"Just one more day."
The familiar words escaped Ethan's lips as his eyes slowly opened.
Pain answered him immediately.
Every muscle in his body screamed in protest as he sat upright on the narrow infirmary bed, surprised that he wasn't restrained.
Not that he was complaining.
Fresh bandages wrapped around his torso beneath the prison uniform they had forced back onto him, while bruises covered nearly every inch of exposed skin. He had required hundreds of stitches around his body, but thankfully, his body was resilient, and the makeshift shanks dealt him merely flesh wounds.
That wasn't to say they weren't painful.
Ethan clenched his teeth as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, wincing as several stab wounds pulled against still-healing flesh.
"So... I'm alive."
He didn't exactly sound pleased.
A guard then unlocked the infirmary door with practised indifference.
"Your condition is stable, and it's time to go back to your cell."
