Wings and Hammers

5. A Brief History - Part 2

Erwin, Mike, Nash and a few other soldiers returned from the Underground District a couple of days later. They brought back three people with them. All of them, soldiers and captors, were wounded, bloody, their clothes ripped and grimy. Commander Sadies sent them straight to the medical ward to be fixed by Aura and the nurses.

Dr. Tubrey walked in as soon as the news got to her. She took one look outside her window, saw a beautiful white horse at the stable and rushed to the hospital. The number of patients was overwhelming, although she knew it wouldn't be that difficult with all the trained nurses. Some of them only needed a wash on their scrapes, but some needed to be looked after.

"What happened?" she asked Erwin as she walked towards his bed. His hands were scathed and bleeding, his sleeves and cape were torn and his forearms were covered with scars.

He showed her his hands, almost like a child, and looked up at her. The marks resembled those of a double-edged sword and she knew it was taken out of an ODM gear.

A number of questions raced through her head in a single moment. A fellow Scout attacked Erwin? The marks on his forearm were those of a knife, how many different weapons were used on him? How many people attacked him? Who were these new people? Why did they go to Underground at all?

"I thought you went to Stohess?" she said, rubbing alcohol on the wounds on his hands to clean them.
"I did," he said, wincing, "did you not get my letter? I stayed there for a day and then left for Underground."

"Why? I thought you were vacationing with Marie?"
"We got intel on civilians using ODM gear. More like thugs, thieves."

"We can hear you, you know," the girl from the new trio spoke up as one of the nurses stitched a wound near her elbow. She did not cry, nor wince even once and looked Erwin straight in the eye from across the room.

"Isabelle," one of the boys spoke to her, "we work for him now. He deserves some respect."
"Wait, what?" Aura looked back at Erwin, "what?"

"We observed them in action," he informed her, "we got news about them from the local MPs and how they were a nuisance they could not control.."
"That's not our fault," Isabelle was quick to remark.

Erwin ignored her and went on to tell Aura everything. "We went in and observed their skills. I decided that such a skillset should not get wasted without seeing the light of the real world, so.."

"Wait," Aura put bandages on his palms and moved to his forearm and biceps, "didn't you just tell me that they're thugs from the fucking Underground?"

"Yeah.." He had never seen her so furious.
"Does Sadies know? Did he approve of this? Or did you just go and randomly come back with three new people?"
"Yeah, he.. wait.. you don't think this is a good idea?"

"No, of course not," she was exasperated by the time her previous question finished, "like you said, they are thugs. Are you really telling me that, from the next Recon Mission onwards, the people who tried to kill you will be your comrades?"

"Doctor," the nurse standing near one of the new boys called to her, "this man.. could you take a look at him please?"

Aura handed Erwin over to her and went to the other bed. "Name?" she asked without even taking a look at his face. "Ma'am, he's not.." the nurse's call finally persuaded her to look up. The man in front of her had his eyes shut tight. She picked up his wrist to check his pulse. Although it was there, it was very feeble. She pulled at his highly chapped lower lip and started asking questions.

"How long were you on the road?" she asked, and without waiting for an answer, made arrangements to elevate his legs. "The whole morning and afternoon," someone said.