My breathing remained heavy even as I hesitantly placed the scissors back down. My hand fell to the ground, empty and utterly vulnerable.

The man let out a sigh of relief before he finally moved closer to me. He reached out his hand, hesitating for a second, before touching my arm. With a steady grip, he helped me back onto the bed. While the compulsion to snatch my arm away from him was there, I restrained myself from doing so.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice now softer and shoulders relaxed as he knelt on one knee to meet me at eye level. “You’ve been asleep for a while now. I was starting to get worried about you.”

With my vision finally becoming clearer, I could now see the creases underneath his eyes and unshaven hair etched along his jaw. It was a clear sign of weariness that aged him. But there was also a strange look of concern I could make out on his face, although I was unsure why he was looking at me like that.

Without my gun, my fingers instead gripped the bedsheets harder. I didn’t recognize anyone in the room or where I was. I didn’t even know how I’d gotten here or what was happening. I hated not knowing any of that.

“Where am I?” I finally asked when a sharp soreness rooted deep in my throat suddenly rose. But I ignored it. I couldn't allow myself to worry about it with the rather precarious situation I found myself in.

“You’re at a military hospital over in Vergissmeinnicht." He offered a smile, but that hardly did anything to soothe my apprehension.

“Vergissmeinnicht?”

The word was familiar. It was the place where the soldiers with the ragged green uniforms came from. Along with several others, they were the ones the commander had labelled as 'the enemy,' to see as less than human and treated as such.

But that also meant that this man was not one of my superiors, which brought into question just what I was doing here.

Was I kidnapped? Held prisoner? Just what did this man want from me if not for some nefarious motive like wanting my organs? But surely not...

“That’s right,” he said, his voice strangely soft. “We were retrieving people after the battle, and I found you in the pile of those bodies still very much alive. It was difficult, but I managed to bring you back here.”

I stared at him as I felt rather… confused. Perhaps baffled? I tried to think of a rational reason for this man to have done such a thing, but there was none. At least none that seemed reasonable to me. Was he sane? Did he not realize that I was the enemy?

Or maybe he did want one of my organs after all.

“It’s been around half a year since then. You had a few nasty wounds, but you healed up quicker than I thought,” he said, his eyes drifting across my face. "Though you were stuck in a coma during all that time, it seems like you’re all right now.”

A coma? Well, that explained the soreness at least. When I looked down, I found myself in a loose hospital gown with a string of bandages wrapped around my arms—likely done by fools considering what a waste it was to use those bandages on me. At this point, my skin was completely bare of scars or any remnants of bullets.

“Oh, I completely forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I? My name is Edwin Davis, but most call me Davis," he said with a half-smile, his eyes still focusing on me—studying me—with a gentle curiosity. “And what would your name be, Miss?”

I paused, my eyebrows narrowing as I tried to think of a suitable response. The most common thing that I was called was ‘it,’ of course, that’s if I excluded the curses. However, with my small knowledge of typical names, I was doubtful that ‘it’ constituted one.

“I don’t know.”

He arched his eyebrow upward. “You don’t know?”

“They never gave me one.”

“They,” he scowled, disdain rising on his face. “Those bastards that brought a child into war didn’t even bother to give you a name.” He took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. “Well, do you at least remember anything about yourself? Maybe before the war?”

“No, I don’t.”

A time before the war was not something I knew of, let alone entertained myself with. And there was no point loitering on something so unimportant now.

“Then I’m guessing you don’t know where you got the whole regeneration thing from either then.”

Regeneration.

That’s what they called it. That was the reason I was brought into the war. Some called it a miracle, others said it was a disease. And I, the one carrying this disease-ridden miracle, was referred to as nothing more than a weapon, sometimes filth or rather the soldier that refused to die.

But the truth was I still bled like a human, hurt like a human, and even looked like a human. In every regard, I was human except for the fact I could not seem to die like one.

And the things they forced me to do because of that.

“I don’t know.”

“I see,” he sighed, looking at me with a mix of disappointment and pity. I was starting to hate that look. “I’d heard rumours about some kid in the war that supposedly wouldn’t die no matter how many bullets you shot at her.”

His fist clenched, almost shaking as he continued. “But, I didn’t believe it until I saw you lying there abandoned for dead. Hell, I thought you were dead until I saw your skin starting to grow back.” He took another deep breath before meeting my eyes again. “Look, I know that sort of thing would be hard to think about, but if you ever wanted to talk about it—"

“That’s unnecessary,” I cut him off, my jaw clenching again. His eyes widened, appearing genuinely taken aback by the sudden harshness in my voice. But, I saw no reason to discuss a war that was long over. That past no longer held any relevance. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Sorry?”

I finally raised my head again, my eyes meeting his as I repeated the question slower for him. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to just leave you there, was I? How could I after what those people did to you—”

“No, that’s not what I asked.” My eyes pierced into his, trying to discern anything in his expression that might reveal his genuine motive instead of the half-baked one he was pleading. “Why would you bother? You and I both know I didn’t need to be brought to a hospital. It was a waste of your time and—”

“Hey, don’t say that!” he snapped, a harsh defensiveness taking over. “I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I didn’t do something. What kind of person would I be to leave a child alone there?”

A loud silence filled the room following his mild outburst with only the sound of his heavy breathing interrupting that quiet.

It was strange. I had never met someone so utterly emotional over me.

“Eighteen.”

“What?” He looked at me, eyes narrowed.

“They estimated that I was around ten or eleven when the war first started. That would mean I’m at least eighteen now,” I explained. “Which would make me an adult, not a child.”

Davis stared at me for a moment with this blank expression, looking rather dumbfounded. With his wide eyes and open mouth, he almost reminded me of those fish that would just gape at you idiotically after being slaughtered.

“I should’ve known you would be a strange one,” he said with a lighthearted chuckle.

I was about to ask what he meant by that, but before I could, he turned to face the woman who'd been standing by the door the entire time, quietly listening to the conversation. “Liz, could you bring us some clothes?” he asked her, before turning back to me, a smile creeping onto his face. “I’m going to be looking after you from now on. I hope you don’t mind that.”

“Is that an order?”

He paused. “No, I just want to ensure you’re going to be all right.”

“And what makes you think I need you to look after me?”

This man was being rather presumptuous. He may have ‘saved’ me, but did he honestly assume I would just go along with whatever he had in mind?

“Look, no one besides the three of us here knows who you are,” he said as his tone grew serious, “and no one needs to. All I want is to help you out for a bit.”

And what was the point of that? I didn’t have much use outside of war. Even if I could find one, this man appeared more trouble than he was worth and most people wouldn't help someone like this without an ulterior motive.

“While you were asleep, I arranged for some documents to be made for you. You’ll be allowed to live and work here. I even have a place for you to stay while we finalize that, and if you still want to leave after that, I won’t stop you.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but I could at least recognize that what this man was offering me was in my best interest. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I was deep in a foreign territory now.

From what I knew, Vergissmeinnicht was an island nation off the main coast of the continent. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely confident of my ability to swim across the channel. Drowning, I found, was not a pleasant way to die. And either way, I certainly had no intention of returning back to them.

“Fine, I’ll go.”

“Great! We’re going to be leaving for Haaften soon.”

Wait. We’re going where now?