Nillium Neems by Francisco J Ruiz Page B

throughout the ward.
Everyone would be hunting me now. Mousy rustled worriedly upon my
shoulder, his eyes swiveling back and forth looking for a route of
escape. There was none. It was all just hallway and random doors,
leading either to offices or patients rooms.
    One of them opened, a doctor I’d never seen
before poking his head out to see what the hubbub was about. I
waved at him cheerfully and smiled. He gave me a confused look. I
gave him a thumbs up in return. Shaking his head, deciding he
didn’t want to deal with me, the doctor withdrew back into his
office. I continued running, hoping to find some stairs leading up
to the third floor.
    A door opened a little
further down from where I stood and a large mass slowly shambled
out to confront me. It was hard to even tell what faced me, just a
massive pile of stuff . I saw what looked like fire hoses, lots of what seemed to
be moss, and bits of moldy hospital clothes and
blankets.
    The creature made a loud huffing sound, like
a dog choking on a hairball, and then shambled menacingly towards
me. It was like a walking pile of trash. Not even wanting to deal
with this Shambler, I turned and ran back the way I’d come, taking
a different turn in the hall that might offer a route of
escape.
    Within moments I found an old set of fire
stairs and ran up them, slamming open the door at the top. Sunlight
hit me in the face, forcing me to shield my eyes. The Tree from the
yard rose towering above me, even here at the top of Atrium. I took
it as a good sign.
    As I turned away from it, hoping I might
find some ladder or something leading straight down, a Warden hit
me from behind with his baton. I tried to push myself back up with
my arms, but the man kicked them out from under me. The sound of
others running up the stairs assailed my ears, moments before they
too joined in on the fun.
    They hit me, again and again, bruising and
breaking my helpless little body. I rolled onto my back, trying to
protect myself with my arms as much as possible. It wasn’t much
use. Fully half of the attacking wardens were Monsters, who rather
expectedly, were the ones that hit me the hardest.
    I was down and out, poor me soon beaten into
unconsciousness and hauled off to God knew where. The last thought
I had before the darkness took me was a hope that my death would at
least be quick.
    Time passed. I’m not sure how long. Even
here in the dark, I did not dream. So it seemed like only seconds
before I woke up, finding myself strapped to a chair surrounded by
doctors. Though I knew it had to have been longer than that.
    I couldn’t see too well, since one eye was
swollen shut and the other was close, but I could make out Dr.
Higgins. That man so obsessed with dreams who just could not
believe I was incapable of the phenomena. Beside him stood the
emotionless Dr. Sirius, and behind him was dear Dr. Flagham,
wringing his hands nervously while watching me. There were a few
other doctors standing about, some I knew and some I didn’t, but
Sirius and Higgins were the highlights.
    A lesser doctor who stood in the corner, a
man I’d always known as Dr. Cornwall, was obviously a Monster. He
was grinning at me, though I’m sure no one noticed. I also spotted
my Snoopy Cap, chucked uncaringly onto a table in the corner. That
more than anything made my blood boil.
    The doctors had been engaged in some kind of
discussion, but broke it off once they saw I was awake. Sirius
stepped forwards till he was right in front of me.
    "Feeling well?" he asked calmly, a simple
enquiry as if they hadn’t just nearly beaten me to death.
    "More so than you can ever imagine," I
replied, thinking back to Siegfried telling me that I was not blind
like the others but could See.
    Dr. Sirius stared at me, perplexed by my
answer. He then shook his head as if to dismiss anything I had to
say as irrelevant.
    "No matter," he confirmed, waving a hand and
motioning two doctors I didn’t know to step forward. "The Board of
Directors