Somewhere In The Middle

by Lucas Coon

  “You're military aren't you? I just realized that you're wearing a uniform.” Mitchell chuckled slightly at this fact. “What branch of the military are you?”

  “I'm part of a special unit. I'm assigned to guard the doctor, not have idle conversation with you. Now I'm going to have to ask you to stop talking. I may not be allowed to kill you, but I can, and will, hurt you. I really do not wish to do that, so again, I am going to have to ask you to stop talking.” King recited this entire statement without as much as a blink or a glance at Mitchell.

  “OK then.” Mitchell looked away from King and back at the door to the central building. The Doctor was taking quite a while to get back with the two children. Mitchell glanced back to King and noticed a radio. “The Doctor is taking quite a while. You may want to radio him and ask him if he needs help with the girls. Lilly can be really stubborn.”

  “Sir, I asked you to quit talking. If he needs help he will contact me and I will deal with it then. Until then, I need you to sit down and keep your mouth shut.” This time King turned and looked at Mitchell to threaten him.

  “I'm just saying that she can be incredibly stubborn and may not go peacefully with him.” Mitchell stood up from where he was. King immediately turned and aimed his rifle back at him.

  “Sit Down!”

  “Listen, I'm just trying to--” Mitchell tried to explain himself.

  “Sir, sit down and stop talking or I will be forced to shoot you!” King once again threatened Mitchell with bodily harm.

  “Listen! She's five! She's probably scared out of her mind and I just don't want her to get hurt!” Mitchell increased his volume to yelling at King. The situation remained tense for several moments. King sighed and aimed his gun down. “I'm not trying to be an idiot or do anything stupid, I'm just worried that my friend's five year old daughter might get hurt. The Doctor's been gone for a while and I'm just concerned that maybe they were attacked or something.” Mitchell had hoped that his plea would get through. King grabbed his radio and pushed the button.

  “Is everything OK, sir?” He spoke in to the small device.

  “Yes, everything is fine.” The accented voice rang out of the speaker.

  “Are you happy? Now will you sit down and--” King was cut off by the sound of the Doctor's voice coming through the speaker again.

  “Actually, could you please send Mitchell my way? And could you please start taking our guests to their room?” The Doctor's request surprised them both.

  “Sir, are you sure you want him wandering around without someone guarding him? He might try to--”

  “What, run? And where would he go? Do as I say King.” King looked at Mitchell and waved for him to go. He lifted Madison's body and carried her through the door. Mitchell stood there both confused and concerned about what was going to happen if he went back, but the Doctor was right; there was nowhere to really go. He went over to the door and walked back into the commons. He traveled the halls and went back to the exam rooms when he noticed that the door to room six was open and cautiously approached it.

  “Mister Mitchell!” Lilly ran over to him. She was obviously scared of the doctor. Mitchell was just glad he hadn't hurt her. “Where's daddy?”

  “Don't worry Lilly, he's OK.” Mitchell looked around the room and then back out to the hallway. “Doctor, where's Brynn?”

  “Please don't call me that. My name is Andrei, please refer to me by that.” He paused but didn't answer the question. Mitchell didn't like that he had avoided a response.

  “Where's Brynn?”

  “I don't know Mitchell, she wasn't here when I got here, only Lilly was. Now, gather your things and follow me.” Mitchell looked at him and then back down at Lilly. “Go! Get your stuff. I'll carry theirs, you carry yours and the girl. No one has to get hurt here.” Mitchell picked Lilly up and held her in a hug. She was obviously frightened, Mitchell couldn't blame her.

  “I don't want to go with him!” Lilly protested to Mitchell.

  “I know. We'll be OK Lilly. We're going to go with him to mommy and daddy and it'll all be OK.” He tried to assure her that she didn't need to be scared, which he didn't find easy to do through the fact that he was just as scared.

  “Promise?” Lilly looked him in the eyes. He cheeks were puffy from crying and her eyes were red from the strain.

