A Coin Flip

Chapter 6: Plus One

Delta

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I could feel my eyes slowly opening. My surroundings were blurry. My ears were filled with the sounds of slow beeps and dings. I felt like I was in a trance, or maybe just woken up from a really long nap.

As my vision began to clear, I took in my surroundings. There were beds, curtains, and a lot of machines around me. Everything seemed so bright with the lights beaming down and the white bleeding into my eyes.

Where am I? The last thing I remember was flying the helicopter to... Oh, I see. They must have taken me to the infirmary after what happened.

"Oh, you're finally awake," I heard a feminine voice say from my left side.

I turned my head to see an arctic fox in a nurse uniform messing with a machine to my left. "How long was I out for?" I asked.

"Not for too long, only an hour or two," she responded in a caring and kind voice.

That was good to hear. Not much time lost, and from what I could tell, I wasn't injured. "Thank you for your help, but I should get going." I sat up in the medical bed and pulled out the I.V. that was attached to my arm.

"Why the rush? Usually, when we care for a protogen, they don't want to leave," the nurse questioned me with a short laugh.

Makes sense. When one of us finally gets cared for, we never want to leave. And to be frank, I'm sure no soldier is enthusiastic about going back to their early grave. If I didn't know the military was probably looking for us, I wouldn't be in such a rush to leave, but I'm not willing to take the chance to find out if they are or not. "Well, I guess I'm not like the others," I said with a short remark.

"What about that friend of yours, the one you were flying with? Aren't you going to stay and wait for him?" she said in a gentle voice.

"Right, where is he? Once he wakes up, we'll be out of your hair." I studied her facial expressions as I said my words. Her slight smile morphed into a dim frown. "Is something wrong? Is he okay?" I asked, my voice filled with concern.

"Your friend... he took a strong hit to the head. He'll need more time to recover." Her words felt like a stake going through my chest.

"Can I see him?" I sheepishly asked.

"Of course, follow me." The nurse slowly walked to the doorway with me not far behind. When we exited the room, I could see more of the institute. The place was full of white hallways, filled with bright lights on either side. We kept passing doors with numbers on them—776, 777, 779, 780—and then finally stopped at a door labeled 781. "Your friend is in there. I'll give you two some privacy," she spoke before walking farther down the long hallway.

I opened the door, gently closing it behind me. The room looked identical to the one I was in. Almost identical—there was a light blue-colored protogen lying on a medical bed against the right wall.

I slowly walked to his bedside. My feet felt like lead with every step I took toward my unfortunate companion.

It pained me to see him like this. His visor was dim, almost as if he were in a deep sleep. I kneeled down next to him. It felt wrong to look down on him like this. "Azul, I know you can't hear me right now, but I am so sorry for bringing you into this. You were the only friend I still had. I could relate to you, I could talk with you without being called crazy." My words just rolled off my tongue, as if they were coming from deep inside me. "I felt so alone in this world before I met you, but you gave me motivation again. Just seeing you be happy was all the encouragement I needed to keep fighting for us. You can make me feel just that certain way."