We ventured cautiously into the darkness of the unknown. I mean, the lights were all still on but… I think you understand.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Ben snapped at me angrily. "You had me so worried."
"I trusted my instincts," I shrugged. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Guys, not the time," Rennie hissed between the two of us, still holding onto my hand in a vicelike grip.
A gun cocking had me automatically pushing Ren behind me. A man in a doctor's gown propped up the rifle warily, staring at us.
"Anybody infected?"
"One of us was. He didn't make it," Rick, who seemed to have become our spokesman, answered faithfully.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" he demanded.
"A chance," Rick summed up the thoughts running through my head. What I wanted and why I was here were two different things. I suppose, however, that I wanted a chance to do all of that.
"That's asking an awful lot these days," the guy whose name I still don't know looked at him skeptically.
"I know," Rick muttered softly. There was a moment of silence as the doctor scanned us with his calculating stare. I unconsciously stiffened, making sure Rennie couldn't get hurt behind me.
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
"We can do that," Rick answered for us as Rennie and I exchanged looks and gulps.
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes it stays closed," the guy lowered his gun skeptically. We all scrambled to get into the elevator before the guy shut it, not at all eager to step outside again.
"VI…"
I tuned him out at this point, focusing on the fact that in a few minutes, I would have to suffer getting my blood drawn. Rennie gave my hand a soft squeeze, knowing my absolute terror. I looked to him and nodded, feeling sicker and sicker as the world around me grew muffled again.
I was holding her to me until the doctor took her away and lied to me. The needle pierced my skin and I grew sedated.
I awoke, tearing the needles in me out, begging to see her only to be met with more needles.
The world surrounds me again and this time I can't even get up. I'm restrained. I fight teeth and claw, only to get another needle as the nurse tries to calm me.
Needles needles needles. Screaming, needles, wailing, needles, darkness, needles.
A hand tugged at mine, dragging me down a hall. I followed blindly, taking in the dimness. Wishing I could go back to forgetting everything.
"Hey, you okay?" Dale whispers to me, seeing my paleness and the fact that I was getting dragged around by my younger brother when it was normally the other way around.
"Yeah," I smirked before facing my brother, the smile gone and an even sicker feeling filling me up to the brim. One by one, people got their blood drawn by the guy (Dr. Jenner, from what I recall) and it meant my turn was coming, soon.
Ben hissed a bit in pain as the blood was drawn. A strange coldness came over me, starting from my hands and feet and then my face. Glenn took it without much of a complaint, followed by my younger brother.
"Next," Dr. Jenner got a new syringe, turning to me. My heart was pounding in my head, my breathing erratic, and I felt absolutely weak and sick. I was going to hurl soon if not now.
"She doesn't have any symptoms," my brother piped up, standing between the doctor and me as if to shield me.
"I've broken every rule in the book just to let you guys in," Dr. Jenner shrugged, staring down my brother half-teasingly. "Let me do this one thing at least."
"C'mon kid," Rick grabbed my younger brother gently, pulling him aside and clearing the way for the doctor. I felt myself shake like a leaf, everything within me screaming, telling me to run, to hide, to do anything but stand here.
"I need you to sit down so I can draw your blood," the doctor warbled, guiding me to the chair.
Don't sit down, Arlynn. Don't do it.
My knees buckled before I could fight against it. The doctor lifted the syringe, barely a foot away from my arm. I felt the lightness come over me as my breathing grew faster.
"Don't touch my sister!" Rennie shouted all of a sudden, jerking towards the doctor and standing in front of me.
"Woah kid, I'm just going to make sure she's healthy," the doctor shrugged.
"She's healthy-"
"Aren. Come here and let the doctor do his work," Ben forcefully dragged Rennie away from me. I was once again defenseless.
The doctor turned to me and asked me to take my jacket off. My body blankly did so, my hands shaking rapidly as I turned into nothing more than a mere dandelion weakly struggling against the tornado. And it was coming towards me, faster.
"I-I-I c-c-ca-an-n-t-" I finally gasped, frozen and hyperventilating by now.
"Trypanophobia?" the doctor inquired, glancing at my brother and me.
"Speak English?" Rennie quirked a brow.
"Extreme fear of needles?" he rephrased.
My knuckles went white from the extreme grip I had on the cushion of the armrest. It tore a bit, my hand shaking excessively.
"Uh, I would call it more like PTSD," Rennie nodded, looking proud of himself. He pretended to be professional, puffing his chest out. "It means Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Y'know when-"
"He's a doctor. He knows," Ben interrupted him, deflating the poor boy.
"You were a druggie?" the doctor stared at me critically in front of everyone.
"50% of all suicides, and over 50% of all violent crimes, are caused by alcohol and/or drugs. Over 50% of all traffic accidents involve alcohol or drugs. 80% of all domestic violence reports are somehow related to alcohol or drugs. An estimated 60% of poor work performance can be tied back to drugs or alcohol," I shot off, ranting without any purpose and barely knowing what I was saying. "Injection drug users have unique challenges because of additional social stigma, substantially increased risk for infectious diseases, the health consequences of injection drug use, and the addiction to the injection process itself. Needle fixation is when people become addicted not only to the drug, but also to the ritual of drawing their drug up into a needle, and the act of injecting it."
"O..kay…" the doctor stared at me before sighing. "I can't let you get past the blood test. You're going to have to do it."
The needle appeared again from behind his back and was uncapped. I was going to get stabbed again.
"N-n-n-n-no, p-p-p-pl-plea-s-s-se." I begged, my limbs unmoving. I felt terror, the world getting dark around the edges as all I saw was the light reflecting off the needle. The cold alcohol pad met my skin, disinfecting the area, and I fainted.
White walls surrounded me. Doctors came and went, and everytime I woke up I was completely tied down, unable to move. Everytime I had my eyes open I was needled.
"Do you still think she's sleeping?"
"No! She's gone!"
"What do you mean gone?"
"Not here!"
"Sedate her before she claws someone's eyes out again."