Chapter 23: Savior

2226 Words
I grab my knife and jump up to my feet, completely forgetting about the leg pain. "Who's there?" I yell, ready to jab anyone who approaches. Koben wakes up, instantly alarmed.  "What happened?" "Shh," I maniacally scan our surroundings. "Someone's here," I whisper. He gets up in a second, looking for the intruder. But no one's there. The only sound I hear is our breathing and gentle rustling of wind passing through the leaves. "I come in peace," an unfamiliar voice suddenly cuts the silence. My eyes grow big as a man steps out from behind a tree, his arms lifted. It's a rogue. Weak moonlight shines on him, but even in the dark I see this man looks sick. The skin on his arms is of different textures. Some of it looks peeled of, some raised with open sores, other parts falling out. His face looks unhealthy as well. His right eye seems to be barely functioning, the left one almost completely gone.  "Are you okay?" Koben asks. I'm wondering the same. He nods weakly, finally lowering his arms. "Now I am." "You don't look so well," it had to be said. "You a rogue?" He smiles proudly "I guess I am," lifting his chin. There's something wonderfully weird about him. I feel an urge to help him. "When's the last time you ate?" I ask, already thinking about where I could find phigees the easiest at this hour. He stretches his freckled lips as if imagining a taste of food. "I had a pear this morning. I've tried... many glorious things these last couple of days." A newbie. I frown. "There're no pear trees around here." "No," he shakes his head. "No trees." He's acting weird. "Where did you escape from?"  His face becomes grim for the first time as he struggles with words. "Block One."  Koben and I exchange glances.  "We've never met someone from Block One before." "It's not far from here..." he shivers looking to the South. "Come sit," I invite him, "we'll make something to eat," I look at Koben as his cue to go catch a phigee. "Phigees sleep around tree beds, close to the surface," I instruct him. "I don't know," he says in a low tone, "Leaving you here with a stranger..." he shakes his head. "Go," I command, already piling on twigs to light a fire. I don't care about attracting attention anymore. Now I want to know all there is about Block One. Koben looks at the rogue once more, then hesitantly leaves. "Sit," I smile, gesturing to the seating place I've made. He finally obliges. "What happened to your arms?" I ask nonchalantly, still gathering twigs. He looks at his arms as if surprised by my question. As if he didn't notice there was anything wrong.  "Oh," he smiles at last, "you don't have any," he looks at my skin in awe.  I shake my head in confusion. "It's just a lot of first batches," he waves his hand. "A lot of what?" I frown, stopping everything that I was doing. "My cage was the third from the wall," he says as if that's supposed to mean something. "I-I'm not following..." "Ah, they didn't keep you in cages?" I shake my head. "We've just escaped NPS," I point at the direction of the most recent block I've escaped from. He suddenly crawls away a little, like a scared kitten. "Quira said prisoners aren't allowed out," he suddenly starts hugging himself, shaking his head. "She said I was safe here." "You are," I try to touch his arm to soothe him, but I only worsen the situation. He starts shouting, covering his ears. "No more t*****e! No t*****e! No! No!" "Calm down!" I grab his shoulders. "You gotta be quiet!" I whisper. "Shh!" Koben runs back, almost attacking him.  "What happened? What did he do?" "Don't touch him!" I whisper, panicked. "He thinks we'll hurt him." "No more... please... please, nooo!" All of a sudden, a woman comes running towards us.  I pull up my knife, steady... But she runs up to the crying rogue, not even paying attention to us.  "It's okay," she hugs him. "Calm down... No one's gonna hurt you... you're not in there anymore. You're free. You're free." He finally acknowledges her. "They're going to kill me, Quira," he weeps. "I don't want to die... I don't-" "Hey!" She yells at him now. "Stop crying or you know what's gonna happen!" He stops crying instantly. "No, please... I'm not gonna cry. Don't tie me up, please, no..." "I won't," she says without feelings, "if you be a good boy and cooperate." He nods, now crying silently. "I will be good. I'll be good," he relaxes his body, bringing it closer to her, as if taught to do that. The woman finally looks at us. "I'm sorry about him," she shakes her head. "He was patient 101," he says it like it's supposed to mean something to us. "I'm Quira, by the way. I used to work for Block One." I think I literally forgot how to speak.  All I can do is stand here and look at them in complete shock. I guess Koben feels the same as no words come out his mouth, either. "Where do you come from?" she asks, still rubbing the guy to soothe him. "Uh- we, uh, we're from KTL," I say, not wanting to mention the prison. It might freak her out as well. She looks us up and down. "You look healthy enough. They treatin' you well there?" The reference for the wellness of out treatment has just gone haywire, so... "I- I don't know." "I'm Koben," he finally joins in the conversation. "And this is Kayla. We got into some trouble with the prisoners from NPS, so we're hiding out here till the morning." "Oh," she nods judgmentally, "I see. We left Block One just a few days ago. I went to go get some food and told him to sit still, but he obviously didn't listen," she gives him an admonishing look and his eyes immediately glue to the sand.  "Did you do this to his arms?" The words just escape my mouth. But I need to know. I need to know this to decide how I will address her.  