The Mercury Wars: The Clearing

Chapter 14 - Trial

In a large, dark room, with windows formed of broken glass, the moon can easily shine in and place a silver filter on the world around him. The bed is familiar, with the same mattress, frame and harsh blanket. But it's not his own. The white painted walls with cracks splattered around and marks littered across them randomly are a stark contrast to the metal frames of the hut. The tiled floor hasn't been washed in a long time, reflecting the moonbeams as it appears cold and lifeless.

The blinds that once hung neatly before the windows are now falling. Some at angles, some holding on by barely a thread. It's quiet, eerily so and it's cold. Not just in temperature but in feeling. There's no emotion here in the empty hospital room.

Boxes ransacked across the floor, with medical equipment left behind after someone had been searching for a specific thing within the storage. The monitors that sit to the left of the bed are void of any life and the ventilator against the closest wall just stands there with no purpose now.

Connor gets out of the bed, the cold tiles causing him to suck in a breath when his bare feet make contact with them. He steps forward and feels a shard of broken glass pierce into the sole of his right foot. He has no time to stop though as he needs to understand where he is. He had heard there was a hospital past the mountains, it was where they had found him originally. But he had never been here and he had no idea how to get back to the clearing.

Pushing through the double doors, he enters the corridor. A similar view to the abandoned room he had just departed, but with lights hanging loosely from the ceiling. He has to push a few of them out the way to make it down the hallway, wincing with every step he takes on his now-injured foot.

There's a set of doors at the end of the corridor that seems brighter through the small windows within them. He. Creeps forward and pushes through them, discovering an operating theatre. A bed in the centre with covers left unmade as if the occupiers of the room had rushed out without tidying up first. The trolleys are scattered around, some upturned and some with boxes that had been raided.

He spots a scalpel left on one and takes it out of instinct. He is alone in this place without Eindride or the Systirs to protect himself.

Backing out of the room he begins to explore the floor he is on, trying to find a way out.

He finds a pair of worn-out shoes in one room and a jacket in what appears to be a waiting room. The shadows cast across every location as he searches for an exit. Trudging down a flight of stairs he hears a noise of a trolley falling behind him in the distance.

Instantly freezing, he realises he isn't as alone as he first thought and he turns to hold out the scalpel in front of himself. Spotting a set of stairs, he decides to head up, looking for the rooftop so he can survey his location and surroundings.

Climbing to the top floor, he steps forward towards a new set of double doors that hold bloodstains on the jagged glass that lay broken in them. As he pushes through them the loud scrape of a lone shard beneath them has now alerted whatever is in the hospital with him to his location.

"Fuck," he whispers under his breath as he tries to pick up the pace and find a way onto the roof. 

A set of footsteps begins to ascend the stairwell behind him and he panics down the corridor, searching every room for a way onto the roof. One door remains locked with a broken fire exit sign above it. Reasoning this is his only way up he steps back and kicks it with his foot, trying to break it open.

The steps on the stairs behind him pick up pace as he does so himself in how he tries to break open his chance of escape. The noise of his kicks echoes through the abandoned medical centre.