Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 131: The New Fighters

Chapter 131: The New Fighters

I could hear commotion all the way from my cage, but I didn’t bother to lift my head to see what was going on.

Alpha had decided that he needed to inject new blood into Camp Hell, and the Recruiter had been coming and going every other day since the spectacular display of power a few months ago.

It had been a year since the EMP hit, give or take a few days, and my life had settled into a routine. Sleep, heal, talk to Rip, sleep.

Eating was one of those give-or-take things, and Rip was getting more and more stressed out the less I ate. But it was really hard even to choke back that rice water porridge they had been giving me, let alone the chocolate bars and the other stuff Rip had brought me.

The jerky was my favorite. I could put it in my mouth and suck on that for hours at a time, enjoying the flavor as the meat became more tender. Most of the time, it took more energy than I had even to chew whatever was in my mouth.

Rip was terrified that I was going to die.

I had assured him that as long as he was around, I wouldn’t, but I think he found it hard to believe me.

Given my appearance, I couldn’t blame him. I was literally nothing more than skin and bones. In fact, I could see my heart beating in my chest when I wasn’t dressed... when Rip would sneak me off to the lake to wash up.

But I could feel each vertebra when I touched my back, the spinous process feeling more like spikes than something a human would have.

My hip bones were even more pronounced, looking like they would cut through my skin if I even moved the wrong way. Not like I am doing much moving anyways.

Rip tried to get me to exercise a bit, but that ended up in absolute failure. When he stood me up on my legs, I practically snapped them in two before I crumpled to the ground. Only Rip’s arms stopped me from doing damage.

But Rip never seemed to mind. He still treated me like I was the most important thing in his world, and that was all I cared about. Anything that I wanted to eat, he found a way to bring it to me; anything I wanted to drink, it was the same way. If he could get his hands on it, it would be mine.

I could feel his love for me in each one of his actions, and while a section of my head tried to convince me that I wasn’t worth the attention, I still reveled in it.

I would get over this... whatever this was... and I would eventually go back to how I was before. I just needed to figure out how to do that.

"Little Bird," hummed Rip soothingly. I wasn’t getting a restful sleep during the day, the new girls refused to stop screaming no matter what I told them, and Rip didn’t want to startle me. "Someone needs to be healed... are you up for it?"

"Do I have a choice?" I smiled. We both knew that I did have a choice. I could sic Rip on Alpha and watch as he destroyed my demon... but then we would be in an even worse position. He would be head of a horde that neither one of us wanted to keep.

Maybe I should let him loose; being Queen of a Reaver horde couldn’t be worse than this... at least I would have a blanket when the nights dropped below zero.

But part of the reason why I wasn’t healing better was that each time I took away another’s injuries, my body paid the price.

"You always have a choice," murmured Rip as he unlocked the door to my cage and gently pulled me out. I had yet to figure out why Alpha insisted that I stay in the cage; it was not like I could move on my own anyway.

"I’ll heal them," I shrugged, or at least tried to. Letting out a long sigh, I closed my eyes as Rip gave me a gentle kiss on my forehead.

One woman in the cages around me yelled out a nasty comment, but I just ignored it. Living was my fuck you to everyone that wanted me dead or spat in my face.

"It’s a new fighter. He came in with two others yesterday and was thrown in the pit tonight," continued Rip, knowing that his voice soothed my pain like nothing else. And every movement I made was painful, even if I was only being carried.

I nodded, not wanting to waste my energy thinking about yet another fighter.

"They call him ’Killer’; stupid name if you ask me. But considering he came in with a dude named ’Monk,’ I guess it makes sense," joked Rip, his stride never faltering for a second. "I guess they were in a fight club near here, but the owner of the club didn’t want to give them up. But when the shit stain who brought them here told them where they were going, they jumped on the chance. Stupid humans."

His voice continued in a soft, soothing manner as he waited for the gate between the woman and the fighters to open. It was like my own private lullaby, and I couldn’t help but drift off. If only I could sleep in his arms every night.

But there were a few lines that we would not cross. The idiot Reavers didn’t see our relationship as anything more than jailor and prisoner, and we wanted to keep it that way. Most others saw it for what it was... but they were locked in cages, so who would believe them?

"Here we are, Little Bird. The Alpha is here," warned Rip as we approached the cage with the new fighter in it.

I quickly looked around, trying to get my bearings. We were standing in front of Yin Jie’s cage. I felt a shiver go down my spine as I remembered what happened the last time I was here.

I closed my eyes again as Rip walked through the door to the cage and brought me over to the bed.

At least they were still tying the fighters down while I healed them. I guess that was a small blessing.

Not bothering to even look at the fighter in front of me, I felt Rip gently extend my arm so that I could touch the patient’s wrist.

Cracked ribs, cracked orbital, contusions on his forearms and torso.

"If you think this is bad, you should see the other guy," joked the man. The lighthearted tone of his voice sparked a memory in me, but I brutally pushed it aside.

I used to see my men in every fighter that came here only to be disappointed when they weren’t them; I was not going to keep torturing myself by continuing to think that.