The ARC 03: Fractured

by Alexandra Moody

  ‘You don’t remember anything at all?’

  ‘Nothing. Not even a tiny bit,’ I respond, biting down on my lower lip. ‘I would’ve thought I’d have remembered something by now.’

  ‘Why did you need a sedative?’

  ‘He said I was having trouble sleeping, but I don’t remember, of course. You didn’t have a sedative?’

  ‘No,’ he replies. ‘But I wouldn’t stress. I’m sure the doctor is right and you will get your memories back.’

  I shrug, not feeling certain of anything right now.

  ‘How were your first round of tests yesterday?’

  I cross my arms over my chest. ‘Uncomfortable. I felt more like a lab rat than a patient, the way they stuck so many needles in me.’

  Will’s eyes light up. ‘Nothing wrong with being a rat. Did you know they used to train rats to detect landmines?’

  ‘No, I didn’t,’ I frown. ‘It doesn’t mean I want to be one though.’

  He gives me a look like I’m crazy for not wanting to be a rat. ‘I suppose.’

  He moves off the end of my bed, standing and stretching his arms over his head as he watches the orderly who is in the process of setting up the television for the younger kids. The man has a massive grin on his face as he chats to the kids about movie options, but there’s an air of falseness to his behaviour that bothers me.

  The guy strikes me as weirdly familiar, though I’ve never seen him before, and a bad feeling forms in the pit of my stomach. My attention is snatched away from watching the man as Will staggers back against my bed, causing the metal frame to rattle as he grabs it for support.

  I jump up to help steady him and take a hold of his arm. ‘Are you okay?’

  He doesn’t respond immediately, his eyes are wide with shock and his face has paled significantly. The grip he holds on the bed frame tightens as he considers the distance between our two beds, as if wondering whether he can manage the few steps across.

  ‘Will?’

  ‘I’m fine. Just got up a little too quickly,’ he replies, with a nervous chuckle. There’s an edge of worry to his voice and he eyes the ground beneath his feet with distrust. It’s several moments before he straightens his back and allows me to help him to his bed. I watch him closely even after he’s safely tucked under the sheets.

  What if he’s worse than I’d first assumed? I glance around the rest of the room, seeing the kids in here more clearly than I had before. What if we all are?

  I swallow and try to take a calming breath as I return to my bed. I’m in a room of sick, possibly dying, kids and I am one of them. There may be no coming back from this.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I sit in silence, allowing my thoughts to readjust, as I try to accept the new reality of my life. I want to remain positive, to have faith everything will be okay, but darkness invades my mind. My thoughts turn despondent as I consider the possibility that each person in this room has an expiry date, and the doctors here are our only hope of survival.

  I hazard a glance at Will, whose eyes are just as concerned as my own. The colour is back in his cheeks and he appears to be feeling fine now. Maybe the stumble really was just a result of standing too quickly?

  My troubled thoughts consume me as the afternoon wears on. I can barely bring myself to join in conversation with Will. Even Kelsey, with her unbridled enthusiasm for life, struggles to draw a smile from my face.

  It’s not until I wake up in the middle of the night, sweating and gasping for air, that I am roused from the melancholy that had descended upon me.

  The ward is dark and long black shadows rear up in the dim light of the room. Gripped in the powerful and consuming terror of my nightmare, it takes me several moments to remember where I am. I try to calm myself from the fear that cloaks me like a cold and icy blanket.

  I push myself up in bed and hug my knees to my chest as I draw in a long and deep breath. The dream was terrifyingly real. I can still feel its dark tendrils enclosing me, like long coils of a plant that creep up my back and curl around my neck and arms. I flick on the soft night light next to my bed and take another calming breath in and out.

  ‘It was just a dream.’

  Even whispering the words out loud doesn’t calm me the way it should. I replay the dream in my mind, over and over, the images still as crystal clear in my thoughts as they had been in my sleep.

