brave

Chapter 39

Finally, after running to the infirmary after our encounter with Shauna, we made it here.

I take a step into the infirmary, and see at least eight couples, with their children, who vary in ages from newborns to teenagers.

We walk up to the receptionist desk, and sign in. After signing in, we go, and take a seat in the far left corner- away from the rest of the Dauntless who crowd the infirmary.

About an Hour later, we hear out name. "Eaton," the white haired, middle aged doctor says. We stand up, and follow the doctor down a long, narrow, orange illuminated hallway.

Just then it hits me- Tobias has claustrophobia as a fear. I can hear his breathing hitch, and his hand, which is holding mine, become sweaty.

I squeeze his hand, reassuringly, and soon enough, we're out of the hallway, and into a room that resembles the shape, and holds the same type of equipment as the fear landscape rooms.

Although instead of having the dentist chairs, this room has a leather covered bed, covered in parchment paper, and two black chairs sitting in the corner.

A counter sits in the corner of the room, with bottles and jars of Popsicle sticks, cotton balls, and black come shaped plastic pieces.

A rack of test tubes, and needles also sit on the counter, along with a phone, and a computer.

Tobias and I sit down in the chairs by the bed, Tobias holding Olivia, Hunter sitting on the bed, and Maddie in my lap.

Hunter drools on the paper that covers the bed, and then he chews and nibbles on the paper. What a weirdo.

"So, you guys are here for the shotS, that your kids must get?" The doctor asks, now looking up from his wooden clipboard.

"Wait," Tobias says, putting his hand in the air in front of him. "ShotS?!" He finishes.

"Yes, your children must get five shots." The doctor confirms, now flipping through rainbow colored papers on the clipboard.

He drops the clipboard, and papers fly across the room. "Son of a Test Tube!" He shouts. "Oops," he quickly covers up. He runs around the room, picking up papers, and placing them on the clipboard again.

Soon after, a nurse comes in with a rolling cart, which contains a rack of needles, and three test tubes of each five type of serums on the rack.

There's a green serum, a blue serum, two clear serums, and a grey serum.

Also sitting on the rolling cart, sits a box of antiseptic wipes and a box of blue latex gloves.

The doctor and nurse both put gloves on, and get an antiseptic wipe from the box.

The nurse loads the serums into the needles, and comes over to us. "Who's first?" She says cheerily.

"Hunter," I say, pointing to the bed where Hunter continues to eat the paper. she nods, and walks over to him.

When he looks up from the paper in his hand and he sees the needle, his face pales, and his nose scrunched up.

She picks up Hunter, and rolls him over so he's on his back. She wipes his whole back, slips one of each of the five serums into a rack connected to a machine that sits above Hunter.

She pulls a lever, presses a button, and the rack of serums slowly falls, until it makes contact with his back.

That's when all hell breaks loose.

Hunter thrashes around on the bed, his small hands gripping onto the paper on the bed, and ripping it, as the needles dig deeper into his skin.

He screams, and tears cover the paper that surrounds his face, which is laying on the paper. The needles have now come back out of his skin, empty.

The serum that was once in those needles, is now floating around in my son's bloodstream.

The nurse wipes more antiseptic on his back where the needles were, which now has red bumps, and then places bandages there.

She then walks over to a counter in the corner of the room, grabs another needle, and an antiseptic wipe, and swipes a small spot on his arm.

She jabs the needle in, and Hunter just whimpers this time. When she is finished, she puts a Dauntless flame bandage over it, and gives Hunter a sticker that says: "I'm a Big Dauntless Now" on it.

Hunter is put in a crib across the hall in a different room, for the ten minute observation period that follows receiving shots, to be sure that you don't have an allergic reaction.

"Olivia next." The doctor says, reading from that clipboard again.

The nurse sets Olivia up the same way as she did Hunter, and she fills up the machine, pulls the lever, and presses the button.

The machine falls until it hits her skin, and she whimpers, before crying, and soon screaming as the needles penetrate her skin even deeper.

When the needles pull out, the nurse gives her more antiseptic, and covers her back in bandages. Then, she gives Olivia a sticker with a glittery heart on it.

Afterwards, she gives her the arm shot, where she just whimpers in response. Olivia is then placed across the hall for observation.

"Now, time for Maddie." The doctor says, once again picking up the clipboard from the counter.

Maddie, who sits on my lap, jerks her head up from laying on my stomach.

She turns and looks at the nurse, who is loading serums into needles, and placing them in the rack, which is connected to the large, black machine.

Maddie cocks her head to the side, obviously confused.

The nurse has finished the task at hand, and picks Maddie up from my lap. "Four," I look at him, his eyes filled with worry. "We need to hold her down," I finish. He just simply nods.

We get up, and walk to the bed, where the nurse now has antiseptic on her back, her shirt now pulled up. I hold down her left arm, Tobias has her right arm, and the nurse and doctor both handle a leg each.

The nurse pulls the lever with her foot, and steps on the button, and the rack of needles comes downward, towards Maddie's back.

When it meets the skin, she thrashes around, and tries to scoot from the machine's grasp, ours as well. As the needles submerge into her skin, she screams even louder.

She bites at the parchment that lies on the bed, as saliva and tears coat the paper as well.

But what scares me even more, is when she stops completely, and looks dead into my eyes.

"Mama." She says in a strained tone, like this is my fault. The needles come up from her skin empty, and the nurse gives her the shot in her arm. Maddie screeches when the needle is jabbed into her arm, but soon stops, and just whimpers.

After the shot, she gives Maddie a sticker with a shiny face that says: "ALL BETTER!". "You like that?" She asks Maddie. "Yesh," she whispers softly. "Yesh, yesh." She repeats.

She continues to say, "Yesh," the. While way to the observation room, where she is placed in her own crib next to Olivia and Hunter's cribs.

Olivia and Hunter talk to each other in what a Tobias and I call: Baby Babble.

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We stay for twenty more minutes, waiting for the observation period to end, and then the doctor releases us.