Don't Look Back! Part 2

Chapter Seven: Group D

Upon awakening, her whole body ached. Cold hands held onto hers. The room, freezing, the air dry, much like her throat and eyes. Blinking repeatedly, Lucy had a look around. The black head of hair leaning against the bed, she recognised at once. "Luke" she cheered, her fingers pulling from his, she brushed over his hair. He felt cold, like the room. Fearing he might freeze, she took off her blanket and draped it over him.

A moment passed until Lucy gained full recollection of what had happened. Jack had persuaded her to try flying once again, this time however she had dropped from the ceiling, injuring herself in the fall. Dr Paige had sent Jack into Isolation for a day as punishment, and Lucy got to spend time with Luke, her brother, the one she had missed so very much. A glance at herself, Lucy spotted a few bruises along her leg, aching arms, and a slightly stiff neck as she had turned to look at her brother.

"Hey" Luke whispered, gazing up at her when he felt her move. "How are you feeling? You scared us for a second, you know?"

"I'm sorry, I'll be good" Lucy let out, still exhausted, "I promise"

With a shattering sound, the door to her room flew open and a Doctor entered, a chart in hand, followed by a nurse. "Hello, little one, are you feeling better?" He checked the vitals on the monitor next to the bed, checked some points off on his chart and gave the nurse and order that Lucy could not hear as she had returned her focus to Luke.

He looked different, more mature, although he had merely three years on her, he looked more like a teenager than a boy. Dressed in a uniform, the hair brushed back, even his smile had changed. It looked forced, controlled, as if he had not other choice than to smile, maybe hiding pain, or anger, she did not know. Neither did she care at the moment. After the nurse had given her some pills and a shot, Lucy got to leave with her brother. Following him through a long hallway to a purple door, Lucy halted.

"It's okay, consider it a promotion" Luke stated as he opened the door for her and led Lucy into a hall where more children had already gathered.

"Lu" Thomas ran up to them, gave her a big hug and grinned. "We're in Group D, can you believe that?"

"What does that mean?"

They want to train us Stephen sat on a chair at a massive oak table with a few others. His belongings in hand, he headed their way, the eyes on the guards at the doors. I heard them say we needed to be prepared.

For what? Lucy gazed at the guards as well, then at Stephen. He received a short hug, then her attention turned back to Luke.

"Just promise to do well, okay. The better you do the farther you rise"

"And then?" Thomas, Lucy and Stephen exchanged glances. "What are we gonna do?"

A click caught all of their attention and a hologram appeared in the middle of the hall, making a few kids jump aside to not stand in the middle of it. Dr Paige in full size stood in the middle of the room, her eyes swaying over the children's faces, inspecting their reactions as she spoke. "Welcome, children, to group D. You all might be wondering why you are here, well, let me tell you. Outside of our facility, the world has not become any better. Lack of resources, housing, we all need help. Your help-" she walked through the hall, in between children, silently counting them as she passed. "-your abilities. From now on, you will be trained to survive, to help. Each one of you has proven themselves to be capable of great things, and we want to help you achieve them, so you can help us create a better world, one we can not only survive, but live in. Therefore, you will be once more parted into small teams, learn to be independent, but reliable. You will be tested. Your strength, will, fear, trust, instinct. It is what keeps you alive, and what will keep your team save. Each guard has received a list of names. Please follow the guards to your new quarters, acquaint yourself with your new team members and prepare mentally for the future because your future is our future. Good luck, children" at the sound of the last word, the click implicated the end of the message, and the hologram vanished.

One by one, the guards called up the children. Teams of ten, boys and girls mixed, five of each until only a few children remained in the room. Stephen had been called within the first three groups. Lucy and Thomas on the other hand waited, and waited. When only ten children remained in the room, the guard stepped forward, smiled half-hearted, and proceeded to count the children once more to be sure. Counting eleven, his eyes fell onto Luke, who had placed his hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Young man, you do not belong, leave now"

Standing straight like a soldier, Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter which he promptly handed to the guard. After reading the letter, the guard nodded, turned to the rest of the children and did his expected work. "Alright, listen up. Today we will start with first aid, learn to help others in situations when they cannot help themselves. From tomorrow on, you will be confronted with tasks whose level of difficulty will rise with each day. By the end of the month I expect you all to be able to react accordingly in a bad situation"

The children listened, their eyes growing. Some whispered with one another, others stared at the ground.

Thomas stood close to Lucy, their shoulders touching as he turned his head. "If he gets any louder, the walls will start crushing down"

Giggling, Lucy leant closer to Thomas. "Sh, Tommy, don't say that, he might yell, and then the ceiling will fall"

Both grinned, eyeing one another until a sudden shadow before their faces pulled them back to reality. "What do we have here? Some volunteers. Good for you. Young lady, you can lie down, and you-" He grabbed Thomas by the shoulder and put him him the corner, face to the wall, "-stay here until we call you"

Several children proceeded to step closer around Lucy, watching as the guard pulled out a red marker, lifted Lucy's shirt up to her belly button and drew a line, following the outline of her pelvic bone. Then, his face close to hers, he gave her instructions and Lucy curled herself up, whimpering as if she'd been hurt. "Go on, young man, tell us how you would help your friend" The guard removed himself from the scene, pulled some of the children back to leave room for Thomas and waited.

Careful and calm, Thomas walked up to Lucy, searched her before touching for any wounds or indications for her pain, then asked if she was all right. As instructed, Lucy only pressed out a short it hurts while holding her stomach. As Thomas lifted her shirt, he noticed the red line. Like in trance, he pressed his hand on the line, gazed at the guard and told him to bring something to put on the wound.

While the guard brought a first aid kit, Thomas explained loudly how he would help Lucy, and after her stomach had been "bound and secured", Thomas let go of her and checked with the guard.

Impressed,  Thomas received a pat on the shoulder and one by one, the children had to go through scenarios where someone got hurt, they had to identify the wound and figure out what to do. If they got it wrong, the guard would tell them and other children got to help out.

At the end of the day, most children ran around with gauze around their arms, legs, heads or with red lines all over their skin as they found it rather amusing to draw on one another rather than to do the task they had been ordered to do.

The days that followed, Lucy and Thomas got to see little of Stephen. Although they kept contact by talking in their minds, the teams only got to meet once a month to review on their progress, exchange stories, and after six months of practising first aid, creating remedies and figuring out how to save someone from impractical locations, the teams had to participate in a tournament.