Helpless

Shivering trees

Days passed away, when Tom Robbins finally went down to the hall of that freaking old building. The main building of the asylum was still under construction after the fire and patients were under the pressure because this tract had less space. Some of them slept in the hall, and another people found their place in others room. Only Colonel's room was occupied by only one patient. The man named Hay, probably. He was confused, and he still hiding behind the curtain whenever Timothy reached the room. But now they sat down in hallway and waited for their pills. "Tom! Tom!" they heard a scream. And silly old lady sat down nearby them. "I took my pills, a little while before. Now I want to kiss you!" Tom rolled his eyes. "Come on, who are you lady?" She blinked at him confusedly. "What's up? That's me, Alice. Didn't remember? We talked to each other in front of the asylum. Until firefighters came." He started to think about it, but then his attention was distracted by scream on another end of the hall. Nurses stood up and ran to the place, when Tom considered that Hay is nowhere to see. "Hey, you! Did you see a young man? He is scared..." Alice looked at him confusedly: "Who? We are all there. No one is missing." 

"Here. Take your pills and calm down." young nurse came to them and looked at Colonel with encouraging smile. "I want to talk with general of this organization to announced a missing person. We have to find our lost brother. And this mission must be finished before the darkness came. No pills! I need a clear mind to made a group of volunteers. Woods are thick and..." She mutted him with raised hand. "Pills. Take them. And don't worry. Your friend will be okay. Leave it. Go to your room and try to sleep. I will wake you, when we found him." Alice squeezed his arm and whispered: "Maybe you should take them. Really." He slowly nodded and took the pills. After that, he felt dizzy. "What have you done? This is war... and we have to save all the men." Nurse waved to Timothy, and he brought the old man to his room. After that, he locked the door.

Tom awakened from a nightmare by thunder. He quickly looked around after a young man, but room was quiet... "Where did you go? Listen me! Come back!" he yelled and then he mutted again. Someone unlocked the door. Black man looked at him with wild grimace on his face and said: "Shut your mouth. Other patients here want to sleep. Leave your tries to make you centre of the world!"  "Who are you?" asked him Tom, when man was about to leave. But his answer muttered by next thunder and Tom startled. Man returned to him and said more calmly, as he looked: "It's just a thunder, colonel Robbins. No worries. We are here, safe and dry. By the way, my name is Rudy. But you can call me sergeant Rudy Ignity. I served in the naval units. You may know them as SEALS. I heard about what have you done in Iraq and Libya years ago. You are my hero." He patted old man's shoulder. "Yeah. I was a hero. Army was my family, but then I lost them. Lost them all. In this stupid fire. They took everything from me. I am nothing now. Without virility, without hope to life." Rudy shook his head. "That's not true. You are man by your own way. And you are so patient with mrs. Alice, she needed some attention and she is going better. She is there about two years, and until you spoke to her, she was quiet and sad. But now? She is so happy and we really thought about her leaving from there." he said and smiled to Tom. "Where is Hay? Why he is not here? I worry about him." Rudy calmed him down, and said, that he was hiding himself somewhere from the storm, probably. And then younger man left him alone. 

Few steps further Tom considered to find a missing guy. He slowly climbed of the bed and cautiously reached the door. Then he find that doors were unlocked. His bare feet made him shiver from cold, but Tom decided to walk anyway. Mission. The important one. Where he should hide? He should be anywhere... without a next thinking he decided to walk around and opened all doors, which don't lead to patient's room. He don't want to woke up someone, so he stepped slowly. Sometimes he stopped and startled from noises of storm, that actually made him nervous. Sleeping asylum was scary for him, beside that "storm fact". He hated himself for this fear, but it was something that he can't change.

"Hay?" he whispered, when opened door to the closet in room next to him. He heard something, but there was a darkness, so he didn't see it clearly. "Is that yo-" he screamed from absolute shock and cannot stop, until someone pushed him away from that terrible view. But he cannot stop staring and screaming. He was totally paralysed by this. Hay lied in the closet with wide-opened eyes and his index finger was completely damaged. Like someone used a hammer to his hands. Tom finally broke the eye contact with the murdered man and looked from the window. Trees without leaves shivering in the wind and Tom considered that he shivering too. "No...no...no..." He fell onto floor and boxing it with bare hands. Finally, Timothy or Rudy, he was not sure who the man was, picked him from the floor and forced him to stood up and went back to room. "No, we failed! We cannot failed, he was just a kiddo.... he cannot be..." and fell unconscious to the bed...