Hours had passed since Laurie had first woke up, though not much had changed really. Sure she had been released from the straps holding her to the bed, but aside from that she had barely even moved. She had been going in and out of delusions for hours, though they felt like they were growing less intense.

Laurie had begun to question her previous feelings towards Jeremy. Both the good and the bad. She knew that she didn't hold any love for the man, but now that she was more coherent she didn't really feel true animosity towards him either. She hated the feeling of not being in control of herself.

More than once she had called out to passing nurses asking for any news from outside the tower. Each time getting the same answers, “No one has come or left since last time you asked,” and the condescending follow up of, “You look very tired young lady, you should get come rest. “ She was going stir crazy. Again. This is what happened every day she was stuck in this prison.

That's how she thought of Skytop these days. Sure it let them survive, but were any of the inhabitants truly living? They all just passed the days while nature reclaimed the world, and those monsters roamed freely. She couldn't just sit around and wait for something to happen. Not anymore.

With that thought Laurie began to carefully lift herself out of bed. She didn't want to make a clatter and draw attention to herself, someone may try and stop her. She was leaving and that's all there was too it. It didn't take long for her to get changed in to her new clothes. Her old outfit had been completely ruined, it was torn up in places and covered in blood.

The new clothes were nice she guessed. Not really her style though. They were tighter then than the loose outfit she normally wore, it had been almost shaped to her after years of wearing it regularly. Her new clothes were a softer fabric than she was used too as well, very breathable but didn't have any weight to it.

Laurie knew if she tried to wear it out on one of her trips outside it likely wouldn't hold up to more than one or two nights. At least it was a nice earthy shade of green that would blend into the overgrowth, so it wasn't all bad.

Getting undressed was easy enough, but parts of her body were still very sore. The bandages on her body hid her wounds but Laurie could still feel them when she tried to move to quickly. She slid easily into her new pants and pulled the long sleeve shirt over her head before making her way towards the door.

No one was really stopping her from leaving. In her mind this place may be a prison, but she knew she was really just on the medical floor. Something inside her just told Laurie it would be best not to make a scene on her way out. The rest of her life she had always kept a low profile, no reason for that to change now.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Opening the door slowly just a crack, Laurie looked up and down the long hall. She was roughly in the center of the hallway, about two hundred feet in either direction would get her to a stairwell. There were doctors and nurses walking between rooms and checking on patients, though no one seemed to have noticed her.

Laurie slipped out the door and closed it behind her, doing her best to ensure no one would notice her absence from the room. Straightening her back, Laurie began to confidently walk down he hall choosing to go towards to the left stairwell. She knew there was no way that the doctors could possibly know every single patient, and figured if she walked without displaying her injuries no one would question her leaving.

Walking was not hard at first, but grew more challenging with each step. Before she made it half way down the hall Laurie was beginning to become winded. She remembered what Jeremy had said about losing blood and still having toxins in her body. Maybe this was a bad idea? Probably… but she had already started her walk. She wanted to go up to the Greenmen hall and tell them what she had seen herself.

Stopping to catch a breath, Laurie reaffirmed her resolve. She needed to do this. She couldn't let that man hurt anyone else. As casually as she could she lifted the side of her shirt to expose her ribs to where the most insistent pain was coming from. A little blood soaked through the bandages, though not enough to make her turn around.

Taking a deep breath Laurie pushed forward. “One step at a time. One foot in front of the other. Okay. I can do this.” she said out loud to no one in particular. She was almost to the stairwell now, more than four fifths of the way there. She was starting to slump as her breathing came a bit harder, and the world seemed to grow larger around her. Was the hallway getting longer?

She kept walking. Suddenly the door was in front of her. She reached for the handle, one turn keeping her from the stairwell. Once she was out of sight and off the floor she could afford to sit down and catch her breath. Grabbing the handle Laurie mustered her strength and began to turn… without warning Laurie was bowled over!

The door flew open with a great force from the other side. A man she recognized from when she had barely made it back to the tower shouldered his was through the door, barging past her with a woman in his arms. He was covered in sweat, blood, and dust. He looked every bit as exhausted as she felt.

“WE NEED A DOCTOR!” Douglas screamed in a panicked voice down the hall without any regard for the patients sleeping and in recovery.

In what felt like a second multiple doors could be seen opening. Doctors and nurses began looking in their direction, angry discontent looks quickly turning into faces of concern and worry. They were so focused on the man and woman, they paid Laurie no sense of mind at all.

Using the distraction, Laurie slipped through the still open doorway. It took every ounce of determination she could gather, but with the aid of the handrail she began to climb the two floors to where she knew the guild hall waited for her. With one last look before she went around the bend in the stairs, she was just able to make out a man limping his way up the stairs just a few floors down. At least one Greenmen party had returned.