To her credit, the nurse handled her patient's sudden return to consciousness like a true professional. The only indication of surprise she showed was a moment of hesitation before she immediately strode to the bedside. "It's nice to meet you too, miss! I would say good morning, but, well, we still have a few hours before that."
The nurse paged someone and busied herself around the bed, checking vitals and the various machines attached to Kaitlyn as though to confirm that she really was awake. Kaitlyn looked toward the window as the woman worked. The darkness beyond the closed blinds showed no indication of sunrise peeking through. Not yet, at least. "Er… what time is it?"
The nurse checked her watch as she scribbled something down on a clipboard. "Almost six AM. A little early. Do you feel tired at all?"
"...Not really?" Kaitlyn reached up to scratch her neck, then stopped as her muscles protested. "If anything, I feel pretty restless. I feel like I haven't done anything but lay there for ages."
The woman nodded. "Understandable. You were out for a while, there. A week, to be exact…"
A week? Kaitlyn winced. Was I really out for a whole week?
It could have been much worse, she supposed. A week was leagues better than an entire loop. However, considering that her last bout of paralysis had lasted no more than an hour, this was quite a severe step up in the punishment's severity.
One more reason to think I flew too close to the sun…
Kaitlyn realized the nurse was staring at her. "Ah, sorry. I was just thinking, there. You were saying?"
"No worries at all. If it's ok with you, I'd like to ask a few questions and make sure that everything's all right? It'll help us understand the situation a bit better, as well."
"Yeah, of course. Sure. I can—"
Her throat suddenly rebelled as dry, hacking coughs cut off the rest of the sentence. Her eyes watered once again, this time from a lack of air, as she felt the nurse gently place a cup into her hands. Gratefully, she sipped from it, the cool liquid soothing her parched throat.
"Thanks," she tried speaking again, more successfully this time. "Sorry about that."
The woman smiled gently. "Not a problem. Don't worry about waking anyone up, by the way. You've got this room all to yourself right now."
They waited in silence for a moment as Kaitlyn sipped her water. Once she handed the cup back to the nurse, the questions began. "So…what's the last thing you remember?"
***
Over the next few minutes, Kaitlyn answered a host of questions aimed at checking her physical and mental state—mostly simple things like how she was feeling, if she remembered her birthday, and whether she could move this limb or that. The nurse seemed fairly satisfied with her answers. Eventually, she looked up from her clipboard and nodded.
"Alright. Thank you for that, Kaitlyn. It seems as though you're in good condition right now, but we'll want to run some follow-up tests to make sure that everything's just peachy. We'll make sure to keep a close eye on you though, and feel free to let us know if anything changes. Is there anything you need? Would you like to go back to sleep?"
She shook her head, careful not to aggravate her already aching muscles. "Not really. I'm pretty sore, but I don't think I could go to sleep if I tried."
"That's perfectly alright," the nurse nodded. "It might be best if you can stay awake until the doctor gets in so she can talk to you. It shouldn't be more than a couple hours. But if you do get tired or need anything else, please don't hesitate to press the button or let us know. We'll have people coming by every once in a while to check on you."
"Actually…" Kaitlyn interrupted the woman as she made to stand. "Do you happen to have any food? I'm, uh, pretty hungry…"
The woman's smile broadened. "Of course. I'm sure I can find something for you."
She left the room, returning a short while later with a tray of soup, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies. The very sight of the simple meal made Kaitlyn's mouth begin to water involuntarily. The nurse had hardly turned around before she found herself tucking greedily into the food. But even as the first spoonful made its way to her mouth, the tantalizing flavors of her imagination abruptly crumbled to ash.
This… needs salt. Badly.
The food was lukewarm at best, not even hot enough to send up tendrils of steam. Belatedly, she realized that she could hardly even smell the food. It was like eating waterlogged cardboard that someone had stuck in a blender. The sheer blandness practically gave her whiplash.
Years upon years of seasoning and preparing her own meals had gotten her acclimated to a certain level of flavor. Even the occasional case of truly subpar food she'd encountered usually suffered from over rather than undersalting. But this? This was astonishing.
I mean, I always heard that hospital food was bad, but… I didn't think it was THIS bad. I'm pretty sure Scarra would try to execute this chef on this spot.
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Still, despite its bland appearance and flavor, it didn't take long for the contents of the tray to disappear into her stomach. She was too hungry to really be too picky. Besides, after the week she'd had, the simple act of eating something still felt unreasonably satisfying.
