I jerked awake to pounding at my door. I took a deep breath and climbed slowly to my feet, stretching. I felt my back pop before making my way across the small room to open the door, knowing it'd be Grant, looking to get off.
I pulled the door open and was surprised to see not only Grant, but also Ben, another head guard. Between them they dragged an unconscious man, his head hung limply forward.
"What the fuck." I whispered in shock.
Grant shoved me out of the way, as they pushed their way in "About fucking time."
I stared in shock as they dragged the man onto my bed, "Why have you brought him here instead of the infirmary?"
"He's just come through the gate, he killed two of our men on the common road, I want him alive for the arena."
"That doesn't answer my question!" I complained.
"Shut the fuck up and fix him!" Grant shouted, grabbing me by the front of my vest and shoving me towards the bed. I gritted my teeth and reached beneath the bed, pulling out my kit and began cutting away the man's shorts, that's where the bloodstain was so I thought it best to start there. There was a gash rounding from his right hip to his inner thigh. It wasn't particularly deep, but it was several inches long.
"It's not too bad, if someone had bandaged him last night, he'd be conscious now. He's lost a ton of blood but, he should be okay."
Grant gave a bored nod, "As long as he can stand in the arena, I don't give a fuck." He reached down and cuffed the man's hands to the bed, he saw my eyes linger on this, "You'll be fine." He said throwing the key at me, "Come on Ben, I need a drink."
Grant was a dick, but I learnt long ago there was little point in arguing with a guard with a superiority complex. The door shut behind them, leaving me alone with my new patient.
I remained calm and in control as my adrenaline took hold. Squinting in the light from the single hanging bulb, I got to work and immediately began to clean the affected area, cutting away his filthy shorts before deftly stitching the cut closed and dousing it with alcohol. He was so out of it, he didn't react at all, which had me slightly worried, I didn't want the blame for this guy not making it to morning. I propped his knee up so that I could place a sterile gauze over the top and hold it in place by wrapping a bandage around it. I was sliding a pillow beneath his head when my hands began to shake, the adrenaline had begun leaching from my body. I lifted the man's head slightly and poured water into his mouth, relieved when he gave a slight cough. I looked him over, he was filthy. He must have been travelling through the grey-wastes for over a week.
With little else to do, I crossed my small room and took the pot of water from the stove, dipping my finger in to test the temperature. It was still lukewarm, perfect. Placing it beside the man, I soaked a cloth and used it to wipe the dust and dirt from his face. I was surprised to see he was only a few years older than me, no older than thirty. Once clean, I could make out his handsome features, prominent straight nose, strong jaw and high cheekbones. His hair was black and cut close to his head.
His clothes were literally in tatters, he'd be needing new ones. Knowing that the ones he was wearing weren't fit for purpose, I quickly cut them from his body, so I could continue to clean him. He had a tight muscular frame with black hair that covered his chest and tapered off toward his bellybutton, before meeting his crotch. Once the front of him was sufficiently clean I emptied and warmed fresh water before hauling him onto his side, to clean his back. Once done I rolled him back into his original position and placed a blanket over him.
With nothing else to do I plopped myself back into my chair and continued reading one of the many medical books I'd inherited from my mother.
Before she'd passed, she'd been the block's best doctor and I'd spent 21 years learning from her; that now made me one of the best. It didn't come with many perks, except for the fact that most people weren't stupid enough to kill the person who could stitch them back together again. Especially when bodies turned up in Salvation almost daily. Salvation, the irony. Maybe our block had once been the salvation people needed, but now it was a stinking hell hole.
It was several hours later, and the sun was beginning to peak above the grey-wastes when I was woken by another knock at the door, my stomach dropped slightly, knowing that knock. As I opened it Grant walked in. Alone this time, and threw himself onto the chair I'd just been occupying, "You sort him out?" He questioned, with a jerk of his head to the man in my bed. I nodded, knowing that he wasn't here for that, he didn't care about the man I'd just saved. He only cared that the barbaric Arena would have contestants. He came here after alone for one thing.
As if on cue he began unbuckling his stained cargo pants, dropping them to the ground before pulling down the waistband of his underwear revealing his cock from beneath them. I knew there was no point in arguing, we'd been here before. He'd politely point out that my medical skills only kept me alive, and that it was him that kept others away. I knew that was true, no one had tried to force themselves onto me for a long time, so I'd decided long ago it was better to be used by Grant rather than anyone stronger than me. My mum always said my face would get me into trouble one day, not that I believed her, I always thought I looked a bit weird, too pale, too skinny, with a bony face. I did like my green eyes though; they were cool.