  “I...” He stopped for a second. It was going to hurt but he had to do it. “I promise Lilly. We'll be OK.” He walked back to his room, exam room seven, and opened the door. He noticed that Andrei didn't follow him, but he really didn't need to; it wasn't like there was an exit in the exam room. He sat Lilly down on the bed and packed up what he had scattered into his backpack. He looked around frantically to make sure that he had grabbed everything he needed. He picked her back up and walked out into the hallway.

  “Alright, come on.” Andrei started walking back through the hallway. Mitchell realized that this would be an ideal time to take him out of the picture and run with Lilly. Then he could sneak into the hallway with her and take King out before he knew what was happening. Mitchell reached down into his pocket, only to realize that he hadn't grabbed his gun at any point in time.

  “Dammit! Hey, I need to go back, I--”

  “Don't have your gun? That's because I have it.” The doctor pulled the pistol half way out of his pocket to show Mitchell. “Mitchell, I know that you are probably frightened by all of this, but it's best that you just comply with what I ask you to do. I don't want to hurt you, or Lilly, or anyone else, but I will do what I have to do to get done what I have to get done. If that means killing you, Lilly, Darren, Madison, or Kayla, then I will do it.” Mitchell looked at the floor. It was obvious that Andrei was talking business and business alone. Mitchell wasn't sure what the business was exactly, but it was definitely serious. They continued down the hallway to the commons and over to the entrance. Andrei pulled his radio from his side and pushed the button. “We're coming in King.” He turned the handle and the three of them walked into the connecting hallway. Mitchell noticed immediately that Darren, Kayla, and Madison were no longer there. He didn't want to assume that the worst had occurred, but he wasn't sure what he should assume at this point. He was being led by a man with an incredibly thick accent, through a room with a man holding a rifle, into an area that the group had yet to explore. At this point he was beginning to regret going for his late night walk, though, he wasn't sure if all this would have happened if he hadn't. Mitchell decided that he wasn't sure of anything at this point in time.

  “Andrei, can you at least tell me what's going on? Where is everyone else?” Mitchell attempted to plea with the doctor. Andrei turned back towards Mitchell.

  “Listen, Mitchell, you are fine. Your friends are fine. You will continue to be fine so long as you just follow me and do what I ask. I get that you are probably frightened, but annoying me will only get you killed, which is something I really don't want to.” He turned back and walked a little farther. “Especially not you.” Mitchell hated these kinds of responses. The only thing Mitchell hated more than not getting an answer to his question, was getting one that didn't actually answer the question. Andrei opened the door and stood holding it open. He motioned Mitchell to go ahead of him. Mitchell stopped for a moment and looked at him. He sighed and continued through the entry to the east wing.

  The entrance was as he remembered, everything looked the same with the exception of it being completely abandoned. Mitchell assumed that the entire hospital was likely to be lifeless. Andrei walked in and locked the door behind him. Mitchell considered this for a moment; it wasn't that he was locking them in, he was locking anyone else that may be coming out. His next immediate thought was of Brynn.

  “Wait, Andrei, what if one of your, uh, soldiers?” He assumed they were legitimately part of the military, so he went with soldiers over minions. “Anyways, what if one of your soldiers finds Brynn? Do they have a key as well?” He wasn't sure why he was asking if they had a key, he was more so curious
about whether or not he was looking for her.

  “Brynn... she won't be joining us Mitchell.” Andrei looked up at him and removed his gas mask. He had brown hair that was beginning to turn grey, but was well kept. The sides were short, but the top was longer and combed pointing forward. His chin was masked with a brown patch of hair. He pulled a pair of glasses from his front pocket and put them over his eyes. “I'm sorry. King, take our guests to their room please.”

  King hung the strap of his gun over his shoulder and removed his mask as well. He was a dark skinned man with a rugged jaw. His head was shaved, but his black hair was beginning to grow back into place. Mitchell noticed that he had what appeared to be a wound starting at the end of his eye and running to the back of his head on the left side. Mitchell guessed that whatever had caused the wound must have been incredibly painful. While Mitchell had found himself curious and somewhat sympathetic, he was more so wondering if he could pry more information out of King. Mitchell looked down one of the hallways to see if he could find the others, but there were no signs of them.

