5 Winterlen

130727

19:02

D A Y 2 7 2 2 S.P

D A Y 1 1 3 2 S.A

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There's no doubt about it, not a second thought about where I'm being kept. I'm back at the Barricade, they've got me. Did those strangers give me up to them? It wouldn't be surprising, I would've officially gotten a bounty on my head the second I ran through the drain. 'How long has it been' I try to think slowly, but at the sound of my voice I seem to have accidentally spoken out loud. There's a two second silence before three voices of men erupt into the room I'm in. My eyes crane open only slightly enough to reveal a tiny slit-like view of the bright room surrounding me, and two big figures of men who stare down at me, and another thinner figure sticking his head out of the sliding door leading to a corridor. He's calling out for a doctor.

"You've been out for six days, kid," a tall man, with a big muscly man but built like a triangle. His voice is horsey, and he has a thick Kageane accent, definitely from the islands west of Arilla. Which is south of Denom-Hills. His tone isn't hostile, but kind. His skin is dark, and had an unusual amount of hair on his thick toned arms that stick out of his musty green T-shirt, forcing his short sleeves to roll up to his shoulders that stick out about thirty centimetres on each side. My eyes don't have the strength to gaze up at his face. All men from the Barricade look the same, an ugly smirk and wrinkles cheeks. Constantly smiling at the pain they cause to their slaves.

"Don't worry about owing us any medical supplies, we have enough, also you've barely eaten since you got here. You woke up for about ten minutes and Andre here had to feed you before you knocked out again," his large arm nudges towards the familiar figure I met in the birch wood forest. Things like this are usually said in settlements to make the person feel secure. Others are usually irritated and say that they are required to owe them in work for using up their supplies. Andre, his outfit hasn't changed since then but his hair is in a different style. Braids about twenty centimetres in length made with dark fake hair cover his cheeks, but his stare hasn't changed. It's still as curious as it was when he and his friend, Luka who is the man who's returned from sticking his head out the door, spotted me because his trigger happy friend got scared. I haven't seen these three at the mansion, Bullet doesn't like to have new guards and men, he is never curtain about loyalty within newcomers who may have empathy for the slaves.

Light footsteps approach the sliding door, and a lightly tanned hand with long fingers grips the side of the door and a thin, tall woman with long brown curly hair that sits just below her shoulders enters the room. Her face is long and her cheekbones high, and her voice dominant and clear. "Good, you're awake."

"Who are you?" The three men shift around in their spots, almost offended that I spoke to the lady before them. They give each other a glare and the man with the accent grins to himself.

"I'm Tiffany, people kind of refer to me as the leader of this place."

She's dressed in an aqua coloured blouse and long baggy cargo pants that are a dark grey-ish-green colour. She has on a long white coat that sits still almost as if it were solid or frozen in the air. Her pockets seem full of pens and she has on a blue medical mask that wraps around on ear and hangs down her neck. All four of them have masks. The Kagaene lets his sit just under his nose, and the other two familiar faces have theirs tucked under their chin.

"This place?" This can't be Barricade.

"Winterlen," Andre speaks, his arms folded over themselves in front of his chest." A feeling of relief brushes over me, I can feel my throat choke up in joy and my heart beat quickly. I'm excited, but quickly I pull myself together as this means I'm in Denom. I'm back home. I can feel my eyes burn and I make eye contact with Andre. His stare hasn't changed.

The lady asks me a series of questions, about my weight, height and allergies. Luka leaves for a moment and comes back with a white paper place that has a ham and cheese sandwich placed in the centre and cut into rectangles. He nods at me and hands it over, I move my hand up to grab it but the room goes silent. My breathing halts and I can feel my heart stop. My chest hurts, I can't breathe. "Where is my hand?" I stutter, I can't say anything anymore, I'm speechless. My back breaks out into a cold sweat and I realise I've been dressed in a hospital gown. That means someone touched me. I try not to have the thought but I can't help it, I'm making it worse. I can't breathe, is this really not the Barricade? I can feel my head beat furiously like it did in the forest, and in an uncountable amount of times while I was at Bullet's mansion.

The Kagaene stares in worry, Luka raises his hands up trying to figure out what to do next, his own breathing increases as he looks over to the lady for answers holding the plate. The lady doctor tilts her head towards me, giving me a curious side eye and she forms a thin line with her lips. I can't see Andre. I don't look at anyone, just the crinkled white thin sheet pulled over my cold legs, and my feet poke up like two white hills at the end of the bed. I use my other hand to clench hard at the white fabric I wear and I rub my chest trying to calm down. But how did I get changed? I don't remember anyone feeding me or getting here.

