~I apologize for those last two chapters. They tanked. If you read them, I apologize. If you didn't then you aren't missing anything. My remedy was to get rid of them, and I doubt they'll be missed. Well anyway, here's the prelude to the 'group therapy' chapter, altered but (hopefully) better.
P.S.-Hehe, a friend gave me the idea for the joke here, so this time if the chapter sucks it's not my fault! -entirely. :P I do have permision to use said joke, so go from there. Enjoy?~
Three months after (last chapter)...
The doctors decided to try something new with the patients. Something that might possibly serve to illicit some sort of reaction from even just one of them that might further their research into the Marker.
Group 'therapy'.
"So long as I don't have to be there for it," Tiedemann had said as he signed the order of permission that was needed to mark that yes, the staff had asked him for the go-ahead and that yes, he had given it.
Arrangements were then hastily made so that the doctors could bear witness to what they hoped would be a success.
Of course, this is Dead Space we're talking about. Shame they weren't informed, or they probably wouldn't have wasted their time with such an endeavor...
XXX
Something was happening, he could tell. The very air itself seemed...different, somehow. Indeed, the nurse that came in to give him his pills only further confirmed his suspicions: her whole demeanor seemed 'off'. He tried to make eye contact with her but failed miserably to do so. Needless to say, this did not serve to 'please' the viewing audience.
"See something you like?" grumbled Nicole from the opposite wall, her arms folded moodily across her chest.
Isaac ignored her and continued to watch the nurse as she replaced the cap on the pill bottle and eventually took her -rather hurried- leave. Only after the door had slid firmly back in place did he turn to address the (jealous) phantasm across from him.
"Did she seem -odd- to you, just now?" he asks of her.
"-About as odd as every other slut in this hell-hole." Nicole muttered darkly in response, determindly keeping her eyes fixed on the door.
"Nicole." Isaac's not in time for jealous-dead-girlfriend shenanigans. This could be serious.
"Who?" she says instead, casting her sights around mockingly.
"Dammit woman! This could be serious!" he snaps, needlessly reiterating what the author just wrote.
"I'll say!" she snaps back, rounding on him with her usual (quite literally) deadened stare. If this bothers him in any way, however, the deadpan expression on his face certainly hides it well.
"God, you always were touchy about the dumbest shit-" he sighs heavily, shaking his head.
"I can't help it," she suddenly simpers, rubbing her arm in an 'insecure' manner. "What with being 'dead' and all-"
"-Aaaaaaaaaannndd here it starts," the engineer mutters into his hands as she continues on about 'he-stopped-caring-what'.
Some few minutes (and much whining) later and Isaac is cut off from further pondering with his former lover as a small huddle of male nurses enter his room. The one at the head of the group is holding a noticably large syringe, which can't mean anything good. Nicole instantly silences herself in favor of watching.
"PLEASE for the love of Altman tell me I'm not going to need this," the first man says unexpectedly, his tone one of exasperation.
Isaac stares from the needle to the man weilding it and back again before shaking his head. "Not that I'm aware of?"
"You didn't even explain why you might need it in the first place!" pipes up one of the back-up nurses, elbowing his colleague.
"Nah, it's all in the display," the leader says 'wisely', nodding to emphasize his point. "Isn't that right, Patient Four?"
"Whatever you say, buddy," Isaac agrees, hoping he won't wind up on the business end of that needle if he can avoid it. It looks mean...
"Alright then, you guys escort him to the 'room'." the leader instructs. "I'm going to go try and make Patient Two 'agreeable'..."
He bustles out, and the other two men flank Isaac and proceed to lead him from the room. Curious, Nicole peeks around the door to watch him go until he and his 'entourage' have completly vanished from view. Rather than opt to follow, though, she stays behind. She has 'other' things to check on first...
XXX
Isaac found himself sitting in a large, glaringly-white circular room, alone despite the small assortment of chairs radiating around his own. He felt a random and otherwise-involuntary tingle of apprehension dash down his spine; this sort of thing had never happened before, and right now he didn't like it. He wished Nicole was here, so that he'd have someone to talk to while he waited, but knowing her, she was probably probing the halls for that nurse from before...
So he waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Gradually, the silence mounted until his ears ached, as if the room had just been plunged into a vacuum that solely targeted sound.
Nothing.
Not.
One.
Sound.
His body began to break out in a cold sweat and his breath came in sharp bursts that caught in his throat. His pulse quickened to such a degree that it hurt, and that was when...
He heard it.
A shallow wheezing, coming from somewhere...but where? He wished Marty were here, Marty would protect him. At the thought, his trigger finger began to twitch out of habitual reflex, but he wasn't aware of it. His eyes were roving the room, looking for the source, the entry point-
There, set in the far wall: a vent.
Oh dear God.
He got up slowly and backed away, putting as much space between it and himself as possible. The more he stared into the inky black depths beyond that flimsy steel grate, the more it came into focus: it's jaw drooping and slick with saliva, it's deadened eyes fixed on him...
XXX
"AH!" he screamed as the door to the room slid open. A confused doctor (recognized soon after to be the doctor that had threatened him with the needle some time earlier) peered around the corner, his expression one of nervous apprehension.
"Patient...Four?" he asked softly. "Patient Four, are you alright?" Behind his back, he quickly made some signaling gesture to whoever was behind him. This didn't look good...
"Isaac?" he pressed gently. Isaac's eyes stopped darting about the room and fixed so intently on his own that he felt his heart jolt. "...you ok?"
