Blotted Out - LMS

So this started out as a science fiction type thing, and it still is, but leaning more on the side of a dystopian setting. (Real original, I know.) Basically, an experiment gone wrong wreaks havoc all across the U.S., causing a mysterious government-led group known as the "Silver League" to step in and take charge (and soon after, most adults begin to disappear along with important government officials). The twist? The dangerous experiment is a teenage girl with strange mechanical eyes. Main character, Maggie, and her brother Jonathon are taken on a trip to another group, who refer to themselves as the "Shadowed Elite" to escape the Silver League. The Shadowed Elite's goal is to discover what is happening the adults, and what the Silver League's real purpose is.

Dr. Ralphezon: Headed the Hunger-Expirament
Maggie: Teenage girl who really doesn't know what the heck is going on
Benjamin: Teenage boy who is loyal to the Shadowed Elite, but will make his own decisions if need be. Doctor and Burrow-Hole-Guarder
Martin: snow-cone flavor inventor, and senior member of the Shadowed Elite
Jonathon: Maggie's 6 year old brother who just so happens to be an expert at making and flying paper airplanes
Addilys: Leader of the Shadowed Elite. Rude, blunt, and overall cruel. She would die (and let others die) for the purpose and goals of the Shadowed Elite to be accomplished

Ben was waiting on our front steps when we made it back. Upon seeing us, he instantly jumped up. "Are you guys okay? What took so long?" He kept firing the questions all the way until I opened up the door.
"Yeah, and missing hoverboards." I hoped that would shut him up, but he followed us in.
"Where is Max then?"
"Addilys' place." I motioned for Jonny to go take a bath and turned around to Ben. Once I heard the bathroom door click, I looked him in the eye. "Can I ask you something? When you first got here, how long did it take you to adjust?"
He gave me a lopsided smile. "I'm still adjusting," he admitted. I groaned and swatted at him. "It gets easier though," he finished. "Hang in there dude - the sky gets bluer!" I hid my smile as he left. I was about to check to see if Jonny was finished when I heard another knock on the door. It was Ben. He swayed from side to side awkwardly.
"I forgot - I was supposed to ask you how your wounds were doing. Hands, arm, and forehead, at least." The doctor side of Ben shone through a bit. "If anything feels funny, Ella wanted you to come back for an examination." I frowned at him. "Head doctor," he explained.
"Arm doesn't really hurt at all, hands are completely fine, and forehead is healing." I said, starting to close the door.
"Oh, good!" Ben turned around again, and I fully shut it.
I took a long, cool shower after Jonny was done. After we were both dressed in new uniforms, we cleaned the house a bit.
"It's been a while since we've done this, hasn't it, Jonny?" Jonny answered with a stifled groan as he picked up trash from the living room.
"I don't miss this part of home too much," he laughed. "But," he added in a more serious tone, "if I had to do it to be with mommy again, I would."
"Me too," I whispered while throwing some laundry into a basket. All of the things I hated about Pan: Liff droning on about fashion, Mom's overprotection of Jonny, her forgetfullness, everything. I would deal with everything if I could just be at home.
Neither of us were hungry enough for lunch, so we ended up laying down for a nap. I was the first to wake up (nearly six hours later at around seven), to the knocking of our front door. I opened it up to see Martin, Ben and Nym on the other side. Martin held up a bag of food. "You guys up for dinner?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two turkey sandwhiches, homemade apple chips, and one glass of fresh lemonade later, Nym took Jonny out in the front yard to test some flashlights she had invented.
"So," Martin said, dabbing his mouth with a napkin. "Have you figured out anything else about that room?" My heart started its own acrobatic routine as I remembered the ordeal.
"Oh, you know about that...?" I smoothed the corners of my napkin out, embarassed. Ben sipped up the last of his lemonade.
"Belive me when I say everyone knows about your little, ordeal with the room," he said.
"Well, no," I admitted. "Quite frankly, I have had no intention of going back into that room since."
"You need to," Ben said.
"It would be the best way to get answers," Martin added. "Isn't that what you've always pestered me about?" I looked up from my napkin, offended, but saw the playful twinkle in his eye. It calmed my heart, mid-handstand, and reminded me of Pan.
"Fine. Shall we?" I stood up and walked back to the dreaded room. I put my hand on the knob, and turned it slowly. Everything was the same way I had left it when I had my freak-out the other night.
We started with the scrapbook.
"I've confirmed that the girl is me." I pointed to one of the pictures.
"Hey, you were really cute as a little kid!" He looked at me in mock horror. "What has time done to you, you poor child." I swatted him on the shoulder again and he put up his hands in defense.
"Yes," Martin said, undeterred from Ben's sarcastic comments. "The woman narrating is your mother, I presume, and this John is your father?"
"Yeah," I said slowly, "but mom said he died when Jonny and I were little." Martin waved my comment off.
"This could've been before that. Do you have any recollection of your father at all?" I shook my head. I hadn't rememberd my father, even in photographs. My mind snapped to Dr. Ralphezon and the white room.
