They walked up to the girl, crying on the ground in a ball. She didn't seem to notice anything going on around her, as she was so absorbed in whatever was going on inside that odd looking head of hers. Giving each other a knowing look, they kneeled down, scooped her up in their arms, and carried her away.
She was vaguely aware of someone picking her up. She assumed it was the Doctor, Rory or Amy, and so paid no attention to it. She was too busy trying to keep herself from falling apart. She kept replaying the last moments of her mother's life in her head. The sudden swarm of emotions- loss, depression, heart-wrenching sadness, and overwhelming fury- consumed her again as she obsessed over it. She wished she could tell someone. Maybe she'd tell the Doctor. She trusted him. If her mom did, then why shouldn't she, right?
It got warm and cozy again, and she remembered Oakland. She remembered her fight with Ivy. Red-hot fury filled her veins again, and she thrashed about in the Doctor's arms.
She was mumbling. "Oakland . . . .Doctor . . . . gotta. . . I gotta tell . . . Doctor. . ."
"She sure is an odd one, eh Cal?"
"The oddest we've found yet. I wonder what they gave her." Cal said, smirking at his friend.
"Yeah. Probably that new one they're working on. Which means they'd want us to take her to the lab, right?"
"Probably. . . but I don't think we should take her there just yet. The lab's been really full lately. Hey Miles. You know what we should do?"
"I have a feeling I know what you're thinking, and I can tell you now- NO. She's off limits, pervert. She's obviously a test subject."
Cal looked down at the limp girl in his arms, watching her thin pink lips move just the slightest as she continued to mumble in her sleep. She frowned, and all of a sudden she was screaming something like "I have the right to ask if I want to" and swinging her arms out as if trying to punch someone.
"SHIT." Cal whisper-shouted, dropping her on the ground as her fist met his jaw.
The Doctor dropped her. Dropped her. Jolted out of her half-awake state, she was aware of two guys staring at her. One (sandy blonde hair, golden eyes, caramel skin) had wide eyes, and was looking between her and the other man (Stringy red hair, smelled like Menthol, almost translucent gray skin with green and pinky-red lines all over) who was rubbing his jaw, glaring at her.
They were most definitely NOT the Doctor.
"Wh-where am I? Who are you? Where's the Doctor?" she asked, frantically looking around for him.
"The doctor? You know about him?" the blonde one asked me, eyebrows raised.
"Yes, moron, I know about him. Now where is he?" she asked, her fear putting her on edge.
"Spicy. Nice. Leave it to Doc to find one. The guy's got great taste in subjects."
"Subject? The Doctor? No. No, Amy and Rory aren't subjects and neither am I."
"Who are Amy and Rory?"
That's when it hit her: Different kind of doctor.
"No one."
"Great, she's just as psycho conscious as she is unconscious. Well, half conscious" said the stringy redhead, a black bruise already forming along his jaw.
"Excuse me?"
"I think maybe we should take her to the lab. Just to, you know, double check the brain scans." The blonde-haired man said, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
"Lab? Where am I?"
"Maybe you're right, man."
"Are you going to answer me, or am I going to have to shout?" Maria asked, annoyed.
" . . . Let's just take her to the ward. You know, see if someone recognizes her as a subject. Normally the subjects know everything. But then again this one could just be an idiot." The blonde said.
That's it. Now she's pissed. Jumping to her feet, she raised a fist as if to punch them.
"Now I don't know what the heck is going on, but I would most certainly like to know. And I'll have you know I'm no subject. Nor am I psychotic. I'm irritated, confused, and would like some answers. . . now." She said; her whole body tense. The men watched her with increasing curiosity.
"Dibs." whispered the redhead, not so subtly.
Thump.
He fell to the floor in an unconscious, crumpled heap.
"Pig." She said, looking up at the blonde. "Would you like to answer my questions now?"
"Yeah, yeah let's go do that." He said, eyes wide.
