Page 79 of Beyond The Maples
The medics push through the group now hovering around me, and begin checking me over without so much as a hello. They don't even bother to make eye contact with me before starting.
"Follow my fingers with your eyes, please," barks the first medic in my face.
Wow, even Linden's awkward bedside manner would be softer than this.
"Honestly, I'm fine," I grunt, doing what he says in hopes I can escape and go to my room. Maybe they'll give me the rest of the day off.
Someone tries to lift my arm and I let out a yelp. The medic frowns.
"You're going to have to come back to the infirmary for some testing. I suspect you broke your collarbone and some ribs. We should make sure everything is okay internally," she says.
The girl wraps up my hands without a word as I listen to Berkley and Deacon argue about something behind me. I catch Lachlan standing to the side, arms crossed, looking up at the disk still trapped most of the way up the tower. He must feel me staring becausehe glances back at me.
"That was pretty impressive, Treow," he says with a big smile. He looks... satisfied? Like he won something too.
Apparently, all the adrenaline makes me brave because I spit out, "Why do you look so smug?"
"Because we all took bets, and I won." He grins even wider now, which makes him look impossibly charming.
"Bets on if I'd make it to the top or not?"
He shakes his head with an easy laugh. "Nah, we bet on howfastyou'd do it. The last guy who did it took twice that time." His eyes flick behind him and I tilt to see Tane standing there, eyes searing into me. He steps forward.
"Where's your patch?" he asks quietly, nodding to my arm.
I raise my chin. "Must've lost it."
He scoffs, but there's something soft that passes over his face, something like pride that flickers across his handsome features, and warmth spreads over my cheeks.
He walks over to the medic preparing transport for me and murmurs something into her ear. Her eyes widen, and her movements become hurried as Tane saunters easily away. I'm moved to a gurney, the medics suddenly speaking sweetly to me as they wheel me out into the hall.
They let me rest for a two full days before I was expected to get up and go again. I’d complain, but after the original shock wore off, and the pain became manageable with bracing and meds, I was getting bored. Berkley had made sure I was excused from anything physical, which had made my heart ache just a little. It still catches me off guard, having people looking out for me this way. Leo even went and got a new name patch made for me.
Being excused from physical training was good timing. Planning had begun for our cohorts first field assignments and my lunacy with the tower meant I was pulled into random meetings. Mostly I held a clipboard and sat silently while everyone else spoke, but on occasion I was included in planning. I am bad with names, sure, but I’m actually good with people. Despite wanting to skin Kethler alive, I was able to give him some helpful insight about which crews would be most successful together. Which groups could manage on their own, and who might have difficulty because they lacked mature leadership. There were a few meetings where Tane was present, and he’d stand there brooding, once again acting as if my presence was offending him, but I chose to ignore it.
With our crew’s place at the top solidified, I’ve felt some relief from that building pressure that likes to sit inside my chest. Just a little.
My crewmates had chewed me out a little once I was in good enough health, with equal parts awe and frustration. Which I understand; I’d feel the same.
The wild card, though, was Deacon. He hadn’t come down on me at all. I was most worried about the blow-back from him. If anything, he’d defended me a little when the others had ripped into me. It was jarring; so at odds with his usual reactions. Something I’d wanted from him forever––just his support. His trust. Maybe therewas still some hope, to get back to the friendship we’d grown up with.
Deacon’s crew is heading out to the southeast border, to check on some of the underground grow bunkers that are still holding. It was something I’d helped secure in one meeting I’d attended––they’d be going with another crew, and it was one of the safest options.
Our assignment is a simple retrieval. We haven’t been given specifics, but when they’d outlined the general placement and the lack of interference, I’d jumped on it. Not to mention it was a little further out, which means I might get to see more of the country. I'm excited. We will see the barrier, from afar. Maybe even the forest I'm named after.sla
Deacon was probably right during our fight back home––I do enjoy the thrill of danger a little too much. The others all seem a bit withdrawn, anxious. Unlike myself, I feel a thrum of alertness, one I enjoy.
I walk with my crewmates, listening to the heavy slap of our boots on the polished concrete floors, all of us in our own thoughts. We come to the front doors of the compound, the ones we’d entered through that first day.
Outside, I spot Deacon to our left. He’s with his crew, all of them stuffing their packs full with supplies from one of the supply carts. A part of me is still mad at him for following me here, but he looks so natural. A confident soldier.
He must feel my eyes on him, because he turns to me and his face lights up in a grin.
"Maple!" he hollers. "Check this out!" He turns, showing me the blades strapped to his pack. I gawk.
"Aww man, we’re only getting stupid batons," Leo says, stepping up beside me and kicking a pebble with a dramatic sigh.
My brow furrows. Why are they giving Deacon’s crew heavier weaponry? My stomach sinks as I worry I’ve made the wrong call, pushed their crew the wrong way. I start to go over to try and figure it out, when a throat clears behind me.
