Tainted Blood

Chapter 13

"Are you alright?" She asked as they settled into the warehouse just off the quarter. They couldn't stay here long, both knew that, but Elias couldn't get far without resetting his nose, shoulder, and kneecap.

"Far from it." he hisses as spencer grabbed his shoulder.

"Sorry."

"So, what's the plan now?" he swore.

"We find Kova," she answered, "alright, last one."

"Fucking hell!" he screamed as she set his kneecap back into place.

"So, you and Kova? How did a Mercer, and a resistance leader fall for each other in this godforsaken reality." he panted, Spencer pulled the water from her pack along with a spare bandage. Gently, she began wiping the blood from his face, gently moving around the bruises forming along his face.

"I suppose you can say it just happened. He was always there, always listened and was kind despite my family and positioning. I owe him a lot."

"Romantic," he laughed as he took the bloodied bandage from her hand. His eyes raked over hers as he wiped off the dried blood from her hand. He cleared his throat as he looked to her wound and the blood seeping through her rag of a shirt. "Your ribs, your stitches might have pulled during the fight."

He reached his hand over to her shirt before she pulled away, "I'm sure it's fine."

"The blood soaking through would suggest otherwise."

Spencer looked down, seeing the blood dripping onto her combat boots. "Shit." She lifted her shirt to find the bandage soaked through, underneath, the flesh is pulled incredibly thin yet the stitches were still intact. She winced.

"See, fine." she hisses as she unrolled the bloody bandage tossing it to the side, Elias pulled out the last set, handing it over to her. "thanks."

He watched intently as she wrapped the pristine bandage around her inflamed torso. Watching every wince, every sharp inhale of breathe.

"What you did back there." he began.

"It's alright."

"I wanted to thank you. Especially for that smart mouth and apparent death wish."

A smile graced her lips as she looked up at him. His face deadpanned, his body as still as the dead. Her smile dropped, her body tense, immediately assessing for danger.

"I've never actually seen you smile, a true smile, not that fake one you put on for the papers." he whispered.

"Tell me more about the pit." she countered; Elias coughed quickly looking away from her.

"What do you want to know?"

"Earlier, before the attack on the compound, you said something about the gene being bred out decades ago, tell me more."

"When the pit was originally designed, the primary objective was to protect Metropolis from the Mono. But as time went on, the people began to feel more oppressed, the slums became worse, murders increased, and the Mercer family had no solution. So, they started throwing resistance leaders into the pit. In the early years they were wiped out, but those who survived got smarter, set up territories and built weapons capable of taking them down. The resistance grew inside the pit, thriving on the chaos and revolting against those who condemned them.

My mother was a resistance leader, she originated the idea of getting a message to those in Metropolis that the gene had began to become recessive and that the born pit members were immune. She designed a device that transmitted a signal to metropolis. She died soon after they breached the wall."