The Human Xenocide

Chapter Three - I can Read

Sorry so short! Chapters get longer!

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Thirsty?  One sharp glance from Dr. Gustavson was all that was needed to scare the blond nurse into once again running out into the hall. This time he wasn’t bombarded with questions, most the people who were stopped outside the window simply didn’t want to miss what was going to happen next, if anything happened.  He came back about a minute later carrying a small plastic cup of water along with a water bottle.

 Dr. Gustavson watched as Lilly drank the water—noticing odd facial expressions, the same kind of expressions a person gets when they drink something hotter than expected.  A pair of specialist doctors rushed into the room, they were both case-doctors assigned to monitor Lilly for any changes, her waking up was a huge change.

“Pulse unchanged. Core temperature lowered to 65.7 once more.  Seems like without the blankets the fever broke,” the reporting nurse awkwardly called it a fever.  She was ice to touch every time anyone checked her pulse.

After quickly drinking the cup of room temperature water Lilly drank from the cooled water bottle until about half was gone, she then screwed the cap back on and let the bottle roll off her lap.   She glanced around her surroundings for the first time.  Thoughts flooded through her head.  She had questions. Where was she? What happened? Why was everyone staring at her? She slowly lifted her hand up the side of her head, touching it just above the ear.  She felt a small scab that was covered in stitches.  The doctor next to her gently put her hand on Lilly’s hand as if to urge her to move her hand away from the stitches.

Lilly didn’t understand—did she miss? Did the bullet hit her?  Then she realized, no, she didn’t miss—she WAS dead, he said so.  Her eyes enlarged, her breathing quickened and according to the blond nurse her pulse elevated to just under fifteen beats per minute. The doctors were clueless. 

“Oh God, oh God, oh God! What have I done! I mustn’t disobey!  What were his orders? Oh God oh God!” she looked around frantically as if trying to find something.  She ripped off the last blanket and looked wildly around, “Oh God, oh God have mercy on me, what have I done!?” Suddenly, she stopped.  She smiled at one of the nurses as if coming to her senses, “Where is the bathroom?”

Dr. Gustavson took a quick look at the closed door in the corner of the room.  The attached bathroom to the room had bad water damage from a bad storm a few months back.  It was the only reason that the room was the only one available at the time Lilly was brought to the hospital.  It was originally closed for construction. “Uh, down the hall, to the left, fourth door on the left,” she directed Lilly to the nearest bathroom.

Lilly paused, hardly noticing the doctors ease at letting her leave, and ripped the IV out of her arm.  The needle stayed in but the tube was removed, she didn’t care, it didn’t seem to bother her any.  One quick glance around the room and all the eyes glaring at her to stay still went blank.  She pushed her legs out from under the sheets and onto the floor.  The floor was cool against her toes.  Without resistance Lilly moved to the door.  She swung the door open and quickly twisted to the left.  She ignored the small crowd outside the room, people rushed to get out of her way as she moved, barefoot, down the hall. 

Four doors later she entered the bathroom. She didn’t really have to go but needed a mirror.  Once inside she looked at her head in the mirror, first the left side, then the right.  Two perfect scars were just above both ears, scabbed.  They healed quickly.  The sewn up scabs were bothering her—itchy.  She scratched at one of the scabs, it tore slightly. Noticing the tear and the absence of pain, she continued to pull at it. It peeled off. She tugged at it until the rest of the scab slid off like an orange peel. Below was fresh skin. Fresh skin? She scratched at the scab on the other side; it ripped off just like the first one.