He leads me through the front doors of all things. Smashed to smithereens, save for the sad scratched golden frames, barely hanging onto the hinges. Inside was just as defaced; wallpaper torn in uneven shreds and graffiti on almost all surfaces. The front desk that would have been the server with the key-cards and shit was now reduced to target practice with what I would guess have been a mallet with the cracks and hunks of marble and dust scattered on the floor around it.

He steers us down into a giant function room, the chairs and tables strewn about like a maze causing us to dodge passed objects as to not trip on them. It was set for war. I watch Blondie take to jumping over a side like a hurdle, putting distance between us. My brow furrows at his sudden tactics but still manage to easily catch up by side stepping the bends.

“Really good on your feet! You could probably outrun even me,” he chuckles, I had to concentrate to hear what he said, the rain almost taking out any noise. As I step in time with him we make it to a pair of double doors into a blacked out kitchen. We swing the doors open with a crash and begin to half jog down one of the three aisles, he pulls up suddenly in front of me, giving barely anytime to put on the brakes before smashing into his back. Looking passed him I see that there are two girls, roughly my age carrying a large pot between them looking back just as startled as I felt.

“Whoops,” Blondies smirk is really starting to piss me off. One of the girls pushes forward while the other shrinks back. Blondie takes to sliding over one of the long tables into another aisle, leaving me alone with the girl charging forward while picking up a used large knife, ready to run me through. My reflexes allow me to shirk back to the side and follow Blondie over the bench and down to the other side, only to come face to face with the other frightened girl. Stepping away from her, I see that the others from Dark Sol and Bass’s group were beginning to pour in from the doors.

“Where you going, Horror?” Bass’s taunting voice drips in as he appears in the doorway. At closer quarters I was able to confirm that he was definitely the boy from before, riding on top of a police car.

“Love to stay and chat. Talk about the good old times…but I’m afraid I have an appointment to keep.” Blondie backs up to the doors on the far side of the restaurant-kitchen before disappearing into the darkness behind them. I shuffle quickly passed the girl, falling through to the other side, coming face to face with pitch black darkness.

I realise that we are in an underground carpark and drop-off zone for produce and such that was needed to keep the motel functioning. Taking a swift footed turn towards a hard to see ramp down, I could tell that Blondie knew exactly where he was going, and Bass and half the neighbourhood were still hot on our heels.

“Can’t run forever!” Bass was starting to gain speed on the both of us as we were starting to tire. My breath was lagging and splintered in my rib cage and I could see that Blondie was starting to show similar signs of exhaustion. But he still moved towards what I see was a half open heavy metal roller door.

“Been successful so far,” Blondie mutters beside me.

“Not so fast!” A girl roars for behind us. I turn to see a remote in her hand and something clicked in my brain to full-throttle it. Speeding passed Blondie, I see the door starting to go down. They had somehow managed to find a power source to remotely control the door. Just as I saw the slimmer of freedom getting smaller and smaller, I almost reach it, only to have my feet tripped and I tumble to the ground, grazing everything on the way down. When I look up, I see the Cheshire grin on the bastard’s face as he just makes it through the closing gap, “Sorry kitty. Entertain them for a while, won’t you?” and he was gone. Leaving me here dazed with the pack of wolves on this side of the door.

I knew following him would bite me in the ass.

---

I didn’t fight them when they put me into their makeshift jail which was really a gas cylinder cage. My hands were tied behind my back as I sit cross-legged on the hard cold ground in my cage. It was large enough for me to stage and walk in a cramped circle, just like an enclosure in a zoo. Looking up, I see lots of eyes watching me wearily like I was going to break through the wire.

Sighing, I go back to thinking about what I should do now. From watching them all carefully I figured an older girl with dirty blonde hair tightly pulled back into a pony tailwith an overly superior expression and body-language and how she relayed orders, was the leader of this ‘Dark Sol’. Overhearing a muffled conversation between her and Bass, I figured out that they were waiting for Skull to return and make a decision as to what to do with me.

I felt this rather stretched out judgement rather tedious to be honest. If they were going to kill me then they should get it over with.

While on the verge of falling asleep, I’m jolted awake by loud crashing on the roller door from the outside, followed by a distressed, “Hey!”

Some of the tribespeople moved to open the damned door, opening up to a darkened and wet outside with two people carrying a slummed drenched mass between them. They quickly drag it down, out of the cold and the rain and into the pale limited light.

Between all the bodies forming around them and loud chatter and panicked whispers, I could catch a glance of the form on the floor. It was a person. They were alive. Breathing laboured even in their sleep. I move to get a better look and notice that not all of the liquid drenching them was water. A dark mass had formed around their left thigh. One of the boys had lost his shirt and I noticed it was wrapped ightly around the injured one’s leg. There is a lot of blood. Too much blood for it to stop by natural clotting.

