The nurse has me lie back and she lowers a large cage down over my face. I shiver as she clips it shut, feeling a sudden wave of unease. The table slowly begins to move. It creeps its way into the large gaping mouth of the machine. Each inch it travels makes me more and more uncomfortable.
Like I’ve been swallowed and lie in the tight belly of a mechanical beast, the inside of the machine is uncomfortably narrow. A soft blue light illuminates the walls, though this does nothing to soothe my concerns about the confined space. It’s small in here. Really small.
‘Are you sure this is necessary?’ I raise my voice to be heard beyond the walls of the machine, then pause, waiting for an answer, but no response comes. ‘Hello?’
Again, my question is met with silence. I stare at the roof of the tunnel; trying to overcome my nerves I can feel tingling just below the surface of my skin. Why isn’t the nurse answering me?
Deep breaths. I slowly count to distract myself, the numbers barely touching my lips as I breathe each one out. ‘One, two, three…’
‘How are you doing in there Elle?’ a man asks, over an intercom. I wince in reaction. The sound is loud and resonates along the walls of the tunnel making me feel surrounded by his voice.
Four, five, six…
‘Elle?’ he queries, when I fail to respond.
‘Will this take long?’ I ask, my voice sounding nervous even to my own ears. My hands are clammy and I feel as though a heavy weight presses down on my chest. This can’t take long. I can’t handle long in here.
‘Not too long,’ he answers. ‘We need you to stay still while we take the pictures. Can you do that for me?’
‘Yes,’ I reply.
The speaker goes silent. Has it started? Is it nearly over? Am I meant to be still right now? The tunnel begins to feel smaller and I nervously tap my fingers on the table below me. This has to be over soon, surely.
‘Okay, we’re going to start now,’ he says. ‘Remember to stay perfectly still.’
I stop tapping my fingers, but I can still feel my nervous energy pulsing through them. I desperately want to crawl out of the tunnel, but I know they’ll only make me do it again if I attempt to leave. I blow a slow breath out. It feels hot in here and the air around me seems thick and heavy.
This won’t take long, I remind myself.
The machine roars to life and chugs loudly as it starts. I gasp in surprise. The noise is constant and fills the tunnel with its rumble. My nerves had been on edge before, but now I can feel my total fear of this machine rushing through my body.
I try to remember to count, to breathe, to do anything that will stop me from freaking out in here, but none of my usual tricks seems to work. All logic disappears and I am engulfed in a desperate need to get out of this machine.
The edges of my vision grow dark and I struggle to keep my arms by my side, my thoughts are entirely focused on pulling myself from my coffin-like surrounds.
The noise dies, leaving the tunnel eerily quiet.
‘Is it over?’ I ask, not knowing if anyone will hear me.
‘Elle, you’re doing really well. We will give you a few minutes to relax then we’re going to take another set.’
My lips tremble and I fight back tears welling in my eyes.
‘I can’t do this,’ I say. ‘Please. It’s too confined in here. I want to get out.’
The microphone goes silent.
When I don’t hear a response I lift the mask from my face and push myself down along the table towards the opening.
‘I can’t do this,’ I repeat.
‘Elle?’ the man asks. ‘We need several more sets of scans, but if you can hold on for one more set we’ll call it a day.’
‘No. It’s too hard.’
‘If you would prefer we can give you a sedative to make you relax?’
I pause and try to give the logic in my brain a moment to override my body’s determination to get out of here. I get the strong feeling if I leave the MRI scanner I will be getting a sedative whether I want one or not. I’d much rather just get this over with.
‘Just one more set?’ I ask, my hands already trembling at the thought.
‘Just one more,’ he confirms.
I force myself to shuffle back up the table and take my position. Every cell in my body screaming that I’m moving the wrong way, but I ignore the feeling and lay my arms flat by my sides as I wait for the process to begin again.
I take a steadying breath and focus on the soft blue light around me. I want to let it calm me, but my eyes keep flicking towards the opening at the end of the tunnel.
This is fine, I try to convince myself, determinedly moving my focus away from escape to the light that glows above. The machine makes a loud banging noise and the light flickers.
‘What was that?’ I ask, my words rushing out in a breath.
‘Nothing to worry about. The light bulb in the machine probably needs chang—’ The man’s voice is cut off by feedback coming from the microphone. ‘We’re going to get started now.’
My hands ball up into fists. I want to shut my eyes and imagine I’m somewhere else, but I can’t stop watching the tunnel walls. They feel like they’re getting closer and closer.
The machine fires up again and my chest tightens, each loud chug making the space around me diminish. My throat constricts causing me to take short and painful gasps as I struggle to breathe.
The nervous energy in my fingertips travels up through my arms until they feel tingly. I slowly begin shaking as the energy pulses down through the rest of my body.
As convulsions grip me, a series of memories project in my mind. They filter through my thoughts quickly, as though each memory were a snapshot being flickered past my face. Hunter. We’d gone across the bridge together to the north. Sebastian. His face on seeing me again for the first time. His warmth hugging me like it used to. His revelation about my sickness, about his mum. Hunter gone. Sebastian disappearing. Recruiters. Darkness pulling me under. Then the white room. The endless time spent alone in the white room I woke in just a few weeks ago.
