- Sergeant Murph
- |
- Noble Legendary Member
Chapter Seven
One Big Happy Family
The moment my eyes snapped open and stunning, blinking lights stung into my retinas, I was in panic. Such a panic that I vomited, right there, such a panic that I found myself screaming. Screaming for mercy, screaming to stop the panic.
"Whoa! Relax, there, son, just relax."
I recognized the voice from somewhere. But where? It was not the voice of another Sangheili, no, the voice's vocals were much lighter. Then who? What? Where was I? I was so exhausted, so confused, and so panicked. So, so panicked.
"C'mon, don't hit the snooze button on me again."
I peered around, hoping to find the source, the source of this alien voice, but still I could not see. The lights stabbed into my pupils like daggers, one shard at a time. I tried to cover my eyes with the back of my hand, but there was no energy left about me. I was too weak, too frail to even twitch now.
"Lower the lights, Doc, you're gonna blind the kid!"
Suddenly, the daggers of light ceased raining down on me. Cautiously, I slid one eye open, then the other, and then blinked a few times to abate the stinging.
I glanced around the room, and immediately the panicking decreased a small bit as the memories of the past few days surged into my mind. Escaping the temple as it collapsed. Meeting Anderson. Kovalee. Betraying the Prophets. Choosing a new side.
I tried to sit up, but found all of my muscles strained and sore and flimsy, as If they'd all been stretched in opposite directions. There was a throbbing pain knocking on the inside of my skull. What had happened to me, before I'd blacked out? I couldn't remember. I only saw that last shot, the shot that I had fired.
The shot that had changed everything.
Looking around, I saw that I was in a tiny white room with no windows. There were several humans standing around me, each one more perplexed than the other, a mixture of concern and confusion on their faces.
Anderson stood beside the long table that I lay on, one hand shoved roughly in his pocket and the other on the edge of the table.
"Don't rush yourself, kid," he told me. "You've had a rough night. You were out for nearly two days. None of us counted on you making it, but, hell, here you are now!" he chuckled. I didn't. I just stared dumbly at him, not knowing what to say, what to do. I couldn't decide whether I was in grave danger or the hands of a savior.
Averting my eyes to the left but making sure I didn't crank my head, I saw Burns, his helmet cradled in his arms and his brown hair flopping down over his forehead. He nodded to me, smiling crookedly. "When it comes to injuries, you Elites put up one hell of a fight," he acknowledged. "I'd have been cooked if I'd been sliced with one of those swords."
Cut with an Energy Sword? What was he talking about? I gave him a blank look, and he pointed at my chest. Peering downward, I saw the long, thin scar that Kovalee had left on me. It had cut directly through my blood-red armor. I could feel a sense of emptiness as my chest heaved up and down with each struggle of a breath.
"You lucked out on this one," said one of the white-coated humans, whom I assumed to be a medic of some sort. "It didn't hit any of your vital organs. Just clipped the flesh, nothing too serious."
Although I considered almost having the upper part of my body severed relatively serious, I nodded my head very mildly. I was grateful, yes, but still quite bewildered. I felt that I was not meant to be here right now. I was not one of them, and I never could be. So why was I here, placed under their care? What lesson were the gods trying to teach me now?
"Hey, boys, do you mind if Burns and I have a word with-- uh, what'd you say your name was, son?" Anderson turned to me, his eyes glistening. I froze. Every nerve in my body tautened, and my heart skipped several beats. It wasn't that I couldn't answer the question, but rather that I didn't know if I was ready to speak to these humans.