I hear the same light footsteps approach my side, her hand signals for the three men to exit, but they are stopped by another male figure standing outside the sliding door. "Oh, Ang?" I can hear little snippets of what the Kagaene says, "…Freaking out… Her hand is gone… Do you know her?"

"Why is my hand gone?" My lip quivers at the doctor who now stare down sympathetically at me, my eyes dart all across the room. Irrationally believing I might actually be able to find it somewhere, on a counter or in a box or something. My eyes land on the end of Andre's sleeve, as he is the last to leave. "What happened?!" I shout, pointing to him as he leaves. Finally the doctor responds in sight of my agitation.

"You were found by the elite team, west of one of Two's many entrances near an abandoned town. Ringtonvile it was called. Beautiful forest over there." My eyes can't leave her face, I try to search from some answer in her expression. How is she so calm? She is a doctor, she has to be. "It was reported by the boys that you bumped into them during daylight of all times, why were you out at that time anyway?" There are no windows in this room, so I can't tell what time it is. "It's seven, our day starts now," she states almost as if she knew what I was thinking.

"You need to answer my question," I say, my voice breaking and I realise another figure has entered the room without me knowing. I try to lock my gaze on the lady called Tiffany but the man in the right of my peripheral vision makes me nervous. He has on a long grey thick jacket that is covered in pockets, and black jeans of some sort. The hood of the jacket is up, and a maroon colours baseball cap sticks out the top. A mask covering his face. I'm afraid that if I give him even a millisecond of my attention I might recognise him.

"One of the newer kids in training shot it off with a rifle," his voice fills the room, he also sounds calm but a bit more direct and threatening compared to Tiffany. I finally glance at him. His tall and strongly built figure. His skin is just a bit darker than mine and it only took one look into his dark brown eyes to know exactly who the man that I'm staring at is.

Tiffany is quiet, slightly irritated in my bothers sudden comment, almost as if she wanted to have some sort of dramatic build up to announcing that that whiney trigger happy kid, had actually blown off my hand. "Holey shit Angel," The horrid feeling in my chest stops, but I can feel the hint of a migraine about to begin. Why so soon, did I have to see him? I knew being in Demon-Hills again meant I'd run into him at least once, and he's here in Winterlen. Tiffany tilts her head in curiosity, at my brother.

"Your sister? So you weren't crazy," she laughs.

"Are you saying I wouldn't know what my own sister would look like, it's only been three years," He says. Something in that statement offended me, my poor heart dips again and I feel a tinge of anger rise within me, nothing I haven't prepared for. Except for some reason I can't get over this feeling, right now.

"Only three years?" I repeat.

"You act like that wasn't enough?" He questions, voice a bit enlightened at my response and a tiny bit amused. My anger flares up a bit more. But only a bit.

"Unlike your little dandy life here in a nice settlement east of home, a lot has happened to me in 'just. Three. Years." His eyebrows furrow, almost as if he had forgotten there's a whole bunch of walking monsters wondering the world and that the sun can turn us into one. Like he had forgotten that we've have to force ourselves to be nocturnal and that there's still a virus that makes kills us from the pandemic four years ago still going around. Almost like he had forgotten me being kidnapped, and separated from him back home. "You stopped searching for me," I say, I didn't ask him. I knew he would've stopped. In fact being in that ugly mansion in the middle of another whole entire fucking state, really made me forget I even had a family outside the barb-wired fences and guards.

He pulls down his mask and stares at me seriously, "What does that mean? You have no idea what any of us have gone through. Don't be selfish."

"Selfish!?" I shout. It turns out the three men haven't actually left yet, as my shouting has uncovered their position outside of the sliding door. "You're the one who has no idea!"

"Okay, so this reunion isn't working out," Tiffany cuts in, her tone more angered than before. "Ang I'll need you to leave for a moment, I'll send her out after I'm finished with her."

"When will that be?" He asks, more angered now.

"When I feel like it, now go." She says a bit louder, directing it to the three perched outside as well as my brother.

I can hear my breathing now, it's the only sound in the room now that my brother has left and the three aren't eavesdropping. I slouch over a bit more, I feel more comfortable being alone with a woman than my brother, let alone three men.

"I understand," she finally says breaking the silence.

I snap, "How could you possibly understand."

