Soldiers // a halo story

Chapter 12 | Augmentations

"With the next day, comes new strength and new opportunities."

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Cleo groaned, slowly opening her eyes. Her body burned, she felt as if her blood was replaced with lead. Once she got her eyes completely opened, a bright light flashed into them. If she had her voice, Cleo would've spat out a curse word or two but she had nothing. Had they made her mute? Was it a side-effect? Panic filled her veins, her breathing sped up.

"Oh, that's no good...  we need her to stay calm," stated a doctor, but she didn't recognize the voice. "Inject her with...," the voice slipped away from her, Cleo felt submerged under water.

She kept looking around, but she couldn't focus on anything with the light in her eyes. Cleo rapidly blinked. Once she got some focus in her eyes, she saw her arm strapped down with a needle into it. Following the tube connected to the needle, she saw a liquid. More murmurs ran out through the room before a nurse reach over to administrate this liquid, talking about how Cleo "wouldn't stay calm." Without being able to speak, she just watched the liquid roll into her arm. Afterward, she felt more drowsy than before. Before Cleo could roll her eyes into the back of her head, the bright light was moved and she could see some of the hospital room she was in.

Green walls. Bleak. They stopped halfway down and were white the rest of the way down. She was stuck on a bed, surrounded by two doctors and a nurse. She couldn't make out any features yet, but the nurse was a female. She thought. One of the doctors was a female, too.

"... Ms. Chase?" A voice rang out, Cleo widened her eyes. "She's alert, but not verbally responding." Cleo thought she said something in response, but that could've been her imagination. She let out a shuddering breath, the pressure on her chest was beyond great. She just laid there, blinking and breathing as the doctors and nurses spoke amongst each other. Cleo watched closely, it was all she could do at the moment. She was no longer panicking, but now she felt pinned down to the hospital bed as if there was an invisible pressure laying against her chest and holding down her arms. "Ms. Chase, can you try to say something?" The nurse asked her.

Now, Cleo could make out more of her features. She had smooth, pink lips and freckles across her pale face. Her hair was red, tucked underneath a hat to prevent it from falling onto the patient, or in this case, Cleo. She had dark green eyes and a facemask in order to prevent the spread of illnesses.

Cleo opened her throat and immediately started to cough, but she couldn't move her arm to smother her cough. The doctors didn't shy away from this; instead, they waited for Cleo to stop coughing and attempt to talk. "H... h... ey... hey...," her voice was raw and scratchy, but she could formulate some words which were progress if any. "H... hey..."

The doctors hurried scribbled things down on a notepad and slowly moved to remove the needle in her arm. Cleo was still unable to move, so she watched the nurses do this with alert eyes. Due to the numbness of her body, she hardly felt the needle slide out of her arm. A prick of blood formed from where the needle was removed, but it quickly dried and the nurses wiped it away. "Should we move her?" asked a doctor as Cleo breathed shallowly, imagining the words in her mind before she tried to speak them. She moved her lips in the formation of the words and remembered what Liam made her say when she had a bad concussion: "My name is Cleo Chase and I am a sniper."

Her breath was caught in her throat, however, when the doctors sat her up suddenly. Her mind was spinning all over the place and her body was ten times heavier. "I... am...," she started but was unable to finish.

The nurse watched her closely. "Are you going to be sick?" She asked. Cleo shook her head vehemently. "Good. Because if you did, we'd have to change your clothes again."