Upheaving Crooked Orchards

Part Five

  Michael hadn't been brought into one of his sessions with Kavell in a few days. He was aware some nurses were fired for their illegal practices on the patients, or some would quit because of the eerie life on the ward. However, he did see the doctor walk around a few times, so he knew he was still in the building. Michael was standing and staring out of the window, but turned his head when he heard one of the nurses ragging on a patient. He was yelling for quite a while, constantly threatening to kill the patient's brain like the others. Michael couldn't hear the word the doctors used for it, but was aware of what he meant. The doctor left and headed down the hallway. Another inmate came to the lounge, his feet were dragging on the reflective floor. He huddled himself in a corner, hugged his knees and rocked back and forth. He was muttering something and crying, and Michael noticed blood coming from the stranger's eyes. He assumed perhaps this patient underwent the same electric session as he'd been through. He still kept to himself and stared out the window. It looked like a nice day outside, the trees were orange and gold, the sun was high in the sky and there were no clouds out at the moment. 

  There was a loud clatter in the hall that interrupted Michael's thoughts, and after a moment, Lenard's wheelchair came strolling to the entryway of the lounge, followed by the voice of the doctor from before.

  "You damned animals, all of you!" His gruff voice exclaimed, "I told you to move that piece of shit, do you want me to send you to the third room again? They'll fix your legs for you so we don't have to worry about this again." 

  The patients gathered around and stared as Lenard was on the floor, Michael could only guess that he was dragged off his chair.

  "Calm down, doc, Lenard don't mean nothin'." Williams' soothing tone came from amidst the crowd. 

  "Well why don't you come over here and help him up since he doesn't bother you?" The doctor snapped.

  He walked over and shoved the wheelchair to the other patients.

  "Go on."

  The doctor turned around and left. Williams grabbed the wheelchair's handles and approached Lenard to help him back in his seat. As Williams was taking the patient back to the lounge, he bumped into Michael.

  "Aw I'm sorry, sir." Lenard said, his voice still loud and pronouncing every vowel.

He bobbed around in his wheelchair and once Williams left to be with the others, Lenard turned to Michael. 

  "Sir, could you do me a favor?" Lenard rubbed his eyes.

  Michael didn't look in his direction. He was in a new location from the window but was still looking outside.

  "That doctor knocked my glasses off, they're in the floor over there," He pointed, extending his arm as long as possible, "could you pick them up for me?" 

  The tall young man turned and walked down the hall to pick up the glasses. He wasn't sure why, but he was usually only okay with following instructions and nothing more. He came back and returned them to their owner. As he placed them in Lenard's lap, his hands clenched and his body went stiff again. He propped himself against the wall as he hurled over trying to soothe his muscles. 

  Lenard wheeled himself towards Michael, "Are you okay?"

  He watched as the young man began to tremble.

  "Do you need a chair?" Lenard looked around the room for anywhere he could sit.

  Michael let out a low grunt as the last bit of tension left his body and he was able to relax. 

  The doors from down the long hallway opened and a doctor stood in the middle of them.

  "Myers." He said.

  The doctor walked up to Michael, who was still looking at the windows.

  "Myers, you need to come with me." He touched the patient's shoulder.

  Michael walked with the doctor--they didn't go down the usual path to the electric room, they went another direction. The electric room's hallway was to the left from the lounge, this path was straight ahead from the lounge. It was a lot darker, stained with rust and age, holding the dark secrets of Smith's Grove and their deranged testing. There were some patients that resided in this area, most of which where the people with the dark rings around their eyes. They hummed quietly, stood like logs and didn't do much to move. Others seemed scared of where they were.

  "Doctor Kavell has deemed you unfit for treatment. He says you're too far gone. You've been unresponsive to all of the treatment options he's given you." The doctor spoke.

  They passed a nurse and the doctor grabbed her attention, "Myers is scheduled for a lobotomy, get the room ready for him."

  She turned around and went back the way she came. Michael looked at the vegetated patients--that word meant the dark eye bruises, it had to be.

  "Don't panic, Myers, it's okay. When patients are too sick, we help them. They don't feel anything anymore. Patients like you are complicated to take care of, this helps us to not cause any damage to your already broken minds."

  Michael didn't hear much of what the doctor was talking about. The damp ward was full of catatonic patients--some didn't have the dark rings and were simply drugged out of their minds. Some rocked back and forth, crying for their mothers and fathers to hold them, while others scratched at the walls to try and leave.

The doctor patted Michael's back, "You won't feel a thing."

 The nurse returned and beckoned them to follow her to the room she prepared.  Michael slowed his walking, trying to buy himself as much time as he could. If the electrocution was as bad as it was, how bad would this procedure be? The ward in this area had a dull orange lighting, causing any form of shadow on the wall to be an intense black. He thought his quarters were miserable looking, this place looked straight up horrifying. The door to the room looked old and worn down, inside didn't look any better. She prompted him to sit on an operating table, and as he did, the other doctor left.

  "Lay down." She instructed. 

  Michael did as he was told--she came over to the table and put his hands through leather cuffs that were bolted to the sides of the metal surface. 

  "This will only hurt for a moment, I'll be fast for your sake."