T H R E E
Brian dragged me down the hall wordlessly; thankfully he wasn't exactly in the mood to converse with me after the stunt I had pulled. He was a monster. An absolute monster. Not only that, but he could now add murderer to his list of unpleasant qualities as well.
Emily, stop making light of the situation. You just watched a woman die. You need to get out of here. I thought frantically. Humour was my coping mechanism, but I didn't think my sarcasm was about to get me out of this terrifying government fortress.
I had to find a way to get out of here. How had I allowed myself to be put in to a situation like this? Hadn't I been taught better? I hadn't even bothered to read the damn contract! How many others had they fooled using this exact same method?
Realizing he was most likely bringing me to the Generals office, I started to drag my heels a little bit. "Can you let go already? What was that about Brian?" I demanded angrily, still in shock over what I had witnessed only minutes ago.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. When he continued to ignore me, I finally wrenched my arm away from his bony fingers.
"She is dead!" I yelled; my voice echoing loudly. I stood in the middle of the stark white hallway, breathing furiously as I waited for an explanation.
In response, he simply stared at me as if I was a mere child throwing a temper tantrum.
"You just killed a woman!" I jabbed my pointer finger at him, stepping towards him aggressively. "How can you possibly justify something like that? And even if she did sign up for this and know exactly what it entailed, your bedside manner is absolute garbage!"
After the accident, I had seen my fair share of nurses. Some were absolutely amazing, and others had no consideration for their patients or their families. I had lectured several of them on their bedside manners and their negative presumptions about my families health. I felt like I needed to be here to protect these girls.
Brian pinched the bridge of his nose as he stared at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and levelled his cold gaze onto my fiery one.
"As I told you before, we are testing out experimental cancer treatments. She quite literally begged us to try this drug on her." His voice was steely and terrifying.
When I didn't speak, too confused by my own feelings on whether or not this was ethical, he continued.
"I don't know what gave you the idea that you get to choose what you do here. This is not a place for free will. This is a place where science talks and we save lives. This is the Department of Defense, Cartell."
Save lives. That's not what that seemed like before. I shuddered at the images that flittered through my mind. That poor girl...
Surely, there was something else they could be doing to improve their chances in there. Or at the very least show some sort of kindness. I was always a firm believer that some unconscious patients could hear what you said to them. I knew that to people like Brian, these patients were merely pawns to getting the recognition he wanted from his superiors.
"If I'm going to help you, there needs to be some changes in there." I set my jaw, staring at him defiantly. "Take me to the General. I want to speak with him."
Brian licked his lips nervously. "Not just anyone gets to waltz in and talk to the General without an appointment, you insolent girl."
"Well, it's either you tell him I want to talk with him or I will make working with me the most miserable part of your existence. Your call, Brian." I fluttered my lashes, looking falsely innocent. He knew I was being a sarcastic asshole at this point.
He narrowed his eyes. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Brian spun on his heel and headed towards the locked hallway door that we had originally entered from. I took a deep breath, organizing my argument in my head. I needed to make the best of this. I needed to prove myself.
I also wanted proof that this facility wasn't some sort of butcher shop for women.
It took longer than I thought with increased security; but when we finally arrived at the main entrance of the building, I found that they had blacked out the front windows and it no longer looked like a waiting room.
Was it all just an act to get me to sign those papers? The thought nagged me. No, they wouldn't go to that sort of trouble just to fool a girl like me. It probably could have looked like this in here from the beginning and I would have signed anyways...
The thought made me cringe. Money truly was the worst thing man kind had ever created; and we were all puppets under its control.
Were humans always as selfish as we are now?
Upon glancing around the room, I noticed Diane, the woman who had arranged my interview was now long gone.
"Where is everyone?" I asked suspiciously, looking to Brian for any clues as to what was going on. The chairs had been removed, as well as the office supplies that had made this look like every other doctors office I had visited before. Now, it was just an empty room with a door that led outside to the parking lot I had walked through to get here. And stationed beside the door... were two armed guards. In under the span of one hour?
"Back to business as usual." He answered just as cryptically. I frowned at the back of his head as he led me to the Generals office. He knocked loudly, stepping back with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked visibly nervous and a little clammy.
Why was Brian so scared of this man? He was surely not someone that needed to worry about being replaced, considering his role and devotion to their cause.
Within a moment, the door swung open showing a disheveled looking General. My eyes widened at his uniform being so haphazardly thrown on.
"What is the meaning of this, Saunders?" General Jeff ground out angrily, his eyes darting between both Brian and I.
"Well, sir... the girl demanded to speak with you." Brian responded, sounding worried.
An robotic looking smile slowly spread over the Generals face. "She did, did she?" He answered sweetly, "and when, exactly did she start to call the shots?" He hissed out angrily.
Brian cringed away from his open hostility. "She refused to take part in the injection. Patient 347 is deceased." The little snitch practically whimpered out.
I glared at Brian openly for throwing me under the bus. "Actually, I was just a little shocked over the state of the room. If I'm going to be working here, I think we should be a little more proactive on the patients health. Especially training on how to treat them. They're not mindless beings."