She looks at his arms as if she needed to check. Then she nods. "Some of it." My nostrils flare and my body must have leaned forward 'cause now Koben holds me from behind. "Why?!" I ask, furious. She shakes her head as if it was silly of me to even ask. "He was a patient." "Was he sick? Did you accidentally do this?" She scoffs. "Like I said, he was a patient. I was one of the biologists back in One. We had to do experiments on them. It was his bad luck to receive most of the undeveloped drugs and trials." "Bad luck? You performed experiments on him." "To help humanity," she looks upset. "It's not like we enjoy doing these tests. But tests have to be done. It's what they're bred for. It's not like we steal people from their lives. They've been specially bred for the lab." Something in me screams. I feel an unstoppable urge to shove this woman's face down against the sand until she can't breathe.  "Excuse me?" I twist my neck, "Bred for the lab?"  "Yes. Just like others... breed animals the same way. To serve humanity. It's not like they steal people's pets! Nobody will miss or mourn lab specimens..." "So you think that makes it okay?! Of course we would mourn them if we knew their stories!" I can't control myself anymore. So I don't. I let myself loose, run towards her, then close my hands around her neck. "Red!" Koben calls. But I don't listen. "You... are everything wrong with this world!" The woman coughs, her hands now on mine, trying to free herself. Then Koben wraps his hands around me and pulls me away. "Kayla! Kayla, please." Tears start falling down my cheeks. How can people be so senseless? So cruel? "I had to do it!" The woman now yells at me. "It was my job!" My eyes are wide open in rage. I can't listen to her anymore.  "Kayla, chill," Koben shakes me. "We can't attract attention." But I shake my head. "Look, he's fine now. He must be hungry. Don't you want to feed him? I caught some phigees," he says, pointing at a wooden stick behind him. On the stick there's three phigees. Other animals killed to serve humanity... At least those phigees didn't suffer. And they had some life in the Wild before being killed. I inhale deeply to gather myself.  I'll deal with the woman later. "Fine," I nod. "I'll light the fire." Koben goes to bring the phigees as I rub stones against each other. I eye Quira and patient 101, still enraged.  "How come you escaped the block with him?" Koben joins us around the fire.  "101 was one of the oldest patients there," Quira looks to the ground. "He had already lost sight on his right eye and most of his skin was ruined, so he wasn't useful to the block anymore. His number came up on the list," she looks at me. "I was supposed to euthanize him." 101 lays his hand over Quira's knee. "I just couldn't do it," she says, tears filling her eyes. "He was always so cooperative. And I saw he had a chance to recover. A shot at life." "So I decided to give it to him. On the day we were supposed to clean the cages and bring in new patients... when I checked out from work, I checked him out with me," she almost chuckles. "Dressed him in a lab attire and he walked out as a lab tech," she lays her hand over his.  "I don't regret it," she looks at me dead serious. "I may regret many things in my life, but not this one." I look at the cooking phigee meat. I don't know what to make of this. Has the woman earned her place at this feast? Am I qualified to judge? "We all do what we're told to, Kayla," she addresses me. "I'm sure you also had jobs at your block." I swallow hard. "We did." And now I wonder if I was doing anything to make someone else's life just as miserable as her patient's. Would I have done it if I was aware of it? I genuinely think I never could. But she seems remorseful. That must be enough for now, I decide.  "Do you have a name?" I suddenly ask. "I'm 101," he says in a perfectly normal manner. I nod painfully. "We all wear names assigned to us."  I even call Koben by his block name instead of his real one...  "What do you say we start a new chapter?" I look at patient 101. "We introduced ourselves wrong. I am not Kayla," I shake my head. "I am Gina. And this," I look at Koben, "is Bradley."  My eyes sparkle with newfound hope. "What would you like us to call you?" Patient 101 looks at Quira as if asking for permission. She nods, smiling. "I- I don't know any names," he stutters. "It can be anything," I say, trying to remember all the names of men I once met. Men dear to my heart. "Keet, Kent, Kevin, Kyle..." I swallow hard remembering my father's name, "George." "No," Quira looks at him. "A name should have a meaning." "How about... Salvatore?" she nods. "A savior. Because, 101... you might think it was me who saved you, but... in reality, it's you who saved me." He purses his lips like a little child. "I like Salvatore," he almost smiles. "Yeah?" Quira seems happy. "Alright, then," I clap once. "Salvatore it is." I then look at Koben. Koben, who's saved my life more than once. Who never stopped his quest for the better. He has a purpose in life. I never have. I never cared about anything that much. Until now. Now that I know that some suffer while others enjoy the good life - the people behind the Wall. That is not right. That is not just. And for the time in my life, I feel willing to sacrifice my freedom and my life for something - a search for justice. "I've made my decision," I tell him.  Koben's eyebrows come together. "I want to go East - I want to go behind the Wall." His full lips stretch in a smile now. He gives me one deep respectful nod. "Thank you." I nod back. "Yeah. We'll go over that Wall. And then," I look at Salvatore. "I'm gonna make them pay." Bradley, whom I still think of as Koben, looks at me in surprise, but I ignore him. "Do you wish to join us?" I look at Quira. The woman would make a good ally. Besides, she sure could use some soul-cleansing . "Do you want to head East and find out who it is that lives off of the backs of our miserable lives?" Quira exhanges glances with Salvatore, then looks back at me. "East?" she frowns. "I do live East."
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