The Ravaged World (Book 2 of the Exiles Series)

Four: Talia

"The doctor will be in soon," the mousy nurse assured me as soon as I entered the spotless white exam room.

"Thank you," I told her before she vanished. I took a seat on the table, the sterile gray tissue paper crinkling under my movements. I noticed the window in the far corner where light weakly shone through. Just like the one in the bedroom, this window also had metal bars blocking me from the outside world. I could hardly wait to leave this prison, to return home and meet my family. The white, sterile, hospital/jail theme was starting to drive me insane.

Before long, the doctor, an ashen man with a balding head in a white lab coat, brusquely entered the room carrying a clipboard and perched on a low stool at his desk. He studied the clipboard, muttering under his breath.

"Brathol?" he asked, finally lifting his watery eyes from the paper. "Talia Brathol?" I nodded.

The man stood up and shuffled towards me. "Date of birth, July 16, 2107," he recited, "criminal offense: acting erratically in public." He dug around in a drawer nearby, unearthing a pen, which he tucked behind his ear.

"What happened to your arm?" the doctor asked, absentmindedly jotting something down on the paper. The hairs on my neck stood up.

"I'd rather not say," I murmured, not eager to reveal my life story to a total stranger. He eyed me suspiciously but didn't pry.

"Well, we need to fix it," he informed me like I was three. He dug a pair of latex gloves out of his desk and snapped them on. Then he grabbed a short bottle of pale pink liquid out of a drawer and came towards me with it. He unscrewed the plastic cap and offered it to me.

"You need to drink this," he explained. "It will reset the bone. You're lucky this wasn't a few years ago, or else we'd have to put it in a cast and you probably would've needed surgery."

I nodded gratefully and took the bottle from the doctor's gloved hand. I tipped the medicine to my mouth and gulped all of the bitter liquid in one swig. After I was done I set the empty pink bottle beside me and watched, transfixed and sickened, as the bone moved beneath my skin back where it was supposed to go, straightening and healing with a sensation like hitting my funny bone. Simultaneously all the pain vanished. I wiggled my fingers. "Thank you." The doctor nodded, frowning.

After I had downed the medicine the doctor gave me my full check up. Everything else seemed to be in order. There was nothing else besides the arm that was wrong with me, so I was sent on my way very quickly.

"When can I go home?" I asked the doctor as I turned to leave.

"You should be picked up sometime within the next few days or even hours," the doctor informed me. "Your family has been notified, so they should be here soon."

I thanked the doctor and reported back to the dorms. The girls inside were so loud that I could hear their voices echoing all the way down the hallway. An older girl with stringy brown hair rushed past me, shouldering a dirty duffle bag.

I powered through the metal doorway and entered the dorm where everyone was. Nicole was nowhere in sight...I guessed that she had gone to her checkup and was still with her doctor.

I hurried back over to my bed for some privacy away from the other girls. Currently I was getting glowered at by over half of the girls in the room, who seemed to have nothing else to do.

Suddenly an announcement came on to the loudspeaker in the dormitory. Everyone stopped talking and froze. "Talia Brathol and Nicole Brathol to the Commons, please," the cool female voice informed us. Surprised, I jumped from my bed and hurried for the door, both relieved to leave again and scared of what I would find in the Commons. And where was Nicole? I found myself break into a run without really meaning to.