Chapter 28: Prisoner

Dean arrived at the rally point not long after he received the message. There he found the first fireteam of his little militia, Phalanx-Alpha, surrounding a woman who looked only slightly intimidated.

When she saw Dean approaching, she stared directly into his visor. Her voice was cold and judgmental.

“So… You’re the one who turned these boys into murderers? No wonder you hide your shame behind a mask.”

Dean scoffed when he heard this. He had not expected to be the one interrogated. But he felt the need to correct the woman. Unbuckling the chin strap of his helmet, he placed it under his shoulder before removing his skullcap and balaclava beneath.

The woman’s mouth fell agape when she saw his appearance, which was far from her expectations.

He was far younger than she had expected him to be. And there wasn’t an ounce of cruelty on his face, only cold indifference. For whatever reason that made her more uncomfortable than if he looked like a villainous figure.

Naturally, she averted her gaze, and Dean took note of this.

“Oh? And who is the one who hides their shame?”

The woman looked up at Dean, trying to parse some form of emotion from his frozen gaze. But she couldn’t. She knew instantly he was not looking at her like a person; instead he was analyzing her as she would a wound cavity of a patient.

Her mouth opened once more, attempting to speak, but Dean cut her off instantly.

“You have come to our little paradise at the most questionable moment. The enemies are at our gates; their scouts lie on our borders watching our every move. Traitors move in our midst, and here you are, a mysterious woman who doesn’t belong, suddenly appearing right as the war is about to begin…. It’s too coincidental. Who are you? And what the hell are you doing in my domain?”

Katherine suddenly realized that she had been completely foolish. Her instinct was to help people in need, and when she first encountered the raiders, she felt it was her duty to warn their prey that they were under attack. Secretly hoping they would give her refuge.

But she was too slow, and by arriving at their doorstep at the same time as the raiders she made herself a suspect for something far more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

“My name is Katherine Whitaker. I am… was… a trauma surgeon at The Archangel Raphael Trauma Center. But it no longer exists…”

Dean’s gaze narrowed at Katherine; she couldn’t know it but at this time he was actually confirming her identity with his hidden ability.

—

Name: Katherine Whitaker

Age: 33

Health: 70/100

Relationship: Suspicious

—

So far Katherine had been telling the truth to him. And the first time he saw these words, her relationship status was not hostile; it was suspicious. He frankly didn’t have enough exposure to this overlay to know what exactly that meant.

Currently, he couldn’t control when it appeared. Only that when it did was usually in a moment critical to his own survival.

He trusted it enough, especially since she had never said her age. But… he still needed to verify her status as a professional, and he age.

His voice became cold and oppressing like the winter air around them.

“Do you have any form of identification that can verify your identity?”

Katherine instinctively reached for her bag, only to see the boys’ rifles twitch in her direction, causing her to freeze on the spot.

Dean raised his hand instantly, trying to prevent a fatal accident from occurring while barking his commands.

“Hold it! All of you stop for five seconds…. Katherine… Tell me where your ID is. Don’t make any sudden movements.”

Katherine sighed in relief and looked up at Dean. But there was something about the way he said her name that made her skin crawl. It was filled with such a lack of warmth, and humanity, that she couldn’t help but feel like she was laying bare in the snow upon hearing it.

“My ID would be in the bag your men… wait…. No…. I left it at the hospital….”

Dean’s eyes narrowed even more in suspicion. His overlay was telling him that she wasn’t lying. But he still needed some concrete and tangible form of evidence to justify keeping her around to the boys, and to Yuki.

“Your hospital ID? Or your driver’s license?”

The moment Dean mentioned an alternative Katherine felt like an idiot and quickly broke under the pressure.

“My hospital ID, but my driver’s license should be in my purse, which is still in my bag….”

Dean looked over at Daniel, who instantly snapped to attention.

“The boys wanted to rummage through her things, but I didn’t let them. I had no idea what the protocol was regarding search and seizure, so I simply removed her bag and isolated it. Todd… I mean… Lochagos-Beta is watching it. I told him I’d beat his ass if he opened it without permission.”

