Immunosupression
Page 11
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Zack wasn’t eager to admit that he didn’t mind being held up inside the nurse’s office. For one thing, it didn’t feel like a very long walk, which he found to be a very rough perk. Another thing was that, after being rudely shoved to the edge of the room, he had encountered what he knew to be one of the beds that were found in every school’s nurse’s office. He quickly decided to sit down on the bed, which seemed to get no negative response from whoever was watching him to make sure he stayed in the small room.
The peace didn’t last very long, however. No more than five minutes passed when the door to the nurse’s office creaked open. The presence that was now in the room with him filled it with a very dark energy that could almost be mistaken for a zombie.
“Would you kindly take off the boy’s blindfold, Hector,” Nicolas asked, his voice now sounding relatively calmer than when they were in the van only several minutes ago.
The boy who was referred to as Hector didn’t say a word, but instead answered with a small grunt. He reached behind Zack’s head, releasing the knot that was tightly wrapped around his face. The black blindfold was pulled back, immediately blinding Zack with the florescent lights that lit up the small office. Squinting his eyes at the floor, Zack was slowly regaining his sight. The young boy who seemed to go by Hector looked no younger than being in his early teens, his face and his body much rounder than many of the other kids that he had seen earlier when he was ambushed. He was recognizable though; he was the young man who went with the girl to look for potential hideaways in the store.
“It’s Zack, right,” Nicolas asked smugly.
“Why do you care,” Zack asked, no able to look at Nicolas properly.
“I’m only trying to be friendly,” Nicolas said, his voice tainted with sneer. “You don’t want to die in a place such as this, right? Or would you rather try to take on the hoard of monsters that stand outside our gates and barricade? So, if you don’t want either of those things to happen, I would think that you would want to cooperate. Of course, we don’t want the young lady to be upset over something happening to you.”
Zack didn’t fire back. While he did desire to preserve his life, he also hoped for Anna to not meet an untimely fate. While he wouldn’t be completely heartbroken if the two of them were to be separated forever, he definitely would be saddened for the simple fact that he would be lonely. In the world that they now lived in, it truly was rare to find someone else who was as civil as Zack and Anna were to each other. Besides that, he wasn’t guaranteed to last too long anyway; his heart would probably keep going for a handful of years. He found it better for someone to live who actually had a real chance at survival.
“And that’s what makes the two of us different,” Nicolas laughed. “I would take it that you’re her special someone too; she wouldn’t want anything bad to come to you, so I’m willing to bet she’ll do anything to keep you safe. These children do need a mother after all. I can promise that she’ll be taken well care of here, not having to work or fight another day in her life.”
A young man came into the nurse’s office after a few seconds of silence. He was holding Zack’s bag, which held what he had taken from the store, as well as his usual supplies, which included his array of medications. Nicolas unzipped each compartment of the bag, flipped it upside down, and dropped everything on the floor. It didn’t take long for the mass of medications bottles to hit the ground, along with half-drunk water bottles, and clattering DVD cases. Nicolas’s eyes widened as he bent down to pick up one of the medicine bottles. It was clear that he didn’t understand what the medications were for.
“It seems like you need these for something,” Nicolas taunted.
“Just when I need to take the edge off in this crazy world,” Zack replied, coming up with the quickest lie he could.
Nicolas let out a quick chuckle as he moved over to stare down Zack. Without any sign of movement, Nicolas swiftly punched Zack in the gut, causing Zack to collapse on the floor. He braced himself for a few kicks, but Nicolas didn’t make any more movements. Zack looked up at him to still see his smiling face, still chuckling at him.
“Do you seriously think that I’m that stupid,” Nicolas spat down at him.
“No. I. Don’t,” Zack coughed, trying to talk back.
“When someone brings that much stuff with them, they definitely need it for something important. And whatever it is, I’m willing to bet that you’ll be out of the picture a lot sooner than I thought.”
Nicolas was saying this as he was moving over to the rest of the pill bottles. All of the bottles didn’t have proper tags on them, but there were plenty of them that had the same shape and color pills in each vile. He moved over to the sink and started taking off one of the caps.
“No,” Zack yelled out, still coughing. He tried to crawl over to stop Nicolas, but the young boy known as Hector moved over to hold Zack back. The kid wasn’t that big, but Zack wasn’t able to do much in his current condition.
“These things are always hard to take off,” Nicolas commented as he was able to take off the bottle cap. In one swift motion, he dumped the medication into the sink, watching it swirl and finally swim down the drain. He motioned to the boy who brought in Zack’s backpack. Together, Nicolas and the boy started opening the pill bottles and dumping them down the drain. Zack didn’t struggle; there would be no real point to it. When Nicolas had dumped the last pill into the sink, he turned to the door that led into the hallway.
“Be sure to keep a good watch on him, Hector,” Nicolas said, having the other boy pick up the mess from the backpack and then follow him as if he were a pet.
“Yes sir,” Hector said, saluting him as if the two of them were allied soldiers in the middle of war.