Beth opened her eyes with a gasp, blinking a few times to bring the ceiling into focus.
A clock was ticking loudly on the wall, and she sat up slowly, looking around the room and then down at the johnny shirt she was wearing. How could something as simple as hospital room seem so normal at one time but now be so foreign and disorienting?
Her eyes were drawn toward the daylight coming in the window, and she started to get up only to be hindered momentarily by her IV stand. This gave her pause to inspect the wounds she just realized she had. A white cast on her right hand and wrist that she'd never seen before, and above it 4 small bandages over cotton swabs. An itching on her left cheekbone made Beth reach up and inspect the stitches she felt with care, and she wished she had a mirror to see what it looked like.
Beth shakily got to her feet and wheeled her IV stand over to the window, placing her hands on the ledge and looking out at a city ravaged by neglect and the undead. Her eyes were drawn to several bodies lying on top of the adjacent building, and for some reason, seeing them grounded her. Reminded her of who she was and what she'd been through before being brought here against her will.
She heard a key opening the lock on the door and turned to see a man in a white lab coat walk in.
His eyes moved to the bed at first and then, seeing her at the window, he held his hands up in front of him in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect you to regain consciousness this soon." He laid his clipboard down on the bed and swallowed nervously as he approached her. "My name is Dr. Steven Edwards. I'm not going to hurt you."
Beth backed up against the nearest wall, holding her IV stand out in front of her. "Where am I? What did you do to me?" She glanced at her cast and then back at the stranger, trying to get a read on what his intentions were.
"My officers found you on the side of the road, fighting off a rotter." A woman with dark slicked-back hair in a police uniform spoke from the doorway. Beth's grip on the stand grew tighter as the officer calmly walked over to stand beside the doctor.
The woman's eyes never left hers for a moment, and Beth immediately felt the weight of this woman's appraising stare.
The man put his hands in his coat pockets and nodded toward the woman beside him. "This is Officer Dawn Lerner. She's in charge here." He turned back to the frightened patient before him. "What's your name?"
She blinked a few times, trying to get her fear under control. "Beth." Shifting her weight, she hesitated before asking her next question. "Did you bring my friend here, too? We got separated by walkers and then everythin' went black." She lifted a hand up to the back of her head, and ran her fingers over a large bump underneath her hair.
Officer Lerner shook her head and hooked her fingers on the front of her belt. "There was no one else. It was luck that we found you when we did." She eyed the young woman in front of her with a cool stare. "I think you'll make a good addition to our little community."
Beth didn't entirely know what the officer meant, but she didn't like the sound of it at all, especially with the realization that she was now on her own.
Officer Lerner left to go on her rounds, leaving Beth alone with Dr. Edwards.
He pushed his glasses up and had her sit on the edge of the bed. "You asked what this place is. It's Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Now tell me, how are you feeling?" He picked up the blood pressure cuff while she sat.
Beth looked down and shrugged. "Okay, I guess. I feel...maybe a little hot," she slipped a finger under the collar of her gown and pulled it out a bit, "and kind of...tingly all over? Is that normal?"
The doctor paused while he considered her question. "It could just be the sedative wearing off," but he didn't sound like he believed his answer entirely. He motioned toward her hand. "Your wrist was fractured when you came in."
She touched her cast. "It itches somethin' awful under this. Why would it itch so much if it's just a fractured wrist?" Her fingers started to dig under the edges of the cast, trying to scratch and get some relief.
Edwards reached out suddenly to stop her. "Don't do that!" he said, with more force than he meant to. He looked at her worried face, and sighed. "I'm sorry, I just meant don't mess up the bandage. We have to conserve what medical supplies we have here. I don't want to have to change that if it's not needed." He fidgeted with the items in his pockets, appearing flustered. "You just had some road rash on the skin above the fracture. If it's itching, that's a good sign. Means it's healing, so just leave it be so it doesn't get infected. Okay?"
Beth nodded in understanding, and smiled up at him apologetically. "Okay. Sorry."
He proceeded to take her blood pressure, then timed her heart rate and took her temperature, which he logged in his little notebook. She tried to see the numbers before Edwards slipped it back into his pocket. "Why do you need to know all that stuff? Is there somethin' wrong with me?"
He shook his head and put the thermometer back in his coat pocket. "No no. Nothing wrong, necessarily. Just you had a bit of a fever and elevated heart rate when you came in. It's one of the few things I can actually monitor with the limited resources we have here, so I might be a little ocd about the things I'm able keep an eye on."
Dr. Edwards stood up straight and smiled. "There's some scrubs and sneakers for you to change into," he nodded toward a small table in the corner. "I'll be right outside the door. Just let me know when you're presentable."
Beth slowly started to get dressed, feeling marginally better with proper clothes and shoes on if an opportunity came to escape from here. She sat back down on the bed and called out that he could come back in.
The door reopened and Edwards walked over to his patient again.
He clapped his hands together softly. "Alright. Do you want to come with me on my rounds if you're up to it? I could use the help."
Beth nodded hesitantly, standing up, only to grab on to the doctor's arm because of a sudden dizzy spell. He held onto her shoulders. "Are you alright?"
She stood for a good 10 seconds with her eyes shut, just focusing on breathing until she felt better and nodded. "Yeah," she took a couple deep breaths," yeah, I'm fine. Just stood up too quick or somethin'."
Beth walked out into the hall with the doctor trailing behind her, not realizing how closely he was watching her.