Chapter 17 #4
Damien checked the door before stripping off his left boot and sock to reveal an old stretched-out wrap sloppily wound around his wrecked ankle. I ripped it off before placing his bare foot on my knee. It was swollen. I began wrapping it securely.
“How’s it feel?” I asked.
“Like shit. The walking always destroys it,” he admitted.
“You should be elevating it every night; there’s fluid,” I told him. “I have medicine for you, anti-inflammatory meds. It should help.”
I finished and helped him put his sock and boot back on. “Have you told anyone?”
“No.”
“Isla knows, right?”
“She knows.” Damien stood as I handed him four pills from the bottle.
“Take two now, and two in six hours or so. I’ll give you more tonight.
” I pulled on my pack. I almost knocked the pills from his hand.
He would find relief from his pain, but if he suffered an injury…
He not only had limited access to who could give him blood, but the medication would thin his blood. “Be careful out there, okay?”
“Thank you,” Damien said as he dry swallowed the two pills, pocketing the others. “For not telling them and wrapping it. It feels better already.” We both knew it was a lie, but I accepted it as I watched him try to believe it into existence.
We left Outpost Three. Isla, Ingrid, Rumi, and Patrick stood to the left while Levi and Hayes conversed.
Damien wished me luck as he joined his partner.
Tristian stood with his back to me, deep in conversation with Levi, who glanced my way. I approached them.
“I’ve got it,” Levi was saying. “You have my word.”
Tristian simply nodded as Levi clapped him on the shoulder. The others made their way toward us.
“Ready?” Levi asked me, hoisting the med bag onto his back.
I shrugged. “I’m here.”
“Resounding sentiment from our medic,” Ingrid huffed, adjusting her pack.
“All right, track how you get to your section and take a different way back,” Tristian told them. “Cover as much ground as you can. If you find something, radio. We all come back before sunset, no matter what. If someone gets hurt, radio Cadell.”
No one moved for a breath.
“Okay, be safe. I’ll see you all at sundown.”
“Let’s Lewis and Clark this shit.”
“Good luck.”
“Godspeed.”
“Be safe.”
Each pair broke away, heading in different directions. The wrongness of it ate at my insides.
We searched the entire day, coming up empty.
Levi led, occasionally dropping down, touching the ground, or holding up a fist, so I stopped.
Then we carried on as he asked me medical questions, whether for his own knowledge or to provide space for the constant reel of thoughts I carried, I didn’t know, but I was thankful.
Around midday I saw firsthand the traps they had mentioned.
Levi held up a hand and I stopped immediately. The ground fifteen feet in front of him was scorched as if burned and a large rock sat to the right of us with an X marked on it. “A trap. Unit Five discovered it a while back. We mark them once we find them.”
“What kind of trap?”
“Explosive.” He walked away from it, returning with a large rock. “Get back. I want to see if it goes off again.”
He waited until I stood a good ways back. He was still too close to it. “I’m going to throw it and run,” Levi told me. He didn’t give me time to protest. He chucked the rock and sprinted toward me. I tensed, but only the thud of the rock sounded.
“That was dramatic. Maybe the theory is—”
A large explosion shook the ground. One second we were both looking at the still earth—the next, I was sprawled over Levi, shielding him from the trap. Wide blue eyes met mine, disbelief there.
I had acted without a thought. Hadn’t considered the ramifications—the destruction and possible injury putting me in motion. His hands grabbed my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Are you?”
“Yeah.”
I rolled off of him as he got out a radio. “Cadell and Raven. Set off a trap. All fine. Repeat, all fine. No injury.”
I massaged my chest, my heart jittery and racing. Levi put a grounding hand on my knee. “What theory?” I asked, trying to ease the shake that had set in as the radio stayed silent.
“We originally thought once a trap detonated, it would then be null.”
“Clearly that isn’t the case.” The ground was still smoking.
“Obviously. They reset. I don’t know if the supplies are here, but someone went out of their way during the war to develop this area with traps. I want to know why. What was so important to protect this area this completely?”
“How are they being reset? Wouldn’t someone have facilitated that?”
Levi released my knee, standing. He held his hand out to me. I took it. “My guess is technology. But if that’s true, why is our technology inoperable? Something is definitely here. Let’s go.”