"You talk when you sleep." My breathing hitches for a second and I think about all of the possible things I could've accidentally shared when passed out, I could've said a lot of things.

"What did you hear?" She picks up the plate with food on it that Luka left behind, and proceeds to pass it to me again encouraging me to eat. I reach for it again with my… fucked up hand. I take a big deep breath before taking it with my other hand. "It's really gone. What the fuck." Something I would've never thought could be real until it only happened to me. And it did. My right hand of all things. I thought I would've at least gotten my left hand, this wouldn't be as inconvenient then but I notice bandages wrapped around my left hand.

"Your left took some damage, but the scaring will heal. Your right hand copped the real damage. Hands up right in front of a rife not even a meter away from you," she processes the information said out loud. We could've save it." I snap my head towards her, eyebrows furrowed in question.

"Then why didn't you?!" I feel more sad then angered, my brother was the one who really pissed me off.

"It was reported that you collapsed right after the gun was shot. The ringing and shock would've done that. It got infected, from the ground I mean. Athena got you up though."

I give her a look, asking who Athena was. "Ang's… your brother's girlfriend." She corrects herself. The anger within me grew a little bigger, but so did the curiosity within me. He really stopped looking for me and got a girlfriend? "We don't have the medical equipment to stop the infection, or supplies. So we took it off. If it stayed you would've been left with only a pinkie finger and thumb. So I would prefer you to have this, than that." I pinch my lips together, fair enough. I've decided not to further think about my brother's love life until needed be, right now I'm starving.

She continues to ask me questions, but more about me as a person. "You said a lot has happened during these last three years?" I nod. "Ang told me you were taken by thieves." The topic just makes me angry, no matter who talks about it. The fact that he stopped looking for me, disturbs me. Can I rely on him if I end up being here longer? I never planned where I'd go after the Barricade, escaping and the events after that. Why was he talking about it to people?

"He never stopped," she says suddenly, something I don't want to hear. But the friendly reminder that I'm currently speaking to the leader of Winterlen right now, tells me to cool it down with the attitude. I'm safe right now. No one is going to get me right now, in this room, I'm safe. "You don't need to tell me anything that happened to you, although you may have a little bit with the whispering these last few nights. I may run things around here but I don't judge." The most human thing I've heard in three years. Heck, in seven years if I decide to include the four years spent in isolation. Running a whole settlement requires someone to think normally, make human and inhumane decisions, especially in this kind of world.

I thank her, and she takes the empty plate off of me and places it behind her on a counter that's stacked with shelves on top of its marble-like surface. "Your brother has been working all week to make something for that hand of yours," ticking off the last few things on her checklist noted to her side, stuff probably about me health and wellbeing, and makes her way towards the sliding door. This time I can't hear anyone standing on the other side. "You're free to leave whenever you please, that includes Four, but let me know now or when you decide to so I can send you off with the essentials." How can someone be so kind hearted in a world like this, I want to cry but my eyes refuse to betray me? She waits for a second, before understanding my silence. She exits the room with the door open allowing me to see the hallway outside, and the large rectangle shaped window facing the outside. The thick curtains are drawn, and outside are more buildings, smoke from fires made in barrels to help warm up others and light up more the area outside. Lights are on and surround a makeshift garden with people tending to them and resting their backs up again the wall. Although from the sight of the night sky and trees spreading out beyond the walls build around Winterlen, I seem to be high up on the first or second floor. A tall and enforced gate to the outside is built to the right of the garden, and to the right of the garden I see the corner of the wall, moving straight down behind this building probably towards more residents. I can see the slight structure of a tall guard tower levelled with the window, to the left of the garden, build specifically into the corner of the giant concrete wall. There's a single lantern hanging off of the edge of the veranda sticking out of the little room, where a single man rests on watch of any movement outside of the walls and near the gate to the right. He is surrounded by glass windows that he can see out of and is given the option to walk out on the man-made veranda-like walkway that surround the little room he is sat in, to get a good glimpse of all four sides of his tower. He probably would get up and down from a ladder or something. The roof isn't pointed like a typical tower roof would be, but instead is made by four thick layered concreted slabs that ensure that no light once-so-ever can make it through any cracks or halls made within it. Ensure that a guard with a gun can be in the tower at all times, even during the day. I guess the outside bit where they can walk around and guard is really used during the night when it's dark, it's only around seven o-clock meaning he has time to wonder around when he wants to, making sure no intruders or even monsters come into contact with the man-made walls and gate. Four, Winterlen is really just a giant box.