Don't Look Back! Part 2

Chapter Nine: Goodbye, Lucy!

It took several soldiers to drag Luke off his sister and out of the arena. All the while he screamed and kicked the men, but they held him too tight to escape. With tears in his eyes he had to watch as Dr Paige stood still upon the bridge, jack beside her watching as Lucy coughed up blood and her head dropped to the side.

Glass shattered upon the impact of the chair and Luke stood in the middle of the room, his fists before him, screaming from the bottom of his lungs so loud, the scream alone could have broken any glass around. Pacing up and down the room, he kicked the wall, the door, chairs, anything in his reach to relieve his anger and frustration.

Over three hours they had locked him into the room and through the broken glass he saw that behind it waited just another room with steel doors like the one he had been locked in. The cameras in the corners followed his every move as he jumped through the window, tried to open the door with his key card and punched the cold metal, his fist cracking and bleeding as he did so.

At last Dr Paige and a nurse entered who took care of Luke's hand. Broken, the metacarpal of his middle finger sticking out through his skin, the sterile bandage did not help much, but until he was brought into the operating theatre, it did help to keep bacteria away from the wound.

Meanwhile, Jack had remained on the bridge, indifferent about the event below until Dr Paige had left the bridge and finally gave the order for the girl to be taken away. On a stretcher, the soldiers brought her into a separated facility where a doctor in dark clothes had a look at the girl.

Her shallow breathing pushed more blood out of her lungs, dripping it over her lips and onto her shirt that had, from below coloured green and above in red and brown as the blood dried.

Jack stood still, like a good soldier, beside the table,not leaving the girl's side as Dr Paige had commanded him.

The doctor before him noted down all the visible injuries, pressed a stethoscope to her lungs and nodded as he wrote down the terminology and continued his inspection. With all the injuries documented, he stepped over to a telephone at the wall and dialled a number. It rang for a moment.

"Yes?" Dr Paige answered in a calm tone.

The clipboard in hand, the doctor took a deep breath. "She won't make it. Too great a blood loss, and a cracked skull, probably brain damage. Shall we try to help, or leave her?"

Dr Paige tapped her foot on the ground in her office, starring at the monitor on which she could see Thomas being cared for as well as Agatha and the others, all carried out of the arena and back to their dormitory to receive their new status. "leave her, we have enough good choices"

With those words she hung up and turned to another, broader monitor on the wall on which she observed Stephen and a handful more trainees, cheering as their new tasks came in. Leaning back in her chair, Dr Paige sighed, took a pen and crossed Lucy off the list. A short list with only seven names on them, most boys, and now, one more girl remaining. Theresa.

Jack turned to Lucy on the table, her breaths rattling as she spit up more blood. His stiff demeanor changed as soon as the doctor had turned his back to him. Lucy, hey, stay with me, okay. Please. I need you here. He brushed off the tear that rolled over his cheek and composed himself when the doctor gave him a half hearted smile.

"No can do. Orders are orders"

"We're letting her die?" Jack eyed the doctor as he jotted something down, took a sample of Lucy's blood and headed to the nearest door. "Why?"

"Not worth the effort. We need the supplies"

The eyes on Lucy, Jack held his breath. "And now what?"

"We'll come back later, get her body disposed off and move on to the next subject" He gestured at the door in front of which waited two soldiers to escort them back onto the main level of the building. "Let's go, I don't have all day"

Jack followed the orders, his heart aching at the sight of Lucy's chest no longer moving. Her eyes gazed to the side where her brother had stood, but stared into nothing, no one there to comfort her, to take care of her. Just a cold, dark room lost and alone. Jack shivered at the thought of her dying by herself, but he followed the soldiers back to the main level and helped reform the arena for the future tasks the new groups had to master.