Page 2 of Rising

One mile turned into the next. The cliff side turned to trees, giving way to an old suburb, letting me know Jax wasn’t too far off. I kept steady and jogged towards the North Gate.

“Open the gate,” I breathed. Someone who didn’t know me would mistake it as a shy request, rather than the lethal demand it truly was. The guard, Riley, yelled at the others to hurry. The urgency behind his words showed he was as agitated as I by whatever caused the delay.

“General Bennett, please. Prepare yourself.” His brown skin matched the warmth in his eyes.

Pity.

I hated pity. Scoffing, I squeezed through the small crack of the gate that had already opened, hands wrapped around Reina’s clammy wrist. We matched pace. Composure now fully in check, as we pulled our shoulders back, chin high, and walked into the Infirmary.

It was settled between The Pit and the Scholar Building, for obvious reasons, but now that I was here, my curiosity caught up.What kind of accident? It was just a routine patrol with new recruits.

We purposely set out a path that had minimal Pansies. Wanting to give them time to adjust to the speed and unnaturalness that was sure to catch them off guard in their first few encounters, especially within an organized unit. While The Compound accepted new citizens all the time, they rarely had the same training that could guarantee survival of our home, just enough to get by and survive. Most times, when they showed up on their first day, they’d come in thinking they were a hot commodity. Always thinking their fighting stances were perfect, or they’re qualified to hold a gun.

It’s usually quickly discovered that just because they can fight and hold a gun, doesn’t mean we should let them. Only after they passed a series of tests supervised by Jax, or me, could they go out into the field for the first time. From there, based on skill, intelligence, mutation, and general assumption of their ignorance, they’re put on assignment. Everyone fulfills another role once a week on a monthly rotation in order to stay fresh should the situation come to worse.

Reina kept quiet. This had to be bad. It took a lot to silence her and she let little slip. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door to the Infirmary. It was silent, all eyes turned to me. Soldiers were everywhere. All fifteen beds in Unit A were filled.

I passed by each bed, soldiers muffling their cries of pain. Weakness is not taken kindly in a world like ours. Most people felt some kind of pain day in and day out. You get hurt and you shake it off or you get left behind.

It’s the reason, despite the population, we only had three hundred medical beds on standby. We typically reserved the beds for soldiers. Children next if their prognosis was positive. Nothing that didn’t require around the clock care was permitted. They typically instructed everyone else to hit the Apothecary for a remedy they could use at home. There was also the option of requesting a home medic, or hope they had friends and family with healing aspects of the water elementals.

The Compound must survive at all costs. That was the rule. Being one of the most successful within the territory, others often sent emissaries here for training and guidance. Our rule is part of how we survived in this messed up world. Five years after the world went to crap, and we’re practically a fully functioning city in the 1800s.

Perhaps that’s why no one ever challenged our ways. If you can’t contribute, then you’re gone. Everyone has a role to play. If you can’t or don’t want to do your initial assignment, then you better hope you have another skill to fall back on.

It smelled of puss, iron, and something sharp. Something toxic. The soldier on my left, not any older than twenty, was missing a foot.Sad. I remember him from his test last week and if my memory served me right; he was a pretty promising fire elemental. His blond hair shifted as he readjusted himself, uncomfortable under my gaze.

To the right of him, another soldier bit down on her bruised lip to avoid screaming, her arm bent at a disgusting angle. I nodded at her.Respect. Prescott, leader of this place, had told me from day one to always pay attention to brave women. They shape history.

Cold air hit my face as we moved into the lab, one of the regulated areas of The Compound since the air elementals used it for controlled experiments. Reina’s personal lab, office, and sleeping quarters were in the back.

Even at a young age, her intelligence stunned many. For a ranch girl from Montana, she sure knew her shit. She claimed her mother passed a lot of knowledge as a livestock veterinarian and it gave her a great background, but she often undersold herself. When she first arrived, she spent a lot of time heads down in the books, trying to understand her mutation and how it could help others. Something she continued when our other friend, Tomoe, had arrived about a year later.

Reina tapped the hard wooden door twice before opening to her sleeping quarters. Tomoe sat slumped over Jax, her tattooed arms covering his pale chest. I froze. This was worse than anything I could have imagined.

Jax’s shaggy auburn hair was plastered to the side of his face. Clumps of blood distinct in its tone of brownish red. Pale. He was ghostly pale. Not in the way most people would go pale with years of no sun. No. He was pale in a way that could only mean death was coming and not far off. Every breath he took sounded painful and hollow, followed by a small whoosh of air.

My eyes continued to scan his body. His slim shoulders were rigid and barely lifted with every breath. Good God. In my years as a General, never had I seen a wound like the hole in his chest. It was less of a hole and more of a crater. How he’d survived long enough to make it onto Reina’s bed, I wasn’t sure.

Hot, salty water streamed down my face uncontrollably. My love. My friend. Laying there, so absolutely helpless, the antithesis of the bouncing beam of a kid I’d met years ago out on the road. I had to look away. Refusing to let myself fixate on his body any longer.

“Henry did what he could to patch him up,” Reina whispered from the door. “I’ve removed fear and any levels of discomfort from his body to prevent him from going into shock. Try to give him a chance at healing, but, there’s nothing else we can do Amaia. The wound is too deep. His body has to fight to do what magic cannot. I’m sorry.”

Sorry?I wanted to laugh. Sorry didn’t cover it. I wanted answers, but I found I wasn’t yet ready to ask those questions.

I took in his face again, this time realizing his nose was bent at an awkward angle with dried blood crusted underneath. His labored breaths allowing me to see two of his teeth were missing as well.

My chest shook as I took another deep breath, daring to take in the rest of his appearance. I noticed his navy cargo pants were tattered and blackened at the ends, tugging at my mind to place the smell from earlier. The crisp clothing of everyone involved.What the hell was this?It couldn’t be The Pansies. They didn’t coordinate complex attacks that required tools that created fire, nor did they possess any magic. The smell was more than just something burning, it also contained the toxic tinge of chemicals.

“What happened?” I demanded.

“An explosion,” Tomoe mumbled, shaking off the vision she’d succumbed to. “Maia, I. An explosion, I’m so sorry.”

My ears rang. I laughed. Belly hurt, full throttle laugh. “Sorry? Why does everyone keep telling me that?”

I lost more minutes to laughter until my core couldn’t take it anymore. Moe stood up and moved towards Reina, who had inched closer to me. The same worry lines plastered on her face.

“Don’t you touch me, Reina!” I shrieked, “You let me feel this. Do not touch me.” More minutes of silence rang out. “Sorry is the person who will answer for this. Get everybody to The Pit. Bring Harley.”

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