“I’m Out”
The gurney creaked beneath her as the pair of overworked orderlies ushered her out of the elevator and into the waiting hall. The bottom floor of the facility was a place that both men hated being sent to. Thankfully it happened only on the rarest occasions, when a patient became so incredibly violent that administration deemed them no longer capable of receiving treatment among the rest of the population. This Jane Doe had come in only hours ago, flailing in a hell bent rage with a strength that was unbelievable though both men had the bruises to prove it. Sedatives had no effect save the injuries the poor nurse received from having to get that close. For the few brief moments the men had managed to hold the savage patient’s arms in place, hoping a massive dose of Thorazine would ease their plight for the remainder of their shift, it seemed that perhaps they had things back under control.
As the nurse brought the syringe close, Jane Doe twisted her torso with an inhuman torque, wrenching herself out of their grasp and whipping her head to meet the nurse’s arm with her open mouth, brutally biting down and tearing away a large hunk of flesh. Losing his temper, one of the men, a wiry, middle aged, fair skinned fellow with greasy hair and the faint smell of Old Grandad about him, landed a series of fists directly to the side of her head. Little Jane laughed out loud, a cackling sound that froze both men in their tracks. Before the other orderly, a large black man with the build of a wrestler, was able to regain his grasp on the girl, her left hand flew to the throat of the man whose blows had just opened a small cut on the side of her brow.
She squeezed. Nails penetrated skin. The man began to scream and something warm and wet began to run down his leg. Blood came trickling from the punctures made by her ragged nails. A stream of urine splatter in droplets on the floor as she lifted the man into the air, his feet no longer touching the ground. Her blackened eyelids and parched, cracked lips pulled back in an evil smile, her brow crumpling ever so slightly the large, black “X” branded between her eyes. Even in his panic, now held aloft a full foot from the floor, the terrified orderly could see blackness in her pupils, the cloudy fluid swimming between her cornea and the rest of her eye, and the pulsating blood vessels that all together created a stare that was the most hateful thing he had ever seen. The air began to leave him, replaced by nothing as the grip on his throat grew tighter, choking off any inhalation.
Just as he was preparing his thoughts for the coming blackness, Jane Doe’s stare broke from him. Standing beside them was a tall doctor, aged well into his sixties, wearing small wire framed glasses, and an expression of purest calm calculation, with a small name tag that read, “H. Van Meter, DPM”. Gesturing for the larger orderly to step aside, the doctor began to speak to the girl in a hushed, but firm whisper. Moving in close to her, he bent his head down to her ear and as he spoke, her eyes locked forward, blankly staring into space as she relaxed her grip, dropping the thin, piss covered man to the floor. The doctor then placed a hand on her shoulder and lead her to the gurney the two men had been failing miserably at getting her to lie upon.
Dr. Van Meter motioned to the larger orderly, “Wait here with her for a moment, Nathan. Watch her, of course, though I doubt she’ll be any trouble again for quite sometime.”
“Whatever you say, doc. This one fights like she’s got the devil in her.”
“Don’t we all, Nathan?”, Van Meter said with a smile.
“Well, I guess if someone was trying to strap me down like this, I’d fight like hell too.”
The doctor nodded his approval at the comment then walked to the nearby nurses station to call for Nathan’s assistance, as well as a nurse to look at the neck of the other orderly, now sitting against the wall catering to both his wounded neck and pride.
Van Meter stepped back from behind the nurses station as the new assistant orderly arrived.
“Take her to sub-level C, room five. You do remember the security protocols, correct?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Nathan answered, “but do you think it’s really right to send a new guy down there this soon?”. He gestured to the newly arrived orderly, a twenty-something man of average build, short, mousy brown hair and an unassuming face.
“He’ll be fine. Won’t you, Martin?”
“Uh… sure, I guess. It’s just part of the job, right?”
Van Meter replied with a coy smile, “Yes. Precisely: just part of the job.”
Nathan looked back at his fallen coworker, “Alright. Hey Ronnie, you gonna be okay? She tore the hell of that neck.”
“I’ll manage, “ came the half pained but fully embarrassed reply. Just wait till I get a minute alone with you, you little bitch, he thought. “Hurts like hell, but I’m okay”.
“Alright, well, just make sure you get that bandaged up before it gets infected. Doc says this one’s heading for level C, so it’s not like you’ll have to see her again anytime soon.”
