The Outsider (Outsider #1) ✔️

Chapter 4 : Admission

The young "arrogant handsome" man was Luke Jones. He caught hold of Dusk, puzzled at her sudden collapse. But recalled what she had said ... The station was between 7 and 9 km from Student Square, depending on the route taken. Walking 7 km obstacle course with these bags was a punishment or training exercise for military students. It was definitely beyond the tolerance of a young girl coming to study computer technology at the university.

The Major's support team was impeccably trained. On seeing her fall into Luke's arms, one of them rushed to the hover-car and pulled out a med-kit and ran back to him in a total of 5 seconds. Luke Jones noted and nodded in appreciation at the reaction time.

The soldier took a scanner and waved it quickly over her body. He looked slightly embarrassed and said "Slightly high body temperature, elevated pulse rate, low oxygen levels, other vital signs are within normal parameters. I think it mostly fatigue. I have seen similar parameters after cross country run among my teams. However, I can't be completely certain because your body signs are being caught by the scanner in the middle"

Luke Jones scowled at him "How do you check vital signs then in the middle of a battle? Would you have the time to put every patient down on the ground to check? You need a refresher course perhaps. All of you ... Anyway, what's the prognosis? And help me make her sit."

"Give her a dose of stimulants and rapid absorb nutrients. If you have injectable ATV, add that to the cocktail." the Major said. He knew he would be on the communicator for the remaining day, trying to figure out all that went wrong leading to the ordeal the poor girl had gone through. He had to connect the dots, identify all the problems and mistakes that have been made by everyone and present a report to 'Mr. Jones' by end of the day.

It was, after all, a major security lapse, harassment of a student, irrespective of whether or not it was deliberate. He needed procedure put into place to ensure it did not happen again. If Jones decided to report it to his grandfather, the reparations would be pretty high. Being in a university which is favourite of top government official's children, was not a peaceful job.

He would take the security training professor to task! None of the students recognised such a risk! What kind of behaviour training were the students getting that in spite of being in the Military, they were enjoying harassment of a student rather than taking action to stop it?

Luke Jones knelt in front of the girl, looking carefully at her. Though she was sweaty and her face was caked with dust from the long walk, streaked where tears had rolled down her cheeks. She was dressed in very basic clothes, what even maids at his home would not wear. She was wearing flat shoes, not heels or even platforms that he was used to seeing. It was also not the comfortable ones Military students or Athletes used to make long walks easier.

But in all this, he could see she was pretty, though not in the way of the classical Regis Royalty, and her inner beauty still emerged in spite of the disadvantages. He felt it would be nice to see her when she was refreshed. His own interaction Arcadia Province was almost non-existent. She would be breath of fresh air when compared to the girls he normally met.

A few minutes later, Dusk opened her eyes. She was sitting on the top of her re-packed bag. A female soldier held her, supporting her with her thigh and her hands giving her back support as if she was in a chair. She saw the handsome arrogant man looking at her with concern. She blushed and sat up, turning around to profusely thank the soldier against who she was leaning. The soldier nodded poker-faced and went back to her work after ensuring that she was able to get up and stand on her own.

Luke Jones turned to the Major, "Major, may we borrow your hover-car to go up to the Admin Complex? I would not make Ms. Dusk Hale travel one of the buses going around the campus."