Outfit

Everyone is the same; no one thinks for themselves.

-01.18.102,012

Nia could do nothing but stare in wonder as the number on the screen quickly increased. It started from Level 00 and was quickly making its way up. When it was at level 236 she began to panic. It was only fifty levels away and she was not prepared for what may happen.

The first thought that came to Nia’s mind was that it was a mission, but that was quickly shut down. A long time back there were routine missions to the lower levels. To try and see if the people could go back down, but there was never any good news.  After some time, the missions were cancelled and hope of going back was lost.

They always came back drenched; if they came back at all.

Next, Nia thought that maybe, just maybe, it was some kids trying to have some fun. That idea was also crushed when she remembered that the council had locked all level buttons 100 and under in every elevator. Another idea nixed without a second thought.

Beginning to have a possible panic attack Nia froze as a sudden ‘ding’ was heard. Slow as possible she turned her gaze from the control panel to the doors. Nia waited with baited breath simply hoping not to die in the next few moments. When the doors finally opened they let out a puff of dust showing that they really hadn’t been used recently.

“What the hell? Why is it opening?” Cried a deep voice, most obviously male and angry by the sound of it. It was joined by another frantic voice claiming not to know. “Well fix it! We need to get Tao help before he bleeds out!” The first voice continued yelling as the second one continues trying to reason with the first one.

Upon the doors fully opening Nia saw what looked like a crime scene. Males covered in blood, three more so than the rest, stood inside having an obviously heated argument. One of them was only upright with the help of two others and didn’t even look conscious.

Noticing that the doors had opened the males turned their attention to her as she stood right at the entrance. Nia felt like they could burn her with the intensity of their gazes. Her gaze however was focused on the young male who looked to be passed out and was most likely the one that the first voice was talking about bleeding out.

“Please, please help us!” One of the males that was helping the injured one cried looking at Nia. She could only look on in horror at the scene in front of her. “Quickly please, he is dying.” The male continued his voice deluding into a soft whimper as his pleas for help fell from his lips onto Nia’s ears.

Just looking at the group of males before her she could easily say they were from nowhere she had ever been before. They looked like they had been rolling in the fields that were meant to grow plants. Their clothes were also so ugly she wouldn’t wish them on her worste enemy.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help?” The tallest male, and first voice, questioned. “Listen, if you aren’t going to help then let us go find one of your healers.” He hissed moving to hit a button.

Almost as if something had snapped inside her, Nia thoughtlessly reached out and slapped his hand away before climbing in and pushed the button to close the door before doing the same to the button for her floor. If they were found they would be in big trouble. They came up from the Level 00 without any gear. It was a well known fact that you needed at least a rebreather to go to any level below 150, let alone Level 00.

Obviously there was something wrong with the males. The council would question them until they were given all of the information they wanted. If she knew one thing about the council it was that if it was for the common good they would let someone die no matter who it was. Nia would not.

It was dangerous and stupid, but she had to do something. Nia knew  that even the doctors would turn them over to the council first rather than trying to help the dying male. Everyone’s first priority was the council. Nia’s was not.

“Are you taking us to your healers?” The male questioned looking at her with uncertainty in his eyes. His words sounded so foreign, but she could understand him. It was like he was speaking a different dialect that she had never heard.

“I am not.” Nia told him shortly trying not to speak too much and think more. She would need to figure out a way to get the large group to her room without being caught, nearly impossible. Seeing the male try and push a button on the elevator Nia slapped his hand away.

“Unless you want your friend to die I suggest not.” She whispered knowing that even in the abandoned elevator they might be being watched.  Luckily for them the male took the hint and settled down and instead of trying anything he simply glared holes into her head.

Finally the screen counting the floors showed they were at the 800th floor. She turned to one of the quiet males in the back and took the awful fabric that covered his shoulders and wrapped it around the injured boy.

“Act like he is drunk and we are taking him home.” Nia told them softly as she tied the garb tightly around the males shoulders. “Try not to draw attention to yourselves if you want to live.” She added on removing her own hat to place it over the injured males head to try and cover the blood that was caking his hair.

Clearly the males were confused by her request, but she couldn’t have cared less. She was in the process of trying to keep them all out of trouble, herself included. She had, for some reason beyond her, gotten herself involved and would also be held responsible in the eyes of the council.

Not a second after she finished fixing up the injured boy to the best of her abilities the elevator let out a low ‘ding’ and the doors slowly opened. Nia motioned for them to stay still as she looked outside and found no one in the corridor. Stepping out she motioned the others to follow her.

Staying a few steps ahead and looking around the bends Nia guided them back to her apartment. There were more eyes in the vicinity than there had been on the lower level, but they males were taking good care to not look too suspicious.

