WORLD 4: AWAKENING

His ragged red shirt was growing darker by the second and his arms weren’t any better off.

“What happened?!” I screamed.

“What does it look like?!” shouted Trace.

“But we heard you shoot it!” said Baylen.

Trace grimaced as he pressed onto Athan’s middle. “It survived the first few blasts and kept coming. Ripped his arms and belly to shreds.”

Nausea flooded over me as I watched the blood continue to pour out of Athan. I crouched down to hold his hand. “It’s okay, help is coming. Hold on, Athan.”

“Pick him up!” screamed Ty. He was running in from the field with another red shirt. “Get him to Medical, right now!”

Baylen helped Trace and the other Protection Officers hoist Athan up, taking care to grip extra tightly to the areas most slippery with blood. We made as quick a pace as we could into the field. The injuries were bad; blood flowed from Athan’s hanging arms into the grass. I ran ahead of the group and held open the Med Shelter door as they clumsily carried him through and onto a bed. Athan’s throat gurgled with blood as he moaned; red stained his overly white teeth.

Ty was on a live communicator immediately. “Dr. Kai,” he commanded it. He set it down on the supply table.

Ceres ran in from the staff section with a girl from Food Lev trailing behind. She screamed at the blood.

Trace grabbed her arm and dragged her to the door. “Get out of here!”

I pointed a bloodied finger at Ceres. “Get numbing medication — the biggest dose we have!” I ordered. He’d frozen stiff with fear and didn’t move. “Now!!!”

“Okay,” he breathed out, barely audible. He stumbled to the table and threw me the rod.

“It’s going to be alright,” I said quietly and injected every drop of the medication into Athan’s neck. Right away, his body relaxed and he lost consciousness.

Gripping his dagger, Trace pulled it from its sheath and sliced off the remnants of Athan’s shirt. I had to turn away; his middle had been ripped open so dramatically I could see glimpses of several organs. Baylen left his side and put an arm around me for comfort. But Ty was as focused as ever.

“Get me the Thermal Arrester, Ceres!” he bellowed.

At the supply table, Kai’s face appeared out of the live communicator. “What’s happening, Tylenian?”

“There’s been an animal attack. Severe blood loss along with complicated lacerations covering about seventy percent of both arms and abdomen. Possible organ rupture. Breathing is labored and compromised.” Ty was up to his elbows in blood as he used the tool to stem the most severe bleeding. “More bandages!” he ordered. I let go of Baylen and ran for the supply table.

Kai’s voice came through again. “I’ll fabricate blood and prepare a surgical table here. Get him in as quickly as possible.”

“We’ll be there in five minutes,” said Ty. He reached his long, bloodied arm to the supply table and punched down the button on top of the communicator. Kai’s holographic face disappeared right back into it.

All hands assisted with bandaging. Baylen gripped hanging pieces of skin on Athan’s arm, trying to apply as much pressure as he could, while I pressed absorption pads hard onto his chest. After a couple of minutes, we’d wrapped up the worst of it and got ready to leave.

“Lift him up!” shouted Ty.

Trace and Baylen took his right side while Ty and a red shirt took the left. The other Protection Officer grabbed his legs. I rested Athan’s head in my hands to help keep his airway clear of blood. We stumbled our way across camp and up to the doors of Colony Four. Another doctor from Med Lev was already there, waiting with a portable exam bed next to her.

“Mayla!” Ty said breathlessly. “You’ll have to take my place tomorrow, go with the expedition and leave the others to take over here.”

I was so disturbed and frantic that I could only nod in agreement. Getting to the main doors, we helped load Athan onto the bed. Without another look back, Ty and the other doctor rolled him away as fast as they could into the Colony and out of sight. The doors sealed shut again with a loud hiss.

All of us involved were breathless and in shock. I leaned against the side of Colony Four, still in disbelief, slowly sinking to the ground. Baylen leaned over with his bloodied hands resting on his knees for support while he caught his breath. My eyes were focused on the dirt, fixed on one spot and trying to process the enormity of what had just happened.

It must have been several minutes later when Baylen came and stood over me. “We should go get cleaned up.” I didn’t answer. He crouched down and pulled up my chin. “Seriously, we’re covered in Athan’s blood and there’s people starting to freak out.”

I peered over his shoulder. He was right — a group was gathering, whispering to themselves and getting louder and more anxious. I couldn’t blame them — I would have started to panic, too. Discovering that there were creatures in the forest capable of inflicting such damage was a horrifying revelation. Baylen grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, then led me back in the direction of Med Shelter as Trace began an announcement to the crowd.

“It’s my fault,” I said quietly as we received more stares from passersby. Both of us must have looked absolutely horrible.

“Don’t say that,” said Baylen. He tried wiping his hands on his pants.

“No, it is. It was my idea to go out that far when I knew we weren’t allowed to.”

“We all went along with it. If it’s your fault then it’s mine also.”

I shook my head. The knowledge that Athan would be in one piece if I hadn’t been so careless and stupid was more than I wanted to bear.

We walked through the doors of Med Shelter. I cringed — it was like the scene of a murder. Blood was smeared all over the place: the bed, the floors, even two of the walls. The long metal supply table was an absolute mess as well, with bloodied bandages and tools scattered over the entire length of it.

Baylen pointed to the staff section, just as disturbed by the gore as I was. “Let’s go in there.”

