Withered

A Sharp Scratch

Kate was thrown roughly onto the cold concrete of a cell. She sat up against the metal frame of the bed and pulled her knees to her chest tightly. "You'll stay here tonight and then be processed, they're gonna be in to take some blood samples and test you for the disease." The soldier said, and turned to leave as the door was closed and locked. Kate crawled up onto the bed and listened carefully as two of them spoke quietly outside. "What'd you reckon then? She a goner or they gonna keep her? "I dunno, if she's got it then they'll dispose of her I guess" the deeper of the voices replied. "Yeah, and disposal's a shit show, we know how that goes, so let's hope she just gets to go to the complex" the softer voice replied, "mmhmm, let's hope so."This struck the fear of god into Kate, she'd been okay so far, they hadn't seen the remnants on her body that she'd had it. Nobody knew what happened to those who had the disease, or where they went, just that they were taken away and never seen again. She was snapped out of her thoughts by the jingle of keys and the door scraping on the concrete as it opened.

There were 4 people, two dressed in nurse scrubs and the other two were soldiers standing guard, griping their guns tightly. Kate looked at the guards, and then at the tray of needles and tubes the nurses had nervously, and one of them noticed. "Hi there, my name is India and this is my colleague Maddie, there's no need to be scared love." She said in her British accent reassuringly patting Kate's shaking hand. She had a warm smile and was dark skinned, she had long black hair that curled down her back and over her right shoulder slightly. It was tied in a low ponytail, swinging as she moved. Her eyes were a dark chocolate, practically sparkling accompanied with thick, dark brows above them. Her features were perfect and friendly looking, a small button nose sat in the centre of her face and her full lips constantly turned up in a natural smile. Kate thought she was beautiful. As she spoke to Kate she began taking gloves and tubes out of plastic packages, and placing them onto a cardboard tray. "We just need to take some blood, won't be bad at all I promise." She spoke, still setting things up. "Hey Mads, I need some cotton wool and the tourniquet I forgot to grab it" she turned to the other woman in the room, "oh yeah no worries I'll grab it for you" the young blonde replied in the same familiar American accent everyone else shared, the Arizona sun kissing her skin. She looked to Kate with her piercing blue eyes before turning to leave the cold, grey room.

"I have a phobia of needles" Kate blurted out, trying anything to stop them doing whatever the hell they were going to do. "Oh right okay, not to worry sweetheart, we can help you with that." She replied writing something onto a collection of papers and charts stapled together. "I need you to take some deep breaths and don't look over here alright?" She replied warmly with a kind smile. Kate's eyes darted around the room, taking in the cracks in the walls, the paint chipping from the corners, the old cell bars rusting and discoloured. She looked to the floor, grey cement with lumps and bumps in it, she was now sat on what would be her bed, it was really just a mattress and a blanket on top of a metal bench. She tried with everything she had to calm her shaking restless leg, but it wouldn't stop bouncing up and down no matter what she tried.

Just then, the other one returned, she didn't look quite so friendly or happy. She pierced Kate's eyes with her sapphire ones, her thin lips pressed together and arms folded. She had a tall and thin physique, her dark blue scrubs hanging slightly baggy on her, her yellow blonde hair was neatly pulled into a bun, a black headband around her head. Her features were harder and meaner, her nose was small and slightly pointed, she had a neat beauty mark by her top lip. Her hands were thin and nails long, Kate noticed as she was preparing and handing India the things she asked for.

"Okay", she said looking at some papers and flipping through them. "So we have Kate here do we? 22 years old, found in the jungle? Oh dear that's not very good is it?" She smiled and laughed slightly. "So, all we have to do here is take two viles of blood, and prick your finger so you can place some blood into here" she said holding up a tiny plastic tube. "What for?" Kate replied solemnly, staring at her bouncing leg, now regretting answering the guards prying questions on the walk here. "It's for a blood gas, it's sort of a mini quicker test to tell us straight away how you're doing physically, how your blood sugar levels are and what have you." She replied making gestures and almost talking with her hands, causing her charm bracelet to jingle together as Kate watched and listened to it. "Oh, alright" was all Kate could manage to choke out, tears stung the corners of her eyes, and she shook violently now. "Kate, look at me" India said kneeling in front of her, "I promise you're going to be just fine, it'll be a sharp scratch and then it'll be over, quick as you like." She gently placed her hands onto Kate's, squeezing to reassure her. Kate simply nodded, it wasn't the blood tests she was afraid of, it was her situation. How could she go from near death and hiding out in the middle of the jungle to now here? With real trained nurses and actual people? What did they want her blood for? What would happen when they found out she'd been withered? Would she be "disposed of"?

She was snapped back to reality again with Maddie's high voice, "right, let's do this shall we? Can you take some deep breaths please? You're raising your blood pressure by panicking, then we have to wait for it to drop again to do your bloods." She spoke as she wrapped a tight rubber band around Kate's upper arm, and began feeling for veins. "Damn, she's got really shit veins India, I can't get one to roll" she said in a huff, still harshly pressing on Kate's arm. "Okay how about this" India replied getting up from the bench they used to sit on and pulling out glasses from the pocket of her blue scrub shirt and placing them on, "grab me that pillow please?" She told Kate, who complied and passed it to her.

She had Kate rest her arm on it on top of her leg, which had steadied now. "Pump your hand in and out of a fist for me" she said focussing on Kate's faint veins and placing the blue latex gloves on her hands. Kate did as she was instructed and began pumping her fist, feeling the tight pull of the tourniquet on her upper arm. "Right, we might have one here, let's try it okay? Now, what I need you to do is take deep breaths for me, if you need to, squeeze the pillow, or Maddie can let you squeeze her hand, right Mads?" The blonde scoffed and replied "pillow should be just fine." There was no way Kate was going to hold anyone's hand anyways. "I'll be fine" she said quietly, and held her arm still for India, as she unpacked the needle attached to a long and thin plastic tube, which then connected to the first bottle which her blood would fill. "We need a purple and a yellow don't we?" India asked Maddie, checking before she began.

Kate guessed that the coloured tops on the bottles which were purple and yellow, was what India was referring to. "Yeah, just those two and then the blood gas" Maddie replied, reading through the same papers India had been. "Okay, sharp scratch love, 1,2,3" Kate winced slightly at the needle going into her arm, and being moved around as India tried to get it into the vein. "Oh come on silly thing, don't retract on me, ahh there we are, got it" she spoke out loud. Kate turned to look and saw her blood flowing quickly down the tube and into the bottles. Once finished she was handed a cotton ball and it was placed over her arm and secured with some medical tape.

They then took her blood gas into the small plastic tube, and packed everything away. "Won't be long here, we'll let you know what the results are and then they'll decide where you'll be staying." India told Kate with that warm smile again. Kate simply nodded her head and asked "what happens to me if the results are bad?" India looked down and then to Kate's eyes with sympathy, not saying anything, then looking back down as she exited the cell.

She'd been here way too long already, deep down she knew Ronan was lying, he wasn't going to get her out, and simply gave up hoping Ronan would come and get her out of there, and let her body relax and go limp onto her pillow, on top of her blanket. She closed her eyes and waited, more scared than she had ever been. The tears that were threatening to spill pushed their way through her closed eyes, wetting her shirt as they fell, Kate had never felt so close to giving up, not even when she practically saw a light against that tree.