I think it's been a few days, at least that's how long I've been conscious for. I can't move but I can feel it, the tiny things digging into my skin. The nice doctor lady with the red hair, that flowing red hair, she takes care of me day and night, embarrassing beyond what I thought I could endure.
She talks to me day in and out. I’m her only patient but she keeps me by her side as much as she can. I just lay in her office while she worked, as she bounced ideas off me things I didn't understand or sometimes couldn't hear, but she is a companion for me while all I can do is smile, just wait, day in and out as she carefully removes the things from my skin.
On her jacket is a symbol of the world with a book in front, the words Sc-Axium above it and below it is ‘Scientia Omnium’. I think it's some kind of Latin, must be the place she's from... who Natalies mum works for... Worked for...
“Was I the only one... where you found me?” She smiles softly with worry in her eyes,
“You're the only one I've got...” she clears her throat and shuffles awkwardly, “How are you feeling today darlin?” She sits next to me on her small chair, giving her the perfect height to bend over me. I might be young, but I still have feelings... And she's bringing it out in me...
“My whole front body feels like I walked into a cactus” She giggles at me.
“You might as well have, all the crystal fragments that came out of that meteor have shredded you. We don't know what they are but at least they seem to have some kind of healing properties... otherwise I would be worried that you wouldn't have made it!” She carefully picks out the pieces stuck in me one at a time, but there must be hundreds... thousands and she has to take lots of breaks, especially since I'm not the only one here.
After a few days of lying down and recovering I finally work up the courage to ask... “What happened to my town...” She pauses inches from my stomach with the tweezers.
“The... town bunker... Wasn't... Enough...” She pauses at the words, trying to find the right way to say it, saying that they are gone... Everyone, everyone is gone in my life, I am alone...
“Oh...” I turn my face to the side so that she can't see the tears. I feel the familiar prick of the crystal leaving my body. It started hurting more the longer I lay here, but I'm not sure if that's some kind of phantom feeling or not from the boredom and slowly losing my mind.
“It would have been quick... I know it's not what you want to hear, but I really don't know how to deal with these kinds of situations... the only reason we were even here was in order to pick up the daughter of one of our scientists... they told us to bring a medical team along just in case... everything hit when we were already on the road... had to whip up a quick emergency camp to start treatment, had some of our own casualties... we are far out in the middle of nowhere here... I'm sorry... I really am... I'm going to do the best I can for you... get you somewhere safe once you're able to move safely, a new home... and to someone that can actually talk with people.”
It feels like waves of worry passing overhead. I'm just a patient, what can she do for me except take out all these damn things in my body...
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“You know... I think these things are getting bigger... I was only pulling out ones the size of needles the first few days and now some are the size of toothpicks... I've never seen anything like it...” She has some panic in her voice and gets up, walks over to the desk and makes a call, “Hey Steven… I'm going to need you to focus on the other patients... Yes, I know we're busy but this is important… yeah the kid, I’m worried for their safety if I don’t get these things out of him… alright thanks, I’ll owe you a beer… fine 2! bye”
She sits back down and settles in for the long haul, putting on some music in the background, some kind of classical music... “Alright now you’re all mine kiddo, let’s get all these out of you, just in case yeah” She starts humming along to the music, it’s soothing but powerful and it seems to be on repeat. I fall quickly into a rhythm of music and pieces being pulled out of myself.
Mentally exhausted I fall asleep... At least for a little while.
…
bang wah!? I wake up to my wide-eyed doctor, she quickly gets up and rifles through her bag pulling out a small gun. I still can't move, my body recovering but not fast enough, “Stay quiet as possible, I'll be back as soon as I can, it's going to be okay.”
Before she moves outside there’s more gunfire and screaming this time, someone begging for their life, she goes into full soldier mode and peaks out with gun drawn, “Fuck!” She dashes out of the tent, and I can hear her opening fire as she slips away.
More gunfire and yelling... and then it all stops... I can't help but cry, what is going on... Please don't leave me alone again...
It feels like hours, the silence, it bites harder into me than the crystals.
Footsteps start approaching the tent, my tent... It's not the doctors, the steps I've been hearing constantly, it's not Steven’s, his lazy stumbling steps. They are confident, hard and without remorse for the patients recovering, a dragging sound coming behind it.
“eto tselevaya palatka?” says the voice in a language I haven't heard before, a large man in military overalls enters the tent, they are wearing a dusty brown uniform colored like the Australian outback, with black stripes, they have a full face covering. Behind one of them the doctor is being dragged, barely responsive, by the hair, blood running down her shirt, dripping off her hand, all I can do is cry, this must just be a dream, am I not allowed to be safe?!
She's thrown onto the ground near her desk as the intimidating soldier approaches me, not even bothering to draw their gun. “eto to, chto khochet doktor?” They look at my skin and flick a finger at one of the crystals on my chest, I flinch heavily, as much as my body can and they laugh at me, “doktor budet dovolen.”
They lean over and squat down, looking me directly in the eyes, I can barely see the tears clogging my vision, “You are goldmine child, you know that? You will be well taken care of, if you're useful, or end up like bitch” They pull the doctor off the floor with barely a grunt and throw her over me. She holds back a delirious scream, her warm blood is dripping slowly over my body, coating me slowly in it, all I can do is look, stare at the person who has taken care of me, while I can only lay here, not able to help, barely able to move, please just let me move! please let me save her!!
“Voz'mite vse, chto smozhete, vernites' na bazu, polozhite mal'chika v sumku.” They yell out of the tent and more men like them come in and start shoveling everything here into bags. A larger bag is brought out and the doctor is pushed off me, her eyes have gone empty... I couldn't do anything... I didn't even know her name, a nameless death because of me... she always just called me her doctor, my dear doctor...
“Wait...” the leader says and bends down again to my body, “is growing...” they say in english, looking at my chest, and it is, its growing, the blue crystal is visibly growing through the blood like a vine soaking up fertilizer.
“Bag them!! Bring anyone else that still breathes! We Leave now!”
A needle is pushed into my neck, turning the world a fuzzy bloody red, then I fall into darkness, the never-ending bloody screaming dark.