The place was empty, which was what I’d hoped for. I didn’t feel like explaining the situation to anyone and reliving details. “Can you get some of the cleaning solution and towels? And bandages, too.” I asked.

While Baylen grabbed them from the other room, I filled a bucket with water from our small bathroom sink.

“Here it is.” He carried a huge handful of bandages and a container of special cleaning solution.

“Sit on this.” I pointed to a side table by one of the beds. I took his supplies from him. He grabbed them right back from me.

“You’re worse off, so you go first.”

I tried to snatch everything back again. “No, let me help you first. I can tell you’re more scraped up than you want to admit.” I had no doubt it was true; his face carried several scratches from the tree branches and there were surely more underneath his shirt.

“Mayla, stand here,” Baylen ordered. He gently grabbed my shoulders and pulled me around. I gave him a dirty look but did what he said. He sat on the little table and faced me.

“Just be careful, I’m pretty scraped up.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” he said as he examined me. The bottom half of my shirt was completely ripped apart, shreds of it glued to my skin from the tree’s sap. Short scrapes from the massive thorns covered all areas of my abdomen, while longer ones from the tree trunk ran down the middle. Whether it was mine or Athan’s, I was covered in blood.

Baylen soaked a rag in water and cleaning solution, then started wiping the mess away. I jumped with the stinging and gripped the tops of his shoulders.

“Sorry!” he kept repeating with every wince or groan.

My nails dug into his shoulders. But even though what he was doing hurt, I couldn’t complain. Nothing I felt could possibly have compared to Athan’s misery.

Once I was cleaned and dry, Baylen spread numbing cream onto a bandage. Similar to the medication inside the rods, it drastically dulled the pain of whatever it touched. The bandage made contact and he rubbed it over my entire middle. I flinched at first as it burned, then sighed in blissful relief as every ounce of pain melted away. My head hung slowly as my posture relaxed.

He grabbed a long roll of bandaging. He wrapped it around my middle, reaching his arms behind me as he pulled it tightly around over and over again.

There was an eerie quietness to everything; we’d barely spoken to each other, too traumatized to make much conversation. Baylen finally broke our silence.

“I’m sorry,” he said very softly.

“For what?”

He hesitated, then tied off the last of the bandage. “That he left you alone.”

My body stiffened. It was a detail about the experience I’d tried not to think about yet. I changed the subject. “You’ve got blood on you, Baylen, let me get it.”

I grabbed a clean cloth from the pile he’d brought in. Although he’d washed his arms and hands off when we first arrived, he’d missed his neck and face. I soaked the cloth and wiped away any blood that I could see from the back of his neck. As I moved to his face, he focused his gaze right on me. I could tell but tried not to look at him — I knew exactly what he wanted to talk about. As I was wiping some blood out of his scruffy jaw, I couldn’t take it anymore and gave in.

“It’s okay, really,” I assured him as I worked. “I’m sure that Ty —”

“Stop.” He cut me off.

I paused, my hand still on his cheek.

“What?” I barely breathed. He reached up and grabbed onto my hand.

“I would never have left you there,” he said quietly. It felt like his brown eyes were piercing into my soul. I couldn’t leave them.

“I know.” It was all I could think to say.

We stared into each other’s eyes for a few more moments when the Med Shelter door burst open. Ceres was walking into Med Shelter with two green shirts in tow.

“You’re amazing!” said one.

“I can’t believe you carried him on your back all the way to Colony Four!” exclaimed the other.

“Yeah, well it’s pretty easy to do when you’re in survival mode,” Ceres chuckled.

I shook myself out of my stupor and put down the cloth I’d been using. “Well, you should probably take a shower, Baylen. You’re pretty disgusting.” I pretended to laugh, but it came out sounding obviously forced.

He got up and sighed. “Yeah, well right back at ya’.”

After tossing the bloodied rag he still held onto the table, he grabbed my hand, then stared into my eyes with more intensity than he’d ever done before. Something was begging to be said; it was obvious.

Finally, Baylen left without another word.

I didn’t move. I needed a moment to process my situation. Not only from the traumatic experience with wildlife, but also from Ty and Baylen. Ty had left me to die — I had every right to be absolutely livid. And Baylen…he’d never looked at me like that before.

“You doing okay?” Ceres’ asked from the doorway.

I startled a bit. “Huh? Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I guess.”

“We should probably clean everything up, right?” he asked carefully.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” I mumbled and walked past him to the exam area.

We began the work, but I could barely concentrate. The animal attack, Ty’s abandonment, and Baylen’s touch all kept running through my mind in an annoying loop, commanding any focus that was left in me. Ceres squeaked in there once in a while — he’d be hearing a nasty earful from me later about trying to use Athan’s misery to get a date.

By the time we were done, I was so spent emotionally, mentally, and physically, that I couldn’t function around people. I had to get away, at least for a little while. Ceres was eager enough to take over in the exam area while I hid myself away in the staff section. Peeling off my bloodied clothes, I finished cleaning the last of the attack’s aftermath from me before putting on a fresh uniform.

I remembered my mysterious orbs from the field. I retrieved them from my blood-streaked pants and tossed them into a drawer with plans to hand them over to Science Lev later on.

Easing myself onto my small little bed, I looked up at the cloth ceiling, staring at nothing and trying to forget.