Dark Space

Chapter Ten; The World After Death

I began to slowly awaken. I felt a sharp pain in my side as I raised my head off the pillow. I was in a bed back in our community. I was inside the factory, where, I didn't know, but I found Corey, Darcie, Andrew, Jeffrey and Jake in the room with me.

"There he is" Corey said, rushing over to me, dropping to his knees at the bedside,

"Hey" I said groggily.

"Well, I must say, I have never seen anyone heal as fast as you" Andrew said, commenting on the extremely fast healing factor implanted in me by the military.

"Well, I was born like that. It's not exactly a skill" I chuckled, getting a shooting pain in my side as I propped myself up on one elbow.

"You've been out for a couple of days, but the wound is almost healed completely. We're not sure, but the pain should be gone in a couple of days and you should be on your feet in no time at all" Jeffrey chimed into the conversation.

"That's good. did you guys get the weapons?" I asked. Andrew nodded.

"Over a hundred guns and at least seven new melee weapons. Over ten thousand bullets, assorted to the weapons, of course" he said with a proud grin that quickly faded, "I'm terribly sorry about your friend. Violet was an amazing young woman whose light shall be greatly missed around here" he stated. I was really hoping I dreamed that part of the mission, but Violet would have been happy that our mission was a success.

"Thank you" I said, pushing myself to my feet.

"Ah, see? No time at all" Jeffrey chimed in once again. I shot him a look as if to say 'seriously, man?' as I took a step forward and almost collapsed to my knees as they buckled under my weight. Corey and Andrew caught me.

"Maybe you should take it slow" Darcie said. I forced myself to stand again and felt fine.

"I'm good" I said with a sigh and a slight grin. Within minutes, I was walking as if I'd never been injured. I guess people like me were built to heal quickly from these types of things. I went outside and found Carter working with some people on hand to hand combat. I walked over and observed his teaching,

"You want to make sure your leg snaps back just before it comes into contact with the opponent, making for maximum force" Carter said, demonstrating his roundhouse on a dummy. The training dummy fell to the floor with a hard bump.

"That was good" I called out. Carter jumped out of his skin, as if he were hearing a ghost.

"Glad to see you back on your feet" Carter smiled. "I would have said 'Back in the land of the living', but I'm not sure that's what this is anymore" he chuckled, walking up to me, shaking my hand and then giving me a tight embrace. I pulled away from him,

"So, how long has this been going on?" I asked. Carter gave a shrug,

"Two days. Violet was going to teach them, but since you taught me everything I know, I thought I'd do it instead" Carter said, his expression becoming more and more grim throughout the sentence. I nodded with understanding.

"MASON!" I heard from my right. I turned my head and found Abbie running toward me with outstretched arms and a broad grin. She embraced me tightly and pulled away with a sharp jerk,

"Hey" I chuckled,

"Sorry" Abbie said happily, "I just couldn't wait to do that" she smiled at me.

"Glad to see you're okay" a voice came from behind me. I turned around and found someone stood behind me, that I never thought I'd see. He stood, staring at me with his blonde hair falling into his chocolatey brown eyes. My heart almost stopped.