Divided We Stand, United We Fall

Chapter 21

As they were walking towards the house, they decided to have a break. They looked in the basket and smiled. Mr B. had packed them. There were a different assortment of muffins. There were blackcurrant, strawberry, lemon and poppyseed, apple, banana, raspberry, blueberry, watermelon, guava, honey and chocolate. Each one of them had little decorations on them, symbolising what flavour they were.

After they had eaten about two each they heard a low grumbling noise. Above them was a large metal object, a fighter jet. A tree combusted into flame.

Since they had never seen this, they fled in panic. Their eyes stung, they were sweating and on the verge of tears when they approached the house. Noah knocked on the large, wooden door they could hear the crackling of burning wood behind them.

A man in his mid-twenties opened the door. He didn't look very happy.

"What are you doing on my porch, cretins?" He asked, crossly.

"Could we take refuge at your house there's something going on outside." Lauren panted.

"You fools! You set my wood on fire. I want compensation. And no, my house is mine, no one is aloud in, especially stupid idiots like yourselves. What's that?" He asked, pointing at the basket full of cakes.

"Oh these? These are cakes, we'll share them with you if you want." They offered him the basket.

"Share? Don't make me laugh! I want them, they are now mine." He said, grabbing the basket and slamming the door.

"I can't believe how uncharitable that man was." Lauren sighed.

"He stole our food. We should keep on roaming otherwise that," he pointed to the forest fire that was then growing larger, "Will get to us."

"Okay." Lauren replied, giving him a weak smile. They began to walk away from the house and the fire slowly consuming the forest.

It was a long while before they found the next house.

It was ginormous with a few windows and a large door. Noah instantly realised that the garden was very unkept. He cringed whilst he looked at the disarray. The door was now in front of them. Noah knocked on the door five times. The door wasn't answered.

The door creaked open.

"Hello?" Lauren called. There still wasn't an answer. She began to feel a little afraid. The entrance hall was dusty, as if no one had set foot in the place for a decade. It was eerily quiet.

She could faintly hear beeping in the background.

"Maybe we should go upstairs, the sun is golden and I'm getting tired." Noah explained. Lauren hummed in response before climbing the stairs.

They entered a room full of 'sleeping' people wired up to machines. There were all, in reality, in a coma. Comas they were probably not going to wake up from. Their faces were pale and were breathing heavily. The room reminded Noah of the hospital he had to go to see the bastardised doctors. They were like him, from an anonymous donor and a mother who they had never seen in their sinful lives. He sighed and rubbed his arms. He looked at the floor.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, it just reminds me of the hospitals back in that place." He spat out the word 'that'.

"Me too." Lauren replied. She shuddered at the memory if the too-white walls and her almost becoming pregnant. Both of them hated that facility.

"Am I interrupting something here, lady and gentleman?"A gruff voice asked from behind them. Noah placed his palm on his heart in sheer surprise. Lauren was silent. Slowly and in sync, they turned around.

A man in his mid-sixties was leaning against the door in an almost bored way. Lauren and Noah had never seen a person so old. Usually, they only lived up to forty. The man had a white lab coat on and thin white hair with many wrinkles and glasses. He looked a little like one of the doctors from the couples' first living. Lauren backed away from him a bit.

"Wha-Who are-how?" Lauren tried, she sounded like a baby because everything she said was jumbled up.

"Hmm...let me introduce myself. I am Doctor Belphegor, a doctor who deals with all kinds of problems, especially psychological." This time it was Noah who took a step back.

"Are these your p-patients?" Noah asked, stuttering slightly.

"Yes, I've put them on a kind of super-morphine which causes unconsciousness. It is actually quite effective, all your tragedies seem far away as you fall soundly into slumber."

"For how long will they be asleep?"

"About a month. Then they will plead me for another dose. I sometimes take it myself. I find myself procrastinating and being a sloth all the time, so why not? I haven't been bothered lately, I can't even open the door." Oh, so that's why when they knocked there was no reply.

"Okay..." Lauren replied. What he was telling her was a bit random.

"Before you waste the energy in asking, you can stay here for the night, I'll give you some morphine if you'd like."

"We're good thanks." Noah smiled, falsely. He knew what morphine was and he was less than interested. It made him feel sick and feel like he was falling from a great height and hitting the ground, hard.

"Fine, there are some beds free here. I will go back to sleep now, I've wasted too much energy speaking to you." He sulked, leaving the room.

Noah and Lauren walked down the aisle of hospital beds until they came to a few right at the bottom that did not have people sleeping in them.

_____

Ugh I'm so tired! Watching Italy against England was so tiring.

Hoot!

Toot!