Thirteen (Mono×OC)

Weakness

How did we get into this mess? I wondered as the doctors chubby fingers reached eerily close. I gasped lightly and took a step back, bumping into Mono. He wrapped an arm around me protectively as the Doctor upside-down crawled away. I wanted to take Mono and Six and hide somewhere, preferably somewhere spacious, forever, but then I remembered I was supposed to be upset at Mono for being a self-sacrificing idiot.

I pried myself away from Mono and climbed over linen racks, finding myself in a room where the Doctor operated on a torso. As we crept around the doctor scurried like a fat Spiderman before shoving a mannequin head on the dolls shoulders.

Fleeing the horrible room, we got into a bedchamber full of patients strapped to the beds. Just before Mono crawled from under the bed I heard something approach. I lunged forwardand pulled Mono back, covering his mouth with my hand. "Be quiet... His hearing is poor, but he is a lot faster than he looks, and his eyesight is nothing to sneeze at." I whispered to Mono, barely breathing.

The Doctor reached down to the patient above us, and the Nomes shivered against me in fear. We couldn't see him from under the beds, but the noise of him went to the other end of the room. "Follow me. If we can see him, he can see us, but I can hear him." I said, crawling on all fours. I narrowed my eyes in an attempt to sharpen my hearing, but it was made null when I saw a locked door. We needed something to throw at it. "We need something throwable." I told my companions. I peeked over the overturned cart we where hiding behind but almost immediately ducked down.

He was right there. Like a giant, fleshy magnet as he worked on a patient t, his back to us. On the side of the room, past him, was a block. Perfect, but so dangerous. "Stay." I ordered my friends. "No!" Mono said, "I'll go get it." Oh for the love of- "Mono, hun, we are not doing this again. It's sweet that you're concerned, but I am faster than you, and can avoid Mr. Maggot." I hissed, "Six, if he tries to move, bite him. Gently." I added as an afterthought. I crept between the beds before getting g close to the block. Just as I was about to run and grab it, the Doctor lumbered over, directly above the block, and me.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I thought as the Doctor dropped a scalpel, which bounced off the floor and landed by my hand. The Doctor reached down, feeling for the scalpel, and I got as far away as I could. His hand was getting closer to me, but farther from the scalpel.

I saw Six trying to wrestle Mono down. Delicately... Delicately... I thought, and the scalpel shook and shuddered. It skittered across the floor and I put it just within his reach. His large hand wrapped around the tool, inches from my foot, and he ambled away.

I shotput from under the bed and grabbed the block, my momentum making me slide under the bed across from me. I pulled the plug on the patient above me and the Doctor ambled over, and I usedthe distraction to scamper to my friends. Mono looked pissed, whereas the Nomes and Six looked relieved. "That was unnecessary, and incredibly dangerous." Mono scolded, taking the block from me and throwing it. The door buzzed open and the Doctor ran out, and we followed. I put the Nomes in my hood as we climbed into the ceiling, which was full of holes.

Below us, the smell of decay made me dizzy. I peered down and saw corpses, corpses, not mannequins, with flies buzzing above them, and maggots crawling in and out of their skin. I couldn't take it. I heard the beep beep beep of a machine, and course, raggedy breathing as the chests shuddered and the beds creaked with each breath. The people down there where alive. The noises, the realization, the smell. It was too much. I doubled over above a hole in the tiles and gagged, throwing up. The Nomes patted my back and hands as I gulped for air. I saw, through teary eyes, that Six was standing to the side.

I felt something wrap around my shoulders, and pull my hair back. I gagged, clutching my stomach. Once I... finished.... I heard a comforting melody being hummed as fingers ran through my hair.

"It's okay... It's okay..." Mono whispered in my ear, "You're senses are too strong sometimes... let us know if it gets difficult, okay?" He said, and I shook. The rotting figure was staring at me. The metal girders around me bent and twisted like my stomach.

"Why am I being so weak?" I asked myself. In the forest, I saw rot and death all the time. I was used to it. The Hunter did taxidermy right outside my bedroom. Why was this freaking me out?

"You aren't weak," Mono reassured me, "You're just not used to this kind of thing." He said. "And you are? Is that why you'retrying to 'protect' me?" I asked the mostly gentle boy. "No." He admitted, "But the signal does awful things. The reason you're reacting like this is because you're used to the Hunters kind of awful. You aren't used to bullying or torture because that just isn't what the Hunter did."

"Connor... The Hunter... wasn't awful." I defended. Was he? A little voice asked. "Thirteen." Mono said, holding my shoulders and making me look at him, "You grew up with him. You were used to the things he did. It where your normal. But to anyone else, it was heinous. This," He gestured to the bodies, "this is my normal. It's the reason I keep doing the dangerous stuff. In the woods, you knew every nook and cranny, every trick and turn. But you don't know about the city. I do, so until you can adapt to this new environment, I'll keep you and Six, and Jake and June, safe. But don't think that means I think you're weak. You are unbelievably strong."