Inextricable: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Three) ©

Chapter 4

The drug took effect almost immediately. One moment I was writhing in pain, frantic and out of wits, the next, I was being lulled into an odd sense of calm. Whatever they'd given me was undeniably potent. And if that hadn't been enough, seconds later, they switched my IV line so that it was connected to a bag labeled MSIR.

Black spots clouded my vision momentarily, making the world swim, but almost as quickly as they'd appeared, they faded away. It was like a thick blanket of fog had been draped over the room, dulling out the sharp corners of reality, and blurring the light so that everything seemed hazy and dreamlike.

"I feel..." I paused. What I'd been about to say was that I felt confused, panicky, and completely unnerved by the whole situation. However, as I felt the drug spread through my body, warm and saccharine, I found that it wasn't true anymore. "I feel fantastic."

"That's morphine for you," I heard the doctor say as he quickly scrubbed his hands and then pulled on a pair of gloves. "Well, that and the serum."

"What serum?" I heard Danny ask; though the staff had forced him to stand back, he hadn't actually exited the room.

"Something they use in amity," the doctor replied distractedly. He turned to the blonde nurse. "Ms. Willows, prepare the suture materials, hemostats, and antibiotic solution."

The nurse nodded, and then disappeared momentarily. Faintly, I was aware that the doctor and his techs had cut open the front of my gown so they'd have better access to my chest. It was as I peeked down, curious about the hubbub, that I finally saw the source of all the blood.

A wide laceration that hadn't been fully healed had been ripped open, yawning and exposing a layer of inner muscle. Along with that, I also noticed that there were several tips of surgical thread peeking out of my skin. A couple of the stitches had held, but for the most part the rest had burst from the impact. Crimson smeared my chest, leaving streaks of gore wherever it touched, and vaguely I couldn't help but compare it to war paint.

"Woah," I said, chuckling softly. "Well shit, that doesn't seem good."

Somehow, I couldn't find it in me to get all worked up about it. While rationality seemed to whisper that I should be panicking, a louder inner-voice assured me that everything would be fine. Sure, I was bleeding out, yeah, I could literally see strands of tissue, and okay, the gash was quite a gristly sight, but all-in-all I just felt very meh about the whole thing.

"You'll be fine, Sage," the kind nurse said as she took a vial of medicated balm and began to liberally apply it to the wound; wherever the salve touched, the tissue immediately became numb. "We'll patch you right up."

As she said that, the doctor and his team immediately began to work on the wound, blotting at the blood as they took a small surgical needle and began to re-suture the gash closed. I felt no pain, only a strange tugging sensation whenever the doctor would tie a knot. As I stared up at the ceiling, I found myself completely enthralled in the halo of multi-colored spots that reflected from the lightbulbs' surface. It reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope.

"Cool," I murmured as I tried to reach a hand up towards the light. "Rainbow polka-dots."

"Don't move," a different nurse -one with a nose ring and a spider tattoo on her neck- snapped as she turned to me and firmly placed a hand on my shoulder to push me back onto the bed.

For an instant defiance flickered within me. Why was this chick manhandling me? I wasn't doing anything bad; all I wanted was to catch one of the pretty light-dots. They seemed so magical, swirling with color as their iridescent surface caught the light. Didn't she understand? I had to have one.