(Havent thought of one :( sorry)

Chapter 2: The Market

I awoke lying on the floor with my head throbbing. I opened my eyes and my nose was almost touching one of the beasts. Surprised, I jumped up and scrambled backwards against the wall. "Woah, woah, woah, there now take it easy", one of the guards to my left said quietly, "It's all over now." I noticed there was a small pool of blood where my head was once laying.

I reached up with intensely shaking hands and felt where my head was hurting the most. I quickly darted my arm back with a sharp, painful hiss. I looked at my hand and noticed there was blood on the tip of my fingers where I had touched. "We better go get your fixed up as soon as possible!" the guard to my right said as he helped me to my feet.

We made our way back to the central part of the town where the infirmary was located, me kind-of fading in and out on our way there. As far as I could tell, no one really cared aside from a handful of children that stopped to ask questions. Although, the guards quickly shooed them off. I sat down on one of the propped up beds and awaited my turn for treatment.

Over walked a nurse, with a handful of bandages and carious things in order to patch me up wherever needed. She was a beautiful woman with a detailed face that outdid her hungry, skinny body. She had deep brown eyes with a delicate smile, one of which made you smile just by looking at it. She had short brown hair that complemented her stout figure. Her name was Ki'ra. I had seen her here often when I passed by the tent.

I enjoyed talking to her whenever I could but most of the time either she had to go tend to a patient or I had to be somewhere that I was needed. I had no idea where she lived, nor was I trying to find out anytime fast. She is always secretive about things that are personal to her.

She let out a deep sigh. "Tired of seeing me around here are you?" I said to try and break some of the tension. "Well I am getting a bit tired of seeing you on this bed if that's what you mean." she replied. "What am i supposed to do about it? Somebody has to keep the death rate up." I said with a bit of sarcasm. "It doesn't have to be you though." She said as she dabbed my head with a damp sponge.

"Well who else should it be?" I said in all seriousness. "I don't know." She said quietly. A tear started to roll down the side of her cheek. She must have realized this at the same time I did, because she glanced at me then quickly turned her head in the opposite direction. I was at a loss for words. We sat there for a few moments sadly, until one of the guards from before came in and asked if I would like to join him and the others at the pub after Ki'ra got done wrapping my head in gauze. I accepted generously.

We walked down passed my house to the local pub for a few drinks in celebration. The pub is nothing but a large room with several makeshift wooden tables and chairs scattered here and there. No music, just the gentle buzz of the many conversations happening around us. There is a semi-long bench used as the "bar" to serve drinks to the people. The currency used here is no longer the dollar, as it used to be used so long ago. We now use old military grade rifle rounds, or for short, MG rounds.

Their hard outer casing makes them difficult to use for anything but. However it is very easy to tell the difference between them. The military round has a florescent white circle embedded in the bottom of the shell. They are still usable in a small few of our guns now, but it's better to use the cheap store-bought bullets instead of "shooting away" money.

A stranger fell off one of the tall stools and, in his drunken stupor, shouted out something that, most likely, only he could understand. At the end of his slurred sentence he passed out lying on the ground with a spilled beer bottle in his right hand. This, of course started a wave of laughter amongst the people in the bar. Everyone at my table was laughing except for me. One of the guards turned and looked at me with a strange glare. "Hey Arstrum, you alright?", he asked. "Yeah I'm fine. I just got a bit of a headache... thanks though." I replied.