Jeff stared at me for a long moment. He blew out a breath of air. "I see... so all you are asking for is proper medical equipment and to treat the patients more humanely. And once we have done that, you believe you could carry out the job?"
I bit the inside of my lip enough to taste blood. "Yes." I lied through my teeth.
Jeff raised a brow. "Very well. I find it very interesting you feel comfortable enough to make such requests on your very first day... on your orientation no less."
I pursed my lips. "Well, this is life and death we're talking about here. If you're testing out cures for cancer, shouldn't you be giving them the best chance possible to survive? These people have been through enough."
The General smiled at me. It wasn't a friendly smile, it was calculating and cold. It made me almost shiver with uneasiness. I had a bad feeling that I still didn't know everything that was going on; but I was determined to find out.
"Alright then. I will order the equipment now and we should have it by tomorrow morning. Do you have any other requests... miss Cartell?" His tone implied it wouldn't be smart to ask anything further, but I wasn't having any of it.
"Yeah, actually. Have you ever tested this drug out on males? The general consensus I'm getting here is that you've only been testing this on women. Why is that exactly? And not to mention, I find it quite discomforting that no one even tried to resuscitate her when she stopped breathing."
Jeff and Brian both stared at me in mild disbelief.
"Do you really dare question my authority? I feel like you may need to be reminded of your place here. However... if you promise to be a good girl and follow Brian's instructions from now on, I will answer those questions and those questions alone. Do you understand?" The General practically growled out.
I nodded meekly, my bravado had finally worn off.
"This drug has been developed for females only. Depending on its success, we may be able to tweak it to work on males as well." His response sounded tinny and fake. I didn't believe a word coming from his mouth. I somehow even doubted it was a cancer treatment to begin with... but if not cancer, what were they possibly doing here?
The General continued after a moment, "And Emily... if you were so worried about no one resuscitating her, why didn't you make the attempt yourself?"
My heart shuddered painfully in my chest at his words. He was right. Why hadn't I tried to save her? Why hadn't I tried to save her? Put up more of a fight?
Shame coursed through my mind. "Brian didn't give me the chance."
Brian answered my comment with a glare of his own. Jeff scoffed, shaking his head.
"You aren't doing yourself any favours my girl. I would suggest keeping your head down and doing a little less talking. Next time, save the girl yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it for you. You will have your supplies for tomorrow morning. You've only got one patient now, so hopefully you can handle that one properly." The General practically sneered.
Not giving me a chance to reply, he turned to Brian. "Take her to her quarters."
"Yes Sir." Brian bowed his head and I wanted to scoff at his blind obedience.
Grabbing my elbow, Brian yanked me down the hallway without another word.
"You have no idea who you've just crossed." Brian muttered to himself.
I rolled my eyes, "I think I have an idea by now Brian."
"No. You don't; but you will soon enough. Then you will wish you were obedient." His fingers dug into my soft flesh, and I knew there would be bruises later.
"Where are we going?" I asked, not recognizing the hall he had turned down.
"The staff wing. Where you will sleep while you are on shift." Brian responded dully. "There are only a dozen or so employees that work here, and they are on various shifts. So there aren't going to be many here while you are."
We passed rooms numbered one through twelve until we reached number thirteen. "Here is your assigned room. Make sure you lock your door at night. You don't want to know what happens if you don't."
I shuddered, not caring to inquire further. Some things were better left unsaid.
"Do not come out in the morning until you are summoned. You get strict punishment if you are caught out of your chambers past the curfew, which by the way is nine o'clock at night."
I pressed my lips together tightly. "I understand. I'll see you tomorrow."
Brian narrowed his eyes at me, "Unfortunately." He ground out angrily, before thrusting a key into my palm. Without another word, he stalked back down the hallway.
I breathed out a long stream of air. Some of the stress of the day left my shoulders; I was going to see another day, at least. I still needed to get to the bottom of what was going on here. I needed to find some way out of this jail. It hadn't even been a day yet and I was already feeling like a caged animal.
I unlocked my door slowly, almost scared of what was going to be on the other side. Despite my stress, it turned out to be a normal room. It had an en-suite bathroom, which I was grateful for considering their annoying curfew rule. I closed the door tightly behind me, locking it immediately. Brian may be everything unpleasant in the world, but I still appreciated his warning.
I didn't intend to find out what made him give me that warning.
I made my way further into the room and looked around. I sighed, wondering what I was going to do about not having any of my belongings or even a toothbrush to use for the night.
I pulled open the dresser drawer to take a look out of impulse and gasped out loud when I found my clothes were all neatly folded inside. I rushed to the bathroom, my eyes frantically scanning the counter top. My eyes locked on my familiar pink toothbrush neatly set in the holder by the sink. Even my shampoo was in the bathtub.
I made my way back to the bed and slowly sank down onto it. At least it was comfortable.
One thing was for sure... these people didn't mess around.
Tomorrow, I would figure this out.
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