Patient Zero

Chapter 5

Samuel's eyes flew open. He tried to jolt upward, but was restrained by straps on his chest, hands and legs. He looked around frantically, he was back in the hospital, hooked up to a bunch of machines, and an I.V. He looked around, light gray floor tiles, dark gray walls. Cheery. He thought to himself. He wondered, why was he back here? How long had he been unconscious? He struggled to free himself but he couldn't, he considered un strapping himself with his mind, but then he saw the locked vault door. He concentrated on his hand straps, it didn't work, what was wrong with his powers? They weren't working!

His thoughts were interrupted by the door being unlocked. He looked around startled. He realized there were no windows like there usually are. In fact, there was nothing in this room at all except him and his hospital bed. The door. The door was a big metal thing it looked like a vault door that you might see in a bank, the doors at the hospital usually aren't metal like that... are they? The person on the other side of the door unlocked it and pushed it open. The light on the other side of the door was so bright, he could barely see. A figure slowly walked out, Samuel could only make out the out line of the mystery person. It had a scrawny build, and was fairly patieet. Female perhaps?

Then it spoke, "Hello, Samuel Loft." Okay, defiantly a male, his voice wasn't exactly macho, but it wasn't feminine either.

"Wha-what do you want, who are you?" Samuel stuttered.

"Who am I?" The voice asked chuckling. "That is none of your concern. I suggest if you don't want to get hurt, or worse, stay out of my way."

Samuel decided to distract him, maybe give people some time to realize that... this thing... is here and maybe some reinforcements would come, because Samuel was completely useless. He was strapped down. He might be able to control something with his mind, if his powers were working, but they weren't, and besides, there was nothing in the room to control. Absolutely nothing.

"Well," Samuel said, "If you don't tell me what to call you, I'll just make up a name for you." Samuel shrugged (well, shrugged best he could with his restraints that is).

"No, I'm not going to tell you my name." The voice said annoyed.

"Why not? You chicken? Maybe that's your name and your just to ashamed of it. Chicken. I like the sound of that." Samuel said glancing around trying to come up with a plan.

"No, my name is not chicken." The voice said, getting angrier by the second.

"Well," Samuel said, "maybe it's chicken lady? Because you're silhouette is very feminine." That's it, he'd done it now. This is it he thought to himself, I'm about to be killed by a chicken lady-man. On his grave stone it'll read:
Here lies Samuel Loft.
He was killed by a wimpy chicken lady-man thing, because he didn't know how to hold his tongue.

But, to his surprise, it didn't get mad. It only laughed, the creepiest laugh Samuel had ever heard. Then spoke one last time, "If we ever meet again Samuel Loft, I will be the last thing you ever see. Mark my words." The figured was eaten by the cloud of smoke it had arrived in, and the door closed behind it.

Suddenly he felt something grab him and he screamed in the hospital bed and tried franticly to escape the restraints but he couldn't. A voice gradually got louder, until it was loud enough for him to understand. His eyes flew open yet again. He was lying on the ground back at the fort. With his head propped up on a young girls lap. It was her voice that brought him back to consciousness.

Samuel was breathing heavily. He looked around, the sun was bright. People were crowded around him. Among them were agent Langley and Dr. Gothke. Agent Langley was on her knees holding an ice pack on the side of his head, where it throbbed. It must have been the spot on his head where he hit the floor when he collapsed.

"The chicken lady-man. He was there. He-he-"

Agent Langley cut him off, she looked at the girl holding Samuels head, "He's delirious."

"My guess would be from the head trauma. He hit it hard when he fell, I saw the whole thing." The girl said.

"It was real, he was there. I was- I was back in the hospital. Trapped!" He started to panic again.

"Shhh..." The girl said soothingly, "It was only a dream." She flashed a flash light in his eyes. She looked up at agent Langley, "His eyes are dilating. No concussion. But his head is bleeding really badly." She looked around then crushed something into a small glass of water, "Drink this." She helped to prop him up. "Can someone get me some bandages? He's loosing a lot of blood from his head!"

He drank it all then laid back down for a while, he could feel himself slipping back into unconsciousness. He managed to mutter a few words, "It wasn't just a dream. It was a warning."

The last thing Samuel saw was the girl and agent Langley exchange nervous glances, before he slipped away into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~

~S.S.