I woke up breathing harshly with tears running down my face. I grasped the white sheets on my bunk as I struggled to gain my composure. My dream had seemed so real, yet was so hazy at the same time. I had been when I was just a young child and was being pulled away from my mother, I remember crying out for her but all the details were foggy. I couldn't remember what she looked like, only that she had hair like mine. I choked out a sob as my test got tight. It had been years since I had dreamed of my her.

The sound of my bedroom door buzzing open distracted me, and I calmed slightly at the sight of my father.

"Collette, are you alright?" he asked as he moved to sit on my bed. I nodded my head but my red cheeks and puffy eyes gave me away.

"Bad dreams again?" he asked as he pulled me closer and moved my coppery brown hair out of my face. It was such a stark contrast to my fathers dark brown hair, and one of the only traits I had inherited from my mother.

"It was about mother," I confessed. His arms tensed around me, but he didn't pull away.

"Do you remember much about her?" he asked almost cautionary, and seemed slightly relieved when I shook my head no.

"It will be okay Collette, it's just us, but everything is going to be okay," he tried to reassure me. "I know things are hard, but it's going to be alright."

Things were hard on the Arc, especially with only one parent. Father had a high up position on the council which helped secure enough food rations for the both of us, but it also meant he spent a large amount of time away. It left a lot of the house chores to fall on my shoulders and cooking, coupon budgeting and managing a home were not things they taught in class. But somehow we managed alright.

"Everything will work out," he repeated reassuringly in my ear. "We have each other, and that's all we'll ever need alright?"

I nodded before I laid back down, repeating what he had told me in my head

"We'll always have each other."

My eyes shot open and I was quickly reminded that life on the Arc was a quickly fading memory. I scoffed at my dream as I sat up on the cot I had claimed and stretched out my aching muscles. What a joke, after that night my father had become increasingly distant and more swept up in his work, but it wasn't until he sentenced me to be floated himself years later that the lie really hit home. We never had each other, we were both always alone. And now, stuck in a hostile village I had the same feeling resonating in my gut. I was surrounded by people, but yet still very alone.

A loud snore broke me out of my thoughts … okay so maybe not so alone. The noise was coming from Lucas who had claimed a cot close to mine. He was sleeping soundly and he almost looked cute as he cuddled his face into his hands.

He deserves the rest, I thought to myself as I finally stood up. I found myself wishing I had paid better attention to all the details from the day before when we had discussed arrangements with the forest people - as they called themselves. They had a word for themselves in their own language but after several botched attempts they settled for letting us call them the forest or tree people, similar to how the referred to us as the sky people. But at some point we had discussed living arrangements and I was hoping that meant we would be able to set up a tent soon, preferably somewhere above ground. Even the Arc had more windows than this bunker did.

Pushing the thought aside I made my way to the table in the middle. I grabbed a water canteen and a granola bar of sorts and began eating quietly. It wasn't until I turned around and noticed all three of my patients staring longingly at my food that I realized that none of them had eaten in days.

Crap. I save them from life threatening wounds only to kill them from starvation.

I grabbed a few more granola bars from the table, it wouldn't be very substantial but it should help hold them over until I can find them real food.

I handed the one with the red tattoos, Jaxon I reminded myself, a bar first. He grabbed it gently from my hand but said nothing as he worked on trying to open the metallic wrapper. The youngest, whose name I still hadn't learned was more eager and practically ripped the bar from my hands.

For a moment I just stood by his cot and watched as he struggled to open the wrapper. I assumed that most of the food they ate was natural and didn't typically come pre-packaged by his struggle. I laughed slightly which caused him to stop and glare at me.

I put my hand out and nodded to the granola bar, "give it here, I'll show you how to open it."

He looked almost offended and I had to bite back another laugh.

"Come on now, just let me show you how to open it," I told him, my hand still in front of him expectantly. "It's not a big deal."

He snapped back something at me in his own language before returning to fighting with the wrapper.

"Fine don't eat then" I growled back at him. See if I care.

"Penn, just give it to her," Nyko commanded from the side.

So that was his name. I made a mental note to remember it.

Penn huffed in annoyance before thrusting the bar back at me. Finally.

"Jax couldn't figure it out either," Penn pointed out, in English, still pouting in his bed. Jaxon turned his attention back to us, glaring at Penn for being called out. But true enough, his bar remained unopened too.

