Arlan opened his eyes abruptly and tried to get up, only to have his whole body react with signs of pain that forced him to lie down again, grunting with discomfort.
Understanding that he had to be more careful, he tried to move his body again and managed to get comfortable enough to look around.
'Where am I? A hospital?... No, this looks like a common area'
Around him, there were dozens of beds arranged symmetrically with people sleeping in them.
The place he was in seemed to have the space of an average gymnasium, enough space to hold that many beds.
Although it seemed to be night, as all the people seemed to be sleeping, there were still some sources of light to help him make things out.
Suddenly remembering something important, Arlan reached out with some effort to touch the side of his leg. There he felt something hard, which helped him relax.
Arlan rolled up his pants under the covers and pulled out an eight-inch black knife he had hidden.
He had hidden it because he was not supposed to have a weapon, the supposed job for which Arlan had come to this island was a democratic mission. So, he could appear hostile by carrying a weapon.
'Allete...what happened before?'
Arlan remembered the accident and how he had been knocked unconscious by blood loss. His first thought was of Allete, as he was unaware of her condition, but instead of worrying about her, Arlan felt the need to know where he was.
Rising silently, Arlan tried not to grunt in pain with every move he made. His arm was bandaged and held in place by a band around his neck, and he felt that several of his ribs were broken.
He had never broken a rib before, but if Arlan had to guess what was causing the pain, it was definitely this one.
Slowly and carefully, so as not to aggravate his already serious injuries, he sat up and began to walk around the place.
Looking at the sleeping people, Arlan noticed that many of them seemed to be injured like him. Some more or less, but the vast majority were in such a state.
As quietly as he could, and without lifting anyone, Arlan crossed the square and reached a lighted corridor. The walls and floor of the corridor were made of concrete and the doors of thick metal.
Only the door to the room he had just left was half a meter thick and had a lock only on the inside of the room, making it impossible to open from the outside.
Looking around, Arlan felt his stomach growl loudly and began to notice the hunger he had been ignoring.
'I must have been asleep for at least a couple of days'
Considering how hungry he was, Arlan guessed that his injuries had kept him in bed for quite some time.
Now he had another excuse to investigate and find something to eat.
Arlan continued walking through the corridor, which was strangely empty, but after a while of walking through the labyrinth-like place, he began to hear voices in the distance.
Arlan approached the source of the voices and noticed that there was an open door at the end of the corridor.
Approaching it very slowly, Arlan leaned against the edge of the door and listened to the conversation going on inside.
"I'm telling you, we have to find that!" a woman shouted in obvious annoyance.
There was a loud bang, as if someone had banged a table, and then a shout from a man.
"My men are not going to die in vain looking for something that doesn't exist!"
There was another bang on the table and the woman screamed again.
"If we don't find it, we will all die!"
"You are trusting the words of a stranger!" the man shouted loudly, and then everyone fell silent again.
A long sigh was heard, and the woman spoke again, this time more quietly.
"We don't have much of a choice, either we get out of here or we wait to starve to death"
After a few seconds of complete silence, a third voice was heard, that of a man whom Arlan guessed to be someone of advanced age from the edge of his voice.
"We should think about this with a rested head, I suggest we leave this meeting for tomorrow"
"I agree, let's continue this tomorrow..." the military man agreed.
Seeing that the meeting was about to end, Arlan decided it was time to leave. But just as he was about to leave, a hand came out of the room and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, preventing him from leaving.
'Shit...'
"Looks like we have a visitor" the man said, watching Arlan with a disdainful look.
The man had short black hair and an unshaven beard a few days old. He wore a green military uniform with several insignia on his chest and a semi-automatic rifle on his back.
Soon a woman in an elegant red dress came out to see what was going on, followed by an old man in a lab coat.
The woman looked at Arlan with sharp eyes, inspecting him up and down.
"I don't know him, he must be new"
The military man studied him too, and after a short inspection opened his eyes slightly, as if he remembered something.
"He's the Fisher's"
The woman narrowed her eyes even more.
"The ones from the plane? but why would they send a child?"
The old man stood silently back and yawned softly, it was clear from his face that he didn't care about anything that was going on.
"What are you doing here?" the military man asked, ignoring the woman's questions.
Arlan's mind worked as fast as it could to find a way to make them both happy, but the only thing that came to his mind was the pain in his stomach.
"I... uh...was hungry?"