Cold Dawn

Chapter 10

A/N - Please be aware this chapter deals with difficult scenes

“Your name’s Cate, Cate Crane.” The doctor leaned back in the chair eyeing the girl and waited for a reaction.

The girl now named Cate sat back as she felt the name ring deep within her. She said the name trying to connect with it. “Cate Crane,” she whispered.

She waited for another onslaught of memories with the name but none came, and she was not sure whether she felt relief or disappointment.

The doctor scribbled away in her notebook again before she leaned forward, “Cate, you’ve suffered a serious psychosis episode. It was your Grandfather who alerted the police to your whereabouts.”

“My grandfather? So he was telling the truth?” She felt sickened, by fear and by her reaction. If there were no real zombies, who was Ben? In fact, she had not seen him since the day they left the Cabin.

“Have you found Ben?”

“Who’s Ben?”

“He helped me, when -“  a thought occurred to her. If this doctor was telling her the truth and there were no zombies then how could a man like Ben believe in them, unless she had imagined him too? She refused that idea; he had seemed so solid and warm. Her protector. No, she refused to believe he was a figment of her imagination.

“Who’s Ben, Cate, and when did he help you?” her tone held more than a polite question. Cate caught the meaning. She shook her head and snuggled further down into the blankets.

“I don’t want to talk anymore, my head hurts.”

The doctor sighed heavily, put away her notebook and pen. As she stood up to leave, she spoke, “We’ll discuss this again in the morning Cate. We have a lot to talk about. The nurse will be along soon with your meds. Make sure you take them.” The doctor left Cate alone.

Cate began to go over in her mind the events since she could last remember. The blood that did not belong to her, the zombies chasing her. The time spent on the run and hiding – Ben. The thought that he wasn’t real hurt her deeply.

It was difficult to grasp that she had imagined it all. She knew very well by what the doctor meant by psychosis. But why? How? The questions clambered in her mind each wanting to be answered until her head began to ache.

A gentle cough pierced through the pain in her head as she turned to look in the direction of the sound. A guy in green scrubs held a small vial out, Cate tried to sit up but found the movement difficult with her arms strapped down.

Seeing her distress, the man approached, by the uniform and how young he appeared she guessed he was a nurse. “What’s that?” She asked indicating what he held.

“These are what Dr Morgan has prescribed.”  As he came closer, she saw the vial held three pills, two white and one yellow.

He seemed slightly nervous, as she watched him hesitate. Trying not to get too close.

“Well?” She wanted something, anything to take away the pounding in her head. The nurse realising she was strapped down picked up the glass of water the previous nurse had  left, after depositing the pills in her open mouth he held the straw for her to reach. He kept his hand away from her mouth and not once looked her in the eyes. He face remained calm, but his eyes held the nervous tension he obviously felt.

She accepted the water, swallowing the pills down she waited for them to take effect. She turned her head away from the nervous looking nurse.

On an empty stomach, the medication was quick to take effect. The pain in her head subsided considerably to a dull ache. Her mind however seemed to be a separate part of her body. It was a surreal feeling; it was almost as if she was a separate entity than the person that led on the bed restrained.

The walls were covered in deep red splatters. She stood panting gazing at what she had finally accomplished. She felt a grim satisfaction at the grisly demise of the man that called himself her father and the woman who turned the other cheek-her mother.

Years of being left alone in his hands had twisted something inside of her, years of being abused; her childhood brutally ripped away. Her mother once caught her father in her bedroomed, doing something unspeakable and yet she quietly turned around and gently closed the door behind her. Her father so engrossed in his own pleasure, did not hear her mother enter or leave.

In Cate’s heart, she thought that her mother would be her protector if she found out. She believed her mother would cast out her father, if only she had the courage to speak. That one night shattered that little bit of hope, she had. It was then the darkness twisted her soul as she plotted her revenge.

As she stood there with knife in hand looking down on what remained of the people who called themselves parents she laughed. The freedom and relief was overwhelming, until the horrible truth hit her like a tidal wave. They were dead she had killed them. She began to scream at the horror she had committed until her mind shut down and her body went on autopilot.