Chapter Two: Work Begins

Will woke up the next morning. He found himself back in the same room he fell asleep in. He let out a sigh. He knew today was the first day he'd been working for Jack. He heard a knock on his door. "Come in." he muttered.

A figure entered his room. They were dressed in dark colored scrubs. They had a tray of food. They sat it down at the table before leaving the room. Will went over to the table. He noticed a folder on the tray. He frowned and picked up the folder. He opened it up to see a file inside of it. He sat down at the table.

Will read the file. He had been assigned a patient to work with. He looked at the food on the tray. It was a rather nice breakfast. He heard his stomach howl. He knew he had to keep his strength up. As much as he didn't want to be fed by a snake. He tucked in. He cleared his plate. He picked up the file once more and headed out of the room.

He walked to the elevator door only for the elevator door to open. A rather burly man stood inside of it. His gaze fell on Will. "You Will Halstead?" he asked.

Will nodded. The man extended a hand toward him. "Haron. I will be your assigned bodyguard."

Will stared at his hand before shaking it. "Why do I need a bodyguard?"

"This place can be a bit rough. Especially the patients. Jack wants to make sure you don't get your ass beat in the process." explained Haron.

"I can handle rough patients. I don't need help with that." grumbled Will.

"You'll need help with these patients. Trust me. C'mon. I'm sure Jack sent you some form of work."

Will nodded. He stepped into the elevator with Haron. He didn't lie. The sight of Haron did intimidate him a little. Though he honestly thought that Jack wouldn't care what happened to him. Something felt off about all of this.

Will checked the file. His patient was located on the ground floor. He was heading right for where he saw the Mess Hall yesterday. The elevator reached the ground floor. The doors opened. Haron stood behind Will. Will took his first few steps out of the elevator.

The ground floor of the facility was massive. There were people dressed in white walking it. Most of them hung around the tables. He noticed that each one of them was wearing a collar. This felt strange to him. It was almost as if these people were animals in a way. Some of them stared at him as he made his way through the crowd. Haron kept up the rear. He eyed the people in turn. Some of them whispered among each other as Will passed by.

Will reached the other side of the ground floor. He could see a variety of holding cells. He looked for the one that his patient was in. He noticed each door had a window. Some of the cells were open and empty. Others had people inside of them. He reached one at the end of the row. He glanced at the name tag first. Russ Andrews read the name tag. He peered into the holding cell.

A dark ginger haired male with rather pale skin. His skin was almost a snow white color. Will could tell that he had work down previously. The man was thin. Will's hand drifted to the door. He opened it gently. The door slid sideways. "Russ?"

Will cleared his throat. "I'm Dr. Halstead. I'll be the one overseeing your trial."

Russ nodded. Will looked to Haron. "Can you give us a minute?"

Haron muttered something under his breath before moving back behind the corner. Will then looked to Russ. "How long have you been waiting?" he asked.

"Ever since I first arrived. I was injured but Jack made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Said it was a game changer." replied Russ. He sounded rather confident.

Will's eyes flickered. He kept his anger out of his eyes. "I see. Well let's go ahead and take you upstairs."

"Your going to have to be my eyes." He gestured to his milky colored eyes. "I can't exactly see. Jack said he had a fix for it though."

What exactly has Jack been working on? Wondered Will. He made a mental note to check it out later. He gently placed his hands on Russ' arm. Russ stood up. He stuck close to Will's side.

Will walked out of the room with him. He could feel Russ leaning on him. Haron followed in behind them. They went back toward the elevator. Will pressed the button for it. He wasn't going to lie. This place gave him the creeps. He couldn't believe the amount of people that Jack had in his facility. Were all these people part of Jack's trial? The elevator doors opened. They walked inside. Will chose the third floor.

The elevator ride didn't take them long. They arrived on the third floor. Will looked to Haron. "So is there like a lab or somewhere I can take him?" he asked.

"Yeah. Follow me." Haron took the lead. Will guided Russ down the hallway. Haron hung outside of a room. He flicked on the light. The lab was rather huge. There was a hospital beds and weird looking machines. There were screens on the back wall as well as one ahead of the bed. Will lofted an eyebrow. He helped Russ over to the bed. He sat him down. He checked the file. The file mentioned something about a device that Jack had been working on.

Will went off to the other room that was in the lab. He spotted a rather large metal box. He opened it up. Inside of the metal box was a strange device. Something that Will had never seen before. He picked up the device. A set of schematics sat on the wall in front of him. He quickly examined it. The device was a set of googles of some sort. "Right. All I have to do is put this on him." he muttered.

Will put the set of googles on Russ. The googles clicked into place on his head. "Right. Russ, can you see through these?"

