Shun

Dan and Feliciana were working as my support as we made our ways back to the City. Thanks to the bullet wound in my thigh, I was unable to walk, and the slightest pressure I put on it sent me into a world of pain. Murucho said, "We need to be careful when we get back in. There's no telling what they're really doing."

After I killed Nero and one of his Officials slipped away, gunfire started to explode from the City. From our distance, it looked like the Officials were firing at one another, but we weren't sure. So, to make sure the Officials weren't attacking any other innocent people that may have survived their wrath, we decided to step in and take over if that was the case.

That, and Feliciana and I needed to have our wounds treated, and the City was the only place with what we required for injuries of this extent. Her arm was still bleeding, but nowhere near like mine. My leg was still gushing blood, and I could feel myself growing lightheaded.

The gate was still open, allowing us to walk right through the City's front door. We had been right when we thought the Officials were firing at each other. They were everywhere, hiding behind objects and firing rifles. Bodies of those who died in the gunfire lined the streets.

Feliciana whispered to us, "Stay low so nobody gets shot." It hurt for me to crouch down, but I made due and we hurried across the street and into an alley. Bullets shot by and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. Runo said softly, "I wonder why they're shooting at each other."

I did too. I thought Nero's death would have joined them like the old leader had said, but it seems like it may have torn them apart by their weakened threads. I heard footsteps coming from behind us, and turned around. There was an Official that had come from down the alley.

"Who's there?" he asked in a shaky voice. He didn't look armed, just scared. Dan spoke up and asked him, "Would you mind telling us what the hell is going on out there?" He pointed with his thumb to the battlefield outside of the alley.

The Official raised an eyebrow, as if not sure as to trust us or not. In this madhouse, it had to be difficult to decipher who was friend or foe. He nodded and said, "Come with me. I'll fill you in on what's happening." Feliciana stopped us from following him and asked, "How do we know we can trust this guy? He's an Official and worked for Nero."

Alice walked up behind her and said sweetly, "We can trust him." The Official blinked in surprise when he saw her, and I saw a glint of recognition. He knew her, and apparently she knew him. How, I wasn't sure. Probably from before the cleansing.

Feliciana told her, "If you say so, but I'm keeping my guard up." The Official nodded and said, "Alright, this way." We followed him down the alley, keeping him a good distance in front of us. "How are you sure we can trust him?" I whispered, but loud enough for the others to hear.

All of us were eager to hear her answer to see if it was a good choice to be following this guy, or just misjudgment. She told us, "His name's Jack. He was the one who drugged me back in the woods, but I knew he didn't want to. He was just following orders. You guys might not trust him, but I do."

What this guy did to her was enough to make me weary. He injected her with drugs that made reality impossible to see. I decided to keep my guard up around him as well. Julie smiled and said happily, "If Alice trusts him, that's good enough for me." Jack stopped and unlocked a door that looked like it hadn't been opened in years.

It opened with ease though and he said, "Here. You'll all be safe from the fighting." He stepped inside and we filed in behind him. Jack lit the oil lamps in the hideout. The outside of the place may have looked unused, but the inside was another story. It was in well kept condition and looked very inhabited; not like some hole-in-the-wall that he may have found last minute when the fighting broke out.

"Take a seat," he said. I opted to stand, seeing that my leg could hardly move from the position it was in now. Sitting would only make things worse. Plus, I didn't think he'd want blood all over the mismatched furniture he had accumulated. Feliciana stayed with me and helped to keep my balanced, while Dan took a seat on a sofa next to Runo.

He then asked, "Now can you tell us what's going on?" Jack closed his eyes and sighed. "Yeah, I suppose so. I know you're the ones who killed Nero out in the Wastelands. Everybody knows that. But afterwards, one of his Officials made it back and spread the word that our leader was dead. It was like the ground breaking apart after that."

Even this far away from the shooting, I could hear it loud and clear. Jack turned on another oil lamp that he had missed and said, "One of the higher ranking Officials, Isis, tried to take over his place. But Officials who had been debating over whether what they were doing was right or wrong from the start of the cleansing…Well, some of them had enough. Those who were fortunate enough to see and decide that this pointless killing was wrong, turned against those who were still loyal to the cause. Thus, bringing the two sides to shooting each other."

I swayed back and forth on my feet, and began to feel closer to blacking out. Feliciana steadied me and said quickly, "That's all fine and dandy, but I think we should go ahead and get some medical treatment before we go any further." My eyes found the pool of blood on the floor.

Most of it was mine, I was sure, but some of it could have been Feliciana's since her arm was still bleeding. Jack stood up and said, "Of course. Come with me upstairs." What was upstairs that could help stop myself from dying from blood loss?

Dan helped Feliciana get my up the stairs, which was a hassle and horrid experience on my part. When we reached the top, I thought I would black out from pain rather than my injury. I found that we had walked up into a clinic though. All kinds of doctor equipment and related things lined the walls and tables.

Jack laid the examination table all the way back and said, "Put him here." Dan and Feliciana helped me over to it and did as he said. I heard Dan ask, "Why is their a clinic over your house?" I watched as Jack pulled out a pair of scissors and cut a hole in my bloodied pants so he could gain access to my wound.

He said, "I was a personal doctor to the Officials. They felt for the longest time that they deserved a private doctor instead of what the rest of the people got, so I was assigned to them. It was Xavier's decision to have the place hidden away so others wouldn't find it, and he made me move my home downstairs so I wouldn't look suspicious going to and from this place. I do like the peace and quiet here at times though."

He cleaned the blood and dirt from around the wound, and some of the antiseptic touched the raw hole in my leg, causing me to cry out. "Sorry," he said. Alice was standing next to me, staring in horror at my leg. I was surprised myself at how bad the injury was.

