Revenant Slaves Chapter 14: Chapter 13 Zain

Read chapter 14 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Chapter 13 Zain Zain took a few painkillers. He hadn’t moved from the couch in a while. ‘That was pretty stupid,’ he thought as a big sigh escaped his mouth. He shouldn’t have spooked Ash like that. He really wasn’t good at making friends his age. Negotiation tactics and torture training hadn’t prepared him for this aspect of the mission. ‘Of course he’d be angry! You look like a lunatic to him. So what if you saved his friend, treated his wounds, and in return broke your leg trying to save him?’ He breathed another sigh. People like Ash were supposed to be easy to deal with. They had suffered so much throughout their lives that any helping hand would seem like the greatest miracle to them. But it seemed to have just the opposite effect on Ash. He just wouldn’t let his guard down around him. Zain couldn’t really fault Ash for this, though. He still hadn’t revealed his real name to him. Which was why his thoughts about trust were a little hypocritical. Zain tried moving from the sofa again. “AH!” The painkillers still hadn’t kicked in. He hoped it wasn’t as bad as it hurt. This was a long campaign, and he couldn’t allow himself to get disabled like that. To be fair, this was all Maya’s fault. Why had she been so insistent that he not be included in active missions for so long? That was the reason he had spent close to five years constantly in space, and why he had such brittle bones now. Even though Maya herself was a spacer like him, she had taken frequent enough trips down gravity wells and had been on bone-density packages long enough for her body to acclimate to being planet-side. ‘Where are you, Maya? Please make it back soon.’ Zain lay flat on the sofa. It would do him good to get a little shut-eye. He set a two-hour timer on his HPC and closed his eyes. What awoke him wasn’t the timer going off but a child’s panicked screams. They were coming from the room where Ash and Miru were. The girl seemed to have woken up. ‘Poor thing!’ Zain thought. It had been a good idea to sedate her. At least they were relatively safe here. Relatively being the keyword. The girl must be in terrible pain and would have woken up in absolute darkness. Zain could hear Ash trying to calm her down from inside. He wondered if he should get up and offer a helping hand when another distant scream came, followed by another, then another. All of these were coming from different directions. It seemed the thin line between trust in the system and watching its total failure had been precariously balanced all night, and Miru’s scream triggered a cascade of panic everywhere. ‘Hmm, interesting. I will have to discuss it with the Imam once we get back to the ship.’ Zain looked at the time on his HPC. Well, it had been nearly three hours since the power went down, and most of these people might never have seen a blackout. It had been long enough for panic to take root. Mortrum’s environment was a serious threat to any panicked gathering. The rain presented a very real danger. If it hadn’t been for the constant rains, most of the city dwellers might well have been on the streets by now. There were people shouting, kids crying, and all sorts of noise in the air. All that from one scream? Zain had thought the rooms had better insulation for that. He made a mental note. This was another thing he had failed to account for. A man who didn’t learn from his failures was often prone to repeating them. Zain tuned out the chaos for now. His concern was for Miru; he could hear her crying from inside. He opened the medicine box again, fetching fresh bandages with anti-inflammatory properties and some strong painkillers. Making his way to Miru’s temporary room, Zain gently knocked on the door. It prompted another startled yelp from her. He heard Ash comforting her again, then a call from inside. “Everything is under control, Xander. She was just startled. Don’t worry, she won’t make any more noise.” Zain felt a pang of guilt hearing Ash’s words. “That's not why I came. I tr