To Be A Killer

Chapter 70: Comfortably Numb

"Don't look so sad, Five! It's your big day!" Archie exclaims, and I blink as she rocks back and forth on her heels. "Well, maybe not so huge, but not small either. It's your medium sized day today! Here. I've got your running shoes ready. Just put these on."

I slowly step out of my bed, although it's not my bed. I don't know where I am, actually. I mean, this can't be real. Archie is dead. I remember. Me and Jaime had to retrieve her body. I remember her funeral.

This can't be real.

"Well, um, you might want to get dressed first. I don't mind. I'm... happy to see your pretty matching underwear, but perhaps Dr. V might not like it so much. You know how stuffy he can be."

I blink, and it's only then I realize I'm in nothing but my panties and bra.

I squeak in embarrassment, or at least, I try to. No sound leaves my mouth, but I'm quick to grab the blanket on my bed and cover myself while Archie laughs.

"Here." She grabs a pair of tracksuit pant from the small, white dresser, as well as an orange T-shirt in my size and a jacket. I slip them on, still confused but at least no longer embarrassed by my indecency. Archie grins at me and claps her hands together.

"Good! You look very smart in your running gear, and it's in our favorite orange! We match, see?" She gestures to her own shirt and jacket. "I like that all us patients have the same uniform. It makes me feel like we belong."

Patients? Of what? I don't feel sick. I mean, I can't get sick, not after those experiments I was put through.

I try to speak, to ask what's going on, but I can't. No sound comes out. Archie  simply sighs.

"Use your hands, Patient Five. You say you got your voice back, but that was only in your mind. Now, you brushed your teeth last night, and usually we're supposed to remind each other to brush our teeth in the morning too, but I think we can skip that for today since I know you can't wait for the big reveal."

'Where am I? Why can't I speak?' I sign.

"It's okay, Five. You're here in Abel."

'This isn't Abel Township.'

"No, it's Abel Ward, the real Abel-not that silly place you made up in your head."

Made up in my...? No, that can't be. Abel Township is a real place. I didn't make it up. I couldn't have.

"And you can't speak because of what you did to yourself... but Dr. V says we shouldn't talk about that. And I think you'll feel better once you've taken your medication. It would be very silly of you to forget. And it would be very bad if you had an incident like you did after the crash... but the doctors said we weren't allowed to talk about that either. Just take your pills, and then we can go out for your big treat!"

I hesitate when she offers me the two gray oblong pills from the prescription bottle on the nightstand near... 'my' bed. But then I realize there's no way I'm going get answers if I don't get out of this room. So I take the pills and the glass of water she gets for me, and I swallow them without a second thought.

"Come on. This way," Archie says as she leads me down long, calm hallways, where I see nurses pushing along carts of medicine. I've never seen so many pill bottles in my life.

What is this place? How'd they manage to get this much medicine in an apocalypse?

I see multiple rooms, each with a name or two on the door. How do we have so many people here and yet seemingly have no worries about an outbreak?

"Are you excited?" The raven haired woman asks, and I tip my head to the side. I open my mouth to speak, but then my eyes travel down to my hands.

'Excited for what?'