"They were blotted out," I whispered.
"What?" Martin asked. Ben looked at me closely.
"They were both blotted out," I said louder. "My mom and dad. Jonny and I weren't."
"Well," Martin said, sitting down in the chair and leaning back. "Good news and bad news, then."
"What's the good news?"
"Your mom is safe and sound in the box. The Silver League probably already had gotten her by the time I had reached Jonathan at your house."
"And the bad news?"
He took of his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "We have no idea where your father might be."
"The box," Ben said," he's in the box if he isn't already dead yet."
"My dad was a doctor," I said, just now realizing it myself. "Dr. Ralphezon said that he was his colleague." I straightened up with new motivation. "We have to talk to him now."
"Dr. Ralphe-what?" Ben asked. I tried to leave, but Ben grabbed onto my shirt sleeve. "Where are you going? Addilys won't be accepting visitors at this hour!"
"What are we supposed to do then? Sit here like ducks waiting for morning? Finding all of this out could get us closer to finding them!" I pulled away from Ben.
"True," Martin noted, "but Maggie, you must remember in situations like these two things." His voice dropped to a whisper as he pulled Ben and I closer to him. "One, is that timing is everything. Two, is whom to trust." The door slammed shut as Nym and Jonny ran back in. Martin looked at the two of us once more. "Let's stop for the night," he said, adding a theatrical yawn. "These old bones are getting too tired to do much else in a night."
"It's lightnin'!" Jonny exclaimed. Nym nodded to us as we shut the door to the room behind us.
"Just received word to stay in the houses. Small electrical storm." Nym must have noticed my shocked look. "Nothing to worry about: they're tests from the center of the base. The electric is a little finicky though."
"We can have a sleepover," Johnny yelled. "And play games and tell scary stories!" I looked at Martin. We had the couch, a room with two beds, and a chair. That was barely enough room for the 5 of us.
"That's fine," he said. "I'm going to go ahead and go to bed though." He ruffled the hair on Jonny's head. "See you all tomorrow morning!"
The rest of us all grabbed extra blankets from a closet and built a fort in the living room. I hated to admit it, but all the childish playing was actually kind of fun - and Jonny was certainly enjoying himself. We all piled in under, and Nym handed us each a flashlight. A couple of scary (but not too scary) stories later, and we were already tucking Jonny into bed. He and I would share the couch, and Nym would take the chair.
The three of us went into the kitchen; Nym and I sat across from bed. None of us were tired yet, and we had run out of games to play.
"Hey," Nym said, looking at Ben. "How about Tunnel Stories?"
"What are Tunnel Stories," I asked. (Although I had already had an idea.)
"How you came to get here," she said. I nodded, trying to act cool. I honestly didn't want to remember any part of my terrible trip here. "Here, we'll go first. Ben, you tell it. You're a better storyteller than I am," she said.
"Alright," Ben whispered. "So Nym and I lived in the same village to begin with. We went to school together, and had kind of just hung out with each other just because we never had anything else to do. But anyway, one time we were in Algebra, I think, and these men just started bursting in through the doors, the windows, everywhere. They grabbed some people, and started dragging others. I knew whatever this was couldn't be good, so I ran out as fast as I could.
I didn't even think to find Nym, because people were throwing things, and being ridicoulous. I thought it was some attack on our school. I was originally heading for the back doors, because no one really goes back there, but Mr. Connor (he's our librarian), yanked me into the library right before.
At that point, I thought he had ripped my entire arm at my socket," Ben paused to laugh a bit. "But my arm was the least of my worries. He pushed back the bookcase to reveal a tunnel like thing shooting downwards into nothingness. He threw me a backpack and shoved me down. At first, it was terrifying; sliding on a tunnel of death, but then it was almost exhilirating as I neared the end." If Ben was scared of bringing up the old memories, he didn't show it.
"I waited at the bottom for hours. Finally, Nym was flying down right on top of me. Eventually we moved from that spot further along until we reached a sort of underground cave with a ladder to the top. With the help of the guard that was there, we made our way here."
I nodded at him. It was a scary story, but at least he had Nym to keep him company.
"I actually saw a Silvy the night I came through the tunnel. I had just reached Martin's shop. He sold snow cones for a living, and I was going to visit... But I ended up in the tunnel, and-" My skin prickled with fear as I rememberd the moist smooth walls that seemed to swallow my every breath.
Nym laid a hand on my shoulder. She must've noticed my look of pain as I relived the tunnel. "It's okay," she said, "we get it."
"Yeah," I said, my voice shakier than before. I stood up in a dazed rush. "I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you both in the morning." I forced my feet to move in the direction of the couch, and lied down. I was surprised to feel my sweaty skin in the dark. I slowed my breathing back down until all I could hear was the quiet muttering of Ben and Nym.
Finally, I fell asleep to their shushed whispers.

