The Beginning of The End

Chapter 3 - The Realization

THE REALIZATION

Carlie wasn't the type of girl to jump to conclusions, but she couldn't help herself this time.

First, sneaking into a dance (which totally wasn't bad), then once there, being ordered by this weird creepy dude to give her a stupid flash drive that could apparently control the world's fate (yeah right). Second, being attacked by a boy named Luke, whom also wanted the flash drive. When they had tried to get away, a guy tried to shoot her and blocked their exit, so they had to jump out of a window on the second story of a building. Third, the people who saved them just happened to be doctors. Oddly convenient.

All that kinda said, "We are bad people." Well, not really the doctor and nurse helping them part...but the coincidence of the doctors being the people who saved them was quite suspicious.

The doctor kept his eyes in front of them as he and the nurse pushed her on the gurney to some room. The nurse glanced down at her sympathetically every so often, but otherwise also focused on the hallway.

Carlie counted the panels on the drop ceiling to pass time. She told herself that it could somehow help at some point, but was most likely just making something up to feel like she wasn't just laying around and not contributing to whatever team she (HADN'T) signed up for.

She counted to thirty-six before they got to where she thought was the X-ray room, but only to what turned out to just be an elevator.

They rolled her into the small metal box of doom. well, it felt that way to Carlie, whom was incredibly claustrophobic and hated all elevators for that reason.

"Dr. Hamlot, sir, we can't bring her inside the, you know, the room," the nurse warned as she pressed the button titled 'basement'.

"Yes, Amelia, I'm aware of that. We're not going there anyway," he responded.

"Wait, where are we going?" Carlie puzzled.

"Somewhere that will help you heal fast," the nurse named Amelia assured, not looking too certain herself.

"Why do I not completely believe you?" Carlie eyed her wearily.

Amelia averted her eyes and coughed. The doctor answered for her. "Miss, we aren't going to talk about this anymore. We know what we're doing. Leave this to us."

The nurse tapped on the gurney next to Carlie's head. Carlie recognized it as Morse Code. Great. One of the things Carlie hadn't paid attention to in her few homeschooling years - as in, she taught herself - turned out to be the thing that was the deciding factor between life and death (or pain) for her. Perfect.

She heard five taps in a row and was immediately confused. While she didn't know what the taps meant exactly, she knew that whatever Amelia just tapped either wasn't Morse Code or wasn't a letter. She decided to go with the latter.

Five taps...hmm...five! Five is a number, not a letter, so it was perfect. She knew that Morse Code wasn't that simple most of the time or else she may have paid more attention in Code class, but at least that part was easy to figure out.

Amelia tapped more units on the gurney, but Carlie couldn't understand them. Then, the pattern got easier to understand. She was doing a countdown. But for what? Oh! The getaway! Fight? Would Amelia do it or would Carlie have to fight with a sprained wrist and broken leg?

"Now," Amelia whispered.

"What?" Dr. Hamlot turned towards her.

"Um, nothing, sir," she said, poking Carlie in the shoulder pointedly.

Oh! Now! Crap. Now.

Carlie propped herself up to a sitting position and elbowed Dr. Hamlot in the gut. He doubled over, so she took the chance to punch him in the face with her right fist.