Ch7

Chapter 7

“I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up.”

― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

I stir a bit, slowly waking up. I don’t open my eyes yet. It’s a talent I guess you could say I have. An instinct. I don’t open my eyes or move, until I feel to all my surroundings with my other senses.

I feel soft fabric beneath my hands, which are at my sides. Restraints are around my wrists which bound me to what I assume is a bed.There is no blanket, that I can feel that’s over me. I listen, and I hear a heart monitor. I breathe steadily smelling the air. Which smells of alcohol. A hospital smell. I’m in a hospital? No. I remember now. I am at that company called CGS or something.

Some other sense, tells me that someone is watching me. Fearful, my heart rate speeds up. And unfortunately, so does the heart monitor.

“Ah,” A voice says. “She’s awake.”

I open my eyes. As I assumed I am on a bed. The sheets are white matching the hospital gown, that I do not remember being put on. I look up and see a boy, looking about eighteen or so. I blush at the thought that this boy was the one who put this gown on me.

Noticing my embarrassment, he laughs.  “The female doctors cleaned you up and changed your clothes, if that’s what you are worried about.”

I blink. Looking at this boy, I can see that he is wearing a doctors white coat. He is wearing black, ridged, glasses. He studies me with brown soft eyes, that are partially covered by his black curly hair.

He looks down at a board in his hand. “Everest Greene?”

I roll my eyes. “Present.”

Ignoring my sarcasm he continues. “We have a lot of work to do with you. Many of the variables in you seemed to disappear. I may need to complete some tests-”

I laugh. “How old are you?” He can’t be a doctor at his age. Especially one  for the government.

He adjusts his glasses. “I’ll have you know Ms.Greene that I am very capable in this curriculum. You needn’t worry of me, but you on the other hand…”

He walks over to a certain monitor next to me, examining it carefully. I see that there are in fact, what appears to be wires connected to one of my arms which I assume is telling him something about my condition. I shiver.

He takes notice of my action. “Are you cold?”

I was. But that wasn’t why I shivered. “No.”

Ignoring my response, he comes closer. Close enough I became squirmy. What the heck? Is this dude trying to kiss me or something?

I freeze as he places two of his fingers on my neck. Oh, I think. Stupid he was just checking your pulse.

He is close enough that I can see his badge. I read it outloud. “Dr. Alex Clark?”

Alex pulls back his hand and raises back up again. He smiles. “Present.”

I roll my eyes. I feel very uncomfortable sitting up like this, with wires, and restraints on my arms and wrists.

Struggling against them, Alex shakes his head. “Not yet Ms.Greene,” He walks over to his desk in the corner of the room. “I’ll need to have approval from the administrator.”

I groan. “Then get that stupid guy over here. I’m not sitting like this all day.”

Alex has an amused look on his face. “Not all day Ms.Greene, just for a while.”

“What, do they think I’m going to jump you?”

Now he laughs. Still sorting through files or something. “Goodness, I certainly hope not. Unless you’re having a particularly high-wired sex-drive at the moment.” He seems even more amused at this.

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. I’m stuck in a room, tied to a bed, with a very thin hospital gown, and a very arrogant teenage boy that claims he’s my doctor.

My head feels foggy everytime I try to jerk around to escape, so I give up. I take in the room around me instead. If there was one word to describe it, it would be clean. So clean and white. I try to see if I can find any escape routes. Looking at the door, which is not to far away from Alex’s desk, I see that as one option. Not a very probable one, but an option.

Studying the ceiling I can see they are tiles. The tiles seem like they are moveable. I could make my way out of there, if I could just break free of these restraints-

“Making escaping plans are you?” Alex says interrupting my thoughts.

“Pfft. What no!” I lie. “Just, uh daydreaming is all.”

“Uh-huh.” he says unconvinced. “You’re going back to your mother anyway. So you can calm down.”

“Huh?”

“It’s true. We just need to do this, to check up on you. I mean you still have some human rights, you know.”

Frustrated I blow a strand of hair that has been annoyingly stuck on my face for some time. “So why the hell did you guys zap me? And why are you keeping strapped to the bed?”

I struggle against the uncomfortable black leather wrapped around my wrists. Alex gets up and has a card in his hand and comes next to me.

“First of all,” He says. “We didn’t zap you, we stunned you. And the only reason we did, is because you ran away, and refused to comply.”

He puts the card to one of my wrists, and I hear a beep and a click. Then the leather straps fall off one of my wrists. I shake my hand from the uncomfortable position.

Alex walks over to the other side of the bed, but does not scan the card.

“And second,” He continues. “We didn’t strap you to the bed. We restrained you. Don’t make it sound so sexual.”

Rolling my eyes. “Of course you would think that.” I mutter to myself.

Not hearing or ignoring me, he continues. “Many hospitals do it. Maybe not stun them, but they do restrain them. Especially they have, well you know lost their mind for the moment.”

He then places the card next to my other wrist. And the stra- er restraints are released.

“And I suppose I have?” I ask rubbing my wrists.

“What was that now?” He is in front of the bed. Holding a tablet, seeming to be taking notes on me. Which really makes me uncomfortable.

“Gone insane,” I say. “You think I have lost my mind?”

