The tension in the room was still there as Claire pulled up a chair and sat down next to Nate’s bed. The older woman looked worn out.

"We were part of a research outpost from Carson City. I am Claire Harmon and that is John Harrier and his daughter, Janie. Our mission in this outpost was to document plant life in the area and determines if any of the floras had properties that benefit stat, class or skill development. We lived in this temporary facility for about three months before a destroyer from Newcomb City was sent to either kill or enslave us," the woman said with sadness in her voice.

Nate considered the woman’s statement, then asked, “What’s flora?”

Even the man, John, had a dumbfounded look on his face at that question. Nate could see the puzzlement on their faces.

“What? I do not know a lot of things. I grew up in the Grey Sector of Newcomb City working in the factories. We didn’t have a whole lot of books. When I went through my awakening, they sent me out on a transport to work in the mines. A beast destroyed the transport and killed everyone except me. I have been living in the woods since."

Seeing Claire pause at his comments, the girl took over the questioning, “You were sent to work in the mines?”

She glanced at her father, “That is probably where they brought everyone else.”

The man didn’t say anything. He just sat in his chair pointing his crossbow at Nate’s face.

“Everyone else?” Nate questioned.

"We are the only ones here now but most of the others were taken. My brother went missing during the raid," Janie said.

Nate was still clueless as he looked at Claire for some more information, “Newcomb City has the reputation of destroying settlements and outposts to gather slaves. They attacked this outpost about a week ago.

When the woman said that, Nate could see a flash of anger on the man's face and his hand clenched the weapon. Newcomb City killing people and taking slaves? Nate had no idea.

He turned back to the girl and spoke, “Newcomb City takes people? I didn’t know. Those of us in the Grey Sector only work in the factories. We aren’t allowed anywhere else. When they sent me to the mines, I thought it was finally my chance to see something else.”

Nate pauses to catch his breath, his shoulder was really hurting, "I have just been trying to survive in this place since."

Nate figured the more he could talk to them, then the possibility of being released increased. He didn’t mind sharing more information about himself.

"My name is Nathanial Redsun, but most people call me Nate," Nate said introducing himself. Maybe giving his full name would help relax the people.

No one responded. The ark ward was from the silence in the room was exasperated by the fact that Nate was half-naked and tied to a bed with three other people. What point did they have to keep him?

“Why are you keeping me here? I wasn't with the people that took your people. Can you let me go or something? I will just leave and never come back," Nate asked.

"We'll see," the man said as he stood up from the chair and gestures for the two women to leave the room.

As they were walking out of the room, Nate asked another question, "What the hell is the Outsider you mentioned?"

“You don’t even know that?” Janie asked with a look on her face that almost seemed like she thought Nate was an idiot.

"Outsiders are people that live in the wilderness without the support of cities," the man said letting the crossbow sag a little.

Finally. Nate could see that something had changed.

"Because of your rugged appearance, I mistook you for one of them. They are even more vicious than those bastards from Newcomb City. When they attack an outpost, they usually just kill everyone. I couldn’t take the risk," the man responded then turned to leave.

Claire walked for the door but turned around at the last second.

“You are strapped to the bed to keep you from moving and busting your stitches again. I have to stitch it four times already. Just stay still and rest,” she said, ”Janie, finish putting up the medical supplies and get back to your quarters.”

Claire left the room while Janie stayed behind. Nate eyed the girl as she went over to a counter and began to put away some supplies. She was quite cute. Nate hadn’t been around many girls his age. There were only a few that had worked in the factories, but they were usually not given similar jobs. Nate hadn’t had much interaction with them at all.

“Tell your mom and dad that I am thankful they didn’t kill me,” Nate said to the blond-haired girl as she started putting away the medical supplies in the room. Nate would be lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to her.

“My mom?” the girl said, “Claire isn’t my mom. She’s just one of the scientists here in the lab.”

Nate didn’t quite follow, but he continued with the questioning. If he could get information

“How many of you were here before?” Nate asked.

Janie turned around and looked at Nate, “You really don’t know a lot of things, do you?”

Nate didn’t respond. The girl sighed and turned around.

“There are usually about 15 people in an outpost,” she said, “with more than that bigger beasts could get attracted. The turrets can only handle beasts below level 30.”

“This facility has underground testing rooms,” she responded, “They didn’t realize that we had escaped down here.”

“Oh,” Nate said seeing the girl finish up her task.

“I’m leaving now,” she said and immediately left the room.

Nate was once again in the room by himself.

With nothing to do but lay strapped to a bed, Nate took a moment to compose himself. He needed to focus on getting healed up. He couldn’t get away in such poor condition.

************

Two days passed quickly. Despite being in the room for so long, Nate hadn’t had much interaction with the three people. The only one that seemed somewhat nice to him was Janie, but Nate could tell most of the conversation with her was derisive. She didn’t want to go into much detail during her conversations. Nate didn’t think she was holding back information. She just didn’t like explaining simple things to Nate.

