Hacker

Chapter Seven

Alison tasted blood, warm and metallic. She ran her tongue along the injured piece of cheek and unclenched her jaw. Hacking the ward felt like slamming your head repeatedly against a stone door and then stepping back and ramming your whole body into it. The ward was complicated, serpentine strings of code winding upon themselves. Tangling and meandering together it made an almost impregnable defence. She was nearing the doors and her breath hitched in her throat. The hospital loomed above, daring her to break the unbreakable. Alison hoped her nerves didn’t show on her face. The ward was an incomprehensible wall of numbers and it hurt. She could feel shots of pain reverberating and rebounding off her skull. Her footsteps slapping on the pavement was drowned out by the constant thumping of her own heartbeat. A gentle breeze tussled her dark charcoal hair and rustled her clothes against her skin.

The wards boundary was three meters away. Adrenaline shot through her bloodstream and heightened her senses, sharpening them like a whetstone. Alison dove into deciphering the ward, scrambling through the numbers as if her life depended on it and really it did. She felt like she was seeing through tinted glasses. Two meters. It was like swimming in jelly at night. Pressure built in her chest as if a great weight was pressing down on her collarbone. She found the piece that destroyed someone without a chip, the part that rendered the bonds holding ones body together useless. It was primitive and complex at the same time. Ali began to pick at it frantically, and it was like clawing at a straight jacket. One meter. It wasn’t working, nothing was happening. The sun mercilessly assaulted her pale skin. She tried to stop but her legs wouldn’t obey, there was too much momentum. Her foot was inches from the ward and she tore it. Wrenching a gaping hole in the ward big enough for a person to fit through she felt it rip inside her chest. Blackness invaded her sight and she saw nothing. Her stomach lurched dangerously.

Alison pushed the glass door open with her shoulder and staggered in. Not the most composed entrance but she wasn’t disintegrated or turned into liquid mush. So far so good, she thought, and wanted to laugh with relief. Her vision cleared enabling the sterile white walls of the reception to dazzle her. It was all hard edges and practical furnishings. A huge rectangular desk ran from the left wall and then curved back in as it reached the waiting room. Large windows let in the bright midday sun and seemed to bring the only warmth to the room. A group of teens in milky white lab coats hung about the lobby in an uneasy cluster.They appeared to be about Alison’s age. The group chatted quietly, Alison could almost feel the air of self importance they wrapped around themselves like a blanket.She straightened self consciously and peered around curiously to see if anyone had noticed her not so smooth arrival. The teens were examining her with sour faces but there was no suspicion there beside the usual amount. Alison ignored them and marched towards the waiting room where further corridors branched off.

"Where are you going?" A snooty voice asked. It was high pitched and plastic. Alison twisted around on her heel to face the owner. Curse her bloody luck, it was Duckwoman. Her straw colour hair was pulled up into a severe bun and her sneer was even more corrosive closer up.

"To wait" Alison replied, attempting to keep her tone level.

"Where?"

"In the waiting room" Alison refrained from adding, stupid. Ali wasn’t actually going to wait, she just needed to get to the corridors.

"The med students need to wait in the lobby"

"Yeah well that’s not happening" Alison tried to communicate with her eyes how much of an idiot she thought the woman was. It didn’t go over well.

"Stop staring like a slummer" Duckwoman said.

"What did you call me?" Alison demanded, her words dripping animosity. The woman’s face flashed with discomfit for only a millisecond but then returned to her resting bitchy expression. A "ting" sounded as the elevator opened to her right near the waiting room. Duckwoman ignored it and leaned in close to Alison.

"Listen you little brat, I don’t care what backwash company your father owns or who your mother has earl grey with every six months, you get in the group or you get out." Duckwoman whispered loud enough for the entire room to hear. The med students snickered among themselves, a brunette outright laughed. Alison wondered whether or not she could make a break for it but if she did walk away from the woman Alison had no doubt that the cow would call the guards. Ali was still tempted to raise a certain finger to the snarky woman. It took all of her strength to hold her tongue and glaring at the nurse, Ali strode to the group of med students. This was not going to plan.

　

***

　

The elevator doors glided open silently and Theo was greeted with the sight of plush baby blue lounges and neat coffee tables. He walked into the waiting room and looked around at the place he hoped to spend the next two years training. Henry followed a short distance behind and the elevator closed with a "ting". Theo went in the direction of the lobby where Henry had informed him all the med students had to gather before the tour began.Theo navigated his way through bustling nurses and whining patients until he reached the lobby.

A girl stood arguing with the receptionist, dressed in a white trench coat and dark pants. Pure black hair skimmed her shoulders lightly. Her expression could have matched a summer storm in ferocity as the receptionist bit off her last comment. High cheek bones were faintly flushed and grey eyes glared daggers at the woman across the desk from her. She reminded Theo oddly of a cat with her small stature and slender limbs. The pretty girl suddenly turned away and with a straight back, rigidly walking towards the group of med students. Theo felt a moment of disappointment as she walked away but felt better once he registered that she would be a fellow student.

"Come on Sir, the tour is about to begin" Henry said and Theo realized that he had been staring at the dark haired girl.

"Theo will do, none of that Sir stuff," he said, blushing and looking away.

"You are very strange" Henry paused as if saying the next word was almost painful "Theo"

"I’m not sure how to take that"

"Do so in the best way" Henry said, the corners of his mouth quirking upwards.

"I will" Theo said, and with that he walked over to the lobby, a slow smile spreading across his face.

　

　

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I know this is short but if I continued it would end up as ten page chapter. I hoped you like it, the next chapter will be up soon. Please vote or comment I would love to hear what you think.