The engineer was silent a moment. After what seemed like forever, he nodded. "Y-Yeah," he said distantly. "I-I just...I just-"
"It's ok, Isaac," the doctor continued, edging into the room, wary of making any sudden movements that might illicit an attack. These people were prone to that sort of thing, after all. "You can relax. Easy, now. There, there..." he cooed. Before him, Patient Four seemed to be easing up some, which was good. He was not bound by a straightjacket, after all.
"...Why are you against the wall, Isaac?" the doctor asked. At first Isaac only shook his head, but he was acutely aware that the doctor was staring at him; he could feel it. Feeling somewhat pressured, he finally sighed.
"The vent...it, it was in the vent..." he pointed a slightly-shaking finger. The doctor turned to the offending vent himself, and squinted through the shadowy bars.
"I don't see anything, Isaac." he intoned patiently.
"I know it was there. It might have you fooled, but not me." the engineer countered, scowling.
The doctor smiled, that same fake smile that all doctors' use. You know, the one generally followed by that bullshit 'now you're going to feel a slight pinch' line. "I'm going to show you there's nothing there," he said calmly.
"Are you insane?" Patient Four looked incredulous.
"Not quite," the doctor said, that same weird smile on his face. With that, he got up and crossed the room, positioning himself dead in front of the vent. Isaac felt dread course through him as suddenly as if a dam had just burst within him, releasing a torrent of icy water into his veins. He'd seen this one too many times...
XXX
Two minutes prior...
"Awl, shit," cursed the very-real leaper that had honestly been hiding in the vent, spying on 'the Master.' As quietly as was necromorphically-possible, it backed itself out and shimmied into the opening of another route of ventilation, wedging itself out of sight just as the doctor stood before the grate it'd been at just a second ago.
XXX
"See?" the doctor said, turning to Isaac, who still looked extremely leery. "Nothing. Nothing at a- wait." he stopped suddenly. Turning back to the vent, he paused a moment, then cried out so sharply that Isaac jumped.
"AUGH! What the hell?" he snapped. Then, and rather unexpectedly: "It smells like something DIED in here! OH that is foul-!"
XXX
"What the...HEY!" the leaper lurking in the vent snapped mentally, baring it's needle-like fangs and hissing.
XXX
"Excuse me just a moment," the doctor said shortly to Isaac before storming from the room. The door had barley slid shut behind him before his irritable ranting was to be heard.
"Nurse? NURSE! Yes, you!"
"Is this about the-" a startled female voice answered.
"No, no. The Patient is fine, so far as that goes. No, I need you to go down into the mailroom, you know where that is? Good. I need you to go down there and tell those pogues to STOP, er, 'flatulating', into the vents! Dammit these people are scewed up enough as it is, WITHOUT a bunch of idiots lighting off anal gas into the ventilation!"
The 'nurse' chortled slightly. "Oh, they're still doing that?"
The doctor didn't seem to find the situation so funny. "Clearly."
"I-I'll tell them," she obliged. The sound of hurried footsteps told of her quick departure. That random episode aside, the doctor re-entered, looking thoroughly miffed.
"Now I know why I keep hearing about zombie-like monsters in the vents..." he grumbles to himself. "Only thing decaying in those things is someone's ass..."
"Doc?" Isaac starts. "Doctor, that was no-"
"Of course not," the doctor waves that one right off. "Now, are you feeling up to par?"
"For, what?"
"Anything."
"Um, sure?"
"Lovely. You're going to be joined by a few of the other patients, is that alright with you?"
"I don't really have a choice, right?"
"Of course you don't, it just sounds proper to ask. Alright then," he pulls up the audio on his RIG. "Bring in the other two."
XXX
Shortly afterward, the door slides open again, and five men walk in: three heavy-set male nurses, and two others that Isaac doesn't know at all. By their dress, they can't be nurses, or even orderlies. In fact, they're dressed much like him...
The first one is led in by the arm by one of the nurses, who guides him over to the chair furthest from Isaac, who has since settled himself back into the seat he'd had before. He's of a fairly average build; bit of a square jaw, hair just a tad longer than Isaac's, not really much else. Judging from the glassy look in his eyes and his 'way-too-calm' demeanor, he's under the influence of some seriously heavy drugs. Clearly a shady guy, not to mention an easily forgettable one.
The second man enters of his own accord, not having to be led in like the creep before him. He seems tense to quite some degree, and takes the first seat he comes to. From there he opts to stare intently at the floor, with his hands clasped in his lap. He's rocking back and forth just slightly and tapping one foot nervously on the floor...the poor, weird, jittery bastard...
"Good, good," the doctor beams at the three men seated around him. "-Is this all so far?" he asks of one of the nurses. They discuss something quickly before the doctor nods. "Mmhm... Ok! You three! I've got to go see to the others just yet, so I'll be gone a few minutes. During that time, you're more than welcome to get to know each other! In fact, I encourage it!" He then sweeps himself out, the entourage of nurses behind him.
XXX
"'Kay, let's see how things go thus far..." the doctor says distractedly, setting up still more monitors and what not. Behind him, the rest of the viewing stafff are still edging into the room to behold this little 'experiment'.
Hopefully, they're about to witness a success.
Likely, they're going to see instead an epic failure.
"Nonsense," chides the doctor when one of the nurses brings up this possibility to him. "We've been preparing for this for-!"
"-About twelve hours," scoffs the critic nurse. The doctor goess rigid a moment, realizing the other does in fact have a point.
"Um...shut up," he says quickly, finishing up his doings. "Alright people!" he addresses all else in the room, while the nurse beside him clicks her tongue disaprovingly. "It's show time!"
~Another P.S.: I appreciate all the reviews, favs, etc's, I really do. :3 You guys are awesome!~