The Second Stage

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A few days later, Meredith was back in the ICU break area, caught in a conversation with Kiara and three other nurses. It was a Friday, or maybe a Thursday, one couldn't be sure, really. A funny little coffee maker hissed, while a funny little TV spouted news from above the door, and a funny little computer sat in the corner. Meredith never offered much dialogue, or even attention, to the conversations bubbling from the four round tables in the room. Today fit the mold. Kiara, Beth, and Candice's banter floated past her ears from across the faux wood table top.

"So, you think they've got smallpox stored..."

Meredith leaned back and stared at the popcorn ceiling, the surface frothing like ocean foam. Footsteps clopped down the hallway and Meredith glanced to see who would join them. A janitor strode by and she sighed as she scanned the faces across the table. She needed a distraction; now and then, when Meredith allowed her mind to stray far enough, the question she hoped to abandon would return: Why?

"No, they might have it..." Kiara seemed to be concocting another one of those tall tales that run through these halls in the same manner, and as useful as, Shigella. The vending machine hummed as Meredith made a conscious decision to focus on that. The LED bulbs within glowed through the diet coke slot that Beth had cleared out. Why? The conversation picked up enough enthusiasm to break through Meredith's mental wall.

"...the dumbest goddamn thing I've...."

Meredith returned to her thoughts. Why? Why care? She tossed the question away. There wasn't time in this bright new world for questions. No time for ceaseless doubts and considerations. She had wasted years, decades of her life. But that was no longer. But this year would be different. But why?

"—oh like the devil himself is hangin' around in this hospital." Beth giggled then pushed back in her seat as Meredith's eyes snapped to her.

"The devil?" Meredith croaked.

The other nurses shifted and glanced at each other. Kiara broke the silence. "It's just dumb rumors, Mer."

"What rumors?"

"Look don't worry. We know it was an accident you grabbed that—" Beth started.

"If it's about me, you gotta tell me." Three blank expressions stared back. "Kiara. We had a deal. We ever hear anything about one of us, we tell the other one."

Kiara stiffened then let out a defeated sigh. "Okay. Okay. But I'm gonna say it from the start."

The other nurses groaned.

"Yes, yes! If we're telling stories then we're telling them right." She turned to Meredith. "Alright. You know how there's been nurses going to the basement with like, treatment stuff?"

"Yeah. I noticed..."

"That's 'cus they got a patient there."

"No way, Kiara." Meredith paused. "Is—is it in that locked up room?"

"The padlocked one? No, hun, even Dr. Bloom isn't creepy enough to stash someone in there. Anyway, so it was a looney from that Penitentiary a few miles up the road."

"Guess it makes more sense." Meredith shrugged.

"That's right, it does. So, I don't know what he was in for but I hear they brought him in covered in restraints including the whole Hannibal mask thing." Kiara widened her eyes and leaned forward. "Swear on my life he's there still, I tended to him for a shift. He was in for eating something they think perforated his intestines. Not sure why they're spending taxpayer money on that, but I suppose that ain't none of my business. So, as it turns out, this was an escape plan he hatched. Get out of the prison, fake successful anesthetic induction, jump off the table, murder a couple folks, run out the front doors, then die of his septic abdomen in like, three days, I guess."