‘Elle we need you to stay still,’ the man booms, over the sound of the machine. But I can’t stop the shudders that roll through me. My body is buzzing and my heartbeat races to keep up with it. I slam my hands against the sides of the tunnel as my body buckles and a scream rips from my throat. I get a powerful sting of an electric shock, which momentarily burns my hands then throws them back from the walls. The machine goes silent and the soft blue light disappears, plunging the tunnel into darkness.
I collapse back against the table, and the shaking that had moments ago consumed me is now completely gone. All that is left from the episode is a strange tingling in my fingertips, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion and my memories. I remember how I got here, though what happened once I arrived is still a little foggy.
The door to the room slams open.
‘What happened?’ a woman whispers. I stop breathing as I strain to hear her words.
‘She shorted the circuit,’ the man spits back, quietly.
‘What?’
‘I knew I should have administered a sedative,’ he mutters.
‘What about the inhibitors?’
‘They’re lowered when the machine is on,’ he replies, keeping his voice soft. ‘They have to be or we can’t get a proper reading.’
‘Did he see?’
‘Yeah. Look, we’d better get her out before she breaks anything else.’
I hear him take several more footsteps into the room.
‘Elle?’ the man raises his voice to address me from the foot of the tunnel. ‘Are you okay in there?’
‘Yes,’ I reply, surprised to find I have any strength left to respond. My body feels completely spent, like I’ve just run a double marathon. I’m surprisingly cold and chills run down my spine as I consider the man’s whispered words. He thinks I’m somehow to blame for this?
I’d felt an electric shock when my hand slammed against the ma
chine, but those static sparks happen to everybody once in a while. While it was more painful than the occasional static electric shock you might get, it was hardly the kind of thing that could affect a machine like this. Or was it?
The table beneath me begins to move and I’m slowly pulled from the machine. The room is bright after the darkness of the tunnel and I embrace the relief I feel to be out of the scanner.
‘The power on the machine is down, so we’ll have to stop there for today,’ the doctor explains. His eyes are narrowed on me keenly and he appears to be analysing my reaction closely. He doesn’t seem alarmed by what happened, merely annoyed or inconvenienced.
‘What happened?’ I ask.
‘Must be a power outage,’ he says, fumbling over his explanation. ‘They happen here every so often.’
I try not to show surprise on my face as I listen to his obvious lie. ‘Does that mean I can go back to the ward now?’
The nurse and the doctor look at each other, something unsaid passing between them, before he slowly nods. ‘Yes, that should be fine.’
I sigh, relieved to be getting away from the MRI machine as quickly as possible. I don’t know how to reconcile with the memories that rose to the surface and bombarded my mind whilst in the machine. I remember finding Sebastian. I know about being caught and held in here for months, but I also know Sebastian’s mum died of the same mutations that are killing me. Some of the details of what happened are still blurry, but I finally know the truth about this place and the people who run it. No one here can be trusted, that much at least is clear.
As the nurse wheels me from the room, I glance up at the long window that takes up the better half of one wall. The man in the suit still stands there and as I move past the window he slowly steps out of the shadows.
I freeze as I take in the features of his face. It’s the man from my dream last night. I’d only seen him for a moment, but I’m certain it’s him. He’s easily in his fifties and the skin on his face is weather beaten, which is at odds with his perfectly trimmed beard and slick dark blonde hair.
I try to stay calm, but it’s difficult to do so when the man of my nightmares has materialised in front of me. Chills run down my spine and my breathing hitches in my throat. How could I dream about this man before I ever saw him? And why is he here watching me now?
A manic grin slowly forms on his lips and his cunning, blue eyes watch me hungrily. I drop my gaze from his, not liking the way he watches me. I wrap my hands tightly around the armrests of the chair and try to remain composed as I leave the room. I may have my memories back, but knowing that the man from my dreams is real is all I can focus on.
I look down at my hands, which still tightly grasp the armrests of the chair and I swear I catch the tiniest fiery spark jump from one of them, fizzling quickly out of existence in the air just above my hand.
I frown and slowly pull the offending hand from the armrest to look at it closer. It looks normal. I turn it over to look at the side. Yes, completely normal. I shake my head and place the hand back down, unable to reconcile with what I just observed.
Was the doctor right? Is it my fault the MRI stopped working? I felt different in there; like something was stirring within me I’d never felt before. Was that something enough to break a scanner though? I’m not so sure, but the doctor was and he wasn’t surprised. Neither was the nurse. If they are right, then they knew this was inside of me all along.
The sound of footsteps draws my attention away from my hands and I look up to the far end of the corridor as an orderly walks around the corner and approaches us. I almost drop my gaze in disinterest, but as my sight falls on the man’s face I stop. A small gasp escapes my lips and my heart hammers against my ribs, because I know him. It’s Ryan.
CHAPTER TEN
Ryan’s eyes meet mine for the briefest of seconds, before coolly moving on to stare at the nurse behind me. There was no acknowledgment in his gaze. Not even the slightest hint he knew me at all. Did he even recognise me?