The next morning, Martin woke me up. I blinked in confusion at his bearded face; it was still pitch black outside. He held his index finger up to his mouth to quiet me, and motioned me to follow him. I crawled off of the couch, making sure not to wake Jonny. Martin had already slipped his shoes on and was on his way to the door. I followed his lead, slipping on a jacket of my own.

Once outside, I realized just how amazing home base looked at night. But never mind that, I told myself, Martin had to have called you out of the house for a reason. As if reading my mind, Martin turned to look at me.

"Maggie," he said cautiously, still walking ahead, "do you know that today marks the one fiftieth day we've all been here at camp?" I shook my head in awe.

"All I remember is a lot of training sessions and some raids." Two very scary raids, I wanted to add. Martin chuckled a bit at that.

"How do you like the Silvies, as you hip kids call them?" I started to laugh, thinking it was a joke. By the grim look on Martin's face, I knew it wasn't.

"Oh, you're serious," I muttered. What am I supposed to say, that I adore them? "They seem awfully keen on killing people like me, I guess." We had reached the base of camp, where the trees had cleared and all that was in front of us was a large mud and brick wall.

"Do you think they are particularly dangerous, Maggie?" He stopped and sat down, patting the grass next to him for me to sit. I eased my way down to the ground.

"Absolutely."

"Why?"

His question stopped me midthought. I never really thought why I had deemed them the scarier and more dangerous between the Shadowed Elite. "I guess cause they're adults? Keener, not as naive..." Martin tisked, leaning back against the smooth boundary.

"You know, the only thing they possibly could have on you is experience," he noted. "Do you have any idea how many Silvies are in the U.S.?"

"About a couple hundred," I tried.

"Try a couple thousand. I'm not trying to scare you with the facts, but the truth is, they out number us 2:1."

The bleak facts did scare me. "About how many are a part of the Shadowed Elite?"

"Well," Martin said, spacing out a little bit, as if looking at a computer through his own mind. "There are roughly a hundred traders, you know, people like Nym who trade for a living and make things for the use of Shadowed Elite. There are about thirty burrow holes, so about sixty guards, about fifteen doctors, and I'd say close to another two hundred who regularly go on raids. But altogether, counting those who can't really fight, I'd say we have about four hundred people."

