Within the Walls

Chapter 26

A bright white light permeates my vision as I ease my eyes open. My mind fights to keep a hold of that bittersweet memory, but it vanishes at the sound of Ruben's growl.

"What the hell is this?" My head snaps sideways. He is in a bed a few feet from me. My eyes widen when I realise someone has pinned him to the bed with metal restraints. He struggles against them, cursing.

But I realise the next moment that someone has locked me in bed. The weight of the bars across my arms and torso sets my heart racing. My teeth chatter at the freezing air and my skin stings.

"Ruben," I say, and his head whips around.

"Elle," he says. "You're awake. Are you in pain?"

The memories of the previous night flood back in a relentless torrent. My speech. The vaccinations. The massacre. Ruben being shot. My screaming. Lia being spared. Lia.

"Ruben, where the hell is Lia?"

He lifts his head, eyes falling on a middle-aged Concave woman dressed in a white coat, a tablet clutched in her hand. "That's a good question. Where the hell is the child?"

The woman barely opens her mouth when the door several feet from Ruben's bed bursts open and Doctor Hatchman marches into the room. "Don't be rude, boy."

"Oh, piss off, Hatchman. I do not care what you think," Ruben says, waving his hand dismissively.

I cannot help but snort. Although, Hatchman's face remains impassive. He glances sideways at me before averting his attention to me. "Elizabeth, how nice it is to see you again. I hear they injured you."

"Where the hell did you take Lia?"

"As the Tranquillity Patrolmen may have told you, we have taken her for testing, we have suspicions she is like yourself," he says.

"I think you're forgetting that she is a child," I say through gritted teeth, pushing against the restraints. "You cannot test on a child."

Hatchman strides right to my bedside, peering down at me with those icy blue eyes. "And you, Elizabeth, do not get to tell me what I can and cannot do," he snarls, pressing a finger into my patched-up bullet wound and a strangled cry escapes my lips. Ruben yells.

As he steps back to Ruben's side, he glances up at the doctor. "Her wound has bled again. See to it, wouldn't want our Red Leaf to bleed out, would we?"

"Don't touch her again," Ruben barks, cheeks flushed with rage. But he is helpless beneath the restraints. The woman stands beside me. She inches the thin blue gown up my torso and peels the patch off my hip.

The corner of Hatchman's mouth twitches before pulling into a cynical grin. "We haven't started testing on the kid, besides a few small things. This afternoon, Ruben, you will resume work in the lab and aid in the testing to confirm whether the child is a Red Leaf."

"No," Ruben says. I am so attuned to Ruben at this point that I don't even wince as the woman sterilises my wounds with a stinging antiseptic and begins dressing it again.

"What the hell do you mean, no, boy?"

"I mean, I'm not helping you use a child like that."

"Since when are you in charge, Ruben?" Hatchman says through gritted teeth. "Don't disappoint your father. You know he hates disobedience. Even your traitorous mother believed you should help me develop a cure–"

"Shut up," Ruben says, the sound echoing off the surrounding walls, and I catch the woman flinch. "Do not speak of my mother."

Hatchman steps closer to Ruben's bed, a sadistic smile tugging at his lips. He presses a button on the wall the restraints hiss as they rise from Ruben's body. "Get up."