Siren's Elegy Volume 1: Orphans of Ashen Earth

Chapter 2: Matriarch 07

May 15, 4021 18:00 [Matriarch 07- Med Bay]

"Ugh...." Indra awoke to a blinding array of lights over his head. Shielding his eyes with his arm until they adjusted to the brightness, he surveyed his surroundings. He laid on a sick bed, dressed in a hospital gown, in a relatively small and empty room save for a closet and a single window. The room was cold and the sharp smell of antiseptic lingered in the air. A pulse oximeter enclosed his right index finger; several wires from electrodes placed on his chest ran out of his gown, hooked up to a monitor. An IV had been attached to Indra's left forearm, preventing him from moving around too much. He adjusted his posture so that he was sitting upright and reached over to press the nurse call button that had been tucked in between his mattress and the railing of the bed frame.

A sharp pain shot through his left side, causing him to pull back and gasp as he gathered his bearings. Indra lifted his gown to check the area where the pain had come from. As he peeled back the fabric, he was met with a thick wrapping of gauze along his ribs. Despite appearing newly applied, a red splotch formed where blood had been oozing through the gauze before drying. When did I get injured? As Indra pondered the injury, a light knock on the door interrupted his train of thought. "Uh, come in!" he called, shifting his gown to cover himself better.

The knob of the metal door turned gently as the person on the other end pushed the door ajar carefully. A young woman in her late twenties stepped into the room, a clipboard with pages of medical information in her left arm, held tightly against her bosom. She wore black almond-toe ballet flats, matched with black capris that hugged her thighs, a créme colored turtle neck fit snugly over her upper torso, complementing her voluptuous frame, and an eggshell white lab coat that reached her knees. Cyan horn-rimmed glasses rested upon the bridge of her nose, shining brightly against her peach-colored skin. The woman's raven hair was tied back into a tight bun, a jade zanzi holding it together. Other than a minuscule beauty mark below her lower lip, not a single blemish presented itself on her face.

The woman made her way towards the sick bed, the soft clicks of her flats echoed as she walked. "Hi, Dr. Ouma," Indra greeted her nonchalantly, keeping a firm grip on his gown.

"Oh please," Ouma brushed off Indra's embarrassment, rolling her eyes. "I'm your physician. There's nothing there that I haven't already seen."
"I'm allowed my dignity," Indra grumbled, his ears turning red.

Ouma stifled a laugh. "How are you feeling? You've been unconscious for a couple of days."

"A couple of days?" Indra asked incredulously.

"I think it's best to go through things in an orderly fashion, it'll get your head thinking straight," Ouma replied.

Indra nodded. "Okay. I guess the first thing I should be asking is what happened? Why am I in the Med Bay? I remember reaching an archive in Filoc Valley with Akula. The entire facility was in shambles. I think Mirai was supposed to be in the archive, so I ran towards it... After that, everything's dark."
Ouma stared out the window for a few seconds before turning and answering. "The mission was unsuccessful. Injured Coalition troops and civilians retreated to their naval base, so Jìguāng and his team had to pull out of the area. They circled back to see if you were still alive and found the three of you in the debris—"

"—Wait, the three of us?" interjected Indra.

"Yes, you, Akula, and Mirai were piled together. You looked like you were ambushed. Jìguāng thinks that the Coalition troops assumed you were dead, given your injuries, so they left you there. Mirai had some substantial injuries, but Akula managed to get away with some minor abrasions. They woke up about a day after you all returned."