“But where is the technology? Nothing is here but dead trees,” I said, following Levi forward around the blast area. The land looked the same here as it had our entire journey. Gray, desolate, and barren.
Levi tapped the ground lightly with his boot as we carried on past the trap.
“It’s below us?” I asked.
“Yeah, we think there’s another series of tunnels beneath us.”
“Why here?”
“We don’t know if the low radiation was predicted or created,” Levi said. My mind spiraled at the thought.
“Wait. If someone had the technology to protect an area against radiation, why use it on supplies and not people?” I demanded.
“Maybe there are people below us here,” Levi mused.
“In tunnels? Like Haven?”
“It’s possible.”
“You don’t really think that, do you? Surely if someone was beneath us, they’d make contact.”
“Would they? Would you trust other humans? Do you even trust the ones in Haven?”
“No.”
Levi shrugged half-heartedly. “You want my full opinion?”
“Obviously.”
A crooked smile graced Levi’s face, highlighting his full mouth.
“People are horribly predictable. If the war taught us anything, it’s that we’re all greedy and self-serving about something.
Whoever hid the stuff knew this. Knew how we operated.
I think they wanted it only for themselves or for the people they deemed worthy. ”
“If you believe that, then why—” I stopped abruptly. I had been ready to ask why he wanted to help the greater good, as Tristian had stated, but then that would reveal that I had eavesdropped and stayed wrapped around Tristian knowingly. I couldn’t do that. “Why join the Force if you hate people?”
Levi rubbed his stubbled jaw. “I don’t hate people.”
I raised a brow at him.
“Not all people. Most though. Especially those who have power and abuse it. The world was shit before the war. Everyone hated each other. More concerned with how we were different than the fact that we were all human. Constantly judging instead of understanding.” Levi pulled out two paste packets, tossing me one.
His gaze remained locked on me as his smile disappeared completely. “I was happy when the war started.”
Shock must have shown on my face.
“Fucked-up, right?” Levi forced a laugh.
I remained quiet as he continued. “I had no family to lose in the war. I was a foster kid, in and out of the system. The type rich people had those benefits for, raised money and said they were helping, but not really doing anything. It made me angry. Everything made me angry. The people who brought me into this world were more concerned with drugs and booze than me. That fed my hatred. I spent every second ensuring I was kicked out of every placement home. The system spit me out and gave up. I was fine with it; hell, I expected it. I learned to survive on my own. I was content to watch the entire world burn.”
“What changed?” I asked hesitantly.
“I got drafted when the war started. My survival skills were viewed as an asset at basic. I excelled at their tests. I was sent to defend the very people I hated.”
“So the military changed it?”
Levi sighed. “That’s not what changed. I got assigned to the infantry and met a man.
Hell, we were still kids. Doesn’t matter, I met someone who didn’t try to make me less angry.
He accepted my anger; more than that, he made himself available when I needed to work off the unending energy.
Running obstacle courses, sparring, spending his downtime ensuring I was all right.
Had my back and covered for me when I caused problems. He stayed when I didn’t know how to stay for myself.
He saw something in me when I hated myself.
When everyone else left, he didn’t. Even when I gave him every reason to.
He had others’ backs and didn’t ask for anything in return.
I hated him in the beginning for it, that he didn’t let the shit the world threw at him knock him down. ”
Levi took a sip of water and handed it to me. I took it. I knew exactly who he was talking about.
“It took time—a lot of time, but he kept showing up. I realized my anger wasn’t as hard to hold when he stayed.
When I wasn’t alone. I had a family member—a brother—for the first time in my life.
There are people like him out there. Good people, despite what the world has thrown at them.
As long as there are people like him, I’ll fight,” Levi finished, and we carried on.
Silence found us. Sometime later, Levi finally broke it.
“You covered me earlier,” Levi stated plainly. “There was an explosion, and you shielded me.”
I couldn’t look at him as I answered, “I’ve seen enough death to last me a lifetime. I’d like to return you to the man in your story in one piece.”
“I appreciate the gesture, but next time don’t. You’re the medic. You have a chance of saving all of us. I’m just one person.” He glanced at the sky. “We should head back if we want to make it there by sundown.”
I didn’t bother telling him I couldn’t keep that promise. We headed back, Levi drilling me on medical knowledge again. He slowed as Outpost Three came into view in the distance.