Everybody says I don't like authority. That is so not true. I just don't like the people in charge. It's two different things!
--Beck2
hnh: I got a cookie!
HoneyBug17: Wait no longer!
Rogue77: Believe me, Pretty soon she will. I was actually thinking of calling this Death and Rebirth, but that sounds corny.
Flamestrike: I saw the movie.
Azzandra: Yes! That's exactly what I was aiming for!
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I really hate hospitals. So white, clean. So freakin' empty.
Right now I was walking down a hallway. Like I'd been doing for the last hour. I'd given up checking in rooms. Now I was trying to find some offices. Maybe there'd be some papers telling me what was going on, or maybe there was a map to show me how to get out of this place.
I walked past another patient room. I could see elevators on the other side of the hallway and started heading for them.
CREEEAAAKK
I froze. I looked over my shoulder. The door to the patient room had swung open. I looked around the hall. Nobody.
I moved towards the door. It was open maybe a couple inches.
Train wreck. That's what this was. I knew something bad was going to happen as soon as I walked into the room. And like a train wreck that you know is going to happen but you can't pull your eyes away because of morbid fascination, I couldn't stop myself from going into that room.
I opened the door the rest of the way slowly. I couldn't see anything. The lights were off. I fumbled for the light switch, knife ready. I switched it on—
And came face to face with a fire axe. I backpedaled fast, tripped, and fell to the floor. It hit the doorjamb. I felt something running down my face. I had a pretty good idea what it was.
While I had been so intent to get away from the axe, I had not seen the person holding it. Or thing. And right now, I didn't care. Whoever it was was trying to dislodge the axe from the doorjamb.
Get them before they get you. Mr. Logan always said that.
I got to my feet and put every ounce of weight into my tackle. I t was good enough to ram whoever it was into the other wall, but not enough to make them fall. They threw me off and grabbed me by the neck and slammed me against the wall. And a couple of feet off the floor. I clawed against the hand but couldn't get loose.
"Damn Demon! I'll make sure you never haunt me again! It wasn't my fault!"
The man grabbed the axe and prepared to swing it down on my head, but then he stopped.
I tried to look at him, but his hands were cutting off my air. I couldn't breathe.
"…..please…….air……"
He dropped me. My knees were shot with pain when I hit the floor. I choked down air and tried to make the world stop spinning.
"Who are you?!" He demanded. "Are you one of them?"
"…one of…what?"
"MY- you aren't are you?"
"…jury….still….out on you…"
He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. I looked at him.
He was tall, a black man with a graying hairline. He looked like a boxer, but retired. He was dressed in clothes like mine but he had a blue shirt. His face looked almost carved, and his nose was thick from times his nose was broken.
"Why'd you attack me?"
"I thought you were somebody else. I'm sorry."
"Not half as sorry as I am." I massaged my throat. He looked a little concerned.
"I didn't think there was anybody else in here except my own personal demons."
"Yeah? Obviously you didn't see the five year old I stuffed in a meal tray. What's your name?"
"Derick Raiz. You?"
"Danny Nesmond."
"What's this about a five year old?"
I sighed and sat down in a chair. I still had the knife in my hand. Can't be too careful.
"The reason I'm in the hospital is because I got hit by a car. I was pushing a little kid out of the way. When I wake up, I'm here, and there is nobody. I walk around for a while and suddenly the kid pops up behind me and tells me he's going to play with me." I held up the knife so Derick could get the meaning. "He chased me around and then I stuffed him into a food tray. End of story until you try to give me a haircut with an axe."
"Sorry about that. My story's the same. I woke up and nobody was here. I walked around for a bit and this fighter, a guy I beat up a long time ago, tries to kill me. I fought with him, put nothing I do seems to make a dent."
"Bummer."
"Yeah."
"So what happens now?"
"I ain't staying here. We should try and stick together."
"Alright, but we walk side by side. I don't like people behind me."
"Neither do I."
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"Derick is not going to wake up, Mrs. Raiz. I'm sorry." Doctor Garen consoled the woman. She had some name, Dana or something. He never was good at names. She sobbed by her husband's comatose body.
"Can't you do anything?"
"Yes, ma'am. But keeping him hooked up to machines will only prolong his suffering. You have to let him go."
The woman hugged her husband. She had always known that this might happen. Now she was just facing the bitter truth.
"Don't want that. Be better to let him sleep." She whispered, tears streaming silently down her face. He sympathetically nodded and put a helping arm around her shoulders as the nurses came in to pull the plugs.
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We had been walking for a while when Derick stopped suddenly. I looked at him. He had an odd look on his face.
"Derick? What's wrong?"
"I…I don't know…I …..AARGH!" He cried out in pain and fell to his knees, holding his chest. I dropped my knife and grabbed him around the shoulders and lay him down on the floor. He grabbed my hand.
"Dann….I'm going….."
"What? Derick, what's going on?"
"…..coma…both of us….some others….I can see it……"
"Derick? C'mon buddy stay with me!"
"This place….just a dream……nightmare…."
"Derick!" I felt panic rising in me. He wasn't making sense!
"They…put me here…I wouldn't help…."
"What are you saying?" I felt tears begin to build up.
"Wouldn't help, so they shot me…now I don't….have to worry…..my soul is clean…."
"Derick! Don't leave me!"
"Not alone……others here….need your help….."
He began to flicker like an old television set. His body became solid again for one last time.
"He's killing us Danny. He's killing us. I thought after I got shot I'd die somewhere on the street. But he kills us in the place we're supposed to be safest. My wife….I love you…….Darla…"
His head lolled back and his body disappeared. The only thing that remained was the axe.
"Derick….."
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Her sobs were loud as she sat by her husband's body. Doctor Garen swiftly wrote down the date and time of the death of one Derick Raiz.
"He's in a better place now. I have to go…I truly am sorry."
She made no answer, just buried her head into her husband's shoulder.
He left the room quickly. He passed a couple nurses in the hall as they talked.
"How many patients is it now?"
"I don't know, about five or so. These comas that are popping up are strange beyond belief."
"I can't believe it, is it some kind of sickness?"
He shook his head at this and kept on down the hallway. There were many more patients to check on, no use for this idle chat.
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I picked up the axe. He said there were others. He said there were monsters. He said we weren't safe anywhere anymore. So to hell with it. I'm going to find the others. And I'm going to make sure nothing gets in my way anymore.
Because I'm not going to disappear.
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Wow. That was tense.
Tune in next time:
Smoke and Mirrors
Review time!!!!!!! Doggy will be taking reviews since he won't be showing up for a while—at least not the real him.