Russ shook his head. "Nope. All I see is blackness."

Will frowned thoughtfully. He went back into the room. He stared at the schematics. He noticed a small disk and another device on it. Looked like the small disk sat at the base of the neck. The device was to inject the disk into it. Will grabbed both items out of the box. He walked up behind Russ. "Your going to feel some slight pressure." He put the device up to the back of Russ' neck.

Russ yelped as the disk was inserted into him. The disk latched itself onto his spine. He then could see though a bit blurry through the googles. "Oh. Now I can see through these. Though it is blurry."

Will went around to the front of him. He noticed that he could adjust the lenses on the googles. He gently adjusted it. Russ let him know once his vision was clear. "I can see!" exclaimed Russ. "Oh this is wonderful! I can't wait to show my family!" He then looked up at Will. "I can go back to them. Right?"

Will wasn't sure. "Yeah. I'm sure you could." He checked the file. He noticed that there really wasn't much to his file. "Let's take you back to your holding cell. I can mark it in your chart that you are able to see now."

Russ nodded. He stood up. He followed Will back to the elevator. Will took him back to his cell. He closed the door. Haron hung back behind him. Will closed the door. Haron took Will back to his room.

Just as soon as Will arrived in his room, he spotted Jack sitting on his bed. Will eyed him. Jack looked up. "So how did your first case go?"

"It went well. Do the patients that end up in your care get to leave? I mean there wasn't much to that guy's file." questioned Will.

"Oh yes. He'll get to leave."

Will kept a firmness in his gaze. "What exactly are you working on, Jack? What's up with those devices that you had me handle today?"

Jack leaned forward on his hands. "You really want to know?"

"Yeah. I really want to know." Will folded his arms over his chest. "What is this place? This isn't like any damned hospital I've ever worked for."

Jack looked to Haron. "Haron, why don't you step out? Give me and Halstead a little bit of space."

Haron stepped out of the room. Jack stood up. "I'm working on advancements in medicine. It's time that medicine was brought up to speed with technology. My business can make that happen. With a little support from an outside company of course. If your looking for something shady, Halstead, I can assure you that none of that is going on here. "

Will lowered his arms. An idea came to him suddenly. "Would there be any way of accessing an archive. I want to learn more about this place. Considering it'll look like that I'll be dealing with a lot of patients from here on out."

Jack thought for a minute. "I can arrange to give you archive access. Oh, and there's something I want to give you." He gestured to a set of viles that were sitting on Will's desk. "I want you to take those each night. It'll help with sleep. Especially with how quiet this place gets from time to time."

Will lofted an eyebrow. Jack stood up. He placed a hand on Will's shoulder. "Good talking to you." He headed over to the door. "Oh, and don't let me down. I'd hate to have to have someone snap that neck of yours."

Jack then left the room. Will sat down on his bed. He stared at the viles. He took one of the viles. He opened it and smelled it. He discovered no scent. He downed it. He gagged at the taste. He instantly felt tired. He gripped the side of the bed. His world spun and then went black.

Will woke up in his room. He laid in the dark. He heard faint whispering all around him. He slowly sat upright. He noticed that the lights were just pitch black in his room. A deep chill went down his spine. Something didn't feel right. He heard a female voice on the other side of his door. He got to his feet. He walked over to the door. He leaned his ear up against it. He heard the female voice laugh suddenly. He opened the door.

A long hallway sprawled in front of him. As soon as he took a step, the room began to spin. Weird symbols flashed in his vision. He paused. He got a cold feeling in his stomach. A bright light shined in the hallway suddenly. He heard the voice beckon to him. "Natalie?"

Will took a step. He kept going deeper into the hallway. He was following the voice. The voice then screamed. "Natalie!" shouted Will. He ran towards the light. The light moved further and further out of his grasp.

A hiss sounded behind him. He looked over his shoulder. A black tendril shot out of his room. It wrapped around his waist. It began dragging him backwards. Will dug his nails into the tile. He shouted for Natalie once more before getting dragged back into his room.

Will bolted upright in bed. He panted looking around. He placed his face between his hands. He managed to calm down. The lights were still on in his room. He stood up. He spotted another tray of food followed by a book of some sort with a small object and note placed upon it. He read the note.

You may need this journal in the days to come. I found that it's a lovely friend that always has an ear to listen. I also got you a key card for the Archive. Let me know if there's anything else.

-Jack

Will let out a sigh. He looked at the journal. He turned to a page in it and began writing down the dream he had. He also made a quick sketch of the symbols he saw. He figured he would do research after his next job tomorrow. He ate and then went back to sleep. This time it was dreamless.