He sits on the front of the bed, his weight making the balance on the bed uneven, holding his tablet in his lap . His eyes sparkle with interest and wonder as he watches me. As if he were seeing for the first time, a butterfly break from it’s cocoon and spread its beautiful wings. Not like a love, kind of stare. It was more like he felt sorry that I knew something he didn’t. He looked excited for me to find out. All of that, I got from a moment of awkward staring.

“Well, the great thing about life, is that you can’t lose something you don’t have.”

Before I can respond to ask what he means by that, the door to the room opens. Out of it, a man approaches me.

Alex stands, getting off the bed. “Sir.”

Looking at the man’s face, I realize it is the same face that I last saw before I got za- uh, stunned.

“Don’t sir me Dr. Clark,” He says, standing on one side of the bed. “I gave you simple, clear, directions. You were not to release her until after the nurses finished.”

He looks to the door, which is open. Following his gaze, I see the nurses he’s talking about. He gestures for them to come in, and three nurses come into the room. Each one wearing gloves, and heavy white coats. I see each of them are holding a syringe in their gloved hand. I try to swallow, but my throat is dry.

“Sorry Mr.Gates, I didn’t mean to upset you. Actually, me and Ms.Greene here,” He gestures to me. “Have already gone through the consequences of her actions if she were not to comply.”

He emphasizes the last word looking at me. He’s trying to tell me not to struggle. But, struggling is all I feel like doing right now. What are they going to do to me? Kill me? What, no…. They would have done that a long time ago. He said I’m going back to Gina, so why are they about to stick me with a bunch of needles?

Gates looks at me, and I shrink at his gaze. Unlike Alex, his gaze implies he has little interest in my opinion or me period. His icy stare suggests that if I pull a stunt, like when I ran the last time, he wouldn’t think twice about keeping me on lockdown for eternity.

“Very well,” Gates says. “If she so much as twitches, I’m calling back-up and the restraints are back on.”

Back-up? Why would he need back-up?

He turns to the nurses. “Okay ladies, let’s wrap this up, I don’t have all day.”

“Yes sir.” I hear some of them mumble.

Alex looks at me from behind them as them get close to me, and mouths something. Confused, I give him a shrug. He mouths again: Don’t move.

Oh, okay. I think. No problem. No problem at all.

The nurses crowding around me, seem to be a bit cautious. Like, I might go rabid at any second. But, they see that I am not making any intentions to hurt them. So, they continue.

One nurse wraps an elastic rubber around my arm. While another disinfects my neck, arm, and shoulder.

Gates sits in a chair, next to one side of my bed, crossing his legs casually, while the nurses work. “So, I’m going to explain this quickly. We are injecting several things into you and your blood.”

A nurse holds a needle, and taps it taking out the air bubbles. My heart races. Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.

“This one,” Gate continues. Referring to the needle that the nurse has. “Is, for activating the dormant cells in your body. The cells, which were a project we were working on in evolving, well you.”

The nurse sticks the needle into my shoulder. I bite my lip. I always, hated doctors appointments for this very reason.

Removing that needle, and discarding it. Another nurse has a different syringe. She comes to me and holds my arm in her gloved hands, looking for a good vein.

“This one,” Gate says, looking at Alex who is staring blankly at the floor. “This one is a secret.”

The nurse injects me with the liquid, which is an odd, blue color. The only evidence, that I am still alive, is my racing heart that seems to me going a hundred miles per hour.

The nurse injects me with the liquid, which is an odd, blue color. The only evidence, that I am still alive, is my racing heart that seems to me going a hundred miles per hour. When that stuff was all been injected, the nurse pulled out the needle, and I bleed out a little.

I realize all the other nurses left. And one nurse is holding a syringe that looks oddly different.

“And lastly, a blessing from above.” Gate says in a monotone. “Something to keep watch over you.”

Keep watch over me? So, are they putting some kind of tracking device in me? Looking at the syringe I can see this one does not have a clear glass covering, that most syringes do. It is black, and instead of a rod to push the contents down, it has a button. Under the button, is a small red light. The color does nothing to comfort me.

“So,” I say. “After this, do I get like a sticker or something?”

Gate smiles, but it is a cold smile. “Don’t be so nervous. It will only hurt a bit.”

He nodded to the nurse, and the nurse comes places the needle to my neck. Sweat trickles down my temples. Without warning the needle is plunged into my neck. I hear a beep and a click. I wince a bit. It’s hard to describe what it feels like, to have a small nano device in your neck. But one thing was for sure. I wasn’t going to forget for one moment that it was there.

The nurse scurries out the room, after she gathered all her things.

Alex seems to relax a bit when he sees the nurse leave. He nods to me and goes back behind his desk seeming to be working on something.

As Gates stands the door opens again. Gina stands there with her arms folded. I glare the worst glare I can muster at her. I am surprised when she has a look of hurt on her face. Feeling guilty? Wait, no that wasn’t guilt, that was… something else.

As Gates moves around her, he pauses looking about me pointingly. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Leaving the door open, he walks away.

An awkward moment of silence passes. I watch, entertained by Alex’s fidgeting.

Breaking the silence Gina flicks her head to the side, causing her bangs to slide away from her face for a moment. She pulls something out of her bag, and tosses it to me. I catch it.

“Let’s go home Eve.”

Looking at the what she threw at me, I see that it’s Ted.