White Space

18

The men in the submarine didn't sound especially clear, as in, they sounded kind of delusional. But they did plant enough of a seed of paranoia in her that Accacia decided to pay the Doc a visit instead of heading straight for the lab. The strange silence around this part had always been a given. For some reason, people still regarded hospital beds as somewhat of a sanctuary not to be disturbed. This time, however, the silence turned out to have a different meaning. One that Accacia hadn't seen coming. Yin's bed was empty. Accacia glanced around in confusion and called out for the Doc. She could already feel the first wisps of anger forming in her over the fact that Doc chose not to let her know.

She then saw light outside in the corridor. She was so lost in thought she hadn't seen it before. Leaving the empty med-bay, she realized that the door to the other room, the one Colin was enjoying his free drug trip, was open. She called for the Doc again, now slightly more afraid at the lack of an answer than angry and then peeked inside. Then she had to lean into the frame to keep herself from losing her balance. Doc Comtois turned to face her with quivering lips, visibly at a loss for words. And Accacia felt that her silence was entirely warranted.

 There was so much blood. Blood around the bed, blood on the wall, even some on the ceiling right above the bed. It was gruesome. She took a careful step inside, making sure not to slip on the slick blood on the floor, holding a hand to her mouth. She could tell that even in the warm ambient light, she must have looked pale. Just like the Doc.

 "What...?"

 The boy on the bed looked fine. This somehow made it even worse. Accacia couldn't tell how. She did not wish for a dismembered body laying there, but the fact that Colin was unharmed made the scene even creepier. Or just more disturbing, perhaps? She stepped closer to look, but she didn't dare touch him. Maybe it was the warning still ringing in her ears from the other room. Maybe it was a natural instinct. Either way, he was afraid of this place, this bed.

 "He's alive." Doc said finally. She was visibly shaking, although she had ample experience with gruesome bodies throughout her career, Accacia knew it very well. This made her all the more terrified.

 "What... What happened?"

 "I... Umm... I don't... I don't know."

 "Whose blood is this Agate?" Accacia was fighting the urge to touch anything. She knew it would not only contaminate the samples, but it could possibly hinder an investigation or worse. "And where's Yin?"

 "It can't be Colin's." Doc looked into her eyes through the curtain of tears shrouding her gaze. She had trouble keeping focus. "Do you think it's Yin's? I don't know where she is."

 "Go get some sample packages. We need..." Accacia shook her head. "We need to take samples."

 The Doc left and returned with a pair of gloves in a few seconds, still trying to put them on the right way. Accacia backed up, giving her some space. While the Doc was conducting her examination, she looked around the room. Apart from the obvious thing, which was the insane amount of blood and gore without a visible body, there was something else that caught her eye. A 20-30 cm wide trail of brown sludge coming down in a more or less straight line from the vent grille. At first, it was indistinguishable from the rest of the splatter. Accacia could only tell it was not blood by the way light bounced off it from a certain angle.

 "Is he still under?" Accacia asked, while pulling her face closer to the sludge. "I mean... Is it the drugs?"

 "I don't think so. I didn't even give him that much, you know how—"

 "So why doesn't he wake up? All this should..." The sludge in front of her face shifted. She let out a sudden whimper, not strong enough to be a squeal, but definitely more audible than a surprised sigh. She looked over at Doc, who was entirely focused on the kid. "Did you see..."