Doctors
The weather was as bad as it was yesterday. The rain was streaming down the window panes and the sound of it pattering against them was the only thing to be heard as five women were escorted into a small room to await the upcoming events. One by one they were taken out and the lives they once lived were changed forever by the sickening power of Dark Eco. First into the chair was a young singer from the local pub, she was nineteen years of age and terrified. The following two were both waitresses from the same pub, both twenty-one years of age. Excruciating screams were heard throughout the complex, echoing through the surrounding corridors and sending chills down the spines of passers-by, who too remember going through the same experience.
Woman four was taken in, the oldest of the bunch at the age of sixty-four. Her shrivelled screams weren't as loud as that of the younger women, but just as frightening. The final woman was taken in; only this time there was no screaming from the twenty-four year old, only utter silence which was just as eerie as the screaming. As each one finished their Dark Eco Injection Cycle, they were wheeled out on beds with their bodies wrapped in white sheets from the infirmary. Their faces were pale and their eyes closed in a forced sleep.
Duke Skyheed awoke late from his slumber and sighed as he pulled himself out of bed. He could hear the faint footsteps coming from outside his door but ignored them, choosing to get dressed instead of opening the door. After dressing he forced a smile in the mirror while grabbing his jacket and walked out into the now deserted corridor. It seems whoever was trying to get his attention obviously didn't need him that much. That thought was interrupted when Chancellor Ruskin came striding down the opposite end of the corridor, his eyes lighting up at the sight of Skyheed.
"Ah! Sir! Good Morning." He said, smiling his scary smile. "Well, it's almost the afternoon, is everything okay, sir?" He seemed rather concerned as he looked at the watch upon his wrist showing the time of 11 a.m.
"I'm fine, Chancellor. Overslept is all. How did the final Cycle go?" His tone taking on that of a well-spoken business man.
"It seems to of gone well overall, sir. Although I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I do have some to tell. Not half an hour ago, one of the women died quite terribly." Chancellor Ruskin's head sank as he told his superior the bad news.
"I see. How old was she?" Skyheed asked, gesturing to the Chancellor to walk with him up the hallway.
"Nineteen, sir." His simple reply was all that was needed.
Skyheed closed his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and forefinger. Far too young. He himself was not old at the age of 26 but the tolls of being head of a huge city and thousands of people were enough to make anyone feel older than they were.
The conversation ended and they made their way, in silence, towards the infirmary where the remaining four women were. The walls were painted in a dull white and the floor covered in a polished grey stone. The footsteps from both men echoed around the infirmary as they were lead in by the Doctor in charge of the last Cycle. "I think you'll both agree that for the... shall we say; runts of the litter?... They did quite well. Four out of five is good, although we can't be too hasty can we?." The Doctor seemed to be a very arrogant and self-assured man with too much confidence for Skyheed's liking.
Skyheed didn't consider himself a confident man, every time it came to public speaking , other than the council, he just froze up and couldn't do it. Everyone has a weakness though, right? It also angered him that some of his less fortunate people were referred to as the runts of the litter.
"How are the remaining four?" Chancellor Ruskin asked the Doctor.
"Two are almost ready to be discharged due to their remarkable recovery; I guess they were natural Eco-Channellers. One had to be sedated because of a violent outbreak and the last was over-sedated by a training nurse." The Doctor was talking as if it was all totally normal.
"I see..." Chancellor Ruskin did not seem very pleased with this, as he knew his superior would like all of his people to be treated fairly and the fact that it seemed a few of the infirmary staff were not educated to a high standard worried the both of them.
The Doctor then decided that he would walk over to the two women, who were now sat on the edges of their beds ready to leave, and helped them up. They thanked him and bowed their heads as they walked passed Skyheed and the Chancellor as a token of respect. The Doctors attention then turned to the now stirring woman in the corner, which had been marked as dangerous. She had been harshly strapped down onto the infirmary bed and was supposed to be kept sedated for at least three days, by which time the more dangerous effects of the Eco Cycle should have worn off.
The only problem was, in all the kerfuffle with discharging the two women and informing the Chancellor and Skyheed of the recent events, the Doctor had forgotten to up the dosage of the sedation fluid and as a result of this, the dangerous woman had woken up. The Chancellor made a run for it the moment the woman opened her eyes and Skyheed took a few steps back. The woman's eyes took on a shiny black colour and her nails grew to an extraordinary length. In one fell swoop she sliced through the straps holding her down and leapt off the bed. She staggered her way slowly towards Skyheed, but was permanently disposed of when a bullet was driven through her skull by a now present guard. Skyheed rubbed his face with his hand and walked out to find the Chancellor.
