Cardinal

Chapter 26

The strong smell of ammonia wakes me up from my stupor and it made me bolt up from the position I was in. 

"Oh thank fuck, she's awake," I hear Alaina's voice. 

The room was too bright and I was still squinting trying to get my bearings and wondering where the fuck I was.

"Where am I?" I asked, in my confused state. 

As I become fully conscious, I realize I was in the auditorium that we were in earlier, except without the chairs. There were people on the ground and more people were still getting dragged or carried by others from the entrance. It looked like a battlefield. 

"Lilac! I'm so glad we got that stupid vest removed." Gomez says to my right, his brown eyes shining with adoration. He still sported the nasty bruise on his cheek from the club earlier. 

"What happened?" I ask my group, voice hoarse. 

"Well, one of the clubs caught the edge of your vest right as you were shooting him. He didn't hit the center so you didn't get zapped all the way but it looked like it was still painful. I'm so glad you're awake now. You worried me there for a second." White explains to me, surprisingly not in a condescending way. All the ego deflated, cockiness gone, and here sat a nice man. As messed up as this simulation was, I guess we all had a little character development from it.  

Right, I was "shot." I really needed to have a talk with Bath regarding his devices. This was some messed-up shit. I'm really going to have to be more careful with those things next time. 

My head was throbbing with all the shit that happened today and I rubbed my head to alleviate some of the pain. 

"Did you guys get the file?" I ask my group, my voice hoarse. 

"Yep! I think we finished the fastest. He's releasing the rankings of the simulation soon." Alaina was excited. 

"Why does it look like everyone died in battle?" I referred to all of the passed-out people in the auditorium. The ones that were awake looked like they wanted to leave and looked completely miserable. 

"We got lucky and you were the only one who was shot when you were saving Gomez and White. Everyone else either got beat up really bad or was shot and passed out from the pain. You saved Gomez and White without backup. You saved me earlier too before we charged in, I can't ever forget that. So, thank you. I owe you one. You definitely won the award for the most selfless person ever today." Rissa says with a smile, which I returned. 

I looked at everyone's faces. Alaina had mirrored Rissa's smile and planted a quick comforting hand on my knee. Mahana seemed a little less shy and timid now and gave me a smile. Gomez still had the same adoring gaze on his eyes and White almost looked at me with adoration? Whatever it was on his face, it perturbed me and I gave him an awkward smile in return. 

Someone was passing out water for all of us, which I was grateful for. I chugged it like I was dying in a hot desert. 

"If I could have everyone's attention up here," Kyle announces from the stage. He looked a little more chipper. I'm not sure if suffering is his thing or maybe he was just ready to get the hell out of here. I'm sure he'd rather be out there making money. 

"Some of the gifted healers will be coming around in a moment to help those who were injured. Congratulations to everyone who completed the mission objective. To those who didn't, well, good luck. Let's hope you make it through training." 

If today was the introduction, I didn't want to know what else this training had in store for us. I needed a shower and full mental detox from today. I put my head against the wall behind my head and waited for the healers to get here so they could take my lingering headache away.