Once Bitten, Twice Dead - By Bianca D'Arc Page 0,5
since they showed up. How are you feeling? Headache?”
The woman could certainly babble with the best of them, Sarah thought. At least she was asking the right questions as she pulled a penlight out of her pocket and checked Sarah’s pupils. But why was the army involved? What in the world was going on here?
First things first. Sarah submitted to the woman’s fussing, answering her questions.
“Bad headache,” Sarah reported. It felt a lot worse after being stabbed with the beam from the nurse’s penlight.
“That’s to be expected. You were out for quite a while. Dr. Singh is our top neurologist. He’s been concerned that you were unconscious so long, but the others seemed to think it was to be expected.”
“What others? I have more than one doctor?” Sarah had a hard time following the nurse’s chatter. “How long was I out?”
The woman stopped moving to look at her. “Almost a week, dear. You were brought in last Tuesday. Today is Monday.”
“You’re kidding.” It felt like she had blacked out just a few minutes ago, although there had to have been time to get her from the scene to the hospital. She’d expected the nurse to say an hour or two, but almost a week? It didn’t seem possible.
“Sorry. It really has been almost a week. I guess it probably feels like a lot less to you, huh?” The woman looked kindly at her. The door opened and a dark-haired man in a white coat and face mask entered. “Here’s Dr. Singh now. He can tell you more.”
The nurse moved aside to let the doctor examine her.
“Hello. I am Dr. Singh, head of neurology.” He used his own penlight to check her pupils, then looked at the readouts on the machines at her bedside before turning back to her.
Sarah didn’t have time to acknowledge him as he bustled about. The introduction seemed a mere formality to him, to which he didn’t expect a reply.
“You’re doing well. How are you feeling?” The man was abrupt, with a thick accent. Sarah liked his no-nonsense approach.
“My head hurts. Muscles ache a bit. I won’t be running a marathon anytime soon, but I’m okay.”
“Good.”
While he’d been talking, a few more white-coated people had entered the room. They formed a line near the wall, and she realized then that she was in a single room that seemed a lot larger than the average hospital cell. Everyone wore masks and at least one of the men in back wore camouflage fatigues under an oversized lab coat that wasn’t buttoned, with a distinctive bulge under one shoulder. He was armed. Now, wasn’t that interesting.
What the hell had she stumbled into?
“Who was the other guy? I take it he wasn’t with you.” She looked pointedly around the room, making eye contact with the armed man as he stepped forward. Concern was written clearly on his face.
“What other guy?” His voice rolled over her, smooth and faintly accented.
“The doctor who came in when I first woke.” She looked over at the nurse. “She saw him.”
The nurse looked flustered. “I didn’t recognize him and he wasn’t wearing containment gear. He left right before you arrived.”
“Seal the ward,” the man in the camo pants ordered, and two men scurried out of the room to fulfill his command. “Nurse…” He seemed to search for her name tag.
“Aspen. Hillary Aspen, R.N.,” she supplied.
“Nurse Aspen”—he seemed to make an effort to charm the woman, or maybe it just came naturally to him—“I’d like you to go with Sam over there and tell him what this other doctor looked like. If you see the doctor in the corridor, I want you to tell Sam and no one else. Okay?”
The nurse visibly gulped. “All right.”
She allowed herself to be ushered out of the room with Sam, who’d been among the people standing in back. They were down to three now: the man who seemed to be in charge, another man who wore what looked like a perpetual frown, and a woman who just looked frightened.
Dr. Singh examined her skull with his fingers, then reached for her chart to make a notation. He took a moment to study a few pages in the chart before turning back to her.
“You should progress well from here. I was concerned that you remained unconscious so long, but my colleagues seem to think that might have been caused by other factors. Regardless, your head appears to be coming along nicely.”
The man’s thick accent made it hard to follow his rapid speech, but