Grant waved his cock at me expectantly, so I dropped to my knees and took it into my mouth.
Grant pushed his now softening dick back into his shorts, climbed to his feet and jerked his head to the man again, "Keep the cuffs on him." I nodded as the door shut behind him and immediately went straight to the sink to wash his taste from my mouth, before curling up beneath a blanket on my chair, and falling back to sleep.
When I woke, I checked on my patient, poured some water into his mouth causing him to cough again and his eyes to flutter open. "Hi. I'm Noah. Can you hear me?" He nodded ever so slightly and opened his eyes to meet mine, they were a very dark brown, practically black. "Can you tell me your name?" He opened his mouth, and a croak escaped it. I lifted his head forward slightly encouraging him to drink more water.
"Re- my name is Ren" he croaked quietly.
"You were injured. Do you remember what happened?"
He nodded, "Someone attacked us, I was cut." He gestured to his wound.
"I've stitched it now, but from what I hear, you attacked them." I didn't particularly care that he'd killed two of our guards, they were just as dangerous for me to be around as this man, I was just stating the obvious.
To my surprised he let out an amused huff, "I attacked? That's their story, is it?" He closed his eyes again, exhaustion taking over.
There was a small knock on the door, I opened it and a small child said, "Grant said to check on the others that came in last night. They're in the cell."
Thanking the child, I shut the door and began collecting my things, I moved the water to within Ren's reach and pulled on my shoes, threw my medical bag over my shoulder and headed out into the hall, locking the door behind me. The stench from the hall forced me to breathe through my mouth as I walked through the communal area and out into daylight, towards the town square. I passed the same dilapidated buildings and drug addicts I always did, while being careful to avoid the most dangerous roads. Salvation like all blocks was a walled community that kept us safe from raids and attacks by Ravers; nomads that lived in the ruins of the old cities. At least Salvation was better than being a Raver.
As I opened the door to the jail, I saw two men and a woman inside the cell, and on the outside of the cell, Sam; the on duty guard sat in the corner of the room, absent minded, spinning a gun on the table in front of him. "Hey Sam, Grant sent me to check them out."
"He did? Cool, I need a piss." and with that he walked out. Beside the chair Sam had been sitting in was a long thin sword and several daggers and guns, I wondered what Ren had used to kill the guards. "Hello, I'm Noah. Do any of you have any injuries." A black guy with inch long braids on the top of his head stepped up to the bars.
"I have a cut on my shoulder" he explained. He was tall, a few inches over 6 foot, his shoulders were broad, and his body tapered down to his narrow waist, his eyes were large and round and black stubble spread across his jaw. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties, the others were closer to 20.
"Wanna take your shirt off and gimmie a look?" I offered. He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his smooth black, muscular chest. Before turning and putting his back to me. "Doesn't look like it needs stitches. I'll give it a clean and cover it to prevent an infection though. Which one of you owns that awesome sword" I asked to fill the silence.
"Me," he answered, "Well kind of, it's my brothers but you're right it's awesome." As I got to work patching him up, he introduced himself as Akeem "This is Aria and Elijah."
"Nice to meet you all. I'm Noah. I treated your friend Ren last night." That was met with a torrent of questions from the three of them, asking if he was okay, if they could see him. "He should be okay, nasty cut, but I think I got there in time."
Akeem leant through the bars to grasp my shoulder. "Thank you, man."
"Do you know why we're in here?" asked Aria. "Well, I was told you killed two guards." I replied awkwardly.
"Well Ren did, but they were trying to rape Aria." said Elijah jumping to the defence.
"That doesn't surprise me. Do you need any medical help?" I asked her softly.
"I'm okay. Thanks to Ren. He got there in time, but then they surrounded us."
Elijah then added, "We were on the common road, we didn't break any rules, your people attacked us."
I put my hands up, "Woah. I just live here, they're not my people. Why were you on the road?"
Akeem looked between the others and then replied, "About a decade ago, my father and brother found a water supply that survived the bombs, with somewhat fertile soil. So, we headed out there with a small group of friends and started a brand-new block, one with rules and order. Before the wars our grandfather was an engineer, he taught my dad everything he knew and then he taught me and my brother. I head to different communities to recruit like-minded people to continue its growth. That's how I met Aria and Elijah here, and Ren too." The place sounded too good to be true, which meant it was. However, I usually had a good sense of people after talking to them and none of them, not even Ren, who'd killed two men the previous night, gave me the same psycho vibes that most of Salvation gave me.