"How many of those are children?" I asked daringly.

"Ninety-two percent." Before I could ask him why he was telling me all of this information, he spoke again, this time with a firmer voice. "Let me ask you this: do you feel safe from the Silver League here?"

I had been here, as Martin said, about fifty days. I've had so much taken from me, but I haven't had time to miss them. My mother, my old friends, Pan, snowcones from Martin on hot summer days... all had become distant blurs in my fragile memory. As badly as I wanted it to not be true, as badly as I had longed to stay loyal to my own home, I was becoming part of Shadowed Elite. And I was liking it.

"I think so," I answered cautiously. "There are some people here I don't feel safe around." My thoughts instantly fluttered to Max and my first raid - to Hunter at my first training session. To Addilys on my first day of being at home base.

Martin nodded slowly. "Magdeline, you're intelligent. Go with your gut feeling, not what others tell you your gut feeling is. There are some things that cannot be felt from others around us, but are good nonetheless." He stood up, brushing off his pants. "We should get back now. The sun is rising."

I got up and began to follow him. "Martin..." There was one strange thing about the entire ordeal that sent shivers up my spine for some strange reason. He let out a kind of muffled grunt, questioning me. "Why were we all the way out here to talk about this? Why not on the porch."

He pulled me close and put a strong arm over my shoulder. "The cameras and voice recorders don't reach all the way out there." I stared up at him, startled. "Some things are better kept secret," he whispered, once again holding up his index finger to his lips.

I nodded, suddenly thinking about my previous visit with Dr. Ralphezon. Some things are better kept secret, I thought.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the time we got back, everyone else was just getting up and ready. Nym was in the shower, Jonny was eating breakfast, and Ben was going on and on about how awesome he was in such a conceited way.

Actually, Ben was just sitting on the couch with a bored expression on his face. He gave us a strange look. "We already had our morning run," I said, thinking fast.

"Mine was more of a crippling walk," Martin heaved, fake limping across the floor. Jonny giggled, abandoning his peanut butter sandwich.

"You look like a dying goat," Jonny screamed.

"How would you know what a dyin' goat sounded like, much less an old bearded one?" Ben tagged along, seeming to forget our late arrival. This made Jonny erupt into even more laughter after Ben got onto the floor on all fours like a crazy, dying beast. He fake rammed Jonny against the wall, tickling his ribs with his horns. Martin and I watched in amusement as the dramatic scene unfolded.

"Stop it," Jonny, who was very ticklish, squealed. "Daddy," he giggled. He drew out the word like taffy. He took me by surprise, and I looked at Jonny with slightly widened eyes. Martin seemed equally apalled, and cleared his throat in the silence. Ben looked uncomfortable on the floor, not exactly knowing what to do next. Jonny, who seemed to just realize his mistake, let his mouth form in a small 'o' shape.

"I'm sorry," Jonny said. "I didn't mean to call you that." He looked like he wanted to cry, but he didn't. It was as if he were trying to prove that he really did grow up a lot in the past fifty days. "I won't do it again, I promise," he said.

Ben got up off the floor, brushing himself off. "It's cool, kid." He seemed to have snapped out of the confused state he was in, and patted him on the back. "But I hate to admit it, man, but you might lose in a fight with a crazy dying goat." This seemed to bring me out of my surprise, and I nodded at him.

"Why don't you finish your food. Are there any others for me?" Jonny nodded and left the room to go get some. Nym replaced him, ready to leave the house. She must've noticed the confused stares, because she returned them with an equally confused look of her own.

"Didn't you all get the message? Important meeting with all five of us at Addilys' place. Starts in like twenty minutes." That seemed to get us all up and moving. I got ready in record time, and was able to eat the granola bar on the way. Jonny, who seemed to have forgotten about the mix-up earlier that day, rode on Ben's back, piggy-back style.

