Bloodstream (New World, #1)

Chapter 5.2

[UNEDITED]

Once the pain was gone, I started feeling hungry. I was too weak to even sit, and walking was out of question. I was wondering if I should waste the little bit of fuel left in my body and try to call for food, when I heard the rustling outside my room.

Dylan popped in with a tray in his hands. I noticed some salad, a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. I wondered if it was the same piece I had discarded last night.

"I hope you will not waste this food," Dylan said as he placed the tray in the middle of my bed, "We don't really get them easily."

"How...do you get them then?" I asked, still on my back. For some reason, Dylan seemed like the only person I could actually talk to. But there was his mood swings. Sometimes he was really nice, and sometimes he appeared really annoyed by my presence.

It was his menacing brother that I needed to steer clear out of. He had even threatened to hold me here. But since Dylan saw me as no danger, he could be the perfect loophole for me to escape this place. Now all I needed was some courage, strength, and a plan. I needed to learn more about this place and the number of people living here.

I decided to get some words out of Dylan without giving too much of my intentions away. I slowly sat up, and picked up the bread from the tray. The salad looked fresh, and the soup actually smelled good.

I started nibbling on the bread. Dylan hovered for a bit, and then decided the stay instead of leaving. The corner of the bed dipped as he placed himself there.

"Who are you people?" I asked, careful not to piss him off too much, "Umm, Rank Three?"

I hoped I was not being too disdainful. He did not seem to mind though. He just shrugged.

"Why did you bring me here?" I shot again, taking a larger bite of the bread. It seemed dry from the outside, but was warm inside; so it must be fresh.

"You ask a lot of questions," Dylan rubbed his forehead, but then looked up and got lost in his deep thoughts. His expression, though, told me that I might get an answer.

"I did not have any intention of bringing you here," he finally started, "But that night we were crossing the woods, and came across one of the rebels. He attacked us, and we attacked back. He did not survive," he stopped and looked up at my face.

I must have looked horror-struck. They had killed more people?

"He was trying to communicate with some other people, and we couldn't really leave them there. We had to look for them as well," Dylan's eyes glazed over as he replayed the scenes from that night in his head.

"Well, when we finally found them, you were there, lying on the earth in a pool of crimson, close to death. Nicole was there with me, and she wouldn't let me stay. But I just couldn't leave you there!" Dylan shook his head.

I wanted to hate those people with all my will, and I guess I did too, but for some reason I couldn't help feeling a small tug at my heart for what Dylan said. He could have easily left me there to die. Instead, he picked me up from there and brought me here, probably got rebuked a lot by his brother and Nicole for his decision, but he want intent on saving me. I felt the tear poke my eyes, but I kept them restrained.

"You saved my life," I said carefully, never letting my voice quiver much, "I can't thank you enough."

"And then you saved me again, you gave me those shots!" I put down the past small bite of the bread. I did not have appetite anymore. I had a high fever, and if he had not given me those shots that night, I would probably be in a worse situation now.

"Umm..." Dylan narrowed his eyes, "Mel gave you the shots, so you should thank her too."

We sat in an awkward silence for a few more minutes, and then I picked up the bowl of soup. It smelled of chicken.

"Chicken soup?" I asked excitedly.

"It's just chicken stock that we preserve and use for a few weeks. We don't really have the luxury to have chicken soup here regularly." Dylan smiled.

"So, how do you get the resources? Food and medicine, I mean?" I asked as I brought the bowl to my lips. There was no spoon.

"We have our sources," Dylan shrugged again. I waited, but he did not say anything else, and I understood that was as much as I was going to get.

My mind reeled with questions that I needed to ask him to get out of that place, but I bit back my tongue.

"Umm, it must be really tough for you all to live on such small amount of food, right? And now I am eating a lot of these up as well!" I smiled, trying to look as ashamed as possible.

"Well...sometimes it's tough, sometimes we are better off. It all depends on how much resource we have at hand."

"I can clearly see that you all are suffering now," I probed further, he wasn't giving me any numbers.

"Nah! Sam and Riles have gone for collecting resources. We'll be fine in a few days!" he said happily.

Sam and Riles. I counted in my head. There were six of them already. Was that it or were there more people?

I wanted to ask more, but Dylan probably understood that he was giving away too much information. He just kept probing me to eat whenever I opened my mouth to ask something, and I took it as a cue to stop asking so many questions. I must have been creeping him out!

"I'm sorry that you have had to go through so much!" Dylan picked up my empty tray from the table, "I wish I could let you go though!"

I couldn't really say, 'no thank you. I am perfectly comfortable over here,' so instead I made a face.

"What do you want from me?" I finally asked, because all these would have to end somewhere, "I want to go home."

"For now, we all want you to forget that you ever saw these place or known us," he walked toward the door, and held it open, "But..."

Dylan never finished that sentence, and left after sealing me inside. My body shook with tremor as I added possible words to the unfinished sentence.

It was impossible to go back and reverse everything, or even to erase my memory. So there was only one way to get what they wanted: to keep me hostage forever, or to kill me.

For some reason, I thought that they would be more inclined to go for the latter. From what I gathered, they were living in this place without the consent of the government, and no one knew about their existence. They were trying hard not to be conspicuous, which meant that they were protecting themselves with everything they had.

I knew that people of Rank Three did not have the best facilities out in the city, but at least they had a life. They had jobs, food to eat, and shelter to sleep in. What were these people doing here that required them to hide in such a remote place?

Whatever it was, it couldn't be legal, and by keeping me here, they were endangering their lives. I knew for a fact that regulators were scouring the area already, looking for me, and if they found me here, these people would be exposed along with me. But they could not even let me go from here. I knew that people lived within the woods, and even though I did not know the exact location, I could at least lead the regulators this way.

So, yes, they would be more than happy to erase my existence off the earth.

I had to get out of there. Soon.

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