Just Don't Die

SERE School

Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape or SERE school is a notoriously difficult Army school. The intent of the school is to train the service member how to keep from becoming a prisoner of war, but also how to make it through if you are captured. As Blaine sat in that large open room, eating his surprisingly tasty chicken and mac and cheese, he remembered how much worse his time in the pretend prison was. Right now he wasn't sleep deprived, he wasn't starving, and he wasn't physically exhausted. This building might be a little more secure than the one in the middle of the woods in Alabama, but he also didn't have a truck waiting for him back then. He had spent the afternoon pacing the halls and corridors of the unit, watching the staff, and trying to figure out a plan of escape. He had a plan to get a badge, but he still needed the code for the other door to get completely outside. Like in SERE school, he wouldn't use violence unless it was absolutely needed to escape. He just needed to wait for the right moment.

"Peter?" a voice said loudly from the nurses station.

Blaine looked over, now aware that Peter was the name they had on his file. He saw two men in white coats standing next to the nurses station. When they saw him look, they motioned him over. He left his plate on the table and walked over towards them. Hopefully they got everything straightened out and it was all just an incredible misunderstanding and he will have an easy case for his lawyer on Monday morning. He didn't really believe that, but he was still hopeful.

"Hi. My name is Blaine."

"Is now a good time for you?" The taller white haired man said, ignoring the correction.

"About 8 hours ago would have been better." Blaine replied. "You guys here to talk about my discharge?"

"We're here to talk about your plan of care." The younger, shorter man with no hair said. Blaine thought he might be of Asian descent, but with the mask on he couldn't tell for sure.

"That's what I thought. In here?" Blaine asked, walking into the room he had talked to the nurse in earlier and taking a seat opposite the desk.

"I heard you had a little altercation earlier today. Would you like to tell us what happened?" The bald one said.

Blaine looked between the two of them, his brow reflexively furrowing hard. He was searching his memories of the day for anything that could even be construed as an altercation and couldn't think of a thing. He had avoided the other patients and didn't even say a word to anyone other than John.

"You threatened a nurse." The white haired man said, pulling out a notepad.

"No. I said that I am going home. I came in voluntarily for an assessment and now you guys won't let me leave or even have my phone or make calls. I never threatened anyone. Is that what John told you?"

"Let me blunt Blaine. I have a few documents for you to sign and you can be on your way. Does that sound fair?" White hair said.

It almost passed his perception that he had just called him by his real name. Almost.

"The wrong name was intentionally, wasn't it?"

"We have three documents which have already been signed by Dr. Cerantos that we want you to sign. The first page states that you were diagnosed with schizophrenia before you started the trial, the second one states that you intentionally withheld that information from the recruitment team, and the third is a non-disclosure agreement about your involvement in the study." White hair said, his monotone starting to grate against Blaine.

"Let me get this straight. You guys made up a bunch of crap to get me trapped in here so I would sign something to protect a research study?" Blaine said, his eyes wide, looking back and forth between the two.

"That study is in the final stages of getting FDA approval for wider studies. It has literally saved hundreds of lives that would have ended in suicide. It's not about you, Blaine." The bald man said with an edge of anger.

"The last document is for you. It's a check for 350 thousand dollars. Once you sign the documents, I give you the check and you walk out of here. No record, no questions asked." White hair said.

"And if I don't, you keep me here illegally until I give in. You really think that's going to work? I will eventually get out and the study will be the least of your worries, Dr. Parker and Dr. Williams." Blaine said, reading their name badges.

"Dr. Parker, on average, how often do we have a patient suffering from psychotic paranoia threaten to sue us?" Bald man asked white hair.

"This will be number four for me," white hair said, smiling for the first time, "today."

"Look Blaine, you are in here until we discharge you. We can adjust the chart as needed to justify you staying or you can sign the papers, take the check, and walk out of here tonight. I'll even write you a prescription for Zyprexa for the voices in your head and you can go spend your new found fortune." Bald head said, smiling wide.

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about suing you. That's besides the point. The offer does sound tempting and in fact if Dr. Cerantos would have presented me with this when I called this morning, I would have seriously considered it." Blaine watched both of their smiles fade during the overly dramatic pause. "Unfortunately, the fact that you think illegally keeping me here is an appropriate way to motivate me tells me you can't be trusted to keep your word."

"Blaine, it's not like you have a lot of choices. In fact you only have two." Bald head said, grinning as he leaned back into his chair.

"And we have other patients to see tonight. So, perhaps we need to let you have tonight to decide, since it looks like you have some hesitation." White hair said, standing and putting all the papers on the table back into the folder.

"Last chance, Blaine." Bald head said, still smiling wide. "If you don't take us up on this right now, it will be tomorrow whenever we get back around to it that we offer again."

"Oh wait. Dr. Williams, tomorrow is Sunday. I don't think we will even be back until Monday." White hair said, staring down at Blaine.

Blaine refused to allow his face to show the sheer hatred he felt. He put on his poker face and stared directly back at both men without saying a word. His muscle were tense and he knew without any doubt in his mind that he could easily inflict enough violence on both of them before back up showed up that they would never be the same again. Fortunately, Blaine still had enough control that he knew that would only give them legitimate reason to hold him, and it would undoubtedly put him in jail with real charges. His life would really be done then. His license gone. His ability to get a job. The small amount he had in savings wouldn't last him a month.

Blaine cleared his throat and steadied his voice to make sure he could communicate his message clearly. "Let me put this as clearly as I can," Blaine paused for effect, "this is your last chance. I know that you have a lot more to lose in this then me. Perhaps you need to talk to Dr. Cerantos about who I am before you threaten me."

Both men stood above Blaine as he sat motionless staring. Suddenly they started to laugh.

"Blaine, you don't hold any cards here. When you leave here, either after signing those papers, or transferred to a long term facility for as long as it takes you to come to your senses, we will be completely validated. And just for your clarification, Dr. Cerantos is the one who told us to offer this to you. We know exactly who you are and we are not intimidated by you in the least." White hair said.

"In fact, if you do try anything. That will make things way easier. So you just go for it." Bald head said.

It felt like they had read his mind. To be fair, Blaine was well aware that no matter how much he tried to feign indifference as he sat there, they had to be able to tell he was seething. Blaine watched as both doctors turned and left without another word. He briefly thought about the possibility of the whole conversation just had being a hallucination and part of his building paranoia. There was only one way that he could know for sure and it might be too late. He waited for the door to close after the doctors left and then slowly rose to his feet, walked out the door and looked around to find Nurse John.