It was weird watching them now. Fifty days ago, I would've been jealous. Fifty days ago, I would've been scared for Jonny. Fifty days ago, a lot would be different. And a lot was different now. Jonny obviously liked Ben, and Ben was good with little kids. Watching them now, I almost felt a strange surge of gratitude for the rest of them. Martin, Nym, and Ben had been kind and helpful to Jonny and I ever since we had arrived here.

When we arrived at Addilys' place, Dumb and Dumber (the brute boys that had "escorted" me off of Addilys' property a couple of weeks ago), led us through the door and down a mahogany stairway. It circled downward, which already seemed impossible, and opened up into a large cavernous room, in which milled about ten other people, chatting quietly amongst each other.

I noticed Max and Hunter straight off, sitting together quietly in a front row of seats. (I made sure to sit on the opposite end of them both.) Not soon after, Addilys appeared followed by a tall orderly man who gazed across the room. Dr. Ralphezon. I searched his face for some glimmer of recognition when his eyes passed over me, but he showed no emotion whatsoever.

"As you can tell," Addilys said without waiting for anyone to sit down, "this meeting is a very private one. Nothing you hear in here should be uttered outside this room." She seemed to look exactly at me when she said that. "First, for recording matters, a role call:" she then proceded in calling off names from a list, each person then responding with a dull "here". "Hazel, Jonny, Arabeth, Max, Hunter, Benjamin, Martin, Joshua, Abbigayle, Nym, and Maggie." She spat the my name out of her mouth like it was slimy acid rolling on the tip of her tongue. "You eleven, along with myself, were handpicked for various reasons. Either your body type fits our needs, or your wit and intelligence makes up for your, er, lack of athletic ability." She looked over at the Doctor. "However, there was one person I did not mention till this point. Dr. Ralphezon," she motioned him to stand up, as if he was a puppet, and she his master, "if you would take it from here?"

Dr. Ralphezon seemed to grow older in every movement he made. When he turned from Addilys' place at the podium, he gazed once more at the audience. "I am Dr. Ralphezon." His voice was like a creaky door, in desperate need of an oiling. "But that's not important. Names aren't important, so let's cut to the chase." Suddenly, the Doctor spoke very quickly with a sudden urgency. "You all were chosen also because of the trustworthiness at your camp. The greatest weakness and also the greatest strength man can have is trusting a friend. To be clear and simple, you are going on a raid: a special raid. You will not bring back supplies, you will not bring back prisoners, and you will not bring back information on the Silver League."

"Then what are we freakin' doing in a raid? Just having a fun old time with the Silvies?" Max seemed to grow all the more impatient with every word he spoke.

Dr. Ralphezon raised his eyebrows at him. "Well, patience is a virtue you don't seem to have." His coolness sent a ripple of soft laughter across the room. The Doctor cleared his throat. "We will retrieve this document." He turned around, clicking a button on a remote I hadn't even noticed before. On the wall behind him was the clear picture of the document with the blotted out and unmarked names. "The information on the front is not really useful to us at the moment, though."

Max looked like he wanted to interject, but he kept his mouth shut.

"However," the Doctor continued, "this might possibly be the first step into potentially saving humanity as we know it." Hunter raised his hand, and the Doctor called on him.

"In what way?"

The Doctor looked a little uncomfortable after Hunter's question. "We have a hunch that-"

"We're going on an important raid over a hunch?" Max had stood up this time, outraged. Every vain seemed to pop out of his neck as he seethed with raw anger. He whirled around to Addilys. "Will you stop this freaking madness? What the heck does this old man have to do with finding the Box?"

"You," Addilys returned coolly, "of all people should know how important and justifiable hunches are." I didn't know what that meant, but it seemed to make Max calm down. He plopped onto his seat, still fuming. When Addilys motioned Dr. Ralphezon to go on, he shook his head.

"I think you should finish this out," he said, uneasy. He looked a tint of green, as though he might throw up, but didn't seem sick in his movements back to his chair.