Dean nodded and walked away from Katherine a few feet, just enough so that she couldn’t hear what he said over the radio.

“Lochagos-Beta, this is Archon-Actual, respond over.”

There was static for a few moments before the waves lit up again.

“This is Lochagos-Beta what do you need Archon? Over”

Dean pushed the button wired into his right shoulder strap.

“I need you to bring the personal items of our prisoner to me ASAP, over and out.”

Dean then returned to Katherine, crouching down in front of her, his helmet still under his shoulder, and his rifle snug across his chest. He left hand on its pistol grip, but his finger resting on the trigger guard.

“We will see if you’re telling the truth in a few moments. I hope you didn’t lie to me… After tonight’s grim business I’m not in the mood to entertain spies.”

Katherine’s skin turned pale as memories of the dead bodies flashed in her head. But there was something else as she looked into Dean’s otherwise cold eyes. A hidden sorrow, as if buried beneath six feet of snow.

Just as she was about to open her mouth and perhaps foolishly say something she otherwise shouldn’t. The boy whose callsign was Lochagos-Beta approached with a duffel in hand and a backpack slung across his back.

“I brought the items as requested.”

Dean nodded at the boy, grabbing the duffel, and backpack as they were handed over to him.

“Good work. Return to your original post. I’ll contact you again if I need you.”

Lochagos-Beta nodded and ran off into the snow, disappearing in the blizzard after only a few meters of distance gained between him and the others.

Dean then rummaged through the duffel bag and the backpack. He found food, water, but what really caught his eye was medical supplies. And some of these items were heavily restricted to public access. Even he had a hard time getting his hand on some of these drugs, like morphine, when he made his initial preparations.

Though he hadn’t a need for it yet, in one of the layers beneath his house, Dean had a small clinic built. And was stockpiled with what he could get his hands on with only a month’s worth of time to prepare.

The fact that this random stranger had such medical supplies gave some credence to her claims of being a doctor. But it wasn’t outright confirmation. Only then did he find her wallet, and there within lay a government-issued driver’s license.

He held the ID up to the nearby flame and read what was written. Her birthday and name were both confirmed to match what she had said and what the Tyrant’s ledger had revealed to him.

And in that moment, he understood that she was more trustworthy than not. However, what he couldn’t understand was why she was here, now, at such a critical time. He looked over at the woman and tossed the ID into the snow beneath her knees.

“Alright, your identity checks out. But what I don’t understand is how you ended up here? Why now? And why immediately after we had a security breach? Don’t lie to me, Katherine… it won’t end well for you…”

Katherine sighed in relief momentarily after Dean had confirmed her identity. Only to freeze on the spot as he threatened her. She took a moment to process her emotions before speaking clearly and plainly as she could.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go. For days after leaving the hospital, I was wandering aimlessly in the snow. And under a ruined overpass I overheard those… raiders… talk about targeting your residence because they heard automatic gunfire coming from here. I hid well enough that they couldn’t see me. And spent the last few days trying my best to get here before they attacked to warn you all. That’s it, that’s the God’s honest truth, it’s up to you to believe it or not.”

Dean still had his suspicions, but Katherine’s words made some degree of sense. If the hospital was lost, and she was forced to abandon it alone in the snow with nowhere to go.

And she accidentally encountered raiders who weren’t aware she was eavesdropping, then it wasn’t so farfetched that she would try to warn them, not only because she’s a surgeon and she had a strong instinct for helping people, but also because she needed a place to stay.

Though she hadn’t outright said this, self-interest was the only motive Dean could trust in this brave new world. And because of that, he helped the woman to her feet and made a bold declaration.

“Alright…. I’ll take a chance and let you stay. If you’re really a trauma surgeon like you claim, we will find out very quickly whether you’re lying or not. And Lord knows we have need of someone like you. For the time being you’ll stay at my place. It’s the only location where I can monitor your movements and ensure that you don’t try to stab us in the back.”

Dean helped Katherine to her feet and escorted her to his house. All the while she stared in disbelief that she had come so far, and that she had ended up more or less under house arrest.

Still, it was better than roaming alone in the snow as a nomad, or worse…

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