As Rowan slowly raised his head to look around, the unfamiliar feeling of laying down on a bed, covered from head to toe, comfortable but cautious as to where he was,
"Where am I?" He muttered under his breath, trying to comprehend the previous events.
As soon as he got up and tried to stand up, a man, blonde hair and a scar on his cheek, resembling a spider going from beneath his eye down to his jawline, walked into the room.
"Oh you finally woke up, if you're hungry, there is an apple on the table beside you, go ahead and eat it, we don't expect much of anything in return. I must admit, however, I will be asking you a few questions" Connor stated as he sat himself down on a chair, conveniently placed by the bedside,
"Before that, I want to know where she is, now." Rowan sternly replied
"Don't worry, she is completely fine, a few scrapes here and there but we treated them already, right now she is sleeping in the room next door" Connor calmly replied,
"Show her to me" Rowan stated with a commanding tone in his voice.
As Connor helped Rowan climb off the bed go see Emily, to whom Rowan did not know the name of, he grabbed the apple to eat on the way to her.
Seeing as it was the room next door, he didn't have to walk far, but the stress that being malnourished and dehydrated left on his body made the walk feel like a marathon,
"She's in here, but it looks like she just woke up over all the commotion" Connor said, with a ever so slight glee in his voice, as if he didn't expect either of us to be conscious for a while,
As Rowan slowly entered the room, he noticed that there were even more small children, stacked up in bunks and playing some sort of game,
"uh... hello there.. young girl, it's me, the one who took you out of the raider's camp" Rowan said with an awkward silence following right after,
"Yes I know who you are, you help me" said Emily who was sitting up with her legs still under the blanket and her hair all over her head.
As Emily stood up, pulling the blanket off of her body, Rowan could feel the stares of all the other children in the room looking at both him and Emily, almost as if they are scanning them,
"Oh, don't worry about them, they are just wary of newcomers, that's normal, in fact there are more children around your age here too" Connor calmly stated ,aiming to get Rowan's attention, instead he got Emily's and she replied
"I know, i see them right there" she blatantly replied,
"oh no, not you, Emily, I was talking to the boy here" Connor said, trying not to let hit laughter escape his mouth,
"Huh, your name is Emily?" Rowan asked with a confused tone in his voice, which was appropriate as he had never asked her name prior, thinking she didn't even know what her name was.
"Yeah but you never ask so I didn't tell" Emily responded,
" Yeah but I didn't know you could even talk though" Rowan stated in a jokingly manner,
"Of course I can talk, I'm not stupid" she fired back with haste.
Taken aback, Rowan was surprised at her answer, not expecting her to be so angry about it.
"Alright, alright, stop arguing you two, I was put in charge of keeping you two in check, as for the rest of the children, go ahead and continue playing your games"
"Yes sir!" they all said in unison.
As both Rowen and Connor left the room with Emily, Connor asked Emily to go in a room for something.
Connor then started to ask Rowan, what happened to his friend, and where did he find the drug.
"You mean that horrible drug that made me kill my only friend? That stupid liquid that we found under the rubble? He shouldn't have even opened it, if he didn't he would still be here and-" getting cut off by Connor,
"What do you mean by under the rubble? C-50x is a military class drug that is heavily valued in the world's current state, I have to ask if you still have it" Connor stated in an unusually tense air forming between the two,
"Yes I still have that fuckass drug, I was going to crush the 6 remaining vials but decided it would be better to sell it for money or to trade it for food." He replaced in a very annoyed tone.
Rowan could see the relief on Connor's face as he finished his sentence,
"Quick question, what's your name?" Connor asked,
"My name is Rowan" he replied
"Alright then, Rowan, I am going to need those drugs alright? They are extremely expensive and hard to come by, and since we are letting you stay here you will be fed food and water in compensation" Connor said.
Rowan's eyes showed some suspicion as Connor finished his sentence.
Connor, knowing exactly what Rowan was going to ask next, calmly stated,
"And yes Emily will also be accounted for, so don't worry about that"
Rowan's eyes calmed down and showed that he accepted the deal.
As the conversation ended, Emily ran back with 2 cards in her hand, gesturing for Rowan to take one.