"Good, now I would li-"
"Not here. And we need to move this moron first."
"Why? I think he makes a great rug." She said, lightly kicking him in the side.
"Because this is a hospital and someone unconscious in the hallways suggest either someone trying to escape, or someone within the hospital bent on hurting someone."
"Or someone passed out in the hallway."
"Not with a bruise like that." Said the blonde, pointing at the black and blue half of the redhead's face.
"Fine." She said, looking around for a janitor's closet or something to throw him into. Finding none, she frowned.
"I've got him, follow me." Said the blonde, picking up the drooling redhead.
She hesitated only a second before following him as he walked away, the redhead slung over his shoulder.
Definitely not a subject. Nor a patient. Nor a nurse. She was too . . . confused. She seemed almost other-worldly, she acted so out of place.
But that's impossible since no aircrafts had come down since the boss man.
He glanced back at her; following him, pouting. He agreed with Cal in that she certainly was attractive- you know, for a psycho- he just wasn't nearly as obnoxious about it. But it wasn't like he hadn't noticed. . .
But that's not the point. She's crazy, and now holding them almost-hostage. Almost in that, well, she wasn't actually holding them hostage. She was just a really, really pissed psychopath. But who could blame her? Waking up in the arms of a stranger, in a strange place, with no idea what happened or how you got there . . . who wouldn't go psycho?
Checking around the corner of the hallway, and seeing it empty, Miles rushed quickly to the empty patient's quarters across the hall. Motioning for the girl to follow him,
he opened the door and crept in. The girl followed him in, taking a quick look around the room before settling down in one of the reclining chairs. He tossed Cal onto the bed, and sat on the edge of another reclining chair, folding his arms and looking at her.
"What would you like to know?"
"What's your name?"She asked.
"Miles, short for Chamomile. That's Cal, short for Eucalyptus." He replied.
'That explains why he smells like Menthol.' She thought, glancing briefly at the figure on the bed. "Where am I?" She asked, crossing her arms to match the man sitting across from her.
"The only hospital on this planet. Well, it's more of a laboratory."
"Why am I here?"
"We found you, by the river? We didn't think we should leave you out there. That river has been known to drive people so insane they die."
"Wait what?"
"Yep. The river is blood."
"On a planet of plants?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"Don't ask me. I'm not the designer."
"What do you do here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Just that. What do you do here? You said it's a lab-slash-hospital?"
"We make medicines and fertilizer-type things. Take care of sick plants, find cures for diseases, all of that."
"So why a lab?"
"To make the medicine and experiment with new formulas."
"I see . . ." Maria said, thinking about what Ivy had said about the man coming and claiming he could help them. Was there a chance that . . . No. No, Miles didn't seem evil.
'Doesn't mean his boss isn't. And for all I know, he knows nothing about the deaths.' She thought. Miles watched her intently.
"Is there another question coming?" he asked, but Maria didn't hear him. She looked up at him.
"You work here?"
"Yes, I do."
"Your boss. . . what's he like?"
"This matters because . . . ?"
"Answer the question."
"Fine. The boss man. He's . . . well . . .," Miles scratched his head. "I've actually never met him."
"But in the hall . . . you said something about 'Doc sure knows how to pick them'."
"Yeah, Doc. Not the boss man. No one's ever met the boss man. At least no one who's ever had the guts to admit it. The boss man, well let's just say he doesn't take failure very well," Miles explained, wringing his hands. "Or so I've heard anyways."
"Okay then. Who's Doc?"
"The guy who runs this place. He does all the healing and medicine making and training new doctors and all that good jazz."
"He sounds like the boss to me."
"Trust me- he's not. Not even close."
"Okay, well . . . I think that covers everything I wanted to know." Maria said, biting her lip as she thought. There was something she was forgetting. Something important. She had a bad feeling.
