THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

ten

"COULD'VE DONE with an earlier warning," Amelia grimaced as Dr Royson gently swabbed her collar bone with burning antiseptic, and the overpowering stench of the liquid made her nose wrinkle.

Luca apologetically shrugged, but his eyes were concerned. As was his way. Tina scoffed and lightly punched his arm — didn't stop him from yelping out, though.

"Hey," Royson interjected, her grey eyes sliding from the other girl to the guy. "I don't want any other casualties today." Refocusing on Amelia, she gave her a playful smile. "You'll live. Just keep that heal-pad on for the next few hours, and maybe steer clear of the engineering room and any flying spanners from now on." She gave Luca an incredulous look.

Smiling, Amelia herded her friends out of the Clinic, into the more regulated air of the dorm section. Close at hand to any sickly persons taking part in the ERAA mission, the Clinic was as smaller than most cubicles, and ready to treat injuries and headaches. The most severe harm she'd seen anyone receive was a Marine; shot in the arm.

Was that what they did for fun? She'd wondered at the time, as they airlifted him to a hospital outside of the desert. One of the few times Amelia had had the chance to finally breathe in fresh (however dry) air, a difference from the ventilated oxygen they all breathed below ground.

"I'm pretty sure she hates me," Luca sighed, crossing his arms — almost sulking. Amelia and Tina shared an eye-roll.

"Is it because she bats on the other side that you don't like her?" Tina asked, teasingly enough, but her eyebrows were raised in a challenge. "Jealous that she's hitting on Amelia?"

Amelia, who had been listening with a grin on her face, started at being mentioned in the conversation. "She wasn't hitting on me!" Her ears heated as Tina turned back to her, unimpressed.

"Okay, maybe she was a little," she conceded, looking away as Tina's gaze continued to burn into her. Anyway, what did it matter? There was no time for relationships, so close to D-day. Even though Zoey Royson was going into the K-zone, she reckoned they'd be too busy trying to survive to make out. These thoughts made her shoes seem very interesting.

Turning away from her (to Amelia's relief) Tina grinned like a shark at Luca, while he cleaned his glasses. "I'm not jealous," he muttered, a trace of what — sulk? — in his voice.

"You totally are."

"Anyway," Luca met Amelia's gaze, which remained apologetic. "I am sorry, Mel."

She shrugged his apologies off, though it hurt to do so. One advantage of training there was the advanced healing tech, like the heal-pads; soothing wide plasters that released antibodies into the affected area while applying cool gel to the skin to encourage its healing. No one could get any of that in the pharmacies of the real world. "No problem. But why were you throwing spanners around? It's not a common occurrence or practice."

Luca gave an awkward grin, though his eyes had lit up. "I know, I know — but I was busy testing the hand-eye co-ordination of the E-E-G ..." his mouth shut with an audible click, just as Tina asked:

"What's the E-E-G?"

"I can't talk about it," he replied in a mutter, and Amelia recognized that he was closing up, no longer willing to share any more words. "Highly confidential. Sorry, guys." Beginning to fluster, he gave them a nod, before retreating back down the Glass Path to the engineering room, like a startled rabbit back down his burrow.

"Huh." Amelia propped her hands on her hips, studying his refracted figure on the glass. "Technicians."

"Technicians," Tina agreed. "Now c'mon. Wanna get a bite to eat?"