Alliance

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Waking up from a dreamless sleep, the world returned to me slowly. What returned to me first was the throbbing pain from the back of my head. Next were my legs. They felt heavy and tired. My hand wasn't necessarily in pain but it felt odd.

Slowly, things started to return to my fuzzy mind. The staircase that led to the basement. Wilson's hand grabbing my hair, pulling me up six flights of stairs. The needle poked into my skin.

My eyes regained focus and I found myself standing in that Day Room with Wilson in his chair. He stood from his seat and said "Rest." When the door closed behind him, the girls moved. Looking down at my hand that held the candle, I was shocked to see it fully covered in wax.

Multiple colors of greens, blues, and reds wax covered my hand. That was the only indication I got that I had been sedated longer than a day. From the look of the wax, I may have been out for a week.

I placed the candle on the floor, picked off the wad of wax on my hand, and walked toward the door with the rest of the girls. We walked out of the Day Room and down to the bedroom. I watched the rest of the girls put IV's in their arms before they went to sleep.

Too long. I had been there way too long. Tonight, I am getting out tonight. The stairs that I used last time had been locked, but I wondered if all of them were locked, or if it was just that one. I would try another stairwell. If that one was locked, I would go to the next one. If they all are locked, I will try to unlock it somehow.

After what felt like five minutes, I slipped out of the bed. The other girls wouldn't tell Wilson on me. I had been sedated with that drug, it felt like I was in a coma. They wouldn't hear or see me slip out.

This time, I went down the hall in the opposite direction of the stairs I tried days ago. I had to go down three more hallways before finding a stairwell. Quietly and carefully, I ran down the stairs. Reaching the first floor, I found the stairwell had ended. This stairwell did not lead down to the basement. Maybe that was why the other door was locked, hopefully, this one wasn't.

With a surprisingly steady hand, I reached for the doorknob. And it turned, opening the door. Quickly I slipped in, closed the door and turned to the hallway. It was nothing like the rest of the hospital. Above, the hallways were clean. Spotless. Tidy.

This floor was a disaster. Waste littered the floor. There were dead leaves, pieces of wood, dirt, and broken or used medical equipment everywhere. Every third light in the hall flickered. The first floor looked like an abandoned hospital.

Careful to not make any sound, I made my way down the hall. I was mindful of my footprints and discarded things on the ground.

The rooms on either side of the hall were open to reveal empty rooms that were covered in junk just like the hall. A few doors were closed.

When I was surrounded by closed doors in the hall, a door down the hallway opened. In a panic, I slide to a closed door to find it unlocked. I opened it and stepped in. The door closed silently behind me. The lights automatically turned on.

I listened through the door, footsteps walked down the hall and past my closed door. I released a breath that I did not notice I was holding. As I drew breath, I found the air foul. Below my toes, I felt something soft. Fleshy.

My hand shot to my mouth to hold back the scream from escaping my lips when I looked down.

Bodies.

I stood on bodies.

Many bodies that had been thrown in here at different times because of the different stages of decay. The whole room was filled with them, so many that I could not see the color of the floor. All I saw was rotten organs, bones, and pieces of hair and skin. There were both men and women alike.