Nia could see her door, one of two in that section of the hallway, but before she could reach it she heard a loud voice calling out her name. Cursing whoever was calling her Nia turned back to the face the caller. Coming up behind the group was one of her classmates, Chanyeol.

“Nia, I thought that was you!” His greeting was bright as usual. He even turned and smiled at the males she was with. “Friends of yours?” Chanyeol questioned motioning to the group and upon receiving a terse nod introduced himself. “Looks like this guy had a bit too much!” He joked motioning to the injured male and gave loud laugh.

“Yeah, he did so if you don’t mind we would like to get him home before he throws it all up and we get fined.” Nia could not believe he actually bought that story. Actually, thinking about it she could, Chanyeol was one of those ‘doesn’t matter about their intellegance because they are desirable’ people.

“Do you guys need any help?” He offered politely his bright smile never failing. On receiving a vehement ‘NO’ from Nia his smile slipped just the slightest bit. “Ah, okay, well good luck then!” Chanyeol cheered before quickly making his way from them.

Pressing a hand to her chest Nia motioned the group to quickly follow her. She did not want to chance running into anyone else that might have been more perceptive about what was actually going on. The males had caught on to not wanting anybody to see them and easily complied.

Reaching her door Nia pressed a hand onto the scanner and the door instantly flew open and she ushered the others in before looking out the door once more to make sure no one had followed them before entering herself and letting the door whizz shut behind her.

“Lay him down on the dining table.” Nia commanded and cringed inwardly thinking about how she had just bought the table and its purpose was definitely not for having bleeding males lay on it. Almost right away Nia tried to push these thoughts from her mind. His life was more important than her table.

“What are you doing?” She questioned upon seeing them standing around as if waiting for further explanation. They were acting as if they had never heard of a dining table… lord help her. “The large flat of wood protruding from the floor, put him there!” And suddenly they were moving.

Swiftly Nia went to her bathroom to grab the medical kit that her parents insisted she kept. Finding the small metal box she wrote a mental note to thank her parents the next time she saw them for all of their overprotectiveness.

Making her way back out to the dining room Nia found the males surrounding the one lying on the table whose shirt was, for some unknown reason,  discarded to show his bare and toned chest. It looked like they were trying to clean it with one of their filthy rags. She later noted that the rag was the males shirt.

“Don’t!” Nia called rushing over to the male with the dirty piece of cloth. “You’ll just make it worse, let me.” She told him as she pushed him and the the other one in her way aside so she could get a clear look at the male on her new faux mahogany table.

The moment she saw the male’s chest Nia knew where all the blood was coming from. The male was bleeding profusely from a rather large gash on his chest. Not only that, but it looked like someone had attempted to string it together and it had become infected. Nia had no clue why someone would use such primitive methods and put so much at risk when they could have used some regular medicines in the first place.

“Are you going to do anything or not?” The angry male questioned Nia as he tried to move in close behind her. Nia simply pushed the male away refusing to reward him with an answer. “If you don’t do something Tao is gonna die and if he dies I’ll kill you.” The male seethed against the back of her neck.

“I am trying to save him.” Nia mumble elbowing the male in his ribs.  “If you give me a second to look him over I can know how I can help him best.” She added on and also gave him another jab to the ribs for good measure.

Opening the small metal box Nia could hear groans of protest. They were unimpressed at the fully stocked medical box. She ignored the angry male as he questioned why the box only had five medicines inside. Did they not realize that it was one of the best medical boxes money could buy?

Withdrawing the medicine that would stop the infection from spreading while also killing what was already there Nia sighed realizing that she would have to take out the string by hand, she was not looking forward to that.

Nia lightly misted the spray over the males body and gave it a moment to settle and do its job. She could hear gasps of surprise as she did so. There were many questions being thrown at her as they all watched as the infection lessened until it completely disappeared which was when she quickly and precisely removed the string. Nia mentally thanked herself for having caved and bought the high quality lights.

After the string was removed, the blood began flowing even more so than before. She moved to grab the medicine that was meant to heal wounds, but found that she couldn’t reach it. Instead, Nia found a slim hand ghosting over the medicines. She told the male when to stop and he quickly handed her the medicine.

“That should stop the bleeding. Now he just needs a few minutes, normally it would be quicker than that, but his injury is pretty bad.” Nia explained as she let go of the wound and the blood flow rapidly slowed until the only blood was blood that the male had already lost and his wound was nearly closed.

Quiet overtook the room as all eyes were trained on the male currently laying on Nia’s dining room table. Nia herself was unsure of how to respond to everything that had happened. When she had acted to help the males she had not thought of the consequences or at least not the bad ones, she simply wanted to help the bleeding boy.

