Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E9 Part 2: My Father's Eyes (Take 2)

Secondary Dogma. Block 6, Level 6, Room 4.

Misato immediately drew her gun. The Doctor held up his free hand. "No! Wait!"

He slipped his wrist out and took ahold of the emaciated hand reaching out through the plastic. Somewhere behind the partition, a strangled voice moaned: "Hurt."

The Doctor and Misato looked at each other. "Oh," he said.

He rushed over to the center of the partition and pushed a free-hanging sheet aside. Misato found herself looking at what seemed to be a makeshift hospital ward. At least fifty wheeled cots lined the storeroom. And in each bed lay...

"It's the not-zombies from the school," the Doctor breathed.

They stepped into the room. The place smelled like urine and chemicals, with the added bonus stench of a hundred meters of unwashed flesh. The only sounds Misato could hear were the hum of equipment and the occassional cough or hoarse mumble. In fact, with the exception of the former zombies and the vast array of machines and tubes each one seemed to be hooked up to, the ward looked deserted.

No nurses or guards, Misato thought. That can't be right. "Hey!" she shouted. "Anyone on watch here?" No one replied. Somewhere in the background, some gadget made a pingsound.

They came up on what looked like a nurse's station in the center of the room. The Doctor stepped past Misato and quickly flipped through the massive stack of reports on the desk. Then he turned and switched on the lightbox to the side. He stared at the films clipped to the device's surface, an ashen look on his face.

"Something wrong?" Misato asked.

"The damage to their bodies," the Doctor said, his voice hollow. "It's much more extensive than I thought. Their digestive systems can't be repaired surgically. They're all completely dependent on intravenous fluids for nutrition. Half of them have already gone into kidney and liver failure."

Misato glanced around. "So I'm guessing their rampaging days are behind them at this point."

He rubbed his eyes. "I'd be amazed if any of them could get out of bed."

"Do I even need to ask the obvious question here?"

He nodded. "If there's something down here disappearing people..."

"... then why hasn't it attacked any of the patients here?" Misato finished. "They're easy prey."

That thing in the background made that ping noise once more. In fact, it seemed to be repeating the same sound over and over again. The Doctor looked up at her. "That's not your phone, is it?" She shook her head.

He listened for a moment, then ran over to one of the beds by the far wall. This particular patient, Misato noticed as she followed, was a very pale young girl, maybe two or three years older than Shinji and Asuka. No bone mask, but she sported a prominent cast on her obviously broken nose. The girl sat halfway upright in her bed and wore a pair of neural contacts, one above each ear. The source of the pings seemed to be the small flatscreen monitor positioned on a swivel arm just in front of her eyes.

Misato couldn't help but feel like she'd seen the girl before. She couldn't quite place where, though. Maybe her picture had been in a report about the school incident, or something?...

"Oh, hullo there!" The Doctor took the girl's hand. "So sorry, didn't mean to ignore you. We just got here."

He flipped the monitor towards Misato. She saw, printed on the screen in large block letters:

:> HEY! ARE YOU THE NEW NURSES?
:> HEY! HEY! CAN YOU HEAR ME?
:> IM RIGHT HERE!
:> WAIT
:> I REMEMBER YOU
:> YOU WERE IN THE SCHOOL. WITH THAT BOY
:> HEY!
:> HEY! OVER HERE!
:> HEY!
:> HEY!
:> HEY!