Hock note: We left Milo in a cramped gravity containment chamber cradling the newborn while Dr. Chocka tore the hospital apart searching for them. 

Milo lay scrunched inside the cramped trash compactor on the third floor of the Atraville Hospital. He maneuvered to his side with his knees curled up to his chest and the newborn squashed in his arms, fighting for every breath. The metal felt hard. The world felt cold. He tried to sleep but the baby cried constantly. He tried to yell, but no sound could escape the heavy walls that held him.

Compactors worked by flooding the space with Higgs particles. The benefit was that dark energy would not escape the chamber. They could not be detected. The ones used in hospitals might be set to lighter modes of 'medical containment' instead of 'trash'. Still, the stifling gravity felt like a heavy ship parked over him. With each passing moment, he thought his bones would break and his insides would spill out. When he rubbed his hand on the front of his neck and massaged his dry throat, his movement caused the infant to cry again.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the hatch mechanism activated. The tortuous fingers released them. But who was on the other side? Would it be Sally, Dr. Chocka, or worse? Were they coming to free them or execute them?

He knew some things about pressure points. He knew where to kick, where he would thrust with his feet before his persecutor could react, and where he would incapacitate his assailant long enough to get away with the infant.

When the hatch opened, the light momentarily blinded him. He cocked himself like a coiled spring ready to kick. But once he thrust his legs out over the edge of the opening and his eyes equalized, he changed his strategy. Sally's confident posture was gone. Her tall figure appeared rounded, and her stern face turned downward and fearful.

"Sally?"

Pain showed starkly in those baggy eyes, age lines prominent on her haggard face. Instead of kicking Sally in the kneecap, Milo climbed gingerly out of the chamber, gently cradling the infant. Every joint hurt and every muscle screamed, but he didn't think about his own pain now. Somebody hurt Sally. Holding the infant with one arm, he put his other arm around the old lady, pulling her close.

"Who did this to you?"

Sally pulled abruptly away, standing tall and dominant again. "They're searching the entire hospital." Her face inflated with determination. "They're looking everywhere. They'll find you for sure, there's nowhere to hide. It's just a matter of time. You have to leave now. It's your only chance."

Heavy boots pounded the floor below them, sounding like an army of soldiers. He hadn't heard anything from inside the thick walls of the compactor.

Sally pointed a trembling finger down to a suitcase-sized box at her feet, a portable compression chamber. "Here, take this. It will hide the baby."

Small and compact, the chamber's smooth surface was glossy and gray, made of heavy and thick supernatant material. Supernatants were materials made with encapsulated antimatter. Antimatter, the opposite of matter, fell upward in the presence of gravity. Anything built with supernatants could be constructed very light. They could even float. 

Sally's hands shook as she struggled with the thick clasps around the sides of the chamber. While she worked on them, she jumped at every sound. 

Once opened, she removed a fluffy blue blanket and offered it for Cale. Milo carefully wrapped the tiny infant and gently lowered him into the chamber. The little guy was great, snuggling up in the blanket, not making a sound until his back touched the hard surface of the chamber.

Even with the blanket, infant Cale responded with a traumatized reflex. He stretched his arms wide, screamed, and then curled into a ball, crying. He wouldn't stop crying. Milo hated to leave him there, but he needed to close the lid, plunging the poor little guy into darkness.

The door at the end of the hall opened and a nurse pushed through—its white-plated struts and white pistons accelerating towards them. "You two must be questioned."

"Hurry." Sally pointed towards the foyer of the hospital as Milo buckled the heavy clasps. "You'll have to leave the other way."

Then Sally flipped a switch on the side of the box, energizing the chamber with Higgs compression. It made a lot of noise. But when he lifted the case, it weighed barely as much as a feather.

"Stop. You two must be questioned."

"Go." Sally's withered face hardened with resolve. "Catch a car. Leave this place and never come back here again."

He started down the tiled corridor carrying the suitcase. He moved slowly at first, his muscles still cramped from being scrunched in the gravity compactor.

"Run," Sally yelled from behind her.

"Stop," the nurse said.

Moments later, Dr. Chocka emerged through the door behind Sally and the nurses. "What is this?"

As the effects of the Higgs wore off and the strength from holding the infant returned, he bolted for the entrance. Before he pushed through the door, he turned to watch Sally battling with two nurses. The old lady proved no match for their synthetic might, however, and they quickly apprehended her.

"Hmmm," Dr. Chocka said far behind him. "You will be arrested-"

"Run," Sally cried out.

He didn't want to run. Sally would face charges so that he could go free. It wasn't right. Sally paid for his mistake.

Once Sally was down, the nurses stopped over her body and charged for him, their white reciprocating pistons pumping angrily.

Sally's sacrifice should count for something. He pushed through the entrance and into the massive hospital foyer only to find it guarded by more nurses. One guarded the door where he emerged from the containment ward.

"Stop. You must be questioned."

He slammed the nurse with his fist, snapping a connection in its neck. He knew something about pressure points with robots too, but even more, his new strength amazed him. It felt easy, although his hand hurt.

He sprinted into the foyer at a blinding rate. Down three flights of the escalator, across the ground floor, and out the pedestrian entrance the girl had used.

"Stop," nurses said from behind him. "You must be questioned."

They were no match for his speed. Once he made it out of their range, he called a car.

"Never come back here again," Sally had told him. No more job; no more income. And Sally, poor Sally. He slumped despondently in the back seat of the taxi, the infant secure in the portable chamber beside him. He had messed up. He might be alive, and he might have the infant, but he had really messed things up.