Shuffling over to the sink in her kitchen Nia stuck her hands under the water and watched as the boy’s blood swirled down the drain. It was sinking in, what she had done. She had just more or less saved some random males life and not only that but a random male who, along with five others, had come up unscathed from Level 00.

Hearing a shuffling behind her Nia turned and found the conscious males all looking at her in awe, like she had pulled off a miracle. She was not sure why they were looking  at her like that, the medicines did everything aside from pulling out the string which any of them could have done.

“Thank you, thank you so much for saving Tao.” The smallest of the males spoke as he and the rest bowed deeply. It was odd to say the least. “You must be an amazing doctor here!” He added on as they all bowed even deeper.

“What? I’m not a doctor, I work with lights.” Nia was questioning the sanity of the males. Nothing she did seemed like anything a doctor would do. All she did was spray the medicines she had in her medical box, nothing amazing. “I’ve never even healed someone else before just now.” It was really just an after thought, but Nia was rather proud of herself for her good work.

“If you’re not a doctor then how did you do that?” The one with the widest eyes questioned looking at Nia as if she was telling an absurd lie. “There is no way someone with no experience could do something amazing like saving someone from the brink of death like that!” He was by far the most excited out of them about the ‘amazing’ feat.

“Honestly, you’re lucky I’m not a doctor.” She mumbled looking past the boys and over to their friend. “The doctors would hand him and the rest of you over to the council who will kill you.” Nia elaborated seeing the confused looks on their faces. “You’re not from around here are you?” She questioned almost teasingly, almost.

The males in front of her froze as though she had uttered some huge secret that they were safe guarding. They couldn’t really believe that they blended in could they? From the horrible clothing to their dirty skin and even the way they spoke; the males stuck out like sore thumbs.

“How did you know?” So they did think they looked like everyone else? Maybe their physical appearances, though Nia could hardly make those out through all the grime caking their skin. “You must be some sort of genius.” Again wide eyes was praising her for some unknown reason. This time Nia didn’t argue because she thought he was right, she was pretty smart.

“It doesn’t take a genius to work the medical supplies though” Nia gave a light shrug as she made her way between two of the males and walked back over to the one on the table. She pulled out the last medicine she would need for the male. It wasn’t really a medicine, but it would make his scar smaller and less noticeable.

“Unbelievable,” She could hear the deep voice grumbled as the male who seemed perpetually angry stood over her shoulder. She thought he was complimenting her handy work until he snidely added, “We work day and night to make sure people heal properly and here you people are spraying injuries to make them go away and you even have time to make them disappear.” His words were biting and Nia could tell he was accusing, but of what she had no clue.

Maybe she was a bit dense.

Giving a slight huff Nia refused to pay the negative male any attention. She was caring for them and he had the audacity to talk to he in such a way. He really needed to work on his people skills.

Turning to the males she caught a whiff of their scent for the first time as she was no longer in survival/savior mode and boy did they ever reek. They smelled like something that had been left in the garbage for a week. The scent rolling off of them was nearly enough to make Nia vomit.

“Okay, you need to shower.” She hissed and her eyes locked onto the one who seemed the most dirty. “I will not tolerate this filth in my clean home.” And suddenly she knew how her mother felt all those times she came back from the green sector covered in dirt. She owed her mother and apology or a hundred.

She had been a hellion of a child.

“Shower?” Questioned the one who was currently on the end of Nia’s glare. He could feel a shiver run down his spine as he glare reminded him of that of an angry animal going in for the kill. “What is that?” With everything that had happened in the last hour she should not have been so surprised that they male didn’t know what a shower was.

“It’s a way of getting clean and I think you all will need at least six.” She wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not. she was scared of what was happening and was trying to make the situation feel less like she was breaking the law, she wasn’t even sure if she was, but it sure felt like it. She did have a male covered in blood on her table and five others that were also covered in blood were surrounding her.

The males all grouped together and with the angry one at the front Nia led them to the two bathrooms in her apartment. Out of the corner of her eye she could see them marvelling at even the smallest things. They even stared in wonder at her stairs, which she didn’t understand since they were just normal stairs.

“Come on,” Nia called back waving her hand to have them hurry up. She could smell them from ten feet away. She was trying not to be rude, but their smell coupled with their dirty looks was really starting to get to her. “We need to get you guys cleaned up so hurry.” She told them before she began moving again.

“How do we know we can trust you?” A deep voice called out from behind her. Nia didn’t have to turn back to know it was the one who just seemed hellbent on making her life hard. He had not stopped questioning her since she literally saved his friends life.

