So this is pretty much unedited. It;'s midnight here so yeah. I will be updating Wanted Girl on thursday and it will be extra long chapter. So be prepared. Enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think.
Maddy had stayed up late her first day talking to Skye and looking over a map of things to do around Terra Nova, especially things that could involve a ward.
"Skye, what is the caretaker/ward system set up for? I don't understand how there could be so many crippled here." Maddy, who was sitting on her bed, stood to change into a pair of night clothes.
"It was originally three or four physical therapists rehabilitating wounded soldiers, however, due to new dangers out here, they couldn't handle all of the wounded." Skye laid back on her bed, pulling covers over her legs. "So they would pay civilians to take care of the wounded. You see most either return to duty because most of the injuries are superficial. But then there are ones like Mark, who are in need of a permanent caretaker."
Silence engulfed the room for several minutes as Maddy took in the new information. "Is Ken a permanent Ward?"
"No," Skye stretched up and rested a hand behind her head. "No, he is getting better every day. I expect him to return to security in a month or so." Both girls grew more tired as she spoke and soon, Maddy had fallen asleep with a mumbled goodnight to Skye.
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A terribly loud ringing entered Maddy's ears, and for a moment she thought she was still in her dream, agitated by the early call.
Groaning, she looked at the alarm clock next to her bed; 5:30 am. What. The. Hel-
"Wake up Caretaker, we are going to the training grounds." Mark called from the other side of the bed room door.
"Skye?" She didn't need to say much before the girl looked at her with bleary eyes.
"He does this every day, just take a pillow and sleep on a bench while he works out." Then she turned over, falling back into blissful sleep as Maddy pulled on clothes slowly. Who gets up this early. Really who does that?
Maddy stumbled out of her room and rubbed the sleep from her eyes before a voice cut through the dawn quiet. It was too early to even ramble.
"Let's go." Mark grabbed her around the arm and practically dragged her to the door. "I can give you directions to the training ground, just make sure I get there." The blind man stepped so surely up until he stepped off the porch, where he topped dragging Maddy and moved his hand up to her shoulder, "Go to the left and all the way to the end of the lane." He ordered, keeping Maddy slightly in front of him as a lead.
She would probably have been bitching him out, but then again, she really got to take in her surroundings. The sky looked so blue in the early morning, the natural world in the sleeping transitions where night crawlers fell into dreams and the day timers began to rise.
She actually found the silence peaceful, it had never been so silent in 2149, she had never had a moment of quiet such like this.
"Turn right at the end of the lane." Mark whispered, and even that was loud, booming alongside the smashing sounds of their feet stepping in the gravel.
"Okay." She mumbled back, eyes finding a odd structure that already had military personal running back and forth, she even saw some paired up and fighting each other.
"Do you see the training grounds?"
"Yes." She reached up to brush her fingers along the back of his hand, in a way reassuring him that what she said was true.
Soon, when the noises got louder, Mark broke away from her, to a running track that encircled the fighting pairs. He pulled off his jacket and dropped it on the ground, beginning to jog immediately.
Maddy stared at the person less jacket for a moment before taking pity on it and grabbing it up to use as a blanket. The ground was hard, but it was too damn early for her to care, so she laid the jacket over her legs and pillowed her head with her hands before promptly falling asleep with a single thought going through her mind.
Jeez Mark is a big guy to have a huge jacket fit him!
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"Maddy!" She didn't wake up immediately when Mark tried to call for her, but when a booted toe poked her, she shot up, scowling at her ward.
"What?"
"I have a physical today with the docs, you need to take me to the infirmary." He towered above her, eyes level with the land, almost as if he wasn't soeaking to her at all.
"You could at least try to look at me." She grumbled getting to her feet and pressing his jacket into his hands.
"Well, now, how can I if I can't look?" He shook his head. "Don't be an idiot." If he could see, he would see Maddy abuse her lower lip with her teeth in frustration in her situation and his rude behavior.
"Where is the infirmary?"
"Are you new here?"
"Yes, I arrived yesterday," Maddy honestly didn;;t mean to snap when she spoke, but he was the meanest cripple she ever met.
"Oh," His frown melted off his lips and he more tentatively spoke, "Well, it's down five lanes to the right from the command center. Do you know where that is?"
"Yes." She fisted her hand in the elbow of his jacket this time, leading him like a small child might.
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The infirmary seemed, well a lot calmer than she expected. There wasn't a lot of loud equipment like the hospitals of 2149, but they were no less capable if not more. She watched in disgust as a giant leech sucked a man's blood from his back. It was completely gross.
"Reynolds, you're going to be in Bio-bed 3." A woman nurse called and led the pair to a flat bed opposite another man who had a guard by his bed.
"Miss." Maddy called after her before she could get far from her. "Who is he?" Her fingers pointed to the man.
"A traitor, caught doing something bad. I don't know much." The woman shuffled off before Maddy was back at her ward's side.
Soon an older man approached him and started filling Maddy in on Mark's medical history and such, well that is before a loud thwack sounded behind her and she found a strong arm wrapped around her throat.
"Don't move or I kill her." The man, the traitor on the other bed had Maddy firmly against his front and a sharp metal thing pressed to her head. Anyone would know that that was a weapon, ore rather a pistol.
"Maddy!" Mark shifted forward before the metal was pressed harder against her skull.
"I said don't MOVE." The man behind her barked, freezing Mark in his place.
"Don't hurt her," A new quality of his voice surprised Maddy, because this was gentle and cautious and pleading.
"If you listen to me, your little girl friend will be just fine." The man tugged Maddy along, backwards as she stumbled over her feet, trying to keep up with him as they left the infirmary.
She could hear yelling in the building behind her and all she could think was every cuss she knew and stupid escape plans. All of which included knocking him out, because she is strong enough to do that.