The search was much easier than Skyheed first thought. The Chancellor was merely stood outside with three guards talking to him. His worried face was wiped away when his eyes set themselves on Skyheed and the both of them proceeded to walk back inside the infirmary. There was now only the one woman left and the rest of the people were from common injury or from skirmishes with the Eco Pirates. The Chancellor then remembered the badly trained nurses and decided it would be wise to find the Doctor, wherever he had gotten to and bring the subject up with him. This left Skyheed alone.
During the first five minutes of standing alone Skyheed witnessed three people walk out upon their own accord and more taken to different wards by some nurses. This left a mere four people inside the ward he was on; the last woman, a child with a broken arm and two men who had taken some bullets during a scuffle with a few Eco Pirates. At that moment in time, the entire ward went quiet since everyone in it was asleep. But the woman in the corner caught Skyheed's eye when she began to stir. Intrigued, he walked over and sat onto the side of her bed, being careful not to wake her prematurely. He sat there for a few moments, admiring her pale complexion and feeling sympathy for her sore eyes. Her breathing pattern changed to that of someone who was awake. Slowly she raised her hand to touch her eyes but Skyheed held her wrist delicately and brought it back down.
"It would be best if you were not to touch them for now." He said, in a well-spoken tone.
"I can't open them." She said; her voice croaky.
"I know. Don't worry, you will be able to in a few days, 'tis a mere side effect of the Cycle." He was beginning to sound like a Doctor, but maybe that was for the best. If she knew who he was, she would probably not speak very much or would change what she was going to say to some sort of polite small-talk. Everyone did that. Whenever he wanted to have a normal conversation with somebody outside of the palace, it wouldn't happen. Said person would simply be overly polite and small-talk with him, though I suppose its natural since he was their superior. "How are you feeling?"
"A bit rough I suppose. How long do I have to stay in for?" She certainly sounded rough, her voice was cracking mid-sentence and she seemed to have quite a temperature according to the monitor.
Skyheed froze for a moment, realising that she thought he was a doctor. "A few days should be sufficient." He said, playing along. After all, it would be much safer is she didn't know it was him and anyway, at least he would be able to speak freely and get a decent answer. He moved a strand of hair out of her face and she smiled slightly as if to say thank you. "So." He started. "Do you work?" He stood up at this point and walked to the end of her bed, looking at her notes.
"Yes. Seven days a week, twelve hours a day." She laughed a little; her throat was too sore to laugh fully and by this point Skyheed had discovered that she was the twenty-four year old out of the bunch of women but no other information.
"What do you work as? If you don't mind me asking." He was being overly curious, he knew that, but there was something to do with this woman that intrigued him.
"I'm a mechanic, down in the lower Hangar. We work on most of the Army's aircraft and the richer folk's personal crafts. Patching them up and painting them, on the rare occasion we build a plane from scratch and upgrade some of the others, nothing amazing." She didn't sound very passionate about her work, but she was obviously very skilled in what she did, otherwise she would be nowhere near the lower Hangar where the pros were.
"Ahh, You must be a very skilled woman, but I don't think I caught your name..." His polite and charming voice would manipulate anyone into telling him their name and thats exactly what happened here.
"Ava, my name is Ava." Her voice was slowly getting better and wasn't crackling as much.
"A beautiful name." Skyheed said, taking her hand into his. Shivers went up her spine at first, but then she relaxed back into her pillow. "So, Ava. What are your views on the Council Of Aeropa?"
"A bit of a random question isn't it? Well, I believe that they do a fantastic job, but I find Chancellor Ruskin a bit arrogant, or what I've seen of him anyway. As for Duke Skyheed, I think he's doing a great job. It must be hard being alone and being in charge of such an amount of people." She seemed to cheer up a bit, and now Skyheed had received a hidden compliment too. Maybe his day was getting a bit better, even if the rain was still bouncing off the window panes.
Skyheed looked at the time and said his goodbyes. He had promised Ava that he would see her tomorrow. In a way he had to, considering he was now posing as a doctor and it would seem odd if a doctor didn't turn up to work. His timing was perfect since he walked out of the infirmary just as the Chancellor came walking towards it. There were no words spoken, just silent nods of acknowledgement as they walked back down the corridor.
The afternoon had drawn in and Skyheed and the Chancellor had a few things to bring up with the council, such as the recent Eco Pirate attacks. Skyheed's busy schedule made it virtually impossible to have any time to relax or to be alone, but he made it his mini-mission to see Ava at some point tomorrow.
How long can this Doctor disguise last?
Oh My God! The hassle with this chapter was unbelievable. I nearly finsihed it and then my computer decided it would have a spazz and i lost it :( So i had to rewrite it. Ah well, hope you like it :)
