Chapter 6

If dying is this easy, I’m kind of sad I can’t do it again.
The floating sensation underneath my body felt wonderful as I descended down onto the lake bed, and my wide, glassy eyes can just barely see the bubbles escaping from my mouth. Am I dead yet? I kept thinking that to myself over and over, praying it would come quick and painless. This was a lot better than being eaten by that dinosaur-snake thing back in the first door. I remember now that drowning is probably the slowest way to go, and my heart either figuratively or literally sank. I felt something sink, anyway. Rather than gently gliding to the bottom like I was expecting, I felt a rush of sweet, sweet air…then I felt my back hit the ground hard. “Aw, come on!” I groaned loudly, rolling around like I’d broken something. I honestly think I snapped my back with the way I hit the ground so hard. I had heard something pop or snap, something like that. My back tingled and stinging pain shot up my spine whenever I rolled to a new position in my pitiful state. I looked up at the sky, half giggling and half crying my eyes out from the pain. At least I can breathe now, though. I heard some crunching noises, like feet stepping on crisp grass or sticks. I could feel myself panicking, my mind conjuring up the worst. Was it the doctor…a snake…or even a demon? By the time I started hyperventilating I could see a blurry outline of what was bending down to look at me. I couldn’t make out the face, just a pair of beady blue eyes that were curiously examining my probably-hilarious facial features of pain and terror. It must have caught on that I was not an enemy because it offered me a webby, dried-out and shriveled hand…like I could grab onto it. I couldn’t even move, and the hand looked so fragile that it might break if I gripped it tight enough! It kept tilting its oblong-shaped head at me and making strange noises that resembled clicking while I tried to figure out my situation. I’d obviously broken or cracked my spine, I couldn’t move and this freaky clicking thing kept staring at me like it was trying to decide whether to eat me or help me up. I remembered my bag and tried to feel around for it, only to receive a sharp stinging sensation in my shoulder that seemed to go on for hours. I groaned again, shouting out a couple of obscenities that I didn’t even remember learning. The creature left me alone after a few more minutes of studying my face, then came back with quite a few more ‘siblings’. The creatures huddled around me and slipped their webby hands up under my back and lifted me up, carrying me forward. As much as it hurt to be moved around, I was glad they were helping me. At least, I think they’re helping me. Soon I felt a soft cushion on my back and the back of my head, like I was being laid on a bed. I heard creaking noises like metal hinges that hadn’t been oiled in a while and I knew I was on the move again. I guess I’m too heavy for them. I think it was a rolling bed they’d hoisted me onto, the kind that they have in the hospitals to move patients from room to room. Speaking of rooms, I heard doors burst open and the sight of bright light after bright light made me extremely dizzy and nervous. It smelled and sounded like a hospital, which was not a good thing at all. One opened swinging door later, and I was in a room that reminded me of the ER. Something pricked the inside of my arm where what I call my under-elbow was and I jumped, wide-eyed and frantic to see what was going on. I couldn’t see past the bright lights and masked, twisted, shriveled faces with various colors of beady eyes staring at me. My eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness of the room around me, and I could see it wasn’t like any hospital I’d seen. In the windows, the same swirling blackish-purple mess I’d seen the first time I entered the Hall was making me sick at my stomach, but then again that could have also been the odd-smelling medicine they were pumping into me via IV.
Wait…an IV was streaming meds into me? Oh, crap! They’re trying to drug me!
I fought with all my groggy might, but I realized that I was not only strapped down, but chained down to the rusty metal gurney that would soon become my real deathbed if I didn’t find a way out. I heard a high pitched whirring sound and a flash of silver came into my line of vision, the sound alone making me scream. It was a freaking buzz saw! Were they trying to cut me open or something?! I flailed even more to discover the pain in my back had diminished, thanks to whatever weird anesthesia they had already forced half a gallon of inside my bloodstream. I am no medical student, nor am I a doctor of any kind, but I know for a fact that much medication was enough to kill me on its own. I had to get out of this place, then I had to get this crap out of my system. I could feel myself falling into a dark state of calm again, and I knew I’d blacked out.