Not even close {LOTCF}

1

Your eyes opened before you swiftly closed them. Ugh. This procedure wasn't supposed to happen today. The calendar that served as your reminder mockingly stared at you as you reopened your eyes. Your alarm blared in the background and the tiles were cold beneath your feet. Reluctantly, you sighed and pulled yourself off your bed. Whatever would be left of your day would be ruined.

You shuffled into the bathroom not bothering to glance outside the window. You turned on the tap and watched the water creep up the walls of the tub until it was full before you sank in; letting your thoughts wander until the voice on the radio pulled you back to reality or better yet a botched version of one.

You glared at the radio wishing that the blasted things would combust into multiple pieces. Making a mental note to file a request to have the host change, you got out of the tub and slipped into your work clothes. You carefully packed your weapons away in the hidden compartments of your uniform and set up each and every trap in your house again. With everything you needed, you left and got into your car knowing that no one would dare to enter your house; not if they didn't want to become minced pieces of themselves.

You hummed quietly as you stepped on the gas pedals swerving close to an abandoned building narrowly avoiding crashing into the pole. This habit would get you killed one day but this was a routine, one that you had found easy to start but hard to break but this kept you alive, this kept you sane when you would be forced back into the field to cure unwilling victims from the front-lines.

It wasn't long before you arrived.

Climbing out of your car , you grabbed your kit and closed the door behind you. Heading towards that sorry excuse of a lab. You swiped your keycard across the scanner and the blast door revealed people wheeling new patients in and out of the rooms.

You closed the door behind you just in case any patients gained the incentive to try and escape. For all the upgrades they had in this lab, you'd think that they would make a more efficient way for you to clock in.

The intercoms crackled, a nurse stared at you. Ah. they were looking for you. Apparently the dang problem was code 7 so you couldn't hand it over to another person. You sighed before heading to zone 3 making sure to grab a reinforced suit on the way there. You triple checked that the suit was on properly and sighed before entering the first level chamber.

You entered and swiped your keycard across the scanner making sure to keep an eye out for any escapees. And there was frantic banging and screaming on the other side of the door, of course there was. Could this day get any worse. A body dropped down with an audible thud. Never mind, it could get worse.

You began to slowly approach the body to inspect it better. Upon closer inspection, the first thing you saw was their face was stuck in a silent scream. Ah, it got them. There was a low chitter from the ceiling and that was your signal to escape.

You warily made your way to the 2nd level door, making sure to swipe your keycard again questioning yourself if you had locked that blasted door. You groaned before resuming your walk on the catwalk. You could hear the hum of the generator and your own footsteps echoing on the metal grated floor.

On the short walk you saw that there was no one guarding the 3rd zone, there must have been a breach. Again. You paused in front of the 3rd level door and saw that creature at the end of the hall.

You slowly swiped the keycard across the scanner and reached for your blaster with your other hand. As you shifted closer to the door, with one eye at the window and the other one on that creature. An eye stared back at you. That eye wasn't human. You lifted a blaster and fired at the creature outside.

Ducking under the other creature's vision, you reached for your emergency taser and rolled it under the crevice of the door. Another flaw they would have to fix. You didn't move until you heard that familiar cry of pain.

You shuddered after you heard that wet pop, then you stood up and swiped your keycard across the scanner. You stepped over the puddle of goo, face scrunching in disgust. Another mess for the crew to clean up. You reached the room you were designated to work in.

Then the process began and you were in your usual rhythm.

Heal.

Burn.

Repeat.

Heal.

Burn.

Repeat.

A rhythm developed in the medical field to help you cope with new reality, your new world. You didn't flinch at the sight of the small body carted into your room not until you came up close to it for further inspection, that was when you felt the bile creep up your throat. The face was completely mutilated, the skin peeling from the bone of the patient's hand. There was little to nothing left to inspect but you gulped down your disgust before recording the state of the body.

—-------------------------------------------------

Your coworkers seem unnerved by your inability to react to these cases and you don't have it in you to care because they themselves are not innocent.

And so they had no right to judge your lack of reactions after all , they were hypocrites, too caught up in their head to care.

These were the same people that saw you when you were naïve and bright-eyed when you just entered the lab. Sometimes you wondered if your optimism was what made your peers want to see your downfall.

You remembered people muttering in hushed tones as they approached the new patient that had arrived in the hospital. It was supposed to be a simple task; all you had to do was check the patient's vital signs and then send him back to the front-lines. Your first mistake was not looking at the conflict that clouded his eyes; your second was not checking if he had anything that sent him into oblivion.

It was too late by the time you had realized it, he had sent himself into oblivion. They were quick to tear you apart; consequently, you were put on hold for  2 years.

WC: 1084 words