As the adults of Sanctuary argue about what action to take, Nila stares through the blurry and scratched glass of the medical room, her arms crossed in thought. The boy lies on a bed, knocked out cold and high on painkillers as the medical team try to lodge the electrically modified bullet from out of his stomach. She watches as his chest rises and falls peacefully as the medical team fiddles with his insides with tiny tools. Luckily, the bullet managed to miss any of his major organs and ended up getting stuck in some muscle. Otherwise, this would've been fatal and the boy would have no chance of surviving if it were to puncture his liver and so on. A confused expression spreads across her face as she still doesn't know who's team to barrack on in this heated debate. She slowly turns around, letting out a big sigh before walking back to join the rest of the group.
Friday stands at the head of a cafeteria table which had been dragged over by Egghead. Egghead, Naite, Dimitri, Miss Dandra, Lucas and many other people they still haven't met yet sit on both sides of her. Nila groans as she rubs her temples softly, trying to diminish the growing headache forming in her head from the unrehearsed orchestra of people's voices as they try to get their opinions heard. Suddenly, Friday brings two slender fingers up to her mouth and whistles as hard and as loudly as she can to get the people's attention. Everyone turns their heads to the front and she shifts her weight on the spot uneasily until finally clearing her throat to speak.
"Now, since we are a generally peaceful society, we have only had meetings like this three times before. So I hope that you all read those booklets I gave you explaining the rules. I hope that we can do this in an orderly and polite manner. I'll list them briefly, no talking over each other, no rash actions until a decision has been made otherwise you will be punished, absolutely no violence and whatever solution has the most votes wins. Does everyone understand?"
Friday gains some nods and a few "yeses" which leaves her feeling satisfied, if only for a moment. "Alright then, let's begin," she says with a smile. But that smile disappears in a matter of seconds as everyone switches back to their old tactic of talking over each other. Friday growls in annoyance and clenches her fists as she's forced to stand up for the third time and she feverishly bangs her fist against the table.
"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!" she bellows and the crowd goes silent.
"I'm just sayin, this kid shows up all of a sudden from Eden with no escort, how do you know he wasn't sent here to scout us out? No one knows...well no one is supposed to know about our location but us. I say we fix his wound and kick him out!" Dimitri lectures, his hands open in the air as self defence as some people stare at him shooting daggers. If looks could kill, Dimitri would already be buried six feet under the ground.
He scoffs and glares back, but it is mostly directed at Miss Dandra, who has a burning hatred for Dimitri that outlives everyone else's here at Sanctuary. "Look, you guys just hate me because of my drinking but you all know that I'm right!" he remarks, pointing a thumb at his chest.
"Dimitri, he's just a child. What harm could he really do? Are you sure you're talking with your head or with your paranoia from Celestes death!" Miss Dandra spits at him.
Everyone gasps. No one's mentioned Celeste's passing since the day it happened and that was a whole year ago. She flings her head from side to side and her face immediately turns from angered to shocked. Miss Dandra looks at Dimitri pitifully as his lips wither and his eyes turn glossy. He either looks on the verge of hitting Miss Dandra or breaking down into a sob.
"Well that was uncalled for," Dimitri masks his hurt with a sly remark.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that...what I meant was..not everyone is evil," Miss Dandra mumbles meekly and sinks down into her chair, silently.
A man speaks up, "Well I agree with Dimitri. But don't even bother fixing his injury, just throw him back outside! Eden scum."
"Isn't that hypocritical. You were once an Edenial citizen before you were led here," says a woman.
"But I was in the working class. People in working class don't get immortality. From the info on his ID card, he's in middle class, a celebrity. Those disgusting middle class Edenians, always had something they wanted done by that DNA harvesting sh-"
"Language," interrupts Friday.
The man throws a glimpse in Friday's direction as he calms himself down. "Besides, he's a stranger who just so happened to end up on our doorstep. Isn't that suspicious?"
"Weren't Nila, Riley and myself strangers when we arrived at Sanctuary? For all you guys could've known, we could've been spies for Eden or something." Kaitlyn, being the sweet, caring girl she is butts in and there's a few strange looks thrown her way.
"Kaitlyn, sweety, that was different. We had info on you three and I came out to escort you here," says Friday.
Egghead stands up and crosses his arms in protest. "Now now, I know we all care deeply about our safety here but we aren't killers, right? We haven't even talked to the kid. I say that he's innocent until proven guilty. The boy will stay with us and can sleep in the abandoned room at the end of the hall. We'll all keep a close eye on him for two weeks. Think of it as a probation. All that agree with me say Ai."
After a prolonged pause, Naite is the first one to say agree. Then Lucas, then Kaitlyn followed by pretty much everyone else in the room. However, Nila doesn't say anything. But, she assumes, it doesn't matter, since it looks like Egghead's proposal has already won anyway. Nila glimpses over at Miss Dandra and Dimitri, who sit opposite each other, looking quite annoyed as they stare at each other defensively. Miss Dandra puts her hand up and mumbles, "Ai". Now all that's left is Dimitri. He chews the sides of his mouth and grumbles something imperceptible before finally saying, "Ai". Though, not as enthusiastically.
"It's settled then. Thank you for that, Jefferey," Friday throws a nod in Egghead's direction. "Now that everyone's voted, no one is to say a thing about this conference or lay a hand on that boy, understood? Not until we can prove he is guilty of endangering Sanctuary. Just make sure to be careful of what you say around him at all times. You can all leave now, dismissed," Friday's voice wavers as she rubs her eyes from exhaustion of the days events.
People eagerly exit the room to continue on with their daily chores, Nila was just about to head over to Riley and Kaitlyn, whom seem to be chatting about this mysterious newcomer until she heard the noisy creak of the medical team's surgery room being opened. Nila intrigued to get an up close view of the boy, twirls around in a flash to see a woman, still dressed up in a teal, blood splotched apron and hair net, carries an exhausted teenager in her arms.
"Move please," the lady instructs as Nila is in her way.
"Oh, sorry," she mumbles and steps aside but as she does so, she gets a glimpse of the boy when the woman turns a corner down a hallway. He seems to be in and out of consciousness, his eyelids shut tightly as he groans and turns his head from side to side. His feathery blonde hair looks like Nila's when she wakes up in the morning, an untameable birds nest on top of her head. Though, his old, blood soaked clothes have been replaced with a black cotton shirt and some shorts from Sanctuary and his skin doesn't look as white as snow as it did. He opens his eyes a tad bit in the direction where Nila is standing and realises, he's being watched. Nila stares and he opens his eyes fully, to stare back. There's no words, only an exchange of glances. His eyes are a rich brown, with the slightest hint of gold and for a moment, everything seems to pause. Until the woman carries him out of sight to the abandoned room down the hall.
Nila isn't too sure exactly on how to feel about the intruder but all she knows for sure is, something about this situation just doesn't feel right.
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After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION
Science Fiction"Humanity's pride and greed will be the death of us" In 2025 B.E.F that saying couldn't have been more than true. After a devastating nuclear explosion had scorched one side of the world, people were forced to leave their home planet to Mars. A few...