“Shouldn’t you have asked that before I even stepped onto the elevator?” She questioned right back at him as she stopped at the top of the stairs near to the closest bathroom. “I wouldn’t have healed you friend if I had bad intentions.” She was trying to be as sincere as possible, but he was making it really hard for her.

“We were more interested in helping our friend than questioning some little girl.” The male was seething even though from Nia’s perspective she was just defending herself while from his she was questioning his leadership. “And, if I remember correctly you are the one who threw yourself inside not giving us a chance to deny you.” So he was pointing fingers at Nia, well too bad for him because she would not stand for that.

“Gee, I’m sorry I was trying to save your friends life! Like I said if it was anyone else you all may be dead right now!” Nia was really getting sick of this guy’s bad attitude. Couldn’t he just say thank you like a normal person? “I’ll make a note not to do that next time.” She sneered sticking her nose in the air.

She started to question why she even saved the males if that was the thanks she was getting.

Nia and the tallest male were in a stare down. She couldn’t stand how he was treating her. Since the moment they met Nia had done nothing other than help him and his friends and yet there he was treating her like the bad guy in her own home. It was ridiculous.

“Yifan,” Called a soft voice from Nia’s side. She turned to find it was the smallest male with wide monolid eyes. “She’s got a point, she hasn’t done anything wrong. We are indebted to her. Plus, we did originally ask for her help.” At least one of them had a brain. He seemed to be rather soft spoken, but the tall one, Yifan, didn’t argue which was slightly surprising.

“You should listen to your friend” Nia was still trying to keep her cool and not snap and break Yifan’s neck. The guy had obviously had a rough day, but so had his other friends and they were all treating her rather well. “I’m on your side, Yifan.” That was what the other had called him, right?

“I’ll play nice,” He told the two of them as his gaze flittered from one to another. His eyes narrowed at Nia, but she didn’t make any move of noticing. “For now.” He was not even trying to make his threat covert. He might as well have told her she was going to die in her sleep and by his hands.

At the rate they were going Nia was willing to take the threat not threat and roll with it. The other four seemed amiable enough. Though, it did not mean she would be happy to deal with the male who seemed to have something shoved up his rear end.

Trying to keep a scowl from her face as she moved from standing at the end of the staircase and to go to the door of the bathroom. Maybe when the males do not smell like sewers Nia would be able to deal with them better.

The door opened the moment she stepped in front of it and Nia led the way for the males to go in. They were once again marvelling at everything. The towels had particularly taken their attention as they began rubbing them against their faces. Nia was quick to slap their hands away.

“You are filthy right now,” Nia hissed pointing at the two boys who had been touching her pristine white towels. She could see the dejected looks on the faces of the males and could feel a small amount of guilt settle in her stomach. “Shower first and then you can touch all you want.” She grumbled annoyed at how easily their pouting got under her skin.

“Come this way and I’ll show you how to use the shower.” She told the boys and automatically they came, all except one. “You too, Yifan.” Nia could see the scowl on his face as she called his name and assumed he didn’t like being bossed around. Typical alpha male.

The next ten minutes were spent with the males freaking out thinking she had control over the water, her explaining and soaking it all in, water included. Yifan and the one who had made jokes non-stop while she was trying to explain stayed as she didn’t want to have to teach them anything again.

Exiting the first bathroom Nia led them further into her home. It was one of the larger ones as it was so high up, it contain three levels. She used to have people stay over all the time to keep the quiet away, but over the years those people faded away.

“This bathroom is just like the last one, do you need me to explain it again?” Nia questioned leading them down the hallway that would lead to her room. She received three no’s and was satisfied that they had all paid attention during their first lesson.

“What is this room?” The one with the smallest face questioned looking around her room as she guided them through it. The thing that had caught their attention the most was her resting. One tried to touch it, but quickly caught himself and sent Nia a sheepish smile. At least he stopped himself before he could contaminate her resting.

“My resting room. The other bathroom is in here.” She motioned to the door that led to the master bath. “Normally I would never let anyone inside of my room, but  desperate times call for desperate measures.” She was only half joking as she did her best to crack a smile at the quiet males.

Looks of surprise covered the faces of the three males. They had surely not expected her to let several strangers in to her sacred space. To be fair she was not doing such a thing. Her resting room was just that, her resting room. Her sacred place was somewhere not even her family had been so there was no way she would let any strangers in there. She would at least try and make them feel better though.

By no means was Nia stupid. She knew that something had happened to the six males and she was planning on finding out. First though, she would let them relax a little. They were dirty and caked in their friend’s blood so she would give them a few minutes to collect themselves before the questioning started.

“Thank you.”