  King waved for Mitchell to follow him. He looked down at Lilly to see how she was as he hadn't heard from her for a while. Her eyes were shut tightly and she was completely unconscious. Mitchell wondered if she had just fallen asleep, or if she had passed out from what Mitchell assumed was some sort of knock-out gas. He put the thought aside and followed closely behind King. They wandered down the hallway to a set of double doors. King pulled a key from his pocket, unlocked and opened the door. As Andrei had done, he motioned for Mitchell to go first. Mitchell stepped through the door way and turned back to talk to King.

  “So if you're military then that means that--” His sentence was interrupted by an arm gripping him around the throat and a hand forcing a cloth over his mouth. Mitchell was well aware of the fact that King was going to force him down with chloroform. His concern was less about his safety and more for the five-year-old girl that he was holding on to “Wait, King, take her… before...I...” Mitchell felt himself fading out.

  “I got her.” Mitchell was fairly sure he heard King respond with this assurance, but couldn't be certain. Everything went dark at a pace that he couldn't resist; he knew that he wasn't going to be able to, but wanted to at least try. As soon as he fell unconscious everything went silent. The dark silence rang in his head for several moments, he wasn't even able to collect his thoughts.

  “Someone get the doctor in here now!” The silence in his head was broken by a voice yelling in a state of panic. It was a voice that Mitchell knew, one that he had heard a million times before. “Oh, god, Mitchell. Come on, wake up!” He felt cold and numb. He attempted to pull himself out of the deep sleep but with no success.

  “What? What's going on?” Another voice interrupted his silence. This voice was deeper, but still familiar. The sound of the voice sent chills down Mitchell's spine, but he wasn't sure why. “Why are you screaming?”

  “He was waking up! I saw it! His eyes fluttered!” The sweet voice echoed out again. “I know he was waking up! You have to believe me!” She sounded like she cared. After all that Mitchell had been through, he was surprised to hear a voice that cared so much. 'Wait...' Mitchell realized that he was once again able to think. 'I'm out again. Am I just imagining this, or do I really hear Aria?' He tried to open his eyes again, but he still felt paralyzed.

  “He hasn't been responsive for a while now Aria, I don't think he was waking up. It was probably a muscle spasm or something of that nature.” The sound of hope that was produced by Aria's voice was quickly dismissed by the doctors. Mitchell felt determined to prove the doctor wrong, he pushed himself one last time to wake up, and slowly pulled his eyes open. As he slowly opened his eyes the light forced itself into his pupil.

  “Mitchell!” Aria stood over him and put her hand on his face. “I knew you'd wake up!” As he slowly adjusted to the light in the room he saw her face right in front of him. He could tell that she was crying by the swelling around her eyes.

  “Aria, why are you crying?” He smiled at her and she smiled back.

  “Let me check him, hang on.” Aria moved back and another familiar face moved into his vision. His eyes were fully adjusted to the light, so he was able to see the person as clear as day. “Hey, Mitchell. I'm doctor--”

  “Rafferty. Yeah, I know who you are Madison.” Mitchell found it weird that Madison felt the need to introduce herself. It was then at this moment that he realized it was Aria sitting next to the bed. The one person he had been trying to find for the last week was right next to him. “Wait, Aria, when did you get here?”

  “She's been here by your side every single day Mr. Swartz. You've got yourself a great woman.” Madison stepped back went to the counter in the back of the room.

  “I'm just glad I finally found you! This last week has been--” Mitchell stopped for a moment and took in his surroundings. He wasn't in the dark hallways of the east wing. He looked around and saw people walking around outside of his room. The lights were bright and Madison was typing away on a computer. He looked down at himself; he was lying in a bed, wearing a hospital gown. There was a needle in his arm and several diodes connected to his chest. “Wait, why am I in a bed? What am I hooked up to? Where's Dar--”

  “Calm down Mitchell. It's OK. Madison said you probably wouldn't remember anything.” Aria looked over at Dr. Rafferty.