"Anyway, as Dr. Ralphezon was saying" Addilys finished for him, "this document is the first step." She looked at all of us with a penetrating gaze. "This is the first step in saving our world."

Thanks to the meeting, life around camp just became more and more hectic. I wasn't able to see Johnny as much since we trained separately. He seemed to be getting stronger and smarter since he'd been placed in training... and happier. Johnny seemed so preoccupied with learning new things to think about the past. It made me happy to see him like that, but not happy enough to forget all of the hard training I had to do. We cut out some raids just to make the load a little lighter for those of us going on the special raid.

We'd been told we were going to Laftillah for the raid. I instantly recognized the name, and knew it was going to be big. If the sister city was that impressive, I couldn't imagine what Laftillah itself was like.

To add some cherries onto the death cake, more and more teens were coming in from across the nation. There weren't enough places for people to live in. As a result, many of us had to share houses, turning them into a sort of military camp. Four rows of bunk-beds (divided into two rooms) now inhabited our home. Johnny and I shared the house with Nym, Ben, two new twin sisters, Rachel and Jessica, and a stout little boy named Ralph. It was a tight squeeze, but it somehow worked. Our room consisted of Nym, me, and the twins, and the other room across the hall held Johnny, Ben and Ralph.

The entire ordeal set everyone on edge. All raids were dangerous, of course, but the data proved that this was going to be more than the average raid. In Laftillah, there were approximately forty Silvies, each of them probably armed.

So we trained. And then we trained some more.

Max swept me off my feet with a swift kick. "Come on," he spat down at me. I shook myself out of my thoughts. "You're better than this!"

I knew I was better than this. I just needed time to think about the visit to Laftillah coming up soon. Of course there was no sympathy in Max's eyes, but rather a seething hatred. He still didn't seem to like me, even after months of me being here.

"Get up," he barked the orders and kicked me again. I gasped for air, squirming around in the dirt. Max seemed the most on edge, which of course made him even more cruel than he was before. If that was even humanly possible. I tried to get up, but Max kicked me again. "There ain't a Silvy in the world that would wait for you to catch your precious breath! And there ain't a Silvy that wouldn't have already cut your tongue out by now!"

That did it.

Screaming with all of my might, I lunged for his stomach, sending him toppling over into the dirt. I whirled him around, shoving his face in the dirt and grit. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I punched him again and again. When I finally had finished, his body was shaking. For a split second I felt bad. All of those feelings melted away when I realized he was laughing.

"You fight like a girl," he said, standing up and facing towards me. "It's a wonder Addilys even let your kind come here. You're too soft," he muttered. I punched him square in the nose, and watched as little drops of blood fell from his confused face.

"I know," I snapped. It was around this time that Hunter, Ben, and Annabelle had come jogging in from their run. Anna was the first one to react - by laughing, that is.

"Did you do that?" She looked at me, her face lit up with glee. I nodded as I watched Ben grab his medical supplies and hand Max some gauze. Hunter just looked at me, with a sort of blank expression painted on his face.

Ever since what had happened in my first training session with Hunter, he had been really distant. Which, didn't really bother me anyway, considering that I really didn't know him in the first place. I still couldn't figure him out, nor did I really want to.

"I think that's enough for today," Hunter finally said, breaking the awkward silence. Anna had already turned to leave, and just as I was about to follow her out, Ben stopped me.

"Here, I need you to help me with this. After all, you caused it in the first place," he muttered. He handed me some weird lotion. "Open this for me, will you?" I did, and he took out a fingerling and gently rubbed some on Max's nose. Max finally seemed to come out of his confused state, and was back at criticizing people again.

"Why do you have to press so hard?" Max shoved Ben off of him into the dirt. He stood up quickly, and then held his head. "I can take care of it myself." He stalked away, still holding onto his head. Ben shook himself off, and grabbed the ointment from me.

I watched as he started packing up his medical supplies. "Come on, Ben, I know you didn't need my help with this crap." I stared down at him, annoyed. "Why'd you want me to stay?"

