After I cried for what felt like hours with Rex awkwardly patting me and trying to comfort me, we heard a sound, “Rex Malakos please report to cell 24b, thank you”
I looked up at him and wiped tears away from my eyes. “Is... is that where they’re keeping her?” My voice was scratchy. He nodded, “why is she in a cell?” I licked my cracked lips.
“We don’t know.” He admitted, “ the goo seemed to have consumed her, but it didn’t drag her back like it did Hagen. It did something to her brain. She can’t see. She can’t hear. She can’t even think properly. She attacks anything that touches her. She just.” He sighed, “she seemed so scared Lou. It's been three days and we still don't know anything.”
How? Why? I curled up into a ball so that he wouldn’t see me cry anymore, but it backfired because my sobs could probably be heard at the far end of the galaxy.
“I don’t want to leave, but...”
I looked up at him my face red and puffy. “If... if it’s... if it’s possible to communicate with her can... can you tell her I love her and... I’m so sorry”
“It’s not your fault!” He said, “you couldn’t have done anything, or known”
“I should have done more research. I should have said that we had to wait once we saw it on the screens!” I choked down another sob.
“I have to go. I’m sorry.” And with that, he stood up straight and left me all alone.
I sat there and cried until there were no tears left to cry. Only then did I realize how hungry I was. I grabbed the handcuff keys from a side table and got up. I almost fell over but braced myself against the side of the bed. Once my eyes came back into focus I slowly walked towards the door.
In the hallway, I knew exactly where I was. The wall had a R15 plaque. I was only 3 levels below the anti-terrorist force and 2 levels below my lab.
I walked down the hallway to the elevator. Shaking in the thin gown all the way. Once inside I pushed the button labeled Anti-T (not to be confused with Anti-thànatos).
I walked out of the elevator and was greeted with the familiar sound of Captain Loughty barking orders at trainees. As soon as Captain Loughty saw me the room went silent. “Hey Cap,” I said putting my hand to my forehead in salute.
“You woke up.” His voice was gruff but I had grown to hear bits of emotion when he talked, and I could detect relief. “Who told you that you could stand around all willy nilly? Get back to work the whole lot of you!”
“Ya miss me?” I asked walking over to the Captain.
“Of course I missed my best student. Everyone else around here doesn’t know how to take orders.” His face darkened. “When did you wake up? Do... do you...”
“Rex told me about Alliea.” I wiped my face. “I don’t know how I survived, so don’t ask me.” His lips hinted at a smile.
“You know when you first arrived here you never talked, but Alliea has rubbed off on you.” I could hear the pain in his voice even though it was hidden under a layer of husk. He had always loved her like a daughter.
His holowatch beeped. He looked down, “You need to go back to your hospital room. You weren’t supposed to leave in the first place.”
I smiled, “Well you did say Alliea rubbed off on me, and she was most famous at being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I obeyed and left. Going slowly back to the clinic.
At my room, I was greeted by Dr. Bartholomew. He was a tall thin man with red scales and his head seemed to branch off like the limbs of a tree on top, instead of hair. He was an odd race, thought to be extinct until one day he showed up. He was from Eldorado. A planet that was just recently revealed to the world. He always wore odd black glasses, and he was my idol. He had a million different doctorates, and was, in my opinion, the smartest man alive. He designed space ships, vaccines, and he was an expert in radiation and medicine.
“Hello Miss Lou, how are you feeling today?” His voice had an unexpected calm to it.
“Like a ship reck.” I said smiling like a maniac to be in the presence of my idol, “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“To be honest Dr. Lou... you amaze me,” my eyes probably doubled in size. “You are an undecipherable case! The first I can’t figure out in who knows how long!”
“But I don’t have a disease so what is it you can’t figure out?” I asked, my stomach growling. I still needed something to eat.
“When Alliea woke up... we decided to ex-ray you in case what happened to her happened to you too,” he was clearly a bit flustered, “But when we tried to do the ex-ray our screens all turned goopy and stopped working.” He paused, and I sat down, my legs turning to jelly.
“Since the x-ray didn’t work we decided to take a sample of your blood, but when I put in the syringe-“
I cut him off, “Let me guess. It broke instead of going in?”
“No.” He said frowning, “Instead of blood a white gooey substance came out.”
I rubbed my temple. Honestly what he said wasn’t surprising after almost being eaten by space goo.
“I am going to need you to give me a full testimony of what happened. You can wait till you’re mentally prepared though.”
“No, I’m ready.” My stomach growled, “I just really need something to eat first. I feel like I could eat a small moon.”