Sam strolled back into the room 20 minutes after he'd first left, "That was quite some piss," I laughed, "Anyway see ya, I leant forward to Akeem, "This place you're heading to... keep it to yourselves."
I headed back to my apartment, witnessing several arguments and fights along the way. This was the world now, law and order existed only in books. And if by some miracle this magical place did exist, they shouldn't go blabbing about it to just anyone.
As I pushed open my door, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ren was sitting cross legged on the bed, with the blanket across his legs, his muscular torso bare, "Sorry, I had to cut off your clothes. You look better",
"I feel better, just tired."
"I'm not surprised, blood loss will do that to you, but I was expecting you to be out of it for several days. I'll fix you something to eat."
I used my weekly rations to make chicken with potatoes which Ren gratefully accepted. I had to explain for the second time that day that him being treated like a criminal was nothing to do with me. "What's your role in your block?" I asked to change the subject.
"Guard. But I'm not a dick like your guards. Honest." He laughed.
We talked for the next hour about his travels through the grey-wastes. It had sounded like hell. "Did you really kill two guards last night?" I asked.
"Yes. Buy they deserved it." he stated.
"I heard what they tried to do to Aria. Yeah, they deserved it." I admitted.
20 minutes later Ren had convinced me to cuff his hands together instead of to the bed so that he could use the shower. A small voice at the back of my head berated me for being so careless but instead of stopping I found myself warning, "The water is like, warm at best." As I cuffed his hands back together.
"After a week out there, I'd bathe in ice water."
I passed him my towel to cover himself, "Take the dressing off, and I'll change it afterwards for you." While he showered, I dug through my drawers to find him something to wear, settling on black tracksuit bottoms so it was loose on his wound and a black vest.
He emerged from the bathroom a short while later, the towel tied around his waist. He strolled confidently into the room and sat on the bed, repositioning the towel so that his cut was visible, and his crotch was hidden. I couldn't help noticing the way the water droplets caught to the dark hair across his chest
"The stitching is so neat. Thank you, Noah." he said sincerely. I crouched between his open legs to look at my handiwork, there were no signs of infection. I used the towel to gently blot the area dry and began covering it. "I wasn't as filthy as I was expecting" Ren said as he looked down on me working.
I laughed "You were, I washed you. Don't worry, I didn't cop a feel". He chuckled at that, and I was surprised to feel myself smile.
"Good. I'd like to be awake for that." He teased, I was suddenly overly aware that he was staring down at me with his legs splayed open, while openly flirting. As I went about redressing the cut, his cock filled out beneath the towel to the point neither of us could continue to ignore it, "Sorry, it's been a while and to be fair you're practically breathing on it."
I laughed shooting back, "I'm surprised you even have enough blood to fill it. All done, I got you some clothes." I stood back up and passed him the clothes. He dropped the towel and stood up revealing his hard cock. He saw me looking, smiled and shrugged
"Well since you'd already seen it." I rolled my eye laughing and looked away, surprise at home drawn I felt to him, how comfortable he was making me feel.
After pulling on the clothes, he stretched "I'm actually beginning to feel quite dizzy again." I got him to lie back in the bed and gave him some painkillers, "Thanks Noah, you're one of the good ones." Within minutes he was asleep.
An hour later there was a familiar knock on the door, as Grant walked in, he asked "He told you anything?"
"No." I lied. Why was I lying? "I've barely gotten more than a murmur."
I hadn't even finished speaking and his dick was out, without a word I leant forward and began sucking it, after a few short minutes he pulled me to my feet, span me around and began pushing me towards the old sofa. "Grant, he might wake up." I tried to reason.
"I don't give a fuck, now drop your pants." Disgust boiled in my stomach as I heard the cap of lube pop and felt his slicked fingers pushing roughly inside of me before he replaced them with the blunt tip of his cock, thrusting roughly inside. He made no effort to keep his voice down, luckily the painkillers would help keep Ren asleep, but I resolutely did not even glance towards my bed terrified that Ren was witnessing my humiliation. It didn't last long, if I stayed still, it never did. I gritted my teeth and once he was finished, he dressed and left without a word.
The moment the doors shut behind him, I jumped into the shower and washed myself clean. I fucking hated Grant.