With Nathan and Martin the restraints, Dr. Van Meter quietly ushered the girl onto the waiting gurney. As the men secured the restraints, a near inaudible whisper came from her, “H… hh.. Horace…”
Placing a single index finger to her lips, Dr. Van Meter replied, “Shhhhh…”
“Did she just say your name, doc?” asked Nathan, more than a little unnerved.
“I must have given her my name when I was calming her down. Pay it no mind.”
“Uh… okay. You’re the boss. This is definitely a weird one, though.”
“Just make sure she is jacketed and safely in her room, Nathan. Her treatments will begin soon enough. I expect her to be a challenge, but I’m sure we can provide the help she needs”.
“This isn’t so bad.” His first trip to level C was proving far less bizarre than the stories he had heard from Nathan and the others.
The silence as they exited the elevator into the hallway was deafening to Nathan. Level C was the worse part of the job, the place you did not want to be sent, but eventually you had to go. The rest of the facility could occasionally get rough, crazy people acting out some bizarre fantasy lives that sometimes meant they had to be subdued. But here things were different. Usually, the lone, dark hallway, was a tunnel of screams. It was as though time had forgotten this place, this lonely block of cells below ground, the only place in the entire facility that wasn’t completely renovated some forty years back. Nathan had always felt a kind of sadness for the people in level C, as though this was the place you were taken to be forgot. But then he would have to return for some errand and there would be the screaming that made him wish that could, in fact, forget.
Tonight, however, was different. As he and Martin wheeled the gurney carrying their Jane Doe down the hall, there was rapt silence. Each patient stood staring from the window of their cell, and as they passed, she seemed to give a knowing look back to each of them.
Roughly midway down the hall, the door to room five stood open, having been freshly sanitized in anticipation of the new arrival. Nathan brought the gurney to a halt as Martin reached to the small shelf beneath the bed for the straight jacket tucked away there. Braced for a fight, the two men then released the restraints holding the small woman down, though they were surprised when she did exactly as she was told and stood still, arms out before them. The men took their places on either side of her, pulling the straight jacket over her arms, then tucking her arms across and her sides and finally latching the clasps in place. Martin thought he saw some kind of movement from beneath the chest of the jacket as they finished the job, but shook it off as just a trick of the stark, dim lighting in the hall.
She stood facing the back wall of the cell as the men stepped away, closing the door whose automatic locks could be heard clanging through the hall. Still, the rest of the patients were silent, watching. Nathan knew, from years of experience, that this was utterly bizarre. These people all lived inside their own heads, their own demons haunting them, torturing them day and night, and the sounds of their psychotic screams and laughter was a constant here. At the moment, however, all was quiet and he longed for the sounds of their insanity.
Then, just as he and Martin started away from her cell, from behind the door of number five came a loud crack, like the breaking of tree limbs, followed by a piercing scream and the sound of tearing cloth. The smell of blood burst from from the room as the two men stood wide eyed at what was happening. As Martin approached the window, Nathan whispered, “Don’t! Trust me, whatever that is you don’t want to…”
His words were too late. Martin stood stock still at the window, his eyes wide from the horror as he saw the girls chest burst forth, sternum and ribs cracking, flesh heaving then tearing, the front of the straight jacked shredding away at the gnashing of razor like teeth, then falling to the ground as the thing burst forth. Her body tossed from side to side, front to back as the thing emerged from her, an elongated neck that seemed to be attached somehow to her insides, with a face that was little more than a mouth of gnarled teeth and hateful eyes.
Martin turned to Nathan with not a word, only a wide eyed look of disbelief and started quickly down the hall toward the elevator. For a moment, Nathan thought about looking through that tiny window, thought about what the hell could have shaken the man so. Sure, he was a rookie. Sure, he’d never been down to level C, but this had been a piece of cake errand and the quietest he’d ever seen the patients here. Maybe just a quick look?
He joined Martin at the elevator, thankful for having the good sense not to look. The doors opened and the two ascended back to the main floor.
As they exited the elevator, Martin, removed the lanyard from his neck that held his key card to the facility and proceeded toward the main doors.
“Where you going? It’s four hours till our shift is over, man.”
“No. Your shift. I’m out.”
Martin swiped his card, pulled his coat from the nearby rack and was gone, leaving Nathan to wonder what exactly he had seen.
