The Runaways

Chapter 31: Cathlina

Trenton comes back into the room with a red bag.  A white plus sign is on one side of it.  The fabric of the bag has rips in it, allowing me to see some of the things spilling out of it.

          He sets the bag down next to me on the bed.  He opens it up and rummages through it.  He pulls out some gauze and a liquid, plus a pair of scissors.

          “This will hurt for a second,” he warns as he snips a small square of gauze off the roll.  He squirts a little bit of liquid onto the square.

          “Wait, what is that stuff?” I ask.

          He shrugs.  “I don’t know.  All I know is that it will make your shoulder feel better.  You need to take off your jacket.”

          I use my left hand to slip off the sleeves from my arms.  The knife had cut through my shirt.

          Trenton moves the fabric of my shirt to get a better look at my wound.  He lets out a breath of air.

          “Jedda really got you.  I’m gonna need a medic to take a look at this,” he says.

          “Can you at least cover it so I’m not scaring anyone?” I ask.

          He nods.  “Of course.”  He throws the little square away and grabs the roll of gauze.  He begins to wrap it, but stops.  “Um, I can’t do it over your sleeve.”

          I focus my eyes on my shirt sleeve.  He’s right.  I’ll have to move my sleeve off my shoulder enough so he can cover the cut.  Nothing too awkward.  I do that, and he covers the wound.

          As he does this, he keeps his eyes glued on the wound.  His face is slightly red, but he does what I asked.  He cuts the extra gauze off and gets up.  He motions for me to follow him out of the room.  He doesn’t look at me once.

I don’t recognize the medic Trenton takes me to.  She is definitely older than me, probably in her early twenties.  That’s probably why I don’t recognize her.  I am only in charge of people until they are eighteen.  After that, it’s their choice if they want to stay here to help, or if they want to have a normal life again.

          The woman standing in front of me has short hair of the same color as mine.  I can’t tell if her eyes are green, or light brown, or hazel.  She’s about the same height as me.  She smiles at me and motions for me to sit on a chair in her office.

          “So, you’re Cathlina, right?  You are in charge now?” she asks sweetly as I enter her office.

          I nod.  “Yeah.”

          “And you’re here because your shoulder has been injured.  What happened?” she continues to ask.

          I look back at Trenton, who is standing in the corner of the room.  He nods.

          “Well, earlier, Jedda came into my room.  And she demanded that I help her.  As soon as I answered the door, she stabbed me,” I tell the medic.

          Her eyes are frozen in shock.  “Jedda came here?  How did she get in?”

          I shrug with my good shoulder.  “Killed the kids by the entrance.  We haven’t found the bodies, but I know there were people out there when she attacked.”

          She purses her lips and says, “Oh.  I’m sorry.  I can help you with your shoulder, but I can’t do much about Jedda’s attacks.”

          I shake my head.  “It’s fine.  You don’t need to do anything about it.”

          She looks like she wants to say something about Jedda’s attacks, but she just says, “Your shoulder.  I’ll see what I can do about fixing it up.”

The medic puts some stuff on the wound and wraps it in the bandage again.  She says it should heal in a few days.

          Trenton and I leave her office.

          “I guess I’ll need to help with pretty much everything for a while until your shoulder is fixed,” Trenton says to me as we go back to his room.

          I shake my head.  “You don’t need to.  I can handle it by myself.  Just because my shoulder is messed up doesn’t mean you need to do everything for me.  I’m not helpless.”

          That may have come out more offensive than I intended.

          Luckily, Trenton doesn’t take it that way.  “I know.  You can’t do everything by yourself, though.  If you hurt your wound more, it’ll take longer to heal.”

          I say, “I know that.  You can help when I ask you to.  Like now, I need you to help with the cameras.”

          He smiles.  “I’ll help you.”

          I don’t know how he did all the wiring so quickly, but he had all four cameras up in less than ten minutes.  The monitor was set up and placed in my room so I can watch it.  I will need someone in there when I’m not, but at least now we have a little more protection.

          “Do you need help watching?” he asks me.

          “No.  I can handle it.  You go do something else.”

          He nods and leaves me by the doors to the cafeteria, right next to the ladder leading to outside.  If anyone comes, I’ll know.