Voiceless

Chapter Seventeen

Four months have whirled past faster than a leopard hunting down its terrorized prey. I have been enduring cravings that surprisingly Anna has tried to ease by providing what my body powerfully desired. Sometimes my cravings overwhelmed my mind, unabling me from thinking any other thoughts besides food. Sometimes it was ice cubes, other days it was frosted strawberries. This surprised me as I never tried frosted strawberries except for one time at a party and yet my body remembered its cold flavour. Everyday I went for small exercises held in the hall. In my 6-month-pregnancy-state I was terrified that my water will break and a torrent of water will gush out of me. The last thing I needed to worry about was premature labour...

And then there was the sneezing. I was never allergic to anything and so this unfamiliar tingly sensation that constantly irritated my nose annoyed me to hell and beyond. It was getting so irritated that looking at a mirror was like staring at Father Christmas's famous Rudolph. However one memory lingered at the back of my head. Meeting Chichi in our group discussion months ago - so long ago that the memory was quite blurred - I remembered her once complaining of her irritated nose. Perhaps her rhinitus just made her more sensitive but was there probably something more to it? It also occured to me that the eruption of sneezes began the second after Dr Jeffrey gave me an increased dose of Merudoxin. What made me so curious was that he never offered an explanation for the extra dose and that made me think. Was there a correlation with the dose and the uncontrollable sneezing? I couldn't confirm my idea unless I had proof but being heavily pregnant and constantly under watch minimised this option.

The next day I waddled tiredly accross the hallway to Alice's room. She was someone I became close to after Macy died. I regretted getting close to her because I was never sure who could become an unfortunate victim of DrJeffrey. I knocked on her door and she let me in, immediately looking down at my large bump. I walked in and we both sat down on her bed chatting. Looking around her room I noticed a huge pile of crumpled tissues, piled up like paper snowflakes, overloading her plastic bin.

"What on earth have you done with those tissues?" I laughed out. Alice looked at the bin and rolled her eyes.

"My nose has been killing me. I mean I get alleriges during the summer but this is worse on a whole different level. I wake up in the night because the sneezing cannot be controlled. Honestly it must be something in the air" she complained. This perked my interest. Something in the air? Why didn't I think of that before? But Alice's description confused me. My sneezing was hardly that bad. Why was Alice having harsher experiences. A blast of cool air engulfed me and I shivered. I looked towards her window and frowned as I noticed it was firmly shut.

"Alice why the hell is it suddenly so cold here?" I asked, grabbing her shawl from the top of her chair and wrapping it protectively around my freezing shoulders.

"Oh it's the new air conditioner, They installed it three days ago. Something about good circulation although I didn't have any problems with my room before". My eyebrows shot up as ideas began linking together in my head. It was from the air vent. Immediately I got up, dropping the wooly shawl to the ground, and dragged the wooden chair out from under her desk. I climbed on top of it, right under the air vent and that's when a weird odour hit my face. The second the odour entered my nose I began sneezing. Alice held the chair down firmly and I climbed back down again.

"What's the problem?" she asked. I didn't want to reveal my new-found information so instead I made up an excuse of checking the vent system before leaving her room in order to 'rest'.

The next day

The morning was filled with havoc. Before the sound of my alarm could penetrate my ears the sound of a shriek raced before it. I woke up startled, my hand over my heart as the scream rang in my ears. In my nightgown I rushed out of my room, expecting a woman to be in labour right outside my door. When I saw the hallway was empty I looked down at myself to check if, in such a weird situation, I was the one actually giving birth. I peered down at my body but I was perfectly fine and then a scream was heard. Not just one but many voices. It wasn't a scream of agony but of shock. What happened? I ran down the stairs where the commotion echoed. A group of women where crowding over something. I peered closer. A woman walked past me; pale-faced and sick.

"Is it a woman? A baby?" I whispered but she raised her shoulders and dropped them bluntly... she didn't know. I infiltrated the crowd and went to see for myself. Spots of blood, still wet, puddled onto the pristine laminated ground. As you followed the crimson spots your eyes would have met a long stain of blood that was eviddently dragged across the floor but what got my heart hammering my ribcage was that it was led towards the staffroom. The same place they took Macy and that's when I knew that they have done it again.

Camilla, another matron but for another group arrived onto the scene with a bucket and a mop.

"Nothing to see here! Move along please." she announced as she pushed the ladies gently away from the scene. Alice butted in.

"An accident? What the hell is this!?" she asked, refusing to budge from her place.

"One of the nurses was carrying a plasma packet yesterday. This month many women are scheduled to be due so we ordered some for the labour. But, unfortunately, she dropped it a while ago and I went to fetch the mop and bucket. Sorry for the shock everyone" Camilla apologised. There were murmurs from the crowd and then they slowly dispersed. I even had to admit that what she said did seem plausible but the fact that it was right outside the staffroom made me hesitate. It can't be such a coincidence, could it?

A lady pushed passed me as she headed back to her room but the strength of her push knocked me quite harshly towards the wall, squashing me to the concrete.

"Watch it!" I shouted and caressed my belly but then I heard a small tiny snap. I peered down at my top and saw the button has broken off and I watched it roll down to the ground near the puddle. I tried to go and pick it up but another nurse blocked me from going past.

"The ground is wet, you may fall ma'am" she explained and before I could say anything I saw Camilla mop the button up and swish it across the hallway out of sight. My heart drummed violently at my predicament. Camilla mopped up the blood and when she noticed I was there she gave me a smile before she picked up the bucket and left the hallway. I looked around swiftly to check if anyone was nearby. Then I walked past the staffroom door and peered through the window nonchalantly. Empty. As usual. I pushed the door handle down and winced as it creaked under the weight but no-one was around to hear it. I made my way to the door that I went through previously when I saw Macy tragically on her deathbed, her last breath squeezing out of her as Dr Jeffrye discarded her baby as useless. I held my breath and was suddenly hyper aware of the blood rushing to my ears. I pushed open the door and peeked my head round to check no-one was present. A lady was on the bed Sneaking in I circled her bed, the strong scent of blood blasting me in the face.

"I'm in so much pain!" the woman cried. It hit me then that this woman was in labour. Where was the doctor?! A crimson liquid spread across her gown as she began pushing. I screamed at the sight before quickly covering my mouth. I couldn't risk it and dashed out of the room, hiding away my very presence. The woman moaned in agony as her body contracted through another wave of pain. Dr Jeffrye and the surgeon appeared from a second door and began with the painful delivery. I covered my ears with my hands and blocked out the shrieks the woman was erupting. Minutes felt like hours but finally the commotion ended. I looked through the glass window on the door and witnessed the surgeon carrying the baby on the crook of his arm. But this time I immediately noticed what was wrong with the baby. This baby was born with extra limbs on abnormal places on the body and had several toes and fingers attached to the limbs. It seemed as if the baby came from outer space. This baby was deformed and there was something that the hospital was doing that was creating all these occurences.

Realising that the horrific procedure was over I turned to leave the hallway and back to my room. However an IV drip that was stored near the door got caught on the sleeve of my cardigan and as I turned towards the door my sleeve yanked the drip down, crashing it to the ground. Immediately the door opened and Dr Jeffrye stood in front of me, glaring down at my face.