Johanna Mason & The Rebel

Chapter 13 - Escalation

             "Hmf..."

He grunted to himself as he managed to pull himself to the bed in his small lair. During his trip back from the encounter with that peacekeeper, rain had started falling. It helped in covering the track of his blood as made his way back to his temporary house. He tried to stay seated up and take a few deep breaths. His hands were covered in the blood coming out of his shoulder.

He managed to fight through the immediate pain of his shoulder when the peacekeeper had fired at him. Through some tumbling, he managed to get the peacekeepers' head in a lock and suffocated him before grabbing his gun and run off. No other peacekeepers had come his way, but they were out there now, looking for him. He managed to get himself over to the foot of his bed.

There was a latch underneath where he had some supplies stored in case of emergencies – medical supplies, Morse-code communication's gear and a weapon. He went through his medical supplies and brought forward some spirits, a needle, a thread and a clamp to pull out the bullet. He removed his shirt, ignoring how cold he was, and took a sip of the spirit, for the sake of courage, and then poured some of the wound.

He had a rag in his mouth to not scream before using the clamp to pull out the bullet. Once he had managed to do that, he took several more breaths before being able to put the needle through his skin. During his military-training, he had done some of the basic medical training, but he had never been good with needle into real flesh. He gritted his teeth as he pierced the needle and pulled it out the other side before going back at it.

It would take him a couple of hours before he could clean up and call himself finished. The pain was still eminent, and there wasn't much he could do with that. He hadn't been given medicine for pain, and what little he had, was not to be wasted. He checked the clock barely hanging on his wall. Peacekeepers would start rounding people up in five hours.

He cleared away all the blood and the equipment he had used on the gun-wound before pulling up his communication-gear. This was for the cases in which he had no way of getting to his primary gear in the woods. In the days to come, he suspected he would have to lie low...perhaps even get pulled out.

"You have two minutes to get out of bed and get to the main square!"

There was a loud bang on his door. Rorke jolted to the sound of it as sleep had eluded for the better part of the night. He tended to his shoulder, obviously being pain just moving his upper body. His wound was slightly bleeding still. The banging on the door came once more, this time with more force.

"Get to the square now!"

Rorke quickly gathered some linens lying around and pressed it against his wounds and covered himself with an extra jacket before getting to the door. The peacekeeper wasted no time in dragging him out and into the crowd. It was a chilly morning, and the sun had yet to grace the land with its warming sunrays. Some people were still in their undergarments. That's when Rorke noticed how cold he really was from sleeping with wet clothing from the rainy night.

The crowd in front of him was clogging up. The grand square was filling up with people. The stage was set in front of them with four individuals covered by hoodies. Rorke swallowed a little tighter as he realized who they were. He also spotted several peacekeepers intensely looking at the crowd, as if they were searching for him. Rorke tilted his head down as he made his way next to a stranger next to him.

In the corner of his eye, he spotted her in her singled-out section next to fellow victor Blight. Johanna Mason knew what was coming, and she had probably been instructed to watch as an example was going to be made. She saw him but had to stay frozen and not react. She was being watched as well by someone far more dangerous. She could not afford to show the President that she was involving herself with anyone.