The Eleventh Ward

Chapter 5

Some of the people in the ward, you couldn't tell why they were in there. Luke was one of them, along with Erin. She seemed like a completely normal person, until my thirteenth day. Michael had convinced me to go to the art class they ran in the activities room and it happened that Erin was in there. I'd never spoken to her properly, and I'd only ever hung out with her when we were in a big group but she seemed like a pretty cool girl. She usually wore leggings or trackies, but today she had chosen black shorts with a baggy top tucked in and long black knee socks. I'd never realised how skinny she was until now. She wasn't like Lacey, but she wasn't normal size. When she saw us come in, she patted the seat next to her. I felt Michael stiffen next to me, and I remembered what he was like just around her. I placed my hand on his forearm and squeezed it lightly before walking in front of him and taking a seat next to Erin.

"Hey guys," she smiled.

By halfway through the class, we were talking about everything. There was just something about her that made you want to spill your secrets. Her deep brown eyes seemed to suck you in, making you feel safe and in danger all at once.

"Okay, I'm done" Throughout our whole conversation we'd been ignoring Michael without even knowing it. I turned round to see him folding up a piece of paper and putting the pencils back in the pack.

"What did you draw?"

"Doesn't matter" Michael smirked, stuffing the paper in his back pocket and walking out. I turned back to face Erin, a smile spreading across her face as she tried to supress a giggle.

"Considering we're in art class, we're not doing much art," she burst out laughing, unable to control it.

"Art is very important young one," she said, trying to sound serious, "You must learn the art of shading before you can live your life"

"Oh well excuse me while I draw a perfect sphere," we burst out into uncontrollable laughter, and when we finally managed to stop, I looked up to see Erin staring at me, a strange smiled pulled across her cheeks.

"I want to show you something,". She stood up, grabbed my hand and started running. We ran out of the activities room, through the foyer and, without even trying to hide, straight into the boys corridor. It was almost identical to the girls, except the walls were pale blue like the elderly ward. At the end of the hallway there were doors to the showers, but just like when we went to the smoking room, Erin leant down and started picking at the lock to the janitors closet.

"What are you doing?" I heard the lock click and she stood up to face me.

"Going to Narnia". The janitors closet looked the same as the one in the girls corridor, and I thought we were going to go through it into somewhere else like before, but instead of walking in, Erin pulled out the laundry cart that was sitting at the back. She flipped the top open and pulled out a pile of blue material. She threw a dark blue jumpsuit at me and without question I'd already started putting my legs through the holes. Erin on the other hand, had a dark blue nurse smock and was pulling it on over her crop top. When we were both suitably dressed, she leaned in and whispered in an excited voice "The code is 61339" and with that she flipped herself into the laundry hamper and closed the lid. I knew exactly what she wanted, she wanted me to sneak her out. I stood still for a second, completely unsure of what to do, but suddenly I felt the adrenaline running through my veins. I remembered how the risk of sneaking into the adult ward to smoke had totally paid off, and how even deciding to plead guilty had gotten me a life back, no matter how fucked up it was. And before I knew it, I was pushing Erin down the boys corridor in a laundry cart in a fake janitors jumpsuit.

Erin was right, the code she had given me to the door worked perfectly, and the security box next to it beeped quietly as it unlocked. The way though the elderly ward was simple, but it wasn't until the door to the elderly ward was shut behind us and we were halfway down the hall and Erin was pushing the top of the laundry basket open did I finally start to smile. We were out, we'd actually gotten out of the ward. I was too distracted with the dizziness of freedom to realise that Erin had flipped out the cart and was grabbing a wheelchair from the side of the corridor. She pulled it open before reaching down into the cart and pulled out a white blanket and threw it at me. I wrapped it round me and sat in the wheelchair while Erin slowly pushed me along the corridor. Two nurses walked past and smiled at us. To them we weren't mentally unstable escape artists, we were just a normal patient and a fellow nurse going on an expedition round the hospital. That was until they were a few feet behind us and Erin suddenly exploded into a run. A sharp corner nearly made the wheelchair fall over, but still she kept running. After about 30 seconds of pure hope I wouldn't die, we made it to the stairwell, where we ditched the wheelchair and ran for dear life. Up and up, without looking back. We could have been caught by anyone, and with one glance they would know who we were. Not only was it ridiculous to see a 17 year old janitor and a similarly aged nurse running up the stairwell together, but my face had been on every news channel in the country. But we weren't caught, instead we burst through the top door onto the roof of the hospital.