Being close to Nero's gun had made the wound much, much worse that it would have from a distance. Gunpowder from the shot had burned my skin, and the bullet itself had torn apart my flesh as it entered. Murucho asked Jack, "So, you were never an Official?"

Jack shook his head and continued to disinfect my leg. "Nope. Just worked for the savages." He bent over to get a closer look at the hole in my leg and said, "I think I see the bullet. I'll just have to dig it out and stitch the wound back up. Easy as that." I laid my head back down and shut my eyes.

Next to me, Alice asked, "Shun? Are you ok?" I thought to myself, Yeah. Perfectly fine with a hole in my leg. But I bit back the words I was thinking and told her the truth. "I'm getting lightheaded is all." Jack had left my side and was going through his tools. "He's lost a good amount of blood, so he's going to be feeling the effects of it. No need to worry though."

He returned with a syringe and flicked the plastic tube with his finger, mixing up the liquid inside. I asked, "What's that?" He cleaned a spot off on my arm where the needle would go and said, "An anesthetic. You need to be sedated unless you want to deal with the pain of me digging the bullet out. And something tells me you won't be very still if I do that and allow you to be awake for it."

I felt the little sting of the needle and watched as he injected me with the sedative. Jack then walked back over to his tray of equipment and picked up his next tool for the job. I felt the drug taking its hold. Alice took my hand in hers and said, "You'll be fine." I smiled and said jokingly, "Hope so." I then drifted off as the drug finished its job.

Alice

We had gone back downstairs and into Jack's living space. He was still up in his clinic and working on Shun. In the meantime, he had given a bandage to Feliciana so her arm would stop bleeding. But right now, Shun was a more important patient. I played with my thumbs and tapped my foot to try and pass the time.

Runo got up from her chair and sat next to me. "He's going to be fine, Alice." I smiled at her and said, "I know. I'm just a natural worrier I guess." And it was true. My mind couldn't help but think of the bad outcomes instead of good ones. I heard footsteps coming down from the stairs, and Jack appeared in the room.

"Well, got the bullet out and the wound stitched up. He's still asleep from the sedatives though. I can get you stitched up now, ma'am." He was looking at Feliciana. She nodded and said, "That would be very much appreciated." Jack nodded and took her upstairs to fix her arm.

It didn't take him as long as it had with Shun. In fact, she was in and out of there in less than an hour, and sported thirty stitches. Jack sighed and sat down on one of his couches, then wiped the sweat from his forehead. "I'm exhausted," he said. He wasn't the only one.

I was dog-tired myself, and everyone else seemed to be as well. Proof of that was when I saw Murucho had fallen asleep next to Julie on a sofa. Runo suggested, "Why don't we all get some sleep? We could really use some of it." We all found comfortable places on the couches and sofa.

One by one, we began to fall asleep. When I thought about, the only rest we had gotten was from being knocked-out. And trust me, that wasn't a very good nap. I laid my head on the armrest of a sofa and fell asleep, but woke up shortly afterwards. Around me, everyone was sound asleep, and only a few of the many oil lamps still burned.

Even Jack had fallen asleep on the couch where he sat down after tending to Feliciana. Curiosity and concern drove me upstairs to check on Shun. Was he still asleep? Or had he woken up yet? I opened the door and stepped into the clinic.

Shun was still laying on the examination table where Jack had performed the surgery on him. His eyes were closed, his breathing slow and a dead give away that he was still out. My eyes fell on his leg. Jack had wrapped Shun's thigh up with a thick layer of bandages.

If Feliciana's arm took thirty stitches, I hated to know how many it took to close up the gaping hole in Shun's leg. The only sound in the clinic was of Shun's breathing. A voice from behind me said, "I hope you know that I never wanted to drug you and your friends."

I whipped around and saw Jack standing in the doorway. I placed my hand over my speeding heart and smiled. "Oh, it's you. You nearly scared me to death." He laughed and said, "Sorry. Can't help that I have a light footstep at times. But you do know that I didn't want to, right?"

I nodded, remembering how he apologized before injecting me with hallucinogenic drugs, and how I saw all the regret in his eyes. "I know you didn't want to, and I'm not holding a grudge against you for that. I never even thought of holding a grudge against you, and even if I did, it would have been gone by now after what you've done for us." He thanked me and smiled.

"I never wanted to be involved with those Officials. But they didn't give me much choice. They promised my pay would be better, and that I would be safe from whatever may happen in the future. And when I found out that 'whatever may happen in the future' was this mass killing, I really didn't want to be involved with them. But better pay was replaced with a gun pointed at my head. I couldn't get out, even if I wanted to."

I had never thought about it, but Jack was as much of a victim in this as the rest of us. He was threatened and at the mercy of the Officials like everyone else. It just went to prove that even those who were on the sides of the Official, weren't truly safe.

He cleared his throat and said, "Well, I'll go on back downstairs and leave you to yourself." I stopped him when he began to vanish in the darkness of the stairwell. "Hey, Jack." He turned and looked at me. "Yeah?" I smiled and said, "I just wanted to thank you again."

Jack smiled and told me, "No problem. It's nice helping to good guys for once." He then disappeared down the stairs. Beside me, Shun started to stir. His eyes opened slightly. "Alice?" he asked in a slurred and sleepy voice.

I told him, "Yeah, it's me. Go on back to sleep." He shut his eyes and nodded, then was out again. I pulled up a chair and sat down next to the examination table, and fell asleep by Shun.

one more day till freedom! FREEDOM! -runs with sparklers and cheers- o.o oh...people are watching me running like an idiot. time to go hide. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~