He took a deep breath as he stood back up. "Because the Maggie I know doesn't fight people and break their noses." I started to laugh, but then noticed the look on his face. He was serious.

"You didn't even see the entire thing! He wasn't even giving me a chance to get off of the freaking ground! Come on, Ben! This is Max we're talking about!" I threw my frustration into him, hoping he'd understand. Of all people, Ben would understand!

"You still didn't have a right to go and break his nose." I looked at him in disbelief. He was taking Max's side!

"You can't-" he pressed a finger to my lips, motioning me to follow him.

"We can't talk here," he whispered into my ear. I instantly remembered the talk with Martin I had a couple of weeks ago. Still annoyed, and now slightly scared, I obeyed.

As we neared the edge of camp, he began to talk again. This time, he began pacing back and forth. "This is bad," he said, his voice wavering.

"What is bad?"

"You broke Max's nose." I, for one, didn't see anything wrong with that. Ben continued on. "Alright, so we've got Addilys as our leader, right?" It seemed a hypothetical question, so I let him talk some more. "You've also got the second in command." My blood suddenly ran cold. "That's Max," he said.

"I didn't, I mean, what does that-" Ben stopped me, grabbing me by the shoulders.

"It means you're in some serious trouble, Maggie! And so am I! And Nym, and Martin, and your brother... Max has connections. Major connections. He can make you leave this place with a snap of his fingers!"

"All I did was fight - that's what I'm supposed to do!" My heartbeat quickened with every word.

"Alright, alright," Ben seemed to be sorting the situation out in his head. "So how did this happen?"

"We were training, and he was mad that I didn't get up quick enough from the ground, so he kept kicking me in the side." I recalled the situation easily. "So I lunged at him and fought a little more - but I aimed at his back!"

"That shouldn't of broken his nose," Ben returned.

"Well..." I trailed off, and Ben looked at me, his eyes wider.

"Well what?"

"After that, he told me I fought like a girl, and said he didn't know why Addilys let my kind come here. What does that even mean?"

Ben ignored my last question. "This is so bad." He stopped pacing, and grabbed me by the shoulders again. "You have to go apologize or something."

"Seriously Ben? This isn't kindergarten!"

"You're right, you're right..." Ben shook his head. He sank to the ground, burying his face in his hands. "We are so dead." His voice came out muffled.

I watched him for a while, my heart sinking. I had put him in this situation. I had put Nym and Martin and Johnny in this situation. All because I couldn't control my stupid actions. Or tongue, for that matter. Groundwater began to seep from the sky, and Ben still hadn't moved.

"I'm sorry," I muttered, kicking a rock across the ground. Ben didn't answer. Finally, I left him there. I knew my way back anyway, and it didn't look as if I could help anything. I'd probably make matters worse.

The journey back home was long and tiring. When I got back, I took a nice warm shower. Everyone had already gone to bed early, as most of them would have to go on a raid the next morning. I felt bad for them. Despite how much I hated training, I hated raids even more.

I was just about to slip off into my bedroom when heavy footsteps trudged up our porch. Scared that it was Max, I moved away from the bedroom door. The door swung open slowly, displaying a muddy and wet Ben. The rain outside poured.

"What are you-" I stopped short as I noticed him clutching his side. It was stained with blood.