My heart pounds in my ears and my thoughts jumble as I try to understand. Is he here to help? Does he work here? I’m thrown by his presence. The last time I saw him he was guarding the front of the talented dorms dressed in a recruiter’s uniform. Is he a recruiter? What could he possibly be doing in the hospital?
He glances at one of the doors in front of us before shaking his head and looking to one on the other side of the corridor, his lips pursed as he considers them. The nurse slows my wheelchair as we approach him and clears her throat.
‘Are you looking for something?’ she asks Ryan, slowing my chair to a stop.
‘Yeah, something to do,’ he chuckles.
‘You’re new here,’ she states, rather than asks.
‘That obvious, huh?’
She nods. ‘The new recruits usually are. There’s a nurses station down the corridor then to the right, they’ll be able to tell you what they need help with.’
Ryan pauses. ‘Why don’t I help you transport the patient you’ve got? I’m sure you’ve got a million other things on the go.’
Her shoulders slouch with relief. ‘You wouldn’t mind?’
‘It would be no problem,’ he responds, grinning. ‘We’d be helping each other out. Where is she going?’
‘Back to the children’s ward.’
‘Which is…’
‘In the north quadrant. Take a right up ahead and follow that corridor until you reach a T-junction. Go left and the children’s ward is the door at the end.’ The words are barely out of her mouth and she is already walking off in the other direction. ‘Thanks,’ she calls, with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Ryan takes hold of my wheelchair and slowly starts to move towards the children’s ward. As soon as the nurse has rounded the corner he stops the chair and crouches down beside me.
‘Are you alright Elle?’ he asks.
‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, at the same time.
He glances over his shoulder, before turning back and looking me in the eyes. ‘I’m here to get you out.’
I tilt my head as I look at him. ‘I don’t understand. How did you even know I was here?’
‘That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is we need to get out before they get the inhibitor sensors back up and running, and my talent becomes useless.’ He holds out his hand to me, but I hesitate.
‘Is what’s going on here that bad?’ Everything inside me has been screaming this place is wrong, but I haven’t found anything concrete to prove it. I think of the man from my dreams and shudder. Could Ryan get me away from here? Away from him?
‘It’s not good. These are bad people. Their experiments are making you sick. I’m here to get you out.’
‘Experiments? I thought they were treatments to make me better?’
His words seem to click into place with everything I already know about the hospital.
‘I haven’t got time to explain. Just trust me, they don’t care about your health,’ he says, his eyes begging me to believe him. ‘We need to go and this may be our only chance.’
‘Okay,’ I agree. ‘But, we can’t go without Will or Kelsey.’
He pulls back and stares me down. ‘You want me to get your friends out?’ he asks. ‘Are you kidding me?
‘I can’t leave them here. Especially not after what you’ve just told me…’
He stands and swears, taking several steps away before swinging back to face me. ‘We don’t have time to get them, but I could come back for them, just let me take you now.’
I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest. ‘If I escape with you now, security in here is bound to increase and getting them out may not be possible. I won’t risk it. If you can’t help the three of us I’ll have to find another way.’
Ryan almost growls in response. His expression quickly changes though. He stands straighter and the anger on his face drops.
‘They’re turning the inhibitors back up. This is your last chance.’ He holds out
his hand to me, but I shake my head. ‘Fine, midnight tonight I’ll come for you in the children’s ward. You just need to find a way to turn the inhibitor off in there.’
‘But how do I do that?’ I ask, my words meeting empty air as Ryan vanishes from before me. I blink and look over my shoulder, up and down the corridor, feeling a little stunned and suddenly very alone.
I take a deep breath and slowly blow it out. I need to figure out what he meant about the inhibitor sensors in the ward and I don’t have much time to do it in.
‘What are you doing out here alone?’ a woman bellows. I turn and watch as a nurse rushes up to me. ‘Well?’ she emphasises, when I don’t respond.
I shrug. ‘The orderly who was returning me to the children’s ward disappeared.’ Literally.
The nurse tuts and mutters about how unreliable the orderlies in this place are. She bumps my cuff against her tablet, taking a look at it closely, ‘I’ll take you back now.’
When we enter the ward Kelsey, who is sitting on the end of Will’s bed, jumps up and rushes over to me. ‘Why were you gone for so long?’ she asks, as the nurse pushes my chair down the aisle. She’s been up and out of bed today, and looking a lot better than she was.
‘I had to go for some tests and they took a little while,’ I respond.
She frowns and casts her eyes down to the floor. She used to talk excitedly about going for tests because of the sweets she’d get, but she seems troubled by the idea now. It only makes me worry more about what happened to her when she was gone.
The nurse steadies my chair as I move across to my bed. Even just the small movement from one spot to the other is more exhausting than I’m happy to admit.
‘How did it go?’ Will asks, as I slide under the covers.
‘It was fine,’ I respond. The nurse continues to hover over me, reconnecting my IV drip. I glance at the liquid in the tube apprehensively, but don’t make a move to stop her. I can’t raise any suspicion now.
‘What’s been happening in here?’ I ask, as the nurse moves away to answer a comm.
The ARC 03: Fractured Page 6