  I was in a room; similar to the isolated one I awoke in just two mornings ago. There were no tables or chairs in there and the harsh white light that shone down on me was intense and ceaseless. I sat alone on the hard concrete floor, curled up and whimpering. It felt like I’d been in there for an eternity. My bones ached and my muscles felt weak. My throat was bone dry like I hadn’t had a drink in days.

  ‘Try again,’ a voice boomed over a speaker. The sound sent shivers down my spine and a dark premonition filled me. I knew something bad was coming. I was certain of it, and yet I looked up at the ceiling from where the noise had sounded and shook my head.

  ‘You can’t make me,’ I replied, wiping one hand across my tear-stained cheek and looking directly into the eye of a camera that was lodged in the corner of the room.

  Silence met my words and the foreboding fear that had been building inside me rapidly escalated. I knew with a cold certainty things were about to get worse for me.

  The door to the room slammed open and I crawled backward, weakly dragging my body until I was up against the far wall. My heart raced as the orderly I’d seen earlier today in the children’s ward entered the room. He didn’t approach me; he barely spared a glance in my direction. He merely stood back as he waited for the dark presence that stood just outside the doorway to enter.

  I couldn’t see the face of the man who stood outside the room. He was totally cloaked in shadow and, seeing him there, my body pulsed with a mixture of terror and fear of what was to come. My skin buzzed as though electricity danced over the tips of the hairs on my arms.

  ‘Try again,’ the voice over the speaker repeated.

  I shook my head once more, too terrified to voice my refusal, but too determined to give in. I wouldn’t give them what they wanted. I didn’t even know if I could.

  The shadowed man entered the room; his face was still shrouded in darkness. Even under the bright light that shone down from the ceiling I was unable to make out his features.

  ‘I will ask you one more time Elle…’ the voice rumbled. ‘You know what’s at stake here.’

  ‘No,’ I whispered, refusing to look away from the dark man who stood before me.

  The voice over the microphone paused, before exhaling. ‘Do it,’ it said, with detached resignation. The words clearly not meant for me.

  The man took another step towards me. Moments later my head erupted in pure, searing pain, like a burning poker had been plunged into my brain. I grabbed my head in my hands and screamed, the terror and agony too much for me to bear, even while asleep. When my eyes next opened I was back in the children’s ward, my head still throbbing and my heart thundering in my chest.

  ‘It was just a dream,’ I repeat to myself.

  I try to return to sleep, but the thought of sleeping makes me nervous, and I fear drifting back to my dream and seeing it through to completion. I can too easily recollect the intense pain in my head and I’m petrified of seeing the face of the man masked in shadow. I know it’s just a dream, but it felt so real. As I lie in the darkened room, I can’t quite convince myself to forget about it the way I would during the day.

  In the end I give up on sleep and grab a book from the bookshelf at the end of the room. The feel of the paper in my fingers and the words enveloping me from the page are calming and by the time everyone’s up for breakfast the next morning, I feel better. Well, almost. My eyes feel like sandpaper and I’m uncontrollably yawning, but the dream seems to be becoming more fiction-like and something only to be feared in the middle of the night.

  After breakfast, whilst a nurse is clearing away our trays,
I notice Kelsey approaching the lady. She tugs on the woman’s skirt, causing her to pause what she is doing and give the small child her attention. Kelsey gives a theatrical sigh. ‘Porridge is ruining my life,’ she announces seriously, causing me to laugh out loud.

  The nurse shoos her off as she continues to wheel the food trays from the room. I can’t keep the smile from my lips. I kind of wish the nurse had at least listened to her; porridge is ruining my life too.

  Once the door has shut behind the nurse, Kelsey turns and notices me watching. She smiles and makes her way over to my bed, her eyes latching onto the book in my hands as she approaches. ‘What’s that?’ she asks, tilting her head to look at the cover. I wedge one finger between the pages I have open and flip the book to look at the front of it.

  ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,’ I answer, with a smile. ‘It’s about some children who find a magical land with talking animals in their wardrobe.’

  Her eyes light up. ‘Can you read some to me?’ she asks.

  I fold the corner of the page I’m on and close the book. ‘Yeah, I’d be happy to, but maybe later. I might become cross-eyed if I read anymore right now.’

