Now, We Burn

Chapter 10 | Eliza

"Shut it," Thane ordered and Eliza stopped immediately. Tears streaked her face in embarrassing salty droplets. "If you can't fight, what else can you do? Why shouldn't I get rid of you?" he asked again.

"Why? You're not going to kill me," she said.

"I need to know how you can be useful. We cannot have any useless people here. What else can you do?"

With every sharp word, Eliza winced, but she answered him still. "I know basic nursing," she murmured, swallowing hard. Her heart still didn't descend from her throat. Thane raised his eyebrows in question.

"I thought you don't know anything," he said. It was more of a statement than a question.

"I don't, not really, but I do know some non-surgical procedures. I can handle sicknesses, which is more than you could probably do."

"Fair enough." Thane's features were still troubled, but he didn't act hostile in that moment. "You will be put to work as soon as the other one wakes up." Eliza nodded and wiped the wetness from her cheeks and eyes. When she looked up again, Pierce's hand was outstretched in front of her. Eliza pursed her lips before planting her palms on the ground and pushing herself up. She walked back into the other room, leaving Pierce behind.

She ran to Ember immediately, flopping on the ground beside her and closing her eyes. Eliza opened them and checked to make sure her sister was still breathing. She almost didn't notice that Hugo was still there, standing at attention, and she knew she didn't trust him, but she couldn't help her heavy eyelids drifting closed as she fell asleep.

_-^-_

Eliza stood in the doorway of the old, rubble filled room with her sister. It was cleaner than most of the places in the mall, but still broken enough to be dangerous.

People lay in small cots, row after row of gang members, young and old. Some coughed and sneezed and threw up in the small space beside them, others were obviously injured, with makeshift splints that were obviously not helping and bleeding body parts, but there weren't many of them.

"You'll be working here while your sister heals Eeros," Thane said to Eliza. "I want you to heal the ill people here." Eliza nodded in agreement and slapped on a straight face, even though she was frightened.

Thane turned to Ember. "Eeros is over there," he said, pointing to the far corner of the room. "You won't be alone, so don't even think about running, got it?"

Ember nodded, an angry expression on her face. When Thane walked away, she turned to Eliza and rolled her dark eyes. Eliza let out a huff and tried to smile comfortingly.

"Go," came Hugo's sharply accented tone from behind them. The girls immediately moved forward. Ember walked down the long rows of people until she got to the far left corner of the room, Hugo following her. They were now behind some kind of makeshift curtain, made out of rags and other things probably scrounged up from the remains of the mall. Eliza had stopped at the front of the room, and she peered around the corner to make sure nobody could see her before leaving the room without a sound.

Eliza walked casually through the mall, attempting to appear unsuspicious, while keeping her hair in front of her face, eyes cast downward. The last thing she needed right now was for Thane or someone to see her.

The men guarding the entrance to the store paid her no heed as she walked out of the mall dutifully as possible. After she was out of sight of the guards, Eliza ran through the woods behind the building, heading for her destination -- the hollow tree she had stuffed her backpack in the moment she had been left alone. She hoped and prayed that it hadn't been found.