"You know, I think Taylor will actually listen to me this time." The man's heart was beating fast, contrary to his cool-y nervous exterior.
And sure enough, the man was surrounded by gun wielding soldiers and The Commander and Lieutenant. Maddy was trying to keep up with them all, but adrenaline set in and she couldn't hear a thing other than her erratic heart thundering in her chest.
She could tell there was yelling, by the look of Taylor's working throat muscles and the arm round her tightened until-
The man behind her jerked, and suddenly she was free, but she didn't move a muscle. He was leaning on her and something warm and wet was running from his neck, onto her hair and neck and shoulders.
She looked around, her eyes stopping on the blood and the silver knife lodged in the man's neck. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but more blood spilled from his lips.
Who could make such a wound with a knife? Such a precise shot that killed the man and left her unscathed?
She was honestly just thinking about all the blood around her, vomit building up in her system and shivers running up and down her. And then the ground was coming up to her very quickly before she just couldn't remember what happened next.
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It was just a horrible dream, and for whatever reason Maddy felt at peace for the moment, before she looked up at the white ceiling of the infirmary, hen a face.
"Lt. Washington?" She tried to sit up, but the woman slowed her.
"Welcome back." She smiled sadly, "Mark thought he had kit you with the knife when you started screaming."
"I was screaming?" Wait, "A blind man threw a knife at me?" She sat up, eyes wide with horror and awe.
"Yep, Taylor chewed Reynolds out for it, but the kid was always scary amazing with knives. And yes, you screamed like you had taken the blade to the gut. We all thought you were hit until I checked you." The older woman passed the caretaker a water bottle. "It's just the shock of this life that got to you, nothing to worry about."
"Nothing?…you all are insane." Maddy sat up, "I want my mum and dad." A lump was choking her, she felt alone and gods, she almost died today.
"Hey, it's okay hun." Lt. Washington patted her back, " In a few days it will be the weekend and you can see you family then. However, there is blood in your hair and I am sure you want your rest, which is why I have a rover outside to take you home."
Maddy only nodded and slipped out of the bed, weakly walking to the metal car and climbing in for the short drive. As soon as she was in front of her house, she trudged in and went straight to her room where she stripped of her clothes (She'll burn them later) before wrapping up in a towel and heading towards the bathroom.
Everything was quiet, startling her when the door to her left shot open and arms wrapped around her. Mark's eyes actually held something, an emotion other than robotic blindness. It was fear and worry, especially the way his hands moved over her body subtly, checking her for wounds. Then she was tightly held against him, he bending to hold her better.
Maddy rubbed her palms up and down Mark's strong shoulders, "Sh, sh, it's okay." He buried his face deeper into her neck, arms tightening around her towel clad body. Gods this was so scandalous if it wasn't actually serious. What had happened today scared her worse than almost anything before and all she could do is sigh after all of it.
She just wanted a bath and maybe a good cry after the traumatic day she's had.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He mumbled, her just nodding.
"Yeah, um, Mark this is not the best time to be, um, hugging me." She was sure her entire face was red and hoped he couldn't hear her roughly beating heart. She had never been in so littled around a man before, none the less a blind man.
"Right," He had no intention of letting go of her soft body, gods she was so small. He heard foorsteps around the corner, but refused to relinquish the small girl. HIS caretaker.
"Hey Mark, I heard about the incid-Oh." Skye stopped in her tracks at the sight of Maddy, barely covered in a white towel and blushing all over, being embraced tightly by the large soldier whose face was tucked against her neck.
Oh Perfect.
"This is so not how it looks." Maddy whispered immediately. Causing Mark to back up. Oh yeah. She just remembered something.
A sharp stinging and hash skin on skin hit filled Mark's sense. "Did you just bitch slap me?"
"Yes," She hissed, "You threw a knife at me, you could have killed me. You- You-"
"I thought I killed you." He said, rubbing his jaw. "Jesus, who do you practice this one, that was like a genius slap."
"Well, I am a genius. But my brother knows that better than anyone." Her brows where tangeled together in a scowl. "If you ever throw a knife at me again, I will hit you with a CLOSED hand." She turned on her heel. Maddy would never condoned violence, but he threw a knife at her so it only seemed fair that she slapped him in the face.
As soon as the bathroom door shut and the new girl was finally alone in the confines of the small room, she sank to the floor, leaned against the door, and sobbed.
She almost died today. And it was her first official day in the new world. Maddy stumbled to the shower and slid in. The stream being turned on and her basking beneath the heated water
Preview for next chapter:
"Come on you'll like it. It's my favorite story." Maddy was trying to coax Mark into a story, Alice in Wonderland, as she sat on the porch.
"Why?"
"Because, you at least need to know things about the world other than the army."
"What if I don't want to?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, his facial expressions were unique when his eye lids didn't move much.
"Fine let' go to the Market." She started to get up when he sat donw next to her.
"You know I could try new things. What adventures does Alice go on?"
Maddy only wondered what made him do the one eighty?
"Mark, why don't you like the Market? Each time I ask you about going there you deflect."
"It's where I had The Accident. Its all I can think about when I'm there." He mumbled, staring forward into nothingness. Maddy was about to ask before closing her lips. Of course, the career ending accident.
"But you were there yesterday. Did you think of it then."
"No." He growled, talking down to her again. "Because it was you I was focused on."
"Why?" She asked again, pushing when she knew she shouldn't
"Because you talk and I focus on that and I was scared!" he shot up to pace the length of the porch.
"Why were you scared?" She whispered, seeing him visibly wilt before her.
"…I just couldn't let another innocent person die there. What is this life worth if you can't do something good with it?"
Maddy needed to know what happened seven months ago that left Mark so…scared.