  ‘How about we play a board game?’ Will asks, coming to join us on the bed.

  ‘I want to do a puzzle,’ Kelsey says, racing off to the shelves at the end of the room, before we have a chance to respond. I smile as I watch her go, loving how enthusiastic she is and how little this place seems to affect her.

  ‘Did you get any sleep last night?’ Will asks.

  ‘Not really.’ I cross my arms over my chest to fight the chills that creep down my back, as my dream from last night rises to the surface of my thoughts. I can almost feel the residual pain in my mind, like my brain is scarred from the short moments of agony I was put through just before I woke up. I still can’t get past how clear the dream was. It’s unnerving.

  ‘I got it,’ Kelsey says, walking back with the puzzle in hand. She is nearly to the bed when she pauses, her grip on the tattered box tightening and her skin going pale.

  Her eyes lose focus and a sheen of sweat develops on her forehead.

  ‘Kels?’ Will asks, standing and then crouching beside her. ‘What’s the matter?’

  The box slowly tumbles from her grasp, hitting the ground with a clatter, sending the puzzle pieces tumbling across the floor. Kelsey’s lower lip trembles and she raises her hands to grip her head in pain.

  ‘I don’t feel so good,’ she whimpers, before collapsing into his arms, as a slow trickle of blood oozes out of one of her nostrils.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I reach up and slam my fist against the bright red emergency button on the wall. Will’s head whips up from Kelsey’s limp body held in his arms to look at me, his wide eyes brimming with terror.

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’ I ask, throwing myself from the bed to crouch down beside him.

  ‘I don’t know. She was fine a minute ago…’

  ‘Kelsey, are you alright?’ I ask, gently shaking her shoulders. ‘Can you hear me?’

  Her eyes stay shut and she doesn’t respond. I place my cheek down close to her mouth, before pulling back. ‘She’s still breathing.’

  ‘Will she be okay? Her skin is so pale,’ Will says, pushing a stray strand of hair from across her face.

  ‘I have no idea. Let’s get her to a bed,’ I suggest. Will nods and together we lift and place her on his bed. Her skin burns hot under my hands and her thin nightgown clings to the sweat coating her body.

  The door at the far end of the room stays shut and there’s no sign anyone has even heard our emergency call, let alone that they’re responding to it.

  ‘Where are the doctors?’ I ask.

  ‘I don’t know. They should be here by now…’

  The door at the end of the room slams open and the nurse on duty hurries in. She’s in such a rush she doesn’t close the door behind her and for the briefest moment I consider the open doorway and the escape it offers. I quickly shake my head and focus back on Kelsey.

  ‘What happened?’ the nurse asks, as she moves to Kelsey’s side.

  ‘She just collapsed,’ I reply. ‘She’s still breathing, but she won’t respond.’

  ‘And her nose started bleeding,’ Will adds. ‘Is she going to be alright?’

  ‘I need you both to step back,’ the nurse responds, without so much as a glance our way. She grabs Kelsey’s wrist with two fingertips and falls silent.

  ‘Why wasn’t someone called sooner?’ she says, after a minute.

  ‘It only just happened!’

  ‘She seemed fine just before!’

  The nurse lifts the rails from the side of the bed, clicking them into place on either side of it. She moves purposefully and without hesitation. There’s a grim set to her lips that makes me worry about how grave Kelsey’s situation is.

  ‘Where are you taking her?’ Will asks, stepping forward as the woman pushes the bed out from the wall.

  She ignores Will, instead lifting her CommuCuff to her lips. ‘Dr. Milton, we have a code pink. I’m bringing her to you now.’ She lowers her wrist and uses both hands to move the bed more swiftly towards the door.

  ‘What’s a code pink?’ I ask, following the woman. The other kids all hang back silently, their eyes glued on Kelsey as the woman pushes her bed down the aisle between the other beds.

  ‘Will she be okay?’ I persist, when she doesn’t respond.

  The nurse’s gaze refuses to move from Kelsey and the door she is headed for. She continues forward without answering me. When she nears the door at the end of the room I catch sight of a man in a black recruiter’s uniform standing on the other side.

