The Forgotten

A-7-6F

I didn't cooperate with the nurses that were sent to contain me in the tiny hospital room. And now I'm paying the price by being strapped down onto the uncomfortable memory foam sheet on my stomach so that my back is exposed in case it decides to push out again. The original nurse explained about an hour after I was strapped down that they didn't know what was happening to me and that it was best that I didn't move as to not cause anymore friction between the bones that were now protruding from my back. I understood why they were doing this. I just didn't understand the actions they took in order to make this happen.

"Mr. Penlough, there's someone here to speak with you." Unless she was talking about Mark, Jack or Roxanne, I didn't want to talk to them.

"If I don't know them, they can leave." She seemed taken aback by my statement.

"Well... they seem to you pretty well. Do you know, officer Diaz?" I furrowed my brow. The one that handcuffed me? No. Where have I heard his name before?

"I'm not sure. Can you ask him where he knows me from?" She looked annoyingly down at her papers and read a few of the sheets that were clipped into her clipboard.

"It says in my notes that he knows you from a place called The Tocsaineach Power Plant down in lower Wicklow about four and half hours ago. Do you recall this encounter?" I gulped and nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing down there? Didn't it blow up?"

"I actually do mind. That's my business. You can send him in. But first..." She paused and waited. "Could you untie me and allow me to sit up? Just so that I'm not being rude?"

"N-no. I can't. You were called under a code A-7-6F. I'm not allowed to even talk to you unless it involves results or conditions. Neither can any visitors unless they are here on business or something. I'm sorry. I know how uncomfortable you must be." Yeah fucking right, lady. Why don't you try being forced to lay on your stomach for three hours while a few doctors examine and run tests on your back.

"Fine. Just send him in already." She hurried out of the room only to return a few seconds later with who I'm guessing is officer Diaz. I didn't recognize him in any way. However, considering four hours ago was ten o'clock at night and it was pretty dark, I doubt I'd be able to recognize the guy anyway. "Why are you here? I technically didn't do anything wrong. I trespassed onto company property, sure. But a company I worked for." He snickered and leant over to whisper something to the nurse. Her eyes grew wide and she glanced down at me before leaving quickly. "What'd you say to her?"

"Nothing, really. Just a little something that would make her leave us alone to talk. So, you obviously know about Tocsaineach's explosions and whatnot. Mostly because I know you were there. I watched the tapes back. And your friend... Sean better known as Jack. He was involved in the explosion... was he not? And your other friends. The punk Asian with dark brown or black hair that sat in your backseat with the girl up front. They were too. Weren't they?"

"Look, lad. I don't mean to be rude but what the fuck do expect me to say? You're obviously too far up your own arse to realize I wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't done something to my fucking back. And that I wasn't involved with the explosion and neither were my friends. They had nothing to do with happened at Tocsaineach's. Nothing!" He looked around and pulled up a chair. God this guy is such a fucking prick. I don't know if it's the way he shaved his head or something but damn was he just plain scary.

"Sean, isn't human. Well, not anymore. As you may have figured out already. But we have reason to believe that he was the cause of the explosion. And in doing it, it changed him forever to look like a disease-ridden dog human hybrid when in reality he's a dangerous being that needs to be contained. And we have reason to believe you know where he is." That's what this is about?!

"Officer, if you wanted to talk about Sean, then why did you come after me instead of him?"

"If I had done that, I wouldn't have been able to test a new experiment from the lab. And this is way more fun for me. You trying to escape my custody back in Tocsaineach was perfect for my plan." What the fuck is he talking about? Experiments? Plans? What the fuck?

"You aren't an officer, are you?" He chuckled lightly and I swear the room's temperature dropped a few degrees as his eyes burned into mine. "Sir, whoever you are, you better leave now before I call for help." He quickly got up and headed towards the door. I strained to listen to his thundering footsteps over my pounding heart since my line of vision was blocked by my unmoving body. I heard the door open and then felt something prick the skin just above my ankle. Was that a needle? "What the fuck?!" I struggled to see where he was and found no one. I could feel the area heat up where he had injected whatever into.

"I wish you a pleasant stay and night, Tyson. Goodbye."

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! NURSE! NURSE!" I could feel the heat slowly traveling up my leg to my back then spreading out further along the middle of my back. I held back screams as a few nurses rushed in to answer my call for help.

"Mr. Penlough, what happened?" I felt my back try to arch and struggle to stop shaking the rest of my body.

"AH! That... man wasn't... an offic-cssssssssss..." I closed my eyes, blacking out from the unbearable pain once again.

~•~•~•~•~•~

I waited impatiently outside Tyson's house, chewing on my fingernails. What happened when I left? I didn't get a chance to think about it before I heard the familiar engine of his car pulling up the long driveway. They were back. Finally.

I ran down to them as they were getting out. The smile I had lowered as I realized Ty wasn't with them. "Where's Ty?" Roxanne looked at the ground with watery eyes and Mark just slammed the car door and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Guys?"

"Ty's back was injured pretty badly so he's at the hospital right now." Oh.

"Well get back in the car. I need to see him and talk to him."

"Sean, we aren't allowed to. Apparently, when he woke up finally there was something very wrong and they issued a code A-7-6F. I don't know what that even means but one of the nurses escorted us both out before we could ask questions. That usually means we aren't allowed to see him." Mark replied softly. His back couldn't have been that bad that they issued a lockdown. Or maybe it was a toxicity thing. I did carry him on my back for about a minute. That's enough time to transfer some toxic chemical onto his clothes. Right?

"Shit. That's probably my fault."

"How is that your fault, Jack?"

"I think since I carried him, maybe some of the toxic chemicals that radiate off me constantly could've rubbed onto his clothing so they issued the lockdown in order to keep everyone safe. I don't know." Mark shook his head and Roxanne quickly rushed to the front door and pushed her key into the lock. "Mark, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just... don't know what I should do now. I was originally going back home yesterday but those plans changed drastically within about five hours of my flight. So I stuck around and helped out. Now I don't think I should leave yet. I don't know. I wasn't prepared for a two day trip." I nodded. That's understandable.

"Mark, you can go home if you need or want to. No one's holding you here." His face flushed red and regret filled his eyes as he quickly glanced down at my feet before trudging up to the door.