A Savage Life
Chapter 32

I wake up not to carnage, as I was expecting, but silence. I can’t move, so all I can do is scream, and scream I do. I try shaking my body while I’m at, fearing the worse. I just know that Officer Greysing is just around the corner, snickering like a loon. My frozen body is in pain, my ears waterlogged, my vision, fuzzy. When they clear, I hear footsteps. I scream even later, attempting to shake my body. Then a hand clasps over my mouth and shushes me. “It’s me, Augustus Twarne.” the hand’s voice tells me. I hear a button being pressed, then was sounds like the bed decompressing. This time I’m able to flex my fingers and sit up and look around. When I sit up, I gritted with pain, and I fall back onto the bed. Augustus and Damien rush to catch me, but fail. Go Figure. I grunt in pain as I slam against the mattress.

“Where am I?” I say when I recollect myself.

“My secret infirmary.” Augustus explains.

I look at him. His face was swollen with a big bruise on his cheek. He must not of changed his clothes after the fight because his flannel t-shirt was slightly charred, showing his busted and bruised arms. He had a wrap on the other. His pants were ripped, showing another bandage on his knee. I get a good look at Damien, who’s shirtless body showed a large slash across his gut. The bandaging was welted with blood, some still dripping from him. I was beginning to fear that I’d have to watch his intestines spill from him in an instant. I look around the room, which was decorated with memorabilia from multiple timelines. And I’d recognize a Star Trek poster anywhere. The floor was wooden and covered in dirt. A stockpile of alcohol laid beside a mirror coated in dust, aging. But I didn’t dare look at myself in the mirror across the room.

I look to another side and find an inhabited bed. Some creature is beside me in critical condition with a breathing tube in its mouth. Its body was large with a hump on its back covered in moss, vines and tiny, exotic flowers. It was flipped on its stomach with a harsh light beating down on it while it slept. Several closed eyes were on its head, flat teeth were in its mouth. It was pale, with fine white hairs on its skin. Purple and red blood were still oozing from its covered wounds.

“Don’t fear Readoldd,” I’m told. “He’s like that naturally.”

“Why?” I ask.

“His human shape wore out so he went with himself and well... he’s recovering, just like you.” Augustus explains.

I’m sorry.” I say.

“For what?” Augustus says like I’ve got a gun waved to his face. Apparently it’s a mortal sin to apologize in the future.

“For this mess I brought you.” I reply.

“This has happened before, and it’ll happen again,” Augustus waves away. “You’re no different.”

It’s happened before? Wait! What? How long has this been going on? I give out a little moan because I’m hurting so bad I can’t even think.

A loud bang happens, seemingly below my feet, and I feel compelled to scream out, “What is that?”

“The others who survived are in separate spaces designed to fit their needs,” Augustus explains. “And since the only jungles found are in textbooks, I can’t give Readoldd what he needs. Nor can I give him a frigid temperature without him being eaten by the others recuperating in a permafrosted environment, which is probably what’s happening right now.”

He rushes down a secret hatch under my bed and is gone. Meanwhile, a brand new face is brought to me by Damien.

A happy little girl arrives to my bedside in a flash. I’m so happy Sasha is unscaved. Her cat-like eyes stare at me with the insignia of innocence. She has no idea that I’m an inch away from death. I’m used to the feeling, but it’s different when there’s a kid around. I don’t like her seeing Damien or Readoldd in the condition they’re in.

Sasha smiles at me with sharp teeth and squeaks, “Mr. Twarne gave me this.” She puts a stuffed horse in my hands, the fuzz making me feel human with its softness. “Maybe she can make you feel better. Her name is Pretty.” And I just about cry. My hand moves to her pink hair and I pet it with a smile.

“She’s been asking for you for the past hour and a half.” Damien announces.

I give Damien a smile. For once he’s calm and collected, and Sasha’s little self is safe, and playing around like a normal four year old.

When Readoldd suddenly awakes from his slumber, he rolls out of bed and looks around frantically. He lets out a wail and starts looking for a way out, that is until Sasha shows up and screams his name before running up to him and engulfing him in a hug. It’s hard to believe such a cutie evolved from Readoldd’s monstrous form. Readoldd stares at her and wraps his long arms around her whilst looking around the room and growling at the wind. Damien throws himself in front of me, his body kicking my bed into a wall, and drum roll please, knocking it over and spilling me into the floor. I’m shaking with pain. Of course, little did I know, I was on the door and it was pounding as Augustus banged on it, his voice booming loud enough it could’ve deafened the world. I couldn’t move at all. Instead I lay there as limp as a dead body, and roll like a loosed tire into the bed rails once Augustus slams the door wide open.

I don’t make a peep through my smashed lips and nose welded to the wooden door. Instead, I listened to Augustus shout, his voice laden with both the offensive and defensive, then hear it soothe Sasha’s startled cries, and Damien’s voice asking him who he was, and then who he was. Typical. It wasn’t long before a headcount was taken in the room, and I wasn’t anywhere around. I heard a deep voice speak in a weird language, then Augustus reply, “Oh!” And soon I was found behind the trap door and was picked up by Augustus as Readoldd put my bed back in place. Augustus then handed me to Readoldd as Augustus fixed my bed, spouting out voice commands, and giving information to its hard drive.

Soon I was set back onto the bed, everything suited to what I’d need to heal, and my accomplices gathered around me, even Damien, who looked at me as if I had just laid an omelet. Augustus breathed to me, “Now you sleep.” Then he placed a soft, white, finger-length patch on my head, and soon I was drifting off into the most peaceful sleep I’ve ever had.

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