"Why? Why do I have to do it?" She sat there in silence and waited. "Very well I will do as you ask". Linka sighed and opened her eyes. The first morning light was slipping throw the windows. She looked over the truck bed and saw mess. It was littered with her things. Guns, knives, leather bound books in foreign languages, a shirt or two, and a bible lay strewn across the floor. She moved from the sleeping bag. She dressed, rolled her bed away and tried to stuff everything into her bags. It didn't all fit because she didn't bother to fold or pack anything. She pulled herself into the cab and started the truck. It whined and churned but eventually turned on.
"Stupid engine" Linka said as she put it in gear and drove out of the dirt parking lot where she had spent the night. "Okay, tonight I am so getting a hotel room." She said while a crack ran down her spine. The sun was rising bathing everything in a yellow pink glow. The open fields on either side appeared gold. She pulled her sunglasses down and kept driving. She put the radio on and didn't listen to it. She couldn't. Her mind was wandering and drifting from her reality into a fantasy that she would often visit.
She arrived back from school and entered her house. It was clean and neat. Her parents were at work so she would do her home work and wait. When they did come back they hugged her and asked her about her day over a home cooked meal. She would tell them about trivial things like who were friends with who were and what the gossip was in high school.
Linka couldn't help venturing into that. It seemed so grounded, no it was so grounded compared to her life of driving all night and day and receiving orders from someone or something she couldn't see. It was tiring and draining on her spirit. She wanted it to stop, to end. Linka quickly shook that thought from her mind she couldn't think of anything like that. She remembered what she had promised and what would happen if she ignored that promise. She sighed and kept driving.
It was dark. Dark and cold. The heating in Linka's truck was broken she shivered in the front cab. The truck was old and broken down but it never failed her. It never left her stranded in the middle of nowhere. She pulled into a parking space and turned the truck off. She looked at the sign in front of her. It was a Hospital. She hated them. She could feel the death that filled the rooms and hallways. She shivered from the thought. She had always refused to go into them. She didn't like doctors or their medieval methods. She opened the door and stepped out. She had to do this. She was dreading it. She walked through the front doors and looked around the waiting room. It was empty at this time. The receptionist was sitting reading a book so she slipped past without any problems. The rooms held people who were asleep. They were peaceful looking but it still made Linka shudder. She stood in the doorway. He was asleep. She approached the bed and looked at. She tried to suppress her shaky breathing; he was too deep to hear her. She closed her eyes and whispered to no one. Then she placed her hands on either side of his face. He twitched but remained asleep. She tilted her head and exhaled.
She tried not to scream. Intense searing heat left her hands. Her body was not meant for this so she screamed. It woke him up and he tried to grab her hands. Nurses ran into the room and tried to pull her away but they could not touch her. Instead they all had to watch as he skin on her hands was burned away. It stopped. She was silent but she fell over and hit the floor with a loud noise. Blood slowly oozed from her palms. Bobby got out of the bed and knelt next to her. She was awake but in shock over the pain. She looked from side to side with a glazed look on her face. The nurses took her wrists and looked at the wounds on her hands. Her skin was gone, it had been burned away and the veins had burst. Linka looked at her hands and saw the deep red liquid pool and drip off her palms. She closed her fingers but the nurses opened them and talked quickly amongst themselves. Linka heard noise but it wasn't words that she could understand. She looked at her palms to see new skin begin to weave its way across her hands and fingers. The veins closed and fresh skin spread over them. The nurses stopped talking and watched in shock, amazement, and horror. A young doctor ran in to see pools of blood on the floor, a man that was never supposed to walk again kneeling next to a girl who seemed high and his nurses watching as skin spread over the open wounds on the girl's hands. He pushed people away and grabbed Linka's wrists. Linka snapped back once the skin had worked over her hand. She tried to push everyone away but there were too many and she was too weak. She kicked and tried to bite the hands that held her down. She screamed for help and flipped and twisted her body. She felt a sharp pain in her arm and she began to feel heavy. She couldn't move her arms and she felt her eyes shut.