“Moon! What do we do?” One of the boys who had carried the injured one in looked up at the leader in a panic. “It won’t stop.”

She looked on, her brain not able to connect to her mouth for her to relay orders from the shock she was going into.

I stand, looking closer to assess them. The boy takes off his shirt and wraps it around it as tightly as possible. They are wasting too much time. Another boy had pulled off his shirt to wrap around the wound again and apply more pressure.

That won’t work.

I mentally sigh. I can’t believe I’m about to do this. “Stop!” I shout my growl, stunning them all and had all of them refocused on me. “It’s too late for that. You have raided a hospital or vet before right?”

“What would-”

“Have you?” I snap, cutting Bass off, staring straight at ‘Moon’.

Moon stares at me for a moment, registering what I had just said before blinking and opening her mouth, “Yes but-”

“I’ll need water, thread, a suture needle. Alcohol. Anything.”

I could see them all still stuck in their spots, “Move it! I can stitch the wound closed but if you don’t hurry, he will go into shock and die from blood loss.”

Some of the girls move towards the kitchen, disappearing behind the doors. I then glare at Moon, “Untie me.”

She didn’t move.

“I can help.”

“How can we trust you?”

“That’s your choice.”

She hesitates again before coming over to the cage and unlocking the chains and padlocks they had wrapped around the lock for extra security. She threw open the doors and I turn around and feel her cutting at the rope with a hidden knife.

“Any funny business and you’re dead,” she snarls as I gain my numbing hands back.

Rubbing my raw wrists, I ignore her and go straight for the bleeding body on the ground to get a better look. He was unconscious. I look up again to see the girls bringing an open first aid box. When they place it down beside me, I look at the two boys closest to me, “Hold him,” and I get to work.

I reach for a scalpel and rip away the shirts to reveal the gash. Checking the wound, I could see that it was almost to the bone. I reach for the water bottle and empty it completely onto the gash, cleaning it out until the bottle was empty. Chucking it aside, I reach for the bottle of ethanol and pour it over the wound. I then put the thread through the eye of the needle and begin stitching him up as quickly as possible, in case he wakes up at the wrong time. Even with two people holding him down.

“You know how to do this…” Bass says almost amazed.

I remain silent, trying to concentrate until I tie the last suture and cut the thread. I douse the stitched up flesh in alcohol and wrap it up in a clean bandage that was in the first-aid kit. Done, I step back while looking down at my hands that are covered in blood and grab a cloth to clean up myself. “Move him to a bed and make sure he doesn’t move around too much. If he wakes, try and find some strong pain medication to give him. Codeine or anodyne would be best.”

I look up to see a majority of stunned faces while some move him away.

“How did you…?” Moon manages to say.

“Simple first-aid,” I shrug. How they’ve managed to survive this long if something as simple as a cut has them in a panic, is more the question. “You may want to make sure that he doesn’t go into haemorrhagic shock…if he does, your best bet is hitting him up with dopamine and some fluids. Preferably intravenous.”

They still stare at me like I spoke in a foreign language.

“Are you a doctor?” I could recognise Pac’s voice anywhere.

“How many seventeen year old doctors do you know?” I ask, rather sarcastically. But then I decided to properly answer “…My mum’s a vet. I’ve helped with a few things growing up. I also read. Surprising what you find in books.”

Bass took a step closer, “How do you know Horror?”

“I don’t.” I could assume he meant Blondie.

“Then what were you doing with him?”

“Being chased.” I felt the need to answer stupidly to the assault of stupid questions.

“Thank you for helping us,” Moon intercepted Bass before he went to charge me.

I look back at her and nod, tearing my eyes away from him. Chucking the cloth on the floor with the rest of the torn up bloody shirts, I see the crowd of people quickly part, letting who I could image was ‘Skull’ through.

A guy about my age walks on in. A commanding air reverberates around him with every step closer he takes towards us. Bass’s eyes lower for a second, like an animal showing their surrendered obedience but when he looked up again, his eyes held complete trust in them.

Interesting.

Moon on the other hand was a mix of begrudging allowance of him even being in the same room and hidden want. Something that she was too prideful to admit that she felt the pull of magnetism that this boy exude from every pour in his body.

He was something. I’ll admit. Sinew peaked from under his shirt in underlying tones. He was strength but not overly obvious. He was speed. He could also down a pack of girls with a grin. He was authority, He was trouble. I immediately frown, my hands missing my knife and looked over to the first aid kit, the scalpel was still within reach. He may be able to overpower me easily but I still think I have speed on him. Maybe.

Should I resist now, defend myself, I may take a few down with me but I will lose. If I give into their demands, I’ll lose my freedom…or my life. But that isn’t worth much in this current world.

I’m stuck in a stalemate, unsure of what path I should take with the two options in front of me. Both ending in unwanted conclusions. But I lack the motivation or energy for the first. So that left me with the latter; wait.