Blood Bourbon

Medicine

The world had stopped moving when he found himself awake again, blinking a couple times against the harsh artificial light and cool, sterilized air around him. He no longer had an oxygen mask on. But his quickly halted reflexive attempt to move told him that he was still restrained. Daryl turned his eyes from the light that seemed to be shining directly above him, frowning when he realized that he was hooked up to two IVs, as well as several other machines.

His mouth and throat were dry and his body shivered, making him realize that he wasn't wearing his clothing anymore. Instead, he was in sterile, thin grey medical scrubs. His heart rate jumped and he closed his eyes while shaking his head quickly as his mind quickly latched onto one concept and threatened to drown him with panic.

Treatment.

The last nearly two decades disappeared in an instant and suddenly he was that sick kid in the hospital bed, wearing grey scrubs. He could hear his heart rate racing through the panicked beeping of the machines and gasped in several breaths, trying to tell himself to calm down.

Nurses arrived before he could do so, the sound of them moving pulling his eyes open to watch as they checked the machines then looked down to him. There was no care in the expressions of that man and woman who stood above him. They watched him dispassionately, before the woman turned and spoke to someone he couldn't see. "Echo Six Nine is awake."

No.

Daryl wrestled with his mind, telling himself that he wasn't sick, wasn't a kid who was dying and reliant on these people. He desperately told himself that he had a life that they had stolen him from.

"You're going to have to calm down, six nine." The man said calmly, pulling out a light and shining it into his eyes. "The calmer you are, the easier this is all going to be. Things can always get worse if you stop cooperating."

"I'm not cooperating. I was taken against my will." He pulled at the restraints, blinking away the light and shaking his head. "My name is Daryl. Daryl Martin."

"Haven't you heard?" A new voice joined them and he turned his gaze to where Camilla walked into the room, joined by the scientist who had been with her and the Hunter from the night before.

The one who had claimed to have seen Ryker die. Daryl's heart lurched violently, but he clawed his mind under control before he could spiral, telling himself that the man had been lying. Ryker wasn't dead. They were trying to break him.

"Daryl Martin died when he was hit by a car, saving a child's life. So dramatic." She held a newspaper over top of him, open to the news story that said just that. "You had your fun, your taste of freedom, Echo Six Nine, but you obviously need more supervision than we can give you out there."

He shook his head, gritting his teeth and turning his eyes to stare at the ceiling, refusing to answer.

"You could have cooperated and been very rich and very free to do as you wanted." She continued, when the Hunter shifted forward, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look back at her. "You could still have your time with your family. And that creature you had begun to associate with..."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she pulled out her phone and turned it towards him. "He may have lived a little while longer. But really, that's not a shame. They're vermin. Echo six nine. They're monsters who will devour humanity and the planet if we do not stop them. You will understand that. Or you won't. But you are going to be useful in our efforts."

Daryl was only half listening to her, his eyes locked on the video that had started on her phone screen. He was watching Ryker and Carbry Alesky, surrounded by a team of people Daryl had seen on and off in the past several months, walk down a city street. The camera must have been mounted beside a gun, or on the person who was firing, because the sound of automatic gunfire erupted, and he watched Ryker haul Alesky to the ground and cover him, half out of view from the camera. The rest of the team scattered behind cover, and when the gun was dry, the vampires were moving, quickly, so that they were mostly out of view of the gun by the time it was loaded.