“Now Doctor Savage, before I let you have a seat there is one personal inquiry I have.” Mr. Smiley flashed his white teeth as he walked up to Jack. “During your time in prison, were you aware of the events occurring in the outside world?”
“No,” replied Jack simply.
-
Jack was certain he was dreaming. As he ran alongside Hunter, clutching a shotgun in his hand, Jack felt free for the first time in years. However, as he ran towards the sounds of gunfire and fighting, Jack began to question how long his escape would last. Dashing over bodies and rubble the duo made their way from corridor to corridor; following a path that only hunter seemed to know. All at once, Hunter stopped at an intersection. Motioning down the hall, he began giving orders to Jack. “I’ll go up ahead, kill off the Locusts, and make sure the evac is ready. You will go down the other hall, take your first two lefts, then go down about fifty feet. My man is wounded and needs medical attention. I hope to god you haven’t lost your touch.”
Hunter took off towards the sound of gunfire. Immediately Jack began to follow his orders, running down the hall as he held his shotgun close to his body. The running gave him time to evaluate his situation. Hunter, a man he had worked on years before, had come back to break him out of his isolation. Turning the first corner, Jack wondered what twist of fate had forced Hunter to break him out, and what had happened to the world. As Jack turned the second corner he began to hear the sound of a man crying out in pain. But this was not the sound of a battle hardened soldier like Jack was used to, this was the sound of a youth, a scared youth who had been deserted in the middle of a combat situation. As Jack rounded the corner he saw the youth, a twenty year old skinny man painfully resting on his back. A pool of blood surrounded his leg. As Jack sprinted down the hall to the youth all of his medical training came flooding back to him. “Hey kid, what happened?”
The youth tried to sit up, but fell back down as he cringed from the pain. “What do you think happened? I was shot in my god damn leg!”
As the youth continued to shout at Jack, calling him a blind imbecile, Jack ripped his shirt off and tied it around the bleeding leg. The bullet was a clean shot strait through, but the leg was still bleeding. “Hey, you got any bullets on you?”
The youth stopped yelling for a few moments, bewildered by Jacks question. “Yeah, pocket on the right. Why do you need bullets though?”
Jack grabbed a gun out of the pocket, also finding a match which he took, removing the bullets as he grabbed two pieces of wood. Putting one piece of wood in the youth’s jaws he covered the other piece with gunpowder from the bullets. “Bite,” was Jack’s simple command. With that he lit the match and set the gunpowder on fire. Waiting a second for the initial burst of flame to die down, Jack stuck the flaming piece of wood into the youth’s leg.
There were a few minutes of screaming that followed.
“Why in God’s name did you do that? Where is the fucking medic! I need a real doctor.”
“Listen kid, I needed to cauterize the wound, at least now you won’t bleed out. And later I’ll get you patched up for real.”
“I don’t want you coming anywhere near me until you shave.”
For the first time in three years Jack touched his face and realized his normally cleanly shaven face was covered with a beard. Three years in a prison cell can do that to a guy. Jack suddenly burst out laughing. Three years of isolation had almost driven him insane, and finally, from one simple, cynical joke, Jack realized he wasn’t alone anymore. As the youth stared up to the scruffy, hysteric man who had just burned him, he strangely didn’t feel afraid. There was something about this man, something that made him confident things would be ok. Jack broke from his laughter. “Ha, sorry, I’ve been locked up for god knows how long. Name’s Jack. And how did you get in this prison.”
The youth looked up at him. “I’m Philip. And I came here because Hunter thinks you can change things.”
Jack was bewildered. “I don’t think I can change much, other than a few patch jobs here and there.”
Philip stared at Jack for a few minutes as Jack realised he had said something wrong. “You really don’t know what happened, do you?”
-
Jack looked directly at Mr. Smiley as he got up. “When I escaped from prison, I had no idea the shit I was getting into.”
