Inhuman (OLD VERSION; UNFINISHED - SEE NEW BOOK)

Chapter 11 - Beth

The trip to the hospital was short since it was located within the same district of the city. It was one of the only buildings that existed since the beginning, designed to be top of the range and provide care to the sick. It had been the first hope for humanity that a cure would emerge within its walls. When decades passed and the number of medical professionals surpassed the hospitals capacity for study, the labs were built.

The car passes by the main entrance and instead turns into a side access cordoned off by a large gate. Neither of the agents make to move as the car idles in front of it and I wonder if this was where I'm meant to get out. Almost in answer to my thoughts, the gate begins to slide open at an agonisingly slow pace. Looking out the window as the car passes through I see the cameras pointed down at us, the red light glaring and the car reflected back in its lens.

I'd calmed considerably since leaving the lab, my suspicions rising and falling only with my uncertainty. I'd managed to erase the information from the computers in the lab, of that I was sure. That meant the only copies of what I had found were in my possession, the government's, and Neo Gen.

I knew for a fact Neo Gen had in their possession some of the information to say the very least. They were our biggest threat, the ones who claimed responsibility for the deaths and the attacks within the city as well as the attacks against our sister cities. When the virus had claimed most of the world, Lysnar City rose from the ashes as the stronghold for humanity. When our numbers grew too great, Stellar City was built and soon after, Freemark City. Each had within it the laboratories that sought to find the cure, something Neo Gen didn't care for.

Even though there were those who claimed to have created the virus when it was released, a new belief emerged from the devastation. They believed the virus was a curse from a higher power, that humanity had betrayed its fundamental values and that to die young was our punishment. They opposed the idea of a man made cure and despised the cities that had been built to find it. It was Neo Gen who killed our scientists, burned our crops and destroyed buildings. It was because of them Malcolm was dead. Anything the government tried to create,  Neo Gen sought to destroy.

The government had to have the information as well considering they were now offering me their protection. The extent of their knowledge however had to be as limited as Neo Gen since I hadn't entered the entirety of the test into the database, the most important piece of all being that it was my blood and not the donors that had brought all this about. Until I knew the full extent of their protection, I wasn't willing to give that information away lightly.

The car stopped midway down the side of the hospital alongside an emergency exit. Pulling up the handbrake, the female agent turns and looks me, her name still absent from my knowledge despite being in each others company for the better part of half an hour.

"You can leave your bag here" she says eyeing the straps wound protectively around my wrist "you'll get it when you come back". She finishes the sentence as a demand, not a request. I feel nauseous at the thought of leaving the bag behind considering the weight it carried, but these were the people meant to protect me. If I couldn't trust them, who could I trust?

The second agent slides out the door and opens mine. I release the straps of the bag and kick it under the seat as though I could somehow hide it from view. He doesn't wait and is already at the hospital door waiting with it open by the time I emerge from the car. When I near he pushes ahead and into the hall, absent of any chivalry. Following him, the door slams behind me echoing down the hall, my eyes adjusting to the neon lighting and white walls. It was so much like the lab. It occurred to me that this was probably one of the original facilities that the virus was studied in.

Our footsteps ricochet off the walls making it sound like an entire group were in the hall. Instead it was empty apart from the two of us, though for the lack of words I may have well of been alone. Faded signs still lingered on doors and signs on the wall pointed to directions of facilities. Despite most of the lettering having peeled away, I could still read a few lines indicating research rooms and bathrooms ahead.  

Several metres ahead the agent holds open a swinging door, his impatience plain upon his face. Neon lights flicker as I head towards him casting shadows that dance across the walls. The agent clears his throat and I snap back to attention and enter the side room. No lights were on, the room instead illuminated by the glow filtering in through the glass frames in the set of double doors opposite. Light flashes off steely tables that haphazardly sit across the room. It feels cold, like a room deliberately designed to be chilled, the darkness swallowing any heat it may have held.

Approaching the second set of doors, the tables glint silver and I look down to see they're not just tables, they're gurneys, for bodies. As if following my thoughts, the chill of the room seems to intensify. It was a morgue. Involuntarily I shudder. I know that is where the dead were when they were brought to the hospital, that this was where the victims of the virus came, where thousands of bodies were brought over years of suffering. 

A million images creep into my mind and the walls begin to close. I feel my lungs still, suddenly heavy and constricted. I needed out, the panic clenching around my throat like a strangling hand. The outline of two people barely visible through the glass in the doors draws me to the other side of the room. Almost launching myself forward, I barrel through them with such force they swing completely open and hit the walls they hinge from.

The shock of the bang makes me jump and I see the same reaction mimicked by one of the two women sitting opposite me. The woman who jumped in her seat meets my eye and I instantly recognise her face. Looking at her now I see she is still just a girl, her skin was still warm and tanned from being in the sun, a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks beneath her emerald green eyes. Her dark hair was plaited back today, her clothes casual like the ones she wore on the day I drew the sample of blood from her. She smiles as she recognises me, and I smile back.

My eyes drift away from her face to the woman sitting next to her and I feel my heart lurch. The nervousness I had managed to suppress rears its ugly head and I try to swallow the lump that has reformed in my throat. She stands from her chair and covers the distance between us in a few quick strides, her eyes sharp as they look me over. A smile grows on her face as I stare at her both dumbstruck and in awe. She extends a hand and without realising it I reach for it too.

"You must be Miss Elisabeth Morgan, it is such an honour to meet you" she says, her smile broadening to a contained and practised grin. I swallow nervously aware of how dry my throat had become in just a few short seconds.

"The honour is mine" I say shaking her hand "Mayor Rainor".