With her most immediate needs met, Kaitlyn set aside the empty tray and took a moment to assess her situation. Specifically, the end of the paralysis meant that she could finally start planning for the rest of the loop. It was something she hadn't exactly been willing or able to focus on up to this point, not with so many other thoughts and fears cluttering up her head.
I'm stuck in the hospital for now, but hopefully the doctor will say I'm ok pretty soon. Either way, I'll be starting this loop at least a week late, maybe more. But that doesn't mean the entire thing is shot. I think…
After a moment of searching, she found her phone plugged in and sitting neatly atop a side table next to her bed. Next to it stood a rather classy-looking bouquet of flowers in a clear vase. Kaitlyn made a mental note to thank Heather for that. Given that the blonde's voice had made a couple of appearances at her bedside throughout this whole ordeal, she'd clearly visited more than once. It was quite likely that the girl had brought both the flowers and the phone at some point. It wasn't like there were many other people who could be responsible for them, anyway.
Scrolling through the device revealed the same setup she was used to. Her finances, class info, and everything else appeared just as they should at the start of a loop. The confirmation allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief. With things as they were, she'd half expected something to have disappeared or changed suddenly, but no. For once, the eternal sameness of her situation brought her comfort as opposed to despair.
That, at least, is normal. Thank goodness. Maybe that means everything else is, too…
She stared down at her lap for a long moment. Mentally, she knew that she needed to check her Progress Report. Those reboot messages had made it clear that the endings she'd earned might have been affected by the reset, or even by the SysAdmin itself deciding to punish her even more harshly. But despite having little else to do but obsess over possibilities like that, she had not once in the past week been able to make herself do it. She was afraid of what she might find.
What if they are gone? What if I lost some of the endings? It's been a few loops since I got the Philip bad ending, but that doesn't mean it couldn't disappear…
Taking a deep breath, she braced herself. I'll have to check at some point. Better to rip off the bandaid before I start planning too much.
Closing her eyes, she checked her Progress Report.
Progress Report
Current Cycle:
Cycle 41 (Week 2)
Endings (12/18):
Alex (3/3 – Complete!)
Dinner Date
Comfort Food
Rotten to the Core
Ian (3/3 – Complete!)
The Road Less Traveled
A Winding Path
The Road to Hell
Philip (3/3 – Complete!)
Family Matters
Distant Relations
Homewrecker
Vinny (1/3)
???
???
Party Crasher
Elliot (1/3)
???
Fertile Ground
???
Other (1/3)
???
Under the Radar
???
Achievements (13):
The First of Many—Unlock your first ending
What Friends Are For—Unlock a friendly ending for any male lead
Walking Red Flag—Unlock a bad ending for any male lead
Happily Ever After—Unlock a romance ending for any male lead
From Every Angle—Unlock all endings for a single male lead
Wingman—Complete the “Rachel and Cedric” easter egg
A Solid Start—Unlock 5 unique endings
Dean's List—Ace all five classes
The Spice of Life—Unlock 10 unique endings
Team Player—Win first place at the Bara Bash doubles tournament
Winner Winner—Win first place at a singles tournament
Chicken Dinner—Win first place at the Bara Bash singles tournament
Cheater, Cheater—Trigger an essential reboot or game crash
Reading through the text, she let out a long breath of relief. All of her progress was still there. All twelve endings were right where they were supposed to be, without a single glitch or anomaly in sight. In fact, the only evidence of her recent misadventure seemed to be the new achievement tacked on to the end of the ever-growing list.
She grimaced at the name. Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, that's pretty accurate. I'm surprised that they gave me an achievement for it, though.
Achievements had always seemed like rewards and trophies for accomplishing something worthwhile. Given the reaction to her efforts here, hacking certainly did not seem like something the game wanted to reward in any way, shape, or form. Then again, it wasn't really. The consequences had made it pretty clear that this wasn't something she should try again. And now, she'd have something to remind her of that every time she checked her progress.
With a sigh, she opened her eyes. Speaking of hacking… I should probably take care of my code before I forget. The last thing I want to do is leave it around and cause another crash when this loop ends.
Kaitlyn navigated over to the Notes app on her phone. This was the last big thing she really needed to take care of. Still, her thumb hovered over the icon hesitantly. Some irrational part of her expected that even interacting with the app would result in her getting stuck down instantaneously.
...No. I should be fine. I've messed with it countless times without any problems before. And besides, it's too risky to leave it alone. I'll have to delete the code injection stuff at some point.
Before she could second-guess herself, Kaitlyn tapped on the square icon. The app expanded to fill her phone's screen. But the dense wall of text she'd expected was nowhere to be seen. In its place were two words, their bolded black text standing out against the yellow background.
Nice Try.