The Pride of Echelon 3

Immersed

The entire room lay silent, as the ambient noise of machines was the only thing to be heard bouncing off the walls. The fan above, moving rather slowly was casting a breeze light enough to be felt. The numbers on the monitor that displayed important vitals illuminated the room just enough to see where everything was at. And on the night stand lay a card reading "Get well soon!!" with several signatures written in it, some flowers, balloons, and a recently half eaten chocolate bar with other assortment of sweets and treats. From under the covers came out FNC, who couldn't lay still and fall asleep.

"Ugh... I can't sleep with all these lights going off!" Said FNC, with a pillow over her head. "Like, why do I even need to have these? I already know I'm doing really really really good now! I'm as fit as ever!" She said, pounding her chest like a gorilla.

"Ow!" Silently shrieked the girl, as she ached from reckless chest pounding.

"Oh man. Maybe... maybe I'm not so well." She said, throwing the pillow on her lap. "Guess I still have a long way to go.... I really hope I don't. I want to see my friends and get out of this place. This place is giving me the absolute creeps."

FNC turned her head towards her nightstand to see what time it was on the digital clock, it read 1:17 am. FNC groaned to herself as she slammed her head into the pillow in disbelief.

"I still have a full night ahead of me and my brain will not turn off so I can sleep! What am I going to do? I don't have my sleepy medicine to help me tonight, AK took it all." FNC said as she thought to herself on what she could do.

"Springfield always told me to count the specks on the ceiling till I get tired. But that never works, the dorm as at least 2,958 of those little specks. It took me forever to count those and I'm not going to do that again!"

She thought to herself some more.

"AK would just tell me to shut up and go to bed or she'll eat all my sweets in front of me. But jokes on her, I already would have eaten everything!" FNC said triumphant. "I'm always one step ahead of her!"

She giggled to herself, then resumed her thinking again..

"Uzi did tell me to do something that can help you fall asleep. She reads books and I know that always helps her! I think we have a few books here I can read!"

FNC slowly got out of her hospital bed and walked up to the book shelf that was adjacent from her. FNC was in her hospital gown that she was issued when she was placed under care of the hospital. Her hair lay a wild mess, her body riddle with scars and tape, and she had socks on her little feet with grips to prevent her from slipping. In front of her eyes were many books to choose from all with colorful covers and interesting titles.

"What do we have here? Let's see..."

FNC skimmed her finger over each spine of the book, reading the titles out loud.

"Interpersonal Communications, Anatomy & Physiology, The Anarchist Cook Book, Book of Markov, Weapons of World War II..... The Art of the Deal? What kind of books are these?" Scoffed FNC as she walked away from the book shelf. "I don't wanna learn! I wanna fall asleep!"

But then, an idea sparked from her.

"I know! Where's my bag?" Said FNC, as she raced to the couch where her belongings were. Her bag lay on the couch along with her uniform and had that she would always wear. Although while looking she couldn't find her weapon, she assumed the nurses took it for safe keeping but paid little to no attention to it as she continued to look for what she had suddenly remembered.

"Where is it? Where is it? Oh there it is!" She said, as she pulled out a small voice recorder. It was about the size of a TV remote and flashed when the buttons were pressed. Looking at its amber lighted display, it had full battery life and several audio logs already saved on it.