//------------------------------// // A Single Dose // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Dominance // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// Pressed flat on the roof of a convenience store, Sandra looked through her binoculars at the building across the street. She'd seen enough of the ponies enter and exit to suggest this was the place she was looking for. It seemed like there were two by the entrance, one just behind the double doors and one just outside them at all times. So the building had security but didn't look like it. She was wearing plain clothes, not necessarily stealthy considering the job ahead of her. According to the rumors Sandra had heard, the place in front of her, a former hospital, was now a conversion center. While most of them had closed down almost a year ago after the barrier stopped, rumors had persisted that some still operated in secret. Sandra was staking out the location to determine whether those rumors were true. Finally, she got an answer. A team of three pegasi descended from sky and landed on the roof top. An unconscious human was carried by them, a clear sign if ever there was one. They quickly carried the human through the door on the rooftop of the building and the door closed behind them, all without making a sound. Sandra watched the rooftop door carefully for a few minutes. Soon after, the three pegasi reemerged from the door and took off to the sky again in a hurry. The door swung shut behind them. Bingo, that was her way in. Carefully, she got up from her position and climbed off the roof of the convenience store. Central City was currently being repopulated by humans and ponies, large sections of the city still saw little traffic. The city had been evacuated when it looked like it was going to be consumed by the barrier but for a reason Sandra didn't know, the barrier had stopped just outside the city limits. She still remained cautious of being seen by anyone or anypony as she crossed the street to the side of the hospital. A ladder in the alleyway conveniently led to the roof. She couldn't help looking over her shoulder as she climbed it, scanning the skies for any sign of the pegasi in case they returned early. It was the middle of the day and the sky was covered in overcast. The pegasi could easily hide in the clouds while it would be only too easy to spot a human female on the side of the building. In hindsight, she should've waited until twilight hours; maybe she could've used the darkness to her advantage. But she'd made her decision; it was now or never. She got to the top of the roof and approached the door. As she suspected, the pegasi had left too hastily and the door hadn't closed shut all the way, allowing her access inside. Sandra opened the door and entered. The stairway beyond was dimly lit; she descended it carefully. The hospital only had two floors and wasn't very large. Sandra was unarmed except for some light classes in boxing and tae-bow. She wouldn't be able to defend herself from pony magic anyway. If she got caught, that was it, there would be no second chance. She had to get her hands on the conversion serum somehow. She reached the entrance to the second floor. She didn't know the layout of the hospital or have any idea of where the serum would be. She was guessing and had no exit strategy; the only thing prompting her to go through with this was the fact she had no other options. Sandra pressed herself up against the set of wooden double doors that led into a wing of the hospital. Looking through a window on the door, she saw the hallway beyond was well-lit, clean. Sterile. No sign of any ponies though. Carefully, she pushed the door open and entered. Doors lined the hallway to the sides. Sandra noticed there were circular holes in the sides of them as she passed. Not all ponies could open doors with magic easily so handles and knobs were generally removed in equine-controlled areas. She didn't know which room she'd find the serum in so after passing a couple doors, she randomly picked one to her right. It creaked as she opened it. "Hel... help... me," a voice called to her. Strapped to a bed in front of her was a human, apparently the one who she saw get carried in. He was a younger man, Sandra had to guess he was in his early twenties. From the looks of him, he was already undergoing the ponification process. "Please... help," he begged. His skin was a pale shade of blue, slowly turning to sky-blue. His hair was a mismatched color of darker blue and brown and darker spots of blue adorned his face. His limbs had been tied down with straps. He reached a hand out to Sandra who stood, stunned momentarily in the doorway. His right hand was missing two fingers and the others were nubs, his arm was thicker around the wrist than it should've been. Despite being confined, he still reached out with his deformed hand begging the woman in the doorway to save him. Sandra ignored him. If she'd had a pistol, that would've been different. There was nothing anyone could do for the young man now. She moved to the counter and began looking for the serum. She knew it would be in some sort of vial or flask, easy to administer. Opening drawers didn't reveal anything, only the standard hospital tools and supplies were what she found.. "Where is the serum?" she asked the young man. "The conversion serum, where do they keep it?" "Please... help me," he pleaded, his voice straining. Sandra didn't turn around. "Please..." "I'm sorry... I can't help you now. But please, tell me where the serum is." Silence answered her. "They must have some in this room. Now please, do you know where it is? Any of it, a single dose?" she sighed and asked again. Once more, she received no response. Sandra turned around. A blue unicorn was on the table, he quietly examined the straps tying him down. His horn glowed blue and a cabinet door behind Sandra creaked open. She turned to it, inside was a glass quart-sized bottle full of a purple liquid. The ponification serum. She grabbed the bottle and turned back to the unicorn. "Thank you... thank you very much." "You're welcome... um,... where are we?" the colt asked, looking around. Sandra felt a lump in her throat; she turned and exited the small room without saying another word. She cautiously opened the door, looking both up and down the hallway before stepping out. "Do you know why I'm tied up?" the blue unicorn asked as she stepped out, the door closing behind her. The hallway was still completely vacant. Sandra put the purple bottle in her jacket pocket as she made her way back to the stairs. Things couldn't have gone better; she was going to get in and out with a sample of the serum and the ponies had no idea. All she had to do was get back to the roof without being- "Let me go! Get off of me, let me go!" Sandra heard the voice echoing off the stairwell walls just as she reached the double doors. The three pegasi were returning with yet another victim. She turned around quickly and dashed to a room nearby, pushed the door open and entered. This room was dark too but thankfully didn't appear occupied. Her heart was racing as she did her best to quiet her breathing. What if the pegasi brought the new arrival right to the room she was in? It seemed fortune was with her. She heard the three fliers carry the unfortunate captive down the hall, eventually the sound of the struggling and flapping faded into the distance. She released the breath she'd been holding. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" a voice behind her asked. Panic set in, she quickly turned to face the other occupant she hadn't noticed. A hand reached out and flipped the light switch beside her. "Did you escape too?" Standing in front of Sandra was a young man, he looked to be around the same age as the last young man she walked in on. "I... yes," she lied. Her hand consciously brushed the serum bottle in her coat pocket. "I think the stairwell's just at the other end of the hall. We might be able to make it before those pegasi come back." "The pegasi are the flying ones?" the teen asked. Sandra turned back to the door. "Yes, they're the ones with wings," she explained. "We need to go now while they're not out." "All right," the young man replied. She turned back to him. "Face front, keep running, follow me," she instructed. He nodded, understanding. She turned back around when suddenly glowed and started opening on its own. "Who's in there?" a voice asked. The young man reached out and grabbed the hole where the doorknob was supposed to be, pulling the door back. Sandra backed away as the teen fought against the force to keep the door closed. "Open the do- Security! Silver, get me-" The young man was losing the battle in the doorway, Sandra could see. He did the unpredictable in that moment, he pushed the door instead of pulled. The force of the door yanked him out and he fell on a white unicorn standing in front of it. They both fell to the floor, some sort of vial in midair dropped to the ground and exploded. A purple cloud enveloped the two and they started coughing. "Bipedal *cough* bastard, that was my only *cough*" the unicorn tried to speak. Sandra took that moment to run outside. She grabbed the young man by the arm and pulled him off the floor before the gas cloud dissipated. She started running, pulling the young man as he desperately broke into a stride of his own. They ran for the double doors. "Get *cough* back" the unicorn couldn't see either of them as they entered the stairwell. They didn't stop running until they were on the roof. "This way! Over here!" Sandra called to the kid as the door to the roof closed. He was still coughing and breathing hard. "My car's just across the street. Come on!" They descended the ladder and ran across the street. There was no activity from the hospital, no guards exited, no pegasi. Sandra knew they wouldn't raise an alarm; if the general public found out conversion was still going on, it would start a panic, maybe a war. She couldn't believe she got in and out so easily. The kid was a complication if he slowed her down but she wasn't going to leave another human behind. Not if she could help it. They entered and started her black SUV. Before the kid even closed the passenger's side door, she was pulling out onto the road. She quickly drove down the street and turned the corner at an intersection. Within moments, the 'hospital' was behind them. "Where do you live?" she asked. She couldn't take him to her apartment; with any luck, the ponies had even seen her. She had the sample of the serum she needed, now it was best to put as much distance between her and the young man as possible. The kid coughed again. "Amber Glow Meadows... it's on near Gully Street and the high school." "I can take you as far as Gully, from there you'll have to walk." She couldn't risk them tracing her car to him. "What if they find me again?" She kept her eyes on the road as she drove. "They're not going to come get you in the middle of a repopulation zone. I'm guessing they got you in the first place because you were alone, right?" Sandra asked. The teen was silent for a moment. "There's a lot of the city still left... abandoned. There's plenty of stuff to find if you know where to look." Sandra raised an eyebrow. "You were looting?" "Yeah..." he admitted. She'd heard rumors some kids went into the barrier zones to scavenge, steal things. "Three of the flying ones-" "Pegasi," she corrected. "Whatever. We just call them flyers or wingers. They picked me up while I was on the way home. Dropped all my stuff." While most of the city had been repopulated, the areas closes to the barrier and some of the larger buildings still didn't see the traffic they used to. There was plenty of trouble a high school student could get into if they were foolhardy enough. "How'd they get you?" She quickly thought of something. "I... I used to work at the convenience store across the street, I stopped to pick up something." That explained why her car was parked across the street and why she was so far from the human-populated areas. "So you just stopped to pick up something?" he asked, skepticism in his voice. "Eeyup," she replied. "Right... well, thank you for... saving me. And for the ride." "You're welcome. What's your name?" she asked. "Nathan, Nathan Sheffield. What's your name?" "That wasn't part of the deal," she replied. "What?" he turned to her in surprise. "You don't need to know my name," she informed him. "Just stay out of the barrier zones and stick close to home. Don't go out alone. And don't mention what happened to anyone. Not your parents, not your friends, nobody and definitely nopony." "But... we have to tell people about this," he argued. She glanced at him briefly. "If you do that, you'll make yourself a target, they'll find you and you'll be on four legs, dining on oats before you can say giddy up." He was silent as he thought of the implications. "What do we do then? We can't let them get away with this." Sandra felt the weight of the potion in her coat pocket. "Kid... they already have."