"You have to open them like this," I said, demonstrating on how to pull the two foil tabs apart at the top. Watching me carefully Jaxon looked back to the wrapper still in his hands and opened it the way I had just shown them, he smirked slightly when he was able to reveal the crunchy golden bar beneath it. Happy with his progress, I handed Penn back the package I had just opened and moved to give Nyko his. All three men instantly started devouring the two bars.

Guess I should move finding food for them up higher on my priority list. But it would still have to come after checking over their wounds. With all the excitement I hadn't had a chance to change any of their bandages yet. Going over my options in my head I decided to start with Nyko's burns, he was the most amicable of the three.

As I moved back over to his cot after gathering what was left of the ointment and some fresh bandages I knelt beside him.

"I want to take a look at your injuries and change the bandages real quick," I explained, as if my supplies next to me didn't make my objective clear. He only nodded once as he brushed the crumbs from the granola bar off his bare chest. I blushed. I had conveniently forgotten to notice that all three of my patients were stripped down to bare minimum and were very much conditioned to their environment until just now.

Trying not to think about their state of dress, or rather undress, I carefully started to peel back the bandages on Nyko's arms. The burns were healing quickly thanks to the ointment I had found in one of the medical kits. Almost all of his skin had repaired itself and only faint red marks remained on his arms. Nyko pulled his arm away from me to look at it himself.

"It healed far faster than it should have. How did you do this?" he asked puzzled.

"Modern medicine?" I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. He just grunted and returned his arm to the side of the cot. I reapplied ointment to the damaged areas are rewrapped both arms and his upper chest.

"Not much longer and you should be good to go Nyko," I told him as I put his dirty bandages in a pile underneath the table. "I can't detect any nerve damage so you should have full use of your hands and arms."

When he didn't respond I turned my attention to the other two men. This time I opted for Jaxon. Save the worst for last I suppose. Maybe Lucas would be up by then and I could have him change Penn's bandages. It was kind of a cop-out but damn did Penn's attitude get on my nerves sometimes.

With another bundle of fresh bandages and a disinfectant rub in tow I made my way over to his cot.

"Are you feeling better?" I aske him, unsure if he would even respond to me. Other than a few nods and sharp comments to Penn, he had remained relatively quiet. Unsurprisingly that trend continued. I went to rest my hand on his forehead but he jerked his head away from me leaving his hair in my hands instead. His hair was long as well, but unlike Nyko's seemed to be brushed semi-regularly. It was cut in a way that a few boys on the Arc had styled theirs in rebellion, shaved completely on the sides with a strip running down the top of his head in a mohawk style, but his was longer in the back. It suited him.

"I need to see if you still have a fever," I told him, moving my hand back slightly. He slowly turned his head back to me, his grey eyes piercing mine. No one back home had eyes like his.

I moved my hand towards his forehead so I wouldn't spook him again. Warm, but not startlingly high. That was good. I smiled down at him.

"Your fever is going down, that's really good. You should be feeling better," I told him. "I just need to change your bandages and then I'll leave you alone."

I had him lay down again, trying to distract myself again from his shirtless form by going over what I needed to do in my head. It was only half working. Unwrapping his bandages only made things worse. I had dated back on the Arc but none of my boyfriends ever looked like these guys. Focus Cole!

I changed his bandages, noting that they still looked clean and were healing as expected. I was putting pressure around one the wounds on his ribs as I wrapped it when a hand gripped my shoulder from behind. Startled I pressed harder than I mean to on Jaxon's wound causing him to wince as I jumped and turned slightly. The quick movement left me sitting on the edge of Jaxon's cot pressed against him. I let out the breath I never realized I had been holding in as I realized it was just Lucas.

"Jesus Lucas, give a girl some warning next time," I told him as I calmed my racing heart. For a moment I had thought it was one of the warriors from before who were guarding us, perhaps the one with nails in his gloves again.

"Sorry Cole," Lucas apologized, rubbing his hand behind his head bashfully. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

I was going to tell him that it was alright when I felt a hand grab my arm that was keeping me balanced on the cot. Turning, my face immediately flushed. I was still putting my weight on Jaxon's chest which I knew couldn't be comfortable for him. I quickly pulled my arm back, his hand sliding from my forearm down to my hand as I moved.