  “I'll leave you two alone for a moment. He seems to be OK, but if anything changes press that emergency button. We're going to have to monitor him pretty closely.” She smiled at Mitchell. “You've been out for quite a while there big guy. I'm sure your sweetheart here is going to want to talk to you about all this.” She walked over to the door and exited, closing it behind her. Mitchell could see her saying something to a nurse and the nurse nodding in confirmation.

  “I don't understand, what did she mean?” Mitchell looked back at Aria. “I haven't been out that long. Chloroform doesn't put you to sleep for extended periods of time like that.” Mitchell continued to look around the room. Nothing that he could see made much sense.

  “Chloroform?” Aria looked at Mitchell confused. “You have absolutely no recollection of what happened do you? Mitchell, you weren't drugged or anything like that.” Mitchell returned his gaze to her. He thought about the situation for a moment; all of this had to be a dream. He remembered King putting him under, he could even recall the slightly sweet scent of the chloroform.

  “I get it. This is a dream. I'm unconscious and imagining all of this.” Mitchell had assured himself that none of this was real. “Within a few minutes I'm going to look back at you and you're going to be infected and I'll scream and then wake up. It's happened several times already.”

  “Infected? No...” Aria paused. “Mitchell, I don't know what you were dreaming while you were in a coma, but there's no one here infected with anything and I'm certainly not infected.” She looked at him. The look on her face was a scared one, one that looked like it was considering the possible outcome of every possible situation that could come to fruition within the next few minutes. It was a look that Aria never showed unless she was seriously concerned.

  “Coma?” He returned her sentence with a simple question. “I've been in a coma? How long?” He thought he would entertain the idea.

  “A little over six months.”

  “And tell me how that happened please.”

  “Six months ago you were heading to work and you were in a pretty bad car crash. It had been really cold; it was snowing and raining off and on. You were a couple of blocks away from the house and the other person lost control of their van and hit you on the passenger side. They ended up rolling their car and you ended up upside down in someone’s yard. The rescue teams got you out and got you here, but you've been unconscious since.” She sniffed in, Mitchell knew this meant she was crying again. “I'm just glad you're finally awake.”

  “That doesn't make sense. It was a week ago that the outbreak happened. You left to go che
ck your mother, even though I told you not to. I waited overnight and then went out looking for you. I ended up at a downtown office building on my way here to find you and met...” He stopped and turned his head. He looked straight ahead with a blank stare. “The people that hit me, did they live?”

  “No. All three of them were pronounced dead on the scene.” She was taken aback by this question.

  “Three of them? A mother, a father and a five-year-old daughter?” Mitchell wasn't sure why he felt the need to ask this, but he did.

  “Yeah, how did you kn--”

  “Darren, Kayla and Lilly-Anne Barber.” He looked back at Aria. “Were those their names? Darren, Kayla and Lilly-Anne? Darren had black slicked back hair, was physically fit with a slightly rugged jaw? He looked like he was the type to run on a treadmill for an hour just to escape his problems? Kayla was freckled, had dyed red hair and auburn colored eyes? She was a little thicker, but still fairly attractive?” He paused and took a breath in. He could feel the cold air pierce his lungs. “And their daughter, Lilly?” He had the sense that he was about to burst into tears. “Had Darren's black hair and her mother's round face? Adorable as could be? Was kind of sassy and hated being called Lilly-Anne?” He leaned his head back and felt himself weeping.

  “Mitchell, please calm down. I don't get it. How did you know all that? Did you know them?” Aria tried to get some more information out of Mitchell. He desperately wanted to answer her, but couldn't get past his forceful crying. He remained with his head back and tears streaming down his face, he wasn't even sure why he was crying at this point. He was horrified that they were dead, but, if it was all a coma dream, then he didn't know them. If none of what he had thought he experienced had happened then, they were just figments of his imagination in the end and he had no reason to be this angry. He considered the possibility of him just filling in the blanks and being correct, but it was incredibly unlikely. He compared that to the possibility of a parasite spreading through the water of the city and infecting thousands of people causing a horrifying apocalyptic scene and came to the same conclusion; neither was possible. He tried to pull himself together.