"Ah those are your ID badges to let other people know that you are actually part of this place, you can clip them onto your clothes" Connor said, Seeing the confusion on Rowan's face.
Knowing that Connor forgot to ask what happened to his friend, Rowan decided to just keep it to himself for the meanwhile.
As Emily was sent back to her room, Connor decided that it was a good time to show Rowan where he would be staying and also where he would be training and learning,
Leading Rowan into a room with 2 doors on the inside, one labeled "male" and the other "female", obviously Rowan was lead to the male's door.
As Connor opened the door, Rowan was greeted by the stares of roughly 5 other children his age, who were all doing their own thing, one was drawing, one was studying, another was trying to sleep and the other 2 were playing chess.
"Ohhh so he's why it has a new bed" said one of the boys playing chess,
"Well no shit dumbass of course there is a new person if there is a new bed, what were you expecting? A dog?" said the one studying,
"Well, look Rowan, these guys will be your new roommates" Connor said, gesturing towards the boys in the room.
"Hello" Rowan said in a voice that held a fake confidence,
"sup" the boy who was drawing responded,
"mmmm" the one that was trying to sleep,
"hey" in unison from the two boys playing chess,
"Hello" from the boy that was studying.
"Well this is kind of awkward" Connor said in a very quiet voice,
"Kind of?" replied the studying boy who then stood up and shook Rowan's hand,
"Hey, my name is Parker, hope we could be friends" he said,
"Hey don't forget about me! My name is Alto" said the boy drawing,
"Hey me too! My name is William/Roswell" said in unison by the two boys playing chess,
"And I'm Draco" said in a monotone voice by the boy trying to sleep.
"Now that all of that is settled, there are some rules, first off, you must wake up by 5:00am as in, lights out is at 9:00pm. At 8:30am, classes start and at 10:00am, there will be a 3 hour training session until 1:00pm, which lunch will then be served until 1:30pm, after this there will be a 1 ½ hour class until 3:00pm, the rest of the day will be free until lights out, alright?"
"Yes sir!" all the boys said in unison,
"And you, Rowan?" asked Connor,
"Yes sir!" he replied.
Looking at the clock, the first class was about to begin in 30 minutes.
"Alright Rowan, follow me, I will show you your uniform and your books, then we'll send you down to class"
Rowan, who has never gone to a 'school' before had no idea what a class was, he expected a room full of bricks as tables and stones as chairs, he knew what a book and pencil were and he also knew how to read.
However after receiving his uniform and putting it on, he received neat, clean but old books that looks like they haven't been used in years, but even then, Rowan was glad, accepting the books as if it were a gift.
Entering the room, Rowan was astounded, Seeing actual tables and chairs, painted walls and from his perspective a,
"big white rectangle on the wall"
As he also did not know what a whiteboard was, as for all he knew was not much.
As the rest of his classmates walked in, all dressed in dark green uniforms, both the boys and the girls wore the same uniform, dark green pants and shirts with white buttons in the front, they all sat down, looking at him almost like he was born mere hours ago, then Connor walked in.
"Good morning everyone, please have your seats now, take out your English books and turn to page 34"
To Rowan's surprise, Connor was acting completely different to how he was 30 minutes prior, much more professional and stern.
As class continued , Rowan thought to himself, why the class looked so nice compared to everything outside, knowing that there was a world war going on and hundreds of people are dying as he sat in a class, learning how to speak and use new words. He wanted to be able to stop the war, but didn't know how he could.
By the time he was done thinking, he felt a hand on his shoulder,
"Are you okay, Rowan?" asked Connor,
"Class is about to end, and everyone is packing up their things to go to the training grounds" Connor continued.
"oh shit, I'm sorry, I was lost in thought, I'll start packing up" Rowan said,
"Alright then, I recommend you ask someone for directions or just follow one of your classmates" Connor responded.
Not knowing where to go, Rowan followed Peter to the training grounds, after seeing the class he was expecting to to be a relatively large room, but what he saw completely blew his mind.
The walls were the size of buildings and the floor was the size of a field, in complete awe, Rowan knew in that moment why the stairs were such a long way down, he had a hard time comprehending how it was even built, making the only words that could come out of his mouth:
"Holy shit"