Cal stirred, groaning. Neither Maria nor Miles payed any attention to it. Now that Maria knew what she wanted to know, she had no idea where to go next. Should she stay to investigate? Or try to get back to the Doctor? At the moment she wanted to go back to the Doctor, but knew that she should probably stay.
But that feeling . . . That tickle in the back of her neck, and the butterflies restlessly fluttering in her stomach. That tickle she only got when something bad was going to happen. That flutter that only speared when she was scared. Why was she scared? She certainly had no reason to fear Miles. He seemed nice enough. The redhead, maybe. The jury was still out on that one. Maybe she'd stay for a day or two, and then try to find the Doctor. That seemed reasonable enough, right?
"Hello?" Miles asked, an eyebrow raised questioningly. Maria looked at him, realizing she must have been off in La La Land. "So now what? Are you just going to sit there for the rest of your life? Because, let me tell you, those chairs seem comfy enough in the beginning, but after a couple of hours your butt is going to be killing you."
"Is it alright if I stay here at the . . . Hospital, for a few days? I'm still feeling a little off. That river really made my head hurt."
"You could've fooled me," he stated, "but I suppose I can arrange for it. However, the Hospital doesn't do guests. You've got to be either a patient or a subject."
"What's the deal with subjects?"
"They're who we test the new medicines on. Didn't I say that earlier?"
"You might have." Maria admitted, "Does the testing hurt?"
"Sometimes, but not usually. If you want to stay as a subject, just know you can't ever leave."
"And why is that?"
"You're going to be under constant testing. You can't leave because people need to record the side effects and test how long the medicine works for, yadda yadda yadda." So she either had to be a patient, who most likely wouldn't get to leave the hospital bed at all, or a test subject who isn't allowed to leave. Ever.
Like that was going to stop her.
"Consider me a subject."
Clearly surprised by her choice, Miles clapped his hands. "Well, okay then. I'm going to need background information though."
"What do you need to know?" Maria asked, wondering how much of the truth she should mention.
"Name, age, how you got here, family, friends, who to call in an emergency, allergies, birthday, et cetera."
"My name is Maria. I'm fifteen. My mom died about a year ago. Never met my dad. Or grandparents, aunts, uncles, none of them. Just me and my mom. Um. . . No friends. Not really. Sort of. Maybe. Who to call in an emergency? Well . . ." she hesitated. She was giving information-personal information-to a complete stranger. What was she thinking? She needed to change a few details before he ended up knowing her full life story. "I don't have anyone you could call. No allergies, although I do get a little sneeze-y when it's super dusty. My birthday? Well I don't see the importance in that. You already know how old I am."
"Well, Maria, you failed to answer how you got here."
"You brought me. You and whats-his-face over there."
"No. I mean to the planet. You're obviously not from here."
"And what makes you think that?"
"Well for one, you didn't know about the Blood River."
"Fine. I'm a . . . human."
"Really? That's good. We don't seem to ever have enough of those around here."
If she were a dog, her ears would have perked up.
"Why is that?"
"They're considered an endangered species."
"What year is it?"
"Twenty Forty-Seven. Why?"
"Twenty forty-sev-WAIT. Really?"
"Yes, really. And you have yet to answer the original question, Maria."
"What? How I got here?" Maria asked, an eyebrow raised. She needed to think of something, fast. She wasn't sure what to think of this 'hospital' just yet, and if it turned out that the boss was evil? Well she wouldn't want to rat out the Doctor and Co. She couldn't. It would be morally wrong. "I'm not sure. One second I was taking a hike in my neighborhood, the next thing I know, I take a step in the blood river, flip out, and here we are."
"Hmm."
"Do you think I'd lie?"
"I don't know you well enough to make that judgment."
"Touché."
Cal stirred, stretching his legs. "Augh. I feel like someone repeatedly wacked me with a sledgehammer." He groaned, lifting a hand to massage his jaw.
"That, Cal, was completely your own fault." Miles smirked.
"It really was." Maria said, trying to hide the smile threatening to spread across her face.
