the cut in the middle. Troy was lying on the outskirts on the second to last row. It would take… seven seconds for their row to be reached. If he looked over at that moment, Troy would be spotted.

Not good. What could be done? Adam spent a whole second just thinking about that. Camouflage? No. Closer to the floor? No. Just running for it? No. Going around the- Yes!

‘When I give the signal, crawl over to the next row,’ Adam ordered. Troy hardly had time to nod before going into position. Five seconds remained. The man could move fast. And the older police officer was likewise moving at a high speed. That only increased their chances of success, luckily.

Four seconds remained.

Three seconds.

Two seconds.

One-

Adam gave the signal, and Troy moved quickly. The only thing the man’s eyes got to see was somebody's larger boots. Their lower position stopped any other details from going through.

The steps continued without a pause. Though… they did briefly stop, as the man yanked, what the AI guessed to be, the door into the back-room. The steps stopped being heard. This was good.

‘Get up and run for it. Don't look anywhere but forward.’

Troy did as asked, slowly getting up without turning his eyes. His eyes were directly on the display glass in the front. They stood with their prized belongings. To the side was the front door. That was the goal.

The man did his best to get forward. Adam could tell. The first steps were slow, but they picked up speed quickly enough. He could tell that-

“Found you.”

Adam hardly got to register the sensation of Troy’s bag being pulled on, before the man himself was flung towards the glass. It was fast.

Too fast. A direct impact would seriously maim or kill. But… nothing would stop the trajectory. Troy would hit within a second.

The man had put his arms in front of his body in an attempt to shield it. Good reflexes, yet Adam doubted it would-

His hands! The gloves! They were the first to hit the glass. In that split second, Adam speeded himself up a hundredfold. From the first millisecond, he could already feel the unit heating up. He did not care.

The contact with the glass allowed the AI to brute-force a connection. It was flimsy, but it worked. And that's all he needed it to do.

In case of an emergency, the building had more than a few safety precautions. The doors would open automatically, the vents forced to circulate at higher speeds, and the glass… the glass could be ordered to shatter.

That command was sent in. Before the glass was able to fully resist the moment on Troy’s hand, the glass shattered into a million pieces. Even sped up, the AI wasn't able to see anything but the end result.

He did not care. Troy was thrown out on the road. It was clear that he had been bruised. It was clear that he had a larger scrape on his side. Yet nothing was broken. He had survived. That result was satisfactory.