Chapter Fourteen: The decision

I sit up on the bed once again, thinking about the choices I have up ahead. I remind myself that this place is surrounded by fairly high walls, ones I wouldn’t be able to climb over, at least easily.

“There’s also that bear we saw.” Athena reminds me.

“Yes, but was it a bear? I couldn’t actually see it properly but I know it was on four legs.” I say to her.

“Why don’t we just sneak around?” She questions, and honestly, it’s not a bad idea.

“Of course it’s not.” she says smugly.

I look to the monitor again. If I were to sneak around to try and find out more, I would definitely would have to get rid of it.

I ponder my options, and decide I’ll need to do something drastic. I need to find out where I am and I want to do it without alerting the people around me. I suspect if I were to just pull the tube out of my hand, something will make a noise, so I need a plan.

I think about the Window at the end of the hall, and how it was on a latch. I could probably try to jump, but it’s so high and I know I’ll end up back in here, probably with some sort of restraints.

Maybe I can open the window, pull the tube out, and then run into one of the other rooms? Hoping that they would be empty, or well, even open.

I sit on the bed and think about my other options, which is either to just go down the stairs with the heart monitor or to actually jump out the window, and I banish them from my mind as there’s no way I’ll get anywhere doing either of those. Crazy plan one is a go.

I get off from the bed on the right side once again, and wheel the monitor towards the door, trying to move it so it doesn’t squeak loudly. I open it softly, as I did last time, and take a quick look out to see if anyone is about. I see no one down the dimly lit corridor, so I push open the door and leave it open this time, not bothering to close it behind me, as it will be part of the escape.

I go to the window, and I lift the latch off of the holder, which was keeping it where it was. I try to push the window open softly and I don’t feel it budge. I push a bit harder, which allowed it to make a horrible squeak, but I did manage to open it wider. Wide enough to jump out of.

I take one last look behind me to see where I should be running to as soon as I pull the plug. I count four doors on the left side of the corridor, and on the right side I see my door and one other, further down.

If this makes a loud noise, I’ve probably only have several seconds to get to one of those doors, and the further down the corridor I can get, the better. I decide to aim for the furthest door on the left.

It’s hit or miss time. I look at the tube in my hand and I see it’s not too deep. This’ll hurt.

I cringe as I move my left index finger and thumb and take hold of the tube. I tug the tube and the needle that is on the end of it out of my hand, as quick as possible. As soon as the last bit comes out, and I see I’m no longer attached to the machine, I start to run towards the corridor, trying not to allow my feet to patter too loudly. After getting halfway down the corridor towards my goal door, I slow down to a jog, and then I walk slowly trying to listen out.

Well, that’s embarrassing, I think to myself. There’s no noise coming from the monitor. I hear Athena chuckle in my mind and I feel a slight tug on my lips also. All that planning though, for nothing.

“Not nothing, remember, they’ll come back sooner or later.” She corrects me. I nod in agreement, it does still mean they will think I’ve jumped out the window at first glance.

I start heading towards the stairs. I don’t bother to even go into any of the other rooms I pass in fear of the unknown behind each door.

I get to the stairs, and stop to listen out for anything. I don’t hear anything, so I start slowly creeping down the stairs. I have no socks or shoes on, so my feet don’t make much of a sound.

I get to the corner where the stairs take a 180 degree turn. I take a look around the corner and notice that this floor seems very much like the one I’ve come from. I remember that I am fairly high up from the bottom from the fall I would have had from the window.

I continue down the stairs after not seeing or hearing anything. I start to relax a bit, knowing that there’s probably no one around as its night time.

I continue down the staircase onto the next level which is more of the same. Round I go for another two levels. Gosh this place is huge.

Finally, I get to what I think is the lowest floor, as I can see the floor down the stairs is much brighter, meaning the lights are probably on and someone will be about. I make my way to the turn of the stairs where I can get a better view of the floor. I peek my head around to scout out the area.

It looks like a large reception room and I can see no one around. I spot a desk to the right side which looks to be perhaps where the receptionist sits, but the light above the desk is off. I pull my eyes to the door which is to the left of the receptionist desk, which is a double door and is made mostly of glass.

That’s going to be the way out, I think to myself, remembering what human hospitals looked like. I turn my gaze away from the door to see what else I can see on the floor. Surely there’s someone about if the lights are on here?

I notice there’s that smell again, more prominent down here. Again, I supress this thought whilst I try and escape.

As I push myself out a bit further from the stairs to get a good view of the left side of the reception room, I see a door, which is closed. I can see a light under the door, so I assume that wherever the nurse from earlier is, or even anyone, they’ll be in there.

I don’t even hesitate, I start to move slowly away from the stairs and head towards the glass door at the front. I’m still sneaking, but as I have no shoes on, making as little noise as possible is easy. I keep my eyes on the door to the left, ready to bolt if I see it starting to open.

I sneak closer and closer to the glass doors, until I turn my head away from the closed door on the left and I’m right in front of the glass doors. I shift to the right side to hide, just in case anyone was coming into the hospital. I spy outside and see nothing there, or moving. I notice there is a pathway outside which is lit by street lights. Similar to those of the elves, but these seem to be powered by electricity rather than candles and lanterns.

I take one last look at the door I was keeping my eye on and certain that no one is going to come out of there in the next few moments. I reach my hand out to the door to open it, and can see the way the latches of the door are positioned, it’s a push to open door, from the inside. I push the door and feel a slight breeze on my skin. I take a deep breath and push the door open silently and take a step outside, ensuring the door slowly closes behind me.

“Freedom!” Athena says to me, giddy. I can’t blame her, I feel like I really needed to get out of there. Who knows how long I was out?

I take a few steps forward and slowly take myself down the stone steps in front of me. I keep my eyes peeled for any movements, especially for that beast I had seen before.

As I got to the bottom of the steps, I take a quick look at my surroundings. The path I had seen out here leads to the right and I can see what looks like some little cottages down the road. To the left, I can see what looks like a forest, and I can see further on in the distance, the wall I had seen at the window.

I start to head towards the forest, believing I may be best hidden within. How wrong I was. As soon as I hit the trees at the start of it, I see something out of the corner of my eye.

Before I even got a chance to move, something, or well, someone, runs up to me, grabs my throat, and raises me several inches off the floor.