  I don’t have a chance to get a proper look at the man, as within a matter of moments Kelsey disappears from view and the door is slammed shut after her. I sink down onto the cold tiled floor, clutching my knees to my chest, feeling suddenly exhausted.

  ‘How did she become sick so quickly?’ I ask, as Will lowers himself to sit beside me. ‘How is it fair?’

  ‘It’s not,’ he replies.

  I lower my head onto the tops of my knees and stare up at the door Kelsey disappeared through. It’s wider than your average door and has shiny metal doorknobs and a slick black security pad on the wall next to it. My mind wills it to reopen and for Kelsey to return, but of course it doesn’t.

  I look down at my fingers and slowly scratch at the skin around my nails. ‘Do you think she will recover?’

  Will doesn’t respond, so I glance at him. His teeth chew so angrily on his lower lip it’s started to bleed and his eyes, which are normally so blue, seem darker.

  I lean back and turn my body to face him. ‘Have you seen this happen before?’ I continue.

  His gaze flicks to meet mine for a brief moment before settling back on the door. I’m shocked by the degree of pain I see in them. ‘Just once,’ he says.

  ‘And?’

  He lowers his head. ‘And the kid never came back.’

  I reach over and lightly touch his arm. ‘That doesn’t mean the same thing will happen to her. I only met her briefly, but she’s got a lot of fight in her. She will be fine.’ My words sound certain, and thankfully don’t betray the doubt I feel inside.

  He gives me a fleeting smile. ‘I hope so. She’s one of the good ones.’

  We fall into a tense silence, each of us trying not to worry about Kelsey but failing badly. Almost an hour later, the doorknob moves and I’m on my feet before my brain has a chance to register the movement. My heart has leapt with me and sits at the base of my throat, pounding quickly as I wait for it to open.

  ‘Kelsey?’ Will asks, having stood just as quickly.

  The same orderly from my dream last night enters, pushing a television into the room. ‘Who’s ready to watch a movie?’ he asks, attempting to inject enthusiasm into his voice..

  Some of the younger children squeal with delight, and rush over to the screen. I freeze at the sight of him and eye the
man closely. I feel an immediate and intense distrust for him. I try to shake the feeling off, but remembering him being in my dream last night makes me shiver. I take a step closer to him.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Will asks, eyeing me like I’ve grown a second head as I move to follow the younger kids.

  ‘I’m not watching the movie. I just want to ask the guy about Kelsey.’

  Will shakes his head. ‘Good luck with that,’ he responds, lowering himself back to the ground.

  I ignore his comment and walk over to the man, my wariness for him only increasing as I approach. His dark eyes are slightly too far apart and with a short nose and narrow nostrils, he looks a bit like a snake.

  I wait off to the side, while he finishes setting the movie up. Once it’s playing he retreats to the door, but I head him off before he can reach it.

  ‘The girl who was just taken from here, Kelsey, can you tell us what’s happened to her?’ I ask.

  His eyes widen when he sees me and he avoids meeting my gaze as he shakes his head. ‘Sorry, but I haven’t heard anything about that.’ He tries to move past me, but I move in time with him to block his way.

  ‘Surely you can find out?’

  He keeps his eyes focused on the door. ‘You don’t need to worry, the girl is in good hands.’ He gives me a brief look and smiles for effect, but the smile is as empty as his words.

  ‘I’m sure she is, but we’re all worried. Can’t you find out for us if she’s okay?’

  ‘No, I can’t. They’ll bring her back once she’s recovered.’

  I reach out and grab his arm, to stop him from leaving. ‘When will that be?’

  He shakes my hand from his arm. ‘Once she’s recovered,’ he repeats. ‘Excuse me.’

  He shoves past me, not even trying to be gentle as he moves to get by. I stumble back several steps, seething as I watch him leave. His movements are hurried and he doesn’t look back once as he escapes.

  My shoulders sag as the door clicks shut. I feel a lot of my fight going out of me and I return to sit on the ground by Will.