Alex Rider: Broken

Chapter 3

"What do you guys think happen to him?" Eagle asked quietly as they waited in Alex's ward for him to wake up. "Don't know. He looks... Broken." Wolf said quietly, worried for the fifth member of his unit. "He gave up... He gave up before we came." Fox whispered.
Alex heard the beeps of a heart monitor and people murmuring in the room. What happened came flooding back to him. Yassen held him and pressed the gun to his back. Before Yassen pulled the trigger, he whispered,"I'm sorry Alex."
Alex opened his heavy eyelids and squinted as the bright lights and white walls blinded him slightly. "Hey. How are you feeling?" Eagle asked quietly. Alex looked at him. "I guess he doesn't want to talk..."
"Not after what he have been through."
The door of his room opened. The head and deputy head of MI6. They knew he was here but they ignored his signal. "Hey Alex." Mrs. Jones greeted. The only greeting she received was Alex staring at her with dead, broken eyes. She flinched. "Alex." Mr. Blunt said. Sensing that Alex wasn't gonna talk, Mr. Blunt continued," We're gonna send you to Beacons Brecon for protection." Alex blinked once, telling them he understood and they left.
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"Sir!" K-unit said and stood at attention. Alex stood at attention too but he didn't open his mouth. The sarge seem to notice. "He's been like this since we rescued him, sir." Wolf said sadly. The sarge nodded, he saw that the child is broken. The sarge, Tyler, always had a soft spot for Alex. "Here's you schedule Cub." Tyler said as gentle as he could but not showing k-unit that he is slightly mollycoddling Alex. Alex took it, nodding his thanks.
Alex went to his evaluation. First was the assault course, he was flying through it. "Wow..." The instructor whispered. "You got 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Better than the best timing held by Wolf, k-unit-"
"He's in our unit sir." Wolf said. "Impressive." Burst of shock and outrage came from the soldiers watching. "Hey. Hey. Hey! He did it that means he should earn some respect!" The instructor exclaimed. "Did you bribe the sargeant? If not now the hell did you get into SAS, kid?"
"Where's your parents? Did they abandoned you?"
"Uh, sir, can we move on? Cub need to finish his evaluations." Wolf asked. "So his name is cub huh. Sure... What happened to him?" The instructor asked Fox, after Alex had moved away. "We don't know. He was like this when we rescued him." The instructor nodded. Alex went to the hand-to-hand evaluation. He smashed everyone. He even went against the instructors. "So good. Who trained you kid?"
"He would have said classified." Eagle chirped. "Then why isn't he?" The instructor asked. "He was like this when we rescued him. Never utter a sound." they nodded, thoughtfully. Alex was at the shooting range. His finger twitched but he wouldn't reach for the gun. "Cub? Right? Do you know how to shoot?" The instructor asked. Alex nodded. "Come on, kid. Pick up the gun. Afraid you would kill someone?" A soldier taunted. Alex picked up the gun and reassembled it then raised it up to shoot without aiming. It'll be off for sure.
Alex went to collect his target. He gave it to the instructor. "Wow... That's incredible!"
"What? What? What?" Eagle asked. "He got it, dead centre, into the same hole! He didn't even pause to aim!"
"Wow. Cubbie. Impressive." Eagle said, applauding. At language, they didn't know how Alex was gonna cope. A few instructor and Tyler came to see. They knew Alex wouldn't even breathe a sound. What's he gonna do? Alex grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled something on it before turning it around for k-unit, the instructors and Tyler to see. He wrote, do you do sign language? The language instructor nodded and started asking questions, Alex is just temporarily mute but he's not deaf! Alex did a few gestures back to answer his questions. "Impressive. But I guess for your other languages you'll have to do a written one. Why wouldn't you talk, kid?" The instructor asked as he handed papers to Alex to write on for the other languages. Alex kept quiet.
During lunch, the instructors and Tyler sat on a table beside K-unit to observe Alex. Alex was skinny as hell. You can see the bones in his arms. Alex stared at the food. He frowned at it and pushed it around with his fork. Alex didn't have any appetite. He's anorexic, remember? Alex pushed the plate away and stared at the ring on his thumb. He played with it. Why isn't he eating? It isn't that bad... The ladies in the kitchen who found him handsome even made him something that is actually appealing.
"Why aren't you eating, Cub?" Tyler asked. Cub did a few gestures to the language instructor. "He said he has no appetite." But he was working the whole morning, why wouldn't he be hungry?