Junebug • TWD

62. Scrubs.

I know, I know. I keep saying this over and over and over again, but I want my mom and dad. I want them so badly. It feels like my heart is shrinking every single day that I'm without them, and it's only been a few. I can't even explain it. Not properly, anyway. I'm not smart enough to know the truth about how this all works, why my brain acts this way, or why my heart hasn't stopped racing yet. All I know is that my parents could fix it, but only if they could find me. The thing is, I don't know if they're going to.

Ruby and Noah—they're nice enough, but nice enough doesn't make up for anything. I'm stuck here. I really, truly am. That's all they've told me. There's no way I'm getting out. No way my dad is finding me in here. No way I'll ever see my mom again.

This place is a hospital. Almost the same as it was before the end of the world. They have patients. They go out and find them, according to Ruby, whether or not those patients even want to be found. And then they take them back here and they make them work. There's no currency anymore. Back before things changed, I think if I went to the hospital, my dad would have to fill out all sorts of insurance stuff and pay the rest out of pocket, with money. Not anymore. Money is worthless, now. So patients, like me, work off their debt. They work off their debt forever and ever and ever, seems like to me. I'll be working off my debt forever and ever and ever.

Right now, though, I'm just waiting. Sitting on the edge of the hospital bed that I never asked for in the room I never asked for, trying to itch my arm beneath the cast I never asked for. Ruby and Noah left to go get someone. I think it's whoever is In Charge around here.

Part of me—the little fragments still left of pure, honest hope inside of me—is still thinking I might have a chance here. It's still thinking that, maybe, I really can work off my debt after a while, and that once I'm free, I'll be able to search for my mom and dad, and everything will be okay again. The other part of me, though, that sees things for how they are knows that that only has a one-in-a-million chance of being true. Or something like that. I've never been good at math.

When the door to my room clicks open, I hesitate to look at whoever it is that's opened it.

It could be a tall, powerful, and scary man who will make me do whatever he so pleases, or it could be a vicious woman with a poisonous smile who could get away with murder, even before the end of the world. Maybe it's a real monster with sharp, nasty teeth and three eyes.

But when I look, all I see is a woman. A normal-looking one. She has dark brown hair, which is pulled up into a neat bun. She's wearing a cop's uniform, too, which makes me a little nervous. Cops are supposed to be good guys, I think, but they're the ones that took me from my dad all those years ago. And Uncle Merle always hated them. Then again, Merle was never too great of an example. He hated cops and cops hated him, too. Shane was a cop. Rick's a cop. Or a sheriff's deputy or whatever Carl used to say. I guess this lady's being a cop shouldn't be the sole thing I judge her on. Especially now that that uniform doesn't really mean anything.

Behind her, there's a man. He's dressed as a doctor, with a buttoned-to-the-top dress shirt and a white coat that goes all the way down to his knees. The coat is buttoned all the way up, too, and he's got a stethoscope around his neck. He has glasses, which makes him seem smart, and a clipboard, too, though I can't imagine what he's got to be writing down about me.

I hold my breath, unsure of what to say or do. Dad would know what to do. Not me.

"This is Dr. Steven Edwards, and I'm Officer Dawn Ler—" the woman begins.

But before I can even think about anything at all, I end up interrupting. "Officer?" I blurt. My mouth snaps shut and I bite down on the inside of my lip. I probably look something like a guilty puppy, but I don't mean to.