A Digital Trip

A long period of silence had given me time to play scenarios through my mind. They all ended with me dead, or close to it.

"Get ready to move," he broke the silence and the engine of a car revved on his side, "now."

I slowly swung the large door open and its creaking echoed in the hall. I had held my breath and froze.

"Are you kidding me?" What was he expecting?

"I can't contr-"

"Move it, your window is closing," he spoke over me, urgency evident. I slid out the door, crouching down and went left in the hall by an unattended nurse's station.

"What now?" I whispered.

"Stay put." As he'd said it, the sound of footsteps pattering across the linoleum went by the opposite side of the station. I'd put my hands over my face to try and muffle my breathing, "It's just the nurse, relax."

"She'll be checking on me shortly," I retorted his "relax."

"I've got it," he huffed, "you need to go around the desk and stay left."

I crawled around the desk, stood up, and checked the right end of the hall; the nurse wasn't there. Three of the call-lights illuminated the dark corridor and then two more lit up right before I turned left. I tip-toed across the cold floor down the hall and stopped short of the corner. "Do I go?"

"Hold on," he interrupted as the elevator chimed and my ears pricked up, "you need to hide. Quick."

"What is it?" I backed down the hall and started turning doorknobs, but with no luck. "Everything's locked, what's going on?" It was then that I heard the chime again and the elevator's mechanical doors open, followed by several footsteps.

A door I rushed by clicked and I paused mid-stride and almost crashed onto my face, "Dry storage. Move it," he tried to even out his tone.

I opened the door and did my best to close it quietly. I put my back against the door and slid down. "Who the hell is that?"

"Fixers."

"Oh," like maintence or something, "I thought it was the 'trouble' ". I felt relieved.

"At what point do you consider yourself in trouble?" He sounded amused and I couldn't figure out why.

"I guess when someone's trying to kill me," I felt a bit more relieved his tone shifted.

"Consider yourself in trouble."

"What? Why?" Were they murderous janitors?

"Fixers, you haven't heard of them?" Amusement still clung to his words, he felt comfortable like this.

"Uh, they're not maintenance people, are they?"

"I guess you could say that..." he sounded ominous as someone on the otherside of the door tried the handle and moved on. "Fixers, they 'fix' things."

"Oh god," I listened through the door and tried to guess how many there were, "what am I supposed to do?"

"Get ready to open the door and run for the elevator." I heard the engine on his side shut off, the background void of the low rumble.

"I can't, they're right there."

"If you want to live through this, you will," I heard a car door shut on his side, "now go!"

I hesitated grabbing the knob, I could hear them not far from the door. This guy had no reason to help me. Maybe he was one of these guys--a fixer. Maybe he wanted me dead. I pushed it aside and pulled the door open.

My first mistake was that I paused in the middle if the hall when I saw three men with guns drawn turn to face me and aim. My second mistake was sliding on the floor with my hospital-issued socks and failing to regain traction for what felt like an eternity. My third mistake was that I got shot in the back and froze in shock. I could hear the car-jacker yell repeatedly over the phone "fucking move," and I tried to. Pain radiated through my body and the fixers came in.

Adrenaline finally coursed through me and gave me a much-needed shove. I got up, unable to feel the pain for a moment and ran for the elevator. As I neared, the doors sprang open and I hit the wall to stop myself. I turned to face the fixers and as if they perfected synchronized assassinations, they drew at the same time and walked in the same pace. "Take cover," I could faintly hear. I hid behind the wall with the fire emergency panel and the doors casually dinged shut. The sound of gun fire rang out against the doors until the elevator descended one full level down.

I touched the left side of my chest and pulled my hand away to see blood. I was unsure if it was from the bullet to the back or if I'd been shot more than once, but pain started to rush back and I heard a cry escape my mouth.

"Hey," I could hear my phone. I picked it up, looking at the battery before I put it to my face, 2%. "Are you hit?" I cried harder. "Answer me, are you hit?"

I looked up at the camera over head, I could hear its mechanical workings turning it left and right quickly, "did you see?"

"You're directly under the camera, I can't see." he sounded somewhere between calm and maybe almost worried.

"I'm fine." There was that word again.

"Ok," he hesitated, "they'll be expecting you in the lobby, so I'm taking you to the basement."

If there was anything I hadn't been oblivious to, it was what was in the basement of hospitals--the morgue. Lots of dead people. I didn't want to go there. I felt like I'd be going there to die. "No!" I cried out into the phone as it played the "shutting down" tune. My phone had died. I cried harder and banged the elevator doors as it slipped from the lobby down towards the basement.

The elevator stopped and the camera above had stop turning frequently. The doors dinged, opened, and then began to close. I reached my foot out I'm between the doors to keep the elevator there. I tried powering on my phone again, but it immediately shut off once it competed going through the start up screen.

I had wanted to get up, to start looking for a way out of this mess, but my body was stiff. I opted to crawl and even calling it a crawl was debatable. I spotted a large metal sink down the hall: it was tall and deep enough for me to hide under, all I had to do was make it over there.

I'd made it over in record wounded time. The elevator was called up and I watched from the end of the hall as the light stopped on the first floor and then the elevator began its climb down. I had hoped that with the basement being key-access only it'd have taken them longer to figure out a way down.

The doors open and two men stepped out. I watched add they looked at the ground and followed an imaginary l line right at me. It was drops and smears of blood, there'd been almost no point in hiding. One tapped the other on the shoulder and pointed me out, locking eyes.

Surprisingly I'd felt calm. I had been so worried through this thing that knowing how it'd end felt relaxing. I enjoyed the predictability. That was until ask of the lights a wound down and the emergency lights struggled to kick on.

I couldn't see anything-it was pitch black, but I felt a hand cover my mouth and I was ripped out from m y hiding place by my arm. I spilt over, trying to smack or hit whoever it was, but to no avail. I was pulled up but an arm and someone's arm we're under my own and around my back. The weight of my leaning and being supported by my arm caused me to cry out from stretching my back. The wounds didn't feel like spots that'd hurt--it was everywhere. Gun shots rang out and the pace picked up. I couldn't see where I was going--or who this was. Though, I was pretty sure they'd get sour too.

A hard metal sound rang our and I'd realized that my saviour had kicked a door open. My knees buckled at the sight of stairs, "Stand." I'd recognized the demanding voice.

"You?"


"Me." He started for the stairs and practically dragged me down them. A car, parked on the sidewalk, beeped and he opened the front door and rolled me in. The door slammed shut and for a moment everything was quiet until he'd gotten in on the driver's side. The car came to life with a turn of the key and I watched the heads of streetlights pass by from down on the seat. The car jerked and my head smacked the door, "How do you have a license?"

He ignored my question, "So, what part of bleeding all over the floor means you're not hit?"

"Huh?" My mind started to slip as the warm glow of the streetlights faded and the night dotted the sky.

"Hey, stay awake."

"I am. I can't sleep, it hurts." No sooner did I say it, did I realize I recognize I was doing just that.

"Hey?" He called, and I listened while i watched things up ahead. He'd pushed into my back and the sharpness of the pain shot through me--I was instantly nauseous.

I began to heave. "Fuck."

"Stay awake." He turned the car and out it in park and got out. My door opened shortly after followed my being dragged out on my back, "I'm not carrying you, get up." It was the last bit of frustration I'd heard before I slipped off and closed my eyes.