"I'm sorry," I apologized to him, but he ignored me and continued to glare over my shoulder at Lucas.

"Uh sorry," Lucas said unsure of what was happening. "How are they doing?"

"Good, good," I responded, rising to my feet. "I've checked on Nyko and Jaxon, would you mind going over Penn's wounds for me?"

Please say yes, I prayed silently.

"Uh yeah, of course," he said. "But uh, which one is Penn?"

I sighed and pointed to the youngest in the middle who was looking on unimpressed. I quickly told him the others names.

"So you're the one who spoke up for us, they told us you voted in our favor at the tribune," Lucas said as he turned to Nyko.

I had been hesitant to bring that up, unsure of his motives but apparently Lucas didn't share my concerns.

Penn looked over in surprise but I noticed that Jaxon remained interested.

"Yes," was Nyko's curt response.

"Why?" Lucas countered.

I sighed. Men and their egos, did it even matter why? Things could have gone very differently if he hadn't spoke up for us.

"I think what Lucas meant to say was thank you," I added, sparing a long glance at Lucas. Nyko just grunted but said nothing else.

"Speaking of all of us getting along," I said a bit sarcastically, Penn's snort of laughter was not lost on me. "When are we setting everyone up?"

Lucas just shrugged as he moved to unbandage Penn.

"Indra and the others said they would start relocating some of our people this morning. After you fell asleep last night she let me go to where they were holding them and explain what was happening," he explained.

"Hm, how did that go?" I asked. I wonder if they're scared. I think it would be difficult to not know what was happening, but then again, I was involved in everything that was happening and it was just as hard. I guess there wasn't going to be anything easy about this.

"Not bad overall, they had a lot of questions but I think we got everything resolved. They are going to be placed with their equivalents here," he replied.

That should work. Again I found me cursing myself for not paying better attention yesterday.

"There were," his voice got quieter, as he paused. "A few questions about Rain."

The flashbacks of his blood flowing freely from his body came back to me, but I quickly shook my head to clear my mind. I couldn't keep dwelling on that.

"It's hard to believe we've already lost someone," I said absent mindedly.

"Three," was Lucas' only response as he looked up at me sadly.

Three? It took me a moment to piece together what he meant.

"The guard from the first day who was speared, Rain and another one of the guards was killed when they were questioning them," he explained.

Three people. Three people in the span of nearly three days. Not great odds statistically.

"Oh."

"Yeah," he said.

"We should actually be moving out of here today too," he added, changing the subject.

The thought of getting out of the bunker made me excited. It would be nice to live above ground, I had only get to see such a small glimpse of the Earth.

"Do you know when?" I asked curiously.

"Will now do?" A voice asked from the doorway. I turned to see Indra standing there. I shouldn't be surprised, she has the best timing. Quiet as a mouse too. I just nodded my head in response.

"Are they well enough to leave?" she asked, motioning to the three men still situated comfortably in their bed. Penn spoke up but Indra kept her gaze set on me. Thinking everything over I responded.

"Yes. Nyko and Jaxon will probably be a little stiff and slow moving for a few more days, but as long as they change their bandages or come to see me or Lucas, they could probably leave. Penn just needs to not strain his shoulder for another week and he'll be fine as well."

"Very good," she said before saying something to the others in their language. "Grab what you need for today and follow me."

What would I need? I grabbed one of the backpacks and shoved some general supplies into it quickly. I put one of the med kits into my bag as well, it was one of the emptier ones but still had basic first aid supplies. It would be good if something happened and we couldn't get back to the bunker. I also reached behind me and unclipped the knife on my pants and put it into the front pocket of the backpack. If anything happened it wouldn't do me much good against these guys anyways.

Turning I saw that Lucas was ready by the door with a backpack of his own. I looked back to the three men we had been treating to see all of them in the process of standing up or stretching muscles that had been inactive for days. I almost wanted to say goodbye to them, but who was I kidding this wasn't going to be the last of them - I was sure of it. The way they all watched me walk out assured me of it.

Author note here: Apologies for the long delay between updates! I travelled over the holidays and the place I was staying didn't have internet access! (the audacity) Thankfully I am somewhere now that does and will be returning to a fairly normal schedule shortly so expect more regular updates!

Thank you to everyone who has followed/favorited/reviewed this story it really does make me very excited. Please, please, please continue to do so!