章 16: Sixteen: Asleep. Awake.
"Miss Wallace. Jean? Wake up. Wake up. Doctor, come and see what's wrong with her. She hasn't moved for two days. Look. She hasn't even eaten."
A hand shook my shoulder and I peered through my heavy eyelids. They felt swollen and difficult to open. My entire body ached and felt leaden. I wished they would go away and just leave me alone. All I wanted was to sleep.
A cuff was put around my upper arm. I heard the buzz of a motor and the familiar puffing sound of a blood pressure machine. A finger peeled my eyelid open and shone a painful light into each eye and I struck out to push that person away. The sharp pain sent a piercing rod of pain straight through my brain. It was like I was being skewered. Something was stuck in my ear and clicked.
"Jean? Jean, I'm Dr Thorne. You haven't been well. We're going to bring you to the hospital. Ok?"
"Huh? Go 'way. Tired. Lemme sleep," I tried to push him away. "Whassamatta?"
"Your blood pressure and heart rate are very low and so is your temperature. Can you sit up?"
"Don' wanna. Go 'way."
"Sit up, Jean. Come on, here we go."
"No. No. Let me go. Let me go!"
"We're bringing you to the hospital, ok? No need to be scared. You're all right. You're all right."
"No. Not all right. Go 'way. Lemme sleep."
I was too weak to fight them and was strapped to a stretcher.
"What have you people been doing? Is this how you look after people you're supposed to be taking care of? Have you even been feeding her? She's so light."
"It was an accident. We forgot about her for a bit. There was a lot happening."
"I'm going to report this. Don't let me see this happen to any of the other residents here. They should be given time to go out and exercise. To at least sit in the sun. You know what you're supposed to do. She's already passed the initial checks, right? Why haven't you let her out?"
"A mistake. It was a mistake."
*
There was a disturbing ride in a vehicle where people kept disturbing me and waking me up. Then I was pushed out into an air conditioned building with that smell unique to hospitals. More people poked and prodded me. A needle was stuck into the back of my hand and when they couldn't find my vein, they had to search for one in my elbow. They tried to make me eat or drink but the stuff wouldn't go down properly. I kept choking or it came back up.
After a while, they finally left me alone and let me sleep.
And then I was AWAKE. Very awake.
Sitting up, I looked around a busy ward room and took deep breaths of hospital air. I thought back to what had happened to me in my little bathroom prison and wondered what that feeling had been. Is that what happened to some people who were sent to solitary in prisons? Did they get so depressed that they just laid down and died? Did I just nearly die? Was my mental strength that weak? I had always thought that I was pretty tough - both mentally and physically. What was wrong with me?
A nurse came around to check my vital signs.
"Awake now, are you, Miss Wallace?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "What happened?"
"Neglect of duty and a breach of human rights, I believe," a nurse twitched her nose at me. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"
"Fine," I replied, swinging my legs out of bed. "I feel perfectly fine now. I couldn't seem to wake up before but now I'm all right."
"The doctor said that you can go back once the IV drip has finished," the nurse gestured. "Your blood pressure is better and your temperature is back to normal. You have a bit of a cold there but it's not anything you'll need to take tablets for. A bit of vitamin C and plenty of fluids should do it for you. Your vitamin D levels were also very low, so the doctor has prescribed you daily vitamin D capsules and regular time out in the sun."
A cold? I hardly ever got sick. Ever. I supposed it wasn't a big surprise to catch a cold after spending a night and morning after the invasion soaked to the skin. My room wasn't very warm either. Still, shouldn't I have shaken that off by now? How many days had it been? My body and immune system was meant to be strong. Why was it so weak? A cold should have been over within two days. What was this?
"May I go to the toilet?"
The nurse helped me with the IV pole so that I could go to the toilet and escorted me back to bed. Hours later, I was allowed to leave the hospital. I stood at the front of the hospital feeling at a bit of a loss as to what to do. While I knew the city very well, it still took me a bit of time to find my bearings. I seldom came to this part of the city. Then checking the time, I realised that if I was going to make it back to the Compound before curfew, I was going to have to either walk very fast or run. There didn't seem to be anyone who was going to take me back.
Despite my legs feeling a bit wobbly, a run would probably be the perfect thing to help them wake up. Although I knew the bus routes, I doubted the busses were back up and running just yet. My own two legs would have to be my own transport.
Hup ho. Here we go.
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