Discernment

Chapter 30

It's morning again. Today I gotta go greet back the search party that went scouting yesterday. Heard they got back. I get up, cross a day off of the calender. It's the last day of the month now, at least we think so. I get dressed, notice I have to shave again, but I just leave it for today. "Jess, you go to the training sessions yesterday?" I ask her as I walk down the stairs. "Yes, Thomas.. I'm taking defensive classes. Learned a few things." She tells me. "Good. I need you to go again today." I tell her. "I wasn't plannin' on skipping it, Thomas. So don't worry." She explains. "By today, I mean now.. You're all ready, so come on. We can go now." I tell her. She sighs and gets off the couch. "I'm going with you to see how Devan's trip was, that alright?" I ask her. Jess replies with a nod.

It wasn't long before Jess and I was interrupted from our walk. "Thomas, there's a controversy at the hospital.. Abira was hurt and the doctors are refusing to help her because she's a dog.. You might wanna check it out." Indigo tells me from the middle of the street, as he's walking back to his house. "Alright, I'll do that.. Thanks for letting me know." I reply. "Let's go check this out, Jess.." I tell her as we now began walking to the hospital.

We entered the hospital and we already heard Quinton yelling from the entrance. We make our way to his voice and he's yelling at Anna, who has now taken over as main doctor. "Fix my fucking dog!" Quinton yells as Jess and I walk in the medical room. "Quinton.. There's nothing we can do.. There's sick and injured survivors that need these supplies more than-" Anna tries to explain but stops mid-sentence and looks at me. "What's going on in here?" I ask. "T-Thomas.. While we were out, the zealots were there. They.. They killed most of the group man.. They kidnapped Saige, and shot Abira.. Abira's not doin' too well.. And this bitch won't fix her!" Quinton yells, tears forming in his eyes as he remembered the slaughter that took place the day before.

"Anna, what's your reasoning for this?" I ask her. "We don't have the resources for an animal, Thomas.. People with much worse conditions than this dog need them more." Anna says with a stern tone. "She's not just some fucking animal! She's like my own child.. You don't understand! What if it was your newborn than needed help! You're going to have a kid soon and then what?" Quinton explains. "Leave my child out of this.." Anna mutters. "Abira has helped save lives.. Without her, you wouldn't even have those supplies!" Quinton says. Anna goes silent and I look behind me and at Jess, then back up to Anna and Quinton. "Fix the dog. That's an order. I want no excuses. Just do it. She's one of us. She's family." I tell Anna. "Yes, Thomas.." Anna replies with a defeated tone. "Thanks.. Thomas.. She might have not made it.. Or she could have recovered differently, and not properly.. Just.. Thanks." Quinton says and sits on a chair, watching Anna and a few nurses prepare. "Don't worry about it, Quinton. Come for me if you need anything else." I reply to him.

"That was.. Nice.. Thomas. I like that Abira, she's a good dog." Jess says. "It was the right thing to do.. It would be wrong if I just left her to suffer and Quinton to be another parent without their child." I mutter. "So.. Are we off to District C?" Jess asks. "To talk to Devan and for you to go to training, yeah." I reply. It was silent as we got onto the subway train. "Thomas.. Thomas you there?" Eddy calls out to me from my walkie talkie. I pick it up and reply back. "Yeah, Eddy? What do ya' need?" 

"Think you can come on by? Check out the armor that I made? I made one for male, and one for female.." He requests of me. "Uh.. Sure.. I'm on the train right now. I'll get off at the next stop." I tell him. "So.. You're not coming with me?" Jess asks. "No.. You don't need me? Come on, it's just training.." I tell her. Jess frowns at me and looks away as the train stopped and I got off. "Bye, Jess.." I say to her before the doors closed. I walked all the way to Eddy's workshop, and knocked. I waited for an answer, but there was none.

"Eddy? I'm coming in." I call out and open the door to his workshop. "Thomas! How's this beauty?" Eddy says to me with a smile. "It looks great, Eddy.." I say to him, looking over the plates carefully. "Try it on! Go ahead!" Eddy says, nudging me towards it. So I did. "Fits nicely. I like the flexible arm guards too. Great mobility." I tell him. "Thanks, Thomas." Eddy says to me and then hears a knock on the door. "Now let's check out the female plates!" Eddy says and opens the door to Kiki. "Welcome! The armor's just over here, Miss Kiki." Eddy says with a chuckle. "Hey Thomas." Kiki greets me and holds the armor in her hands then moves to try it on. "This is nice, Eddy.. This only a prototype?" She asks him. "Yeah, I need to make more.. The mold was what I've been working on this whole time.. Now that I know it's a good fit for all of you, I'll go ahead and make more." Eddy says with a smile and moves over to the counter and grabs a piece of sheet metal, putting it on the mold.