The New Horizon ~ A Maze Runner Story

- 12 -

The nurse, as Captain Orders had promised, arrived only seconds after the guards left. She was a short, small-boned lady. Dark red hair, like the color of copper, pinned tightly into a small bun. "Hello! Good afternoon," she chirped enthusiastically, which didn't seem to match the bleak, empty room. "I am Nurse O'Brien. You guys will be escorted to AFA's hospital, so you can gain back all those vitamins and minerals you've been deprived of. Then you'll be given a new change of clothes and a chance to shower. I think you'll enjoy that."

Minho leaned into Thomas's ear, eyes trained on the nurse. "Think we can trust her?"
Thomas knew they had no choice. "Don't you think so? Looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Let's hope so," Minho shifted in his seat, "I don't think I can take one more shuck-face liar."
Nurse O'Brien cut off any further whispered conversation, clapping her hands together. "It's time to start your new life--now, follow me."

A new life. Thomas sucked in a breath, unsure of what that entailed. 

Nurse O'Brien led Thomas and his friends out of the drab dormitory and into, what she called, AFA's main building. Stark white walls encompassed the first floor, which Thomas figured out was the lobby. A swarm of scientists and doctors and nurses congregated in the lobby, filling the vast room with incoherent conversations. Clacking heels resonating from the marble flooring. Everything was organized. Everything was pressed and polished; Thomas was overwhelmed from the appearance of AFA alone. A few doctors smiled politely at him and his friends as they walked by, and Thomas seriously wondered what doctor was responsible for knowing his name.

Nurse O'Brien steered them through the large hive of authorities, and into a wide bank of elevators. His thoughts churned during the brief lift, blocking out O'Brien as she explained the ins and outs of AFA.
"Alrighty, we're here," she announced in unison with the alarm that dinged, alerting them of their arrival on the fifth floor--the hospital floor. 
"There are four hospital levels." O'Brien said, leading the group out of the elevator, to a wide panel in the hospital lobby. Thomas perused the inscribed words.

< Hospital Floors according to ages >

Floor 4 - Children from 5 to 15 [anyone younger than 5 is not permitted for implants.]

Floor 5 - Young Adults from 16 to 25

Floor 6 - Adults from 26 to 59

Floor 7 - Seniors from 60 to 75 [anyone older than 75 is not permitted for implants.]

"You really think this place is safe?" Minho leaned into Thomas's ear again, whispering over the nurse's voice. Thomas nodded. It was all he could do. It was all he could hope.
Minho's posture suddenly relaxed; he let his shoulders drop, his arms hang. A look of ruefulness washed over his face. "Sorry, dude. It's just hard to trust anything--anyone these days. After all the clunk we've been through."
Deep down inside, Thomas felt the same. It was relieving to know he wasn't the only one.
"Come on, boys," Nurse O'Brien said, waving a hand pointedly. "We need to do this as quickly as we can."
Thomas nodded, sucking air into his lungs as he followed behind Minho, in through the hospital doors.

The hospital itself was just as immaculate as the lobby. To Thomas's avail, there were no WICKED death beds in sight. He breathed a sigh of relief, yet he still refused to let his guard down.
Everyone stood in the center of the vast hospital floor. Three nurses joined O'Brien; on her left was an elderly woman with thinning white hair pulled into a tight, balding bun. "This is Nurse Fields. She will be assigned to Brenda."
Thomas watched as the frail woman took off with Brenda, immediately escorting her to a curtained bed. Nurse O'Brien continued on. "And this is Nurse Oakley and Nurse Adams. Oakley, you will be assigned to Aris, and Adams to Minho--" she pointed to both boys-- "and Thomas, you'll be with me." 

Something like an icy anxiety stiffened Thomas's body as he laid, body tensed, on the hospital bed. The turquoise curtains encircling the bed frightened him more for some reason. Like he was being held hostage, closed off from sight.
"Why do you need to take so much of it?" Thomas asked, grimacing at the sickening sight of the thick, tubular needle digging into his flesh. Watching as his dark crimson blood traveled through the translucent tube. He forced himself to stare straight ahead at the curtains. At least that was a prettier sight.

"To make sure your hemoglobin levels are normal, assess your general state of health, see if you have any infections we need to worry about, count your white blood cells, check on those kidneys working in there--" Nurse O'Brien pointed at his abdomen-- "all the other organs. Your heart, most importantly."
Thomas sighed. "All the works?" Ten vaccines, two IV's, and now this, he thought. Drowsiness was working its way into his bloodstream.
"All the works, indeed."

Between the blood extraction and Thomas's musing, there was just one inquisitive thought that stuck out farther than the rest. And he was still itching to know the answer. "Who's the main doctor here?"
There was a spark of recognition in Nurse O'Brien's eyes, but her gaze remained on the needles she was sterilizing. "There's many head doctors. Why?"
"Just wondering . . . I was told by Captain--Lieutenant Smith, I mean--about one of the main doctors here, and how they knew who I was. How they found us in the first place."
Nurse O'Brien shook her head. If she had any awareness, Thomas knew he would've seen it in her expression. Maybe she really had no clue. Or maybe she was a great actress. "I'm sure you'll have your answers soon, hun."

Thomas sighed, he certainly hoped so. A shrill alarm buzzed from one of the nearby machines, indicating Thomas's blood extraction was complete. He couldn't have been happier. He blew out a sigh of relief, watching as O'Brien was already at his arm, gingerly extracting the needle from his skin. That brought a whole other wave of nausea through him.
After a quick bandage was wrapped around his puncture wound, Nurse O'Brien excused herself, "Give me a second or two to scan your blood."

The second or two lasted several minutes, but finally she reappeared. Thomas was relieved; he was beginning to get antsy staring at the confined space. "Hello there, once again." Gleefulness beamed off that nurse like something Thomas had never witnessed before. "Sorry for the long wait, hun."
Thomas shook his head. "How was the scan?
"Good, very good. You're all healthy, thanks to the vitamins and minerals I gave you. Your hemoglobin levels are great. I didn't find any infections. Your vitals are holding strong. A pretty healthy eighteen year old if you ask me."

Thomas involuntarily cocked his head in question. That word--eighteen. It struck a yearning curiosity. "H--how old did you say I am?"
"Eighteen," Nurse O'Brien's pleasant smile returned.
No way, Thomas sat back in bed, his eyes wide like a child who was about to receive a gift. Excitement pumped through him. His past--that foggy, vacant, mystifying past of Thomas's, was slowly, slowly coming back together. Like a puzzle piece. And he was thrilled. Eighteen.