Barren

What doesn't kill you

"What happened to your arm?" Niall's voice was just above a whisper.

I ignored him, looking at my watch. In two hours my shift would start again. I was so tired that my eyes stung and watered with every movement. 

The medical lab was windowless and was one of the few spaces that were granted unlimited use of electricity. An anglepoise lamp illuminated the captive as he lay on the table, now covered with a blanket and his head resting on another folded blanket. His face looked less pale but the bruising over his forehead looked took the distinctive shape of the butt of a rifle.

"You still haven't figured out that you can't escape, have you?" My voice was more sharp than I had intended. §

He turned his head to meet my gaze.

"I have to get back to my family." he explained, his voice quiet but steady.

"Your family is dead like everyone else's." 

The look on his face wasn't shock. It was despair.

 I thought he knew. I didn't take part in the actual hunts, but it was part of my role to care for and supervise captives until the team returned to the House. He was delirious when the hunters moved him back to camp. As he was the only person we had found in three days it was vital that I tried to keep him alive long enough to get him to the complex. No-one thought he woud survive, not even me, but as the only capture on that trip, I had to do everything I could to bring home a viable asset.

"I don't believe you." he whispered, keeping his eyes calmly locked on my own. 

"If they were alive they would be here." I wondered how long he must have been so unwell for his whole family to have perished without his knowledge.

"I told them to hide if anyone came." His eyes studied me as they often did in our encounters. Always analysing.

"The bodies of a woman, a baby and a young boy were lying with you in your shelter, you were the only survivor."