*************

Two more days passed. Nate was still strapped to the bed. While he’s he was still basically held against his will, he had been well taken care of.

Claire entered the room for his daily checkup. She looked over his wound with some surprise on her face. Claire routinely visited to check on his wounds and provide him some medical treatment. She had even given him a few medicines to take that had improved his state considerably. He wasn’t at full strength yet, but he could tell that he wasn’t far off. I need to get some of those medicines for myself.

“You are practically healed now,” she said, “You must have some serious recovery abilities. People don’t usually heal this fast.”

Nate considered for a second, then spoke, “I don’t have any skills that help with healing, but I do have [Bleeding Resistance] at Level 25. It helps.”

Claire looked at Nate for a moment. Then, she said, “That’s pretty high. I don’t think I have seen anyone with it over Level 20.”

“Let’s get those stitches removed then,” she said as she took out a few tools.

“Do you think that I could get these straps removed after that?” he asked.

“I’ll have to talk to John. He doesn’t seem to trust you a whole lot. That idiot thinks you will kill us in our sleep or something. I would have taken off the straps yesterday if it wasn’t for him,” Claire said continuing with her work.

“All done,” she said, “you should be ready to go. I’ll go talk to John now. Maybe he could let you at least move around a bit. I am getting tired of changing your bedpan.”

As he was left strapped to the bed in the room by himself, he thought that he was being stupid. He was trying to be nice to these people in hopes of getting to go back to his cave. While they had taken care of him, they had also shot him and taken him prisoner. He needed to treat these people like any beast in the wild. A beast would not let you go, you had to get away from them on your own. He didn't need to wait for them.

The door opened again about an hour later. Claire came into the room with an angry look on her face. John followed behind with his crossbow at the ready.

"We have decided to let you go. But you have to leave this facility," the woman said setting Nate's clothes on the bed. She then moved to undo the straps that held Nate to the bed. While Nate was excited of getting the straps removed, he was also very aware that John had his crossbow at his shoulder pointed at Nate's head.

"Get dressed," John said as Claire backed out of the room. The man didn't leave but Nate didn't care. He dressed pretty quickly. He was eager to get out of this place.

After he slid on his patches up shirt, the man spoke again,” Put this over your eyes."

"What? Where is my stuff," Nate asked confused.

"Put the blindfold on, now," John ordered.

Nate followed along with the order and put on the blindfold. He had understood earlier that he must be in some sort of hidden location. He had spent most of the day before sorting through the buildings for supplies and hadn't found anything similar to the clean condition of this room. He knew that it was below the main facility, but he didn’t know how to access the space. He doesn’t want me to know how to get to where they are at.

After blindfolding himself, Nate was pulled forward and through the door. The hand that grabbed him wasn’t John’s. By Nate’s guess, it was Claire.

Despite the blindfold, Nate was more than aware of how he was being led around the facility. Either they are stupid or they don't understand that he could perceive things around him. He was only lead forward through two more rooms before he heard some mechanical noises and felt the space around him move. Elevator. Nate instantly recognized the feeling. The elevator didn't move for long. Maybe one or two floors. Nate was very familiar with elevators from his time in the factories. The jostle of the elevator stopping was immediately followed by the opening of a door. Nate was led out of the door. Instantly he could tell he was back in a damaged facility building.

After a minute of being led around various areas of the facility, John told Nate he could take the blindfold off and leave. As Nate took the blindfold off, he could tell he was in the open area at the center of the facility. He could see the woods off to his left side.

Seeing Janie standing near him, Nate could see the girl holding his backpack. His spear and bow were in Claire’s hands. Janie sat the backpack on the ground and stepped behind her dad. John had the crossbow pointed at Nate the entire time.

"Where are my knife?" Nate asked seeing that some of his belongings were missing.

“Oh,” Claire said, “I forgot it inside.”

“I need my knife to survive. Can you go get?” Nate asked.

“Claire, go get the knife, but hurry up,” John said. He never took the crossbow off of Nate.

Claire took off running toward one of the buildings. Nate watched her go as she disappeared from his sight.

“You should just leave now,” John said to Nate. His finger was near the crossbow trigger. Maybe he is looking for a reason to shoot me. Seeing that the man didn’t want to wait for Claire to get back, Nate moved forward to pickup his spear and bow. If he had a weapon, he would at least feel better.

“Don’t. Leave them,” John said moving closer to the weapons. Janie stayed behind him as he moved.

Do they think that I am going to attack them? A feeling of unease fell over him. He began to get anxious.

[‘Survivor’s Awareness’ has increased to Level 19]

The alert just increased his anxiety.

"How the hell can I move on with nothing to protect myself?" Nate said as his worry sounding in his voice.

"Out here without any protection, I'll just die," Nate responded as he saw Claire exit one of the buildings with his knife in hand. He smiled as he saw her running his way. Just in time.

“Just let me get my stuff and....,” Nate was saying as he was interrupted by the sound of something whizzing through the air.