~ It took no more than another 15 minutes for the medic to finish his work on Andrew's stomach and Andrew rose gingerly to a sitting position. He carefully inspected the bandage wrapping his torso. He glanced up at his audience and grinned, looking half his age.
"Hey Jaden, wanna sign my bandage?"
"I think that casts pretty much have that whole signing market cornered," Jaden replied. The RO that had first spoken with Takyle came over for the second time, and looked Andrew up and down.
"Well alright then. Now that you've all been taken care of, we'll talk about what's to come." He turned to Takyle. "If Team 6 wants to quit the race now, we will escort you out. If not, the committee has authorized that you be shown immediately into the next live-sim, as the amount of time used by your encounter with Team 5 was approximately equal to the time it should have taken you to get through the maze. If you'd like to talk it over for a moment-"
"I'm ready to go now," Andrew cut in, beginning to stand. Takyle placed a hand on his arm, holding him down.
"Wait just a minute. I'm not sure that we should just jump right back in." She turned to the medic. "Is it even safe for him to continue the race?"
"Yes I think so, as long as he's careful not to overstress himself or tear out the stitches." Takyle nodded.
"Was there something in here that was making us aggressive?" she asked the RO.
"I am not permitted to give you any other information about what has gone, or what might go on in the race. I'm sorry." Takyle looked back and forth between Jaden and Andrew. She looked positively torn. Jaden felt sorry for her. Andrew spoke up.
"Look, let's just go Takyle, we're losing valuable time here." She looked at him for just a split second more and then turned to the RO.
"Alright, we'll stay in."
"Excellent. Please gather your supplies." Jaden and Takyle nodded and turned to find their discarded packs amongst all the people and things in the crowded hallway. The medic held up a hand for Andrew to wait a moment and fished around in his suitcase of supplies, at last producing several small white packets.
"I can give you some pain medication in case you need it later, you're going to have to ration it though, as you'll have no way of getting any more until the race ends unless you drop out. It might cause you to feel a bit tired with slowed reactions as well, so be careful of when you take it. And one more thing; pain is your body saying you're doing too much. Don't ignore it."
"Yes sir," answered Andrew, accepting the medication. "And thank you for patching me up."
"Not a problem. Best of luck to you." The medic snapped shut his case and, followed by his assistant once again hauling the table, headed back down the hall to the door that was the emergency access to the maze. Andrew made his way down the hall and found his backpack, but not before Jaden and Takyle already had their hands on it, and were dividing the bulk of its contents between themselves.
"Um guys, he didn't say that I couldn't carry anything."
"Yeah well maybe he forgot to," said Takyle dismissively.
"I'm fine, give me my pack. The two of you can't carry everything."
"Shut up, Andrew," ordered Jaden, shooting for commanding, and as a result just sounding petulant. "We're not going to carry everything anyway. Just most of the heavy stuff." Andrew opened his mouth to complain, then seemed to think better of it.
"Thanks guys." Jaden zipped up what was left in Andrew's considerably lightened pack and Takyle stood to help Andrew pull his clean, spare shirt over his head and then slip the backpack on. He winced slightly at reaching back, but covered it quickly. "Ok then. Looks like I'm all set."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Takyle softly.
"Yes I want to do this. Now let's get going before I change my mind!" Takyle nodded and Jaden stood, pulling on his own pack.
"We're ready," he called to the RO. The rest of the Race Officials and Team 5 were already going back towards the access door. The first RO gestured up the hallway to the live-sim entrance.
"After you." ~
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