I barely caught him as he fell to the floor, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. Easing him down to the ground, his head on my lap, my heart raced. What was I supposed to do? I wasn't a doctor, he was!
"Help!" I screamed as loud as my lungs would allow. "Oh gosh, someone help," I whispered. Nym was the first out of her room, quickly followed by Ralph, Johnny, and the twins.
"What happened?!" Nym knelt down beside him, feeling at his side.
"I don't know! He just came in like this and passed out!" I looked at Ben's pale face, scared. "Oh gosh," I whispered. "Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh."
Nym started to peel away his sticky shirt. "He taught me some basics," she stuttered, trying to remain calm. "We need to find the wound and tie it off to stop the bleeding.
Ralph and Johnny watched with helplessness as the twins began helping Nym tie off the wound. His entire chest was covered with blood, but the blood was seeping out from a two inch gash on his side. "Oh gosh," I whispered. "Oh gosh, oh gosh."
"We need to go get professional help," Nym interupted. "That's all I know to do."
One of the twins, Jessica I think, spoke up. "We can go get help," she said in a rich accent. "We were on championship track team long ago!" When Nym nodded, both girls slipped on their shoes and ran out the door.
Ben's head was still in my lap, and I felt his cheeks. They were ice cold. "What else can we do?" I asked frantically. Nym shook her head, wringing her hands.
"I don't know," she admitted. Looking back at the younger boys, she pointed to the bedroom. "You to can go to bed now, okay?"
Johnny looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Is he gonna' be okay?" A tear slid down his cheek and Ralph held on to his arm, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, Ben will be alright," Nym said slowly. "Now go to bed."
After they were gone, she let out a breath. At the same time, Ben moaned, turning his head sideways. He blinked in the light of the living room, and then his eyes shot open. "Maggie," he whispered. "Nym?" He blinked sideways at her. He tried to sit up, but Nym gently pushed him back down onto the ground.
"Don't worry, help is coming," she reassured. He clutched his side again, wailing with pain. "Ben, I know you're experiencing a lot of pain right now, but you need to tell me what happened," Nym said, placing her hands on his shoulders gently.
"I don't--remember..." His face twisted into a look of pure agony, and at the same time, Ben jumped to his feet, then doubled over in pain.
Two doctors carrying small medical bags grabbed him before he fell. "We need a table of some sort," one of them said. I was too shocked to do anything. Instantly, Nym showed them the back room next to the bedrooms.
"Are any of you close to him? We need someone back here that he knows and trusts. Nym looked at me, and then nodded.
"I can go," she said quietly.
All four of them disappeared into the room, and after no one came out for about an hour, Jessica and Rachel retreated to their bedrooms. I couldn't sleep. I didn't think I'd ever be able to sleep. A couple of times, a muffled scream would sound from inside the room, and it was after the third or fourth scream that I took a blanket and hid in the corner.
"My name is Magdeline West," I said quickly. "I have a brother named Johnny. I have friends named Nym and Ben. Ben is dying. It's my fault. Ben is dying. I like listening to the rain on the roof. Ben is dying. I can run. Ben is dying. My mother is missing. Ben is dying." I covered my face with the blanket and cried.
"Ben is dying," I whispered. "Ben is dying." I don't know at what point I fell asleep, but somehow, after the sobbing stopped, I eventually did.
And I'm not quite sure how I woke up, either. I rubbed my swollen eyes, and crawled to my feet. The house was extremely quiet, and dim rays flooded through the living room window. I walked to the bedrooms, and opened the one that Johnny and Ralph had slept in. It was empty. The twins were gone as well.
Carefully cracking open the room that Ben had been in before, I realized it was empty as well. A chink from the kitchen made me venture back there.
It was Nym. She was eating out of a bowl of cereal. I sat in a chair across from her.
"They took him to the Hospital early this morning," she whispered softly, as if she might scare me away. I just nodded. "Max told me you needed to be at training today. Starts at ten."
I didn't bother complaining.
The walk to the training camp was long and muddy. It reminded me of how Ben looked, cold and tired and covered in mud. Hannah greeted me with the usual "hello", and gave me the rundown of what we'd be doing today.
And we worked. I worked myself harder than ever before to chase away my uncertainity. I trained so vigorously, that at one point I absolutely collapsed into the mud. I cried, laying on my stomach and tasting the gritty ground, all the while waiting for the swift kick from Hunter to get me on my feet again. When he never did, I rolled onto my side, looking up at him with tired eyes.
Instead of yelling at me, he lent me a hand and pulled me off of the ground. "We can take a break; it looks like it's about to storm again anyway," he noted, his voice still full of its usual strength.
I was sick with relief as he led me out of the training camp.