First Chapter: A Compassionate Man

I was sick, and it was bad. I knew it the first moment that I woke up on that first day, and I knew it even more so by the third day. That was the day I began coughing up blood, and the day when Joe, my neighbor who had been taking care of me, caught the disease, and died that same day.
The shear horror of Joe’s death drove me to seek refuge at the hospital, where I not only hoped to cure my illness, but if nothing else I’d hoped that they would keep me quarantined to prevent the spread of infection. However, the doctors were less than pleased to see me when I showed up in their waiting room. I was poor financially, dirty from being sick for so long, and our doctors were still not that well versed in medicine, and I guess that was probably the reason I was looked on with so my distain as I covered my mouth with a cloth and explained what had happened. The doctors and nurses on the other hand, remained unconvinced, but I got my wish anyway.
I was moved into the oldest room in the building, the one that had no source of heat in the middle of winter and was apparently often used as an extra place to store the corpses of people who could not make it through the frigid weather. Considering it was empty, I was probably meant to be it’s first resident, but at least this way I wouldn’t hurt anyone else. Or so I thought…
With only a small woolen blanket, to keep myself warm, the cold some how managed to slow my illness somewhat, but slowing it was the only thing it did. I was still dying, I could feel that much, and the next few days were only a fight to keep curious on-lookers and those that had thought to bring me food from touching me!
“Please…” I begged them over, and over again, using the blanket as a small shield when they tried to grab ahold of me. “Please, don’t touch me!”
It was soon after that, when I would start coughing up blood again -as I had been doing more and more often as the days passed- and upon seeing it, they would scream and run from the room to finally, finally leave me alone… Eventually, people stopped coming altogether, and I could finally rest. In the next few days after being left alone for so long I still don’t know how I survived, but that was when the end came.
My vision was blurred, and blood came up and then went into my lungs with every breath… But the cold did not chill me anymore, and I felt warm. Sleep was coming for me, and with that death, after which I could only hope the disease wouldn’t spread while they were disposing of my body.
The squeak of the metal door could suddenly be heard in the room, as I looked over to see a figure entering the room and coming towards my bed. I moaned, trying to feebly wave them away from me, but knowing I was too weak to do anything about it. “No, please…”
Blood gushed from my lips, and I was thankful my head was already tilted, so I wouldn’t drown in it. Upon seeing my blood, the figure shuttered and altered course for the desk at the foot of my bed instead. After watching the figure move across the room, I suddenly realized that this was the tall figure of a man.
“Dear me!” The man’s voice echoed in the empty room as he picked up something off the desk. “You poor creature… Are you still alive?”
I nodded, trying to pay attention to what he was saying. After nearly falling asleep, trying to stay awake was suddenly much harder, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it much longer. My vision was still blurred, but I could at least tell he had dark clothes on and carried a medicine bag. Was he a doctor?
“No,” The strange man answered. “I’m more of a doctor of sciences really.”
“Then why are you here?” I croaked, feeling the blood pool up in my throat. A suspicion that this man was far from ordinary began to scratch at my head, but I pushed it aside, not wanting to contemplate things that wouldn’t matter.
The man shook his head at me, still picking things off the desk and from the shelves. “Best not the talk, Young Miss.” He answered, and I saw the items in his hands disappear somewhere inside the medicine bag. “I can understand you without the need to speak anyway…”
The suspicion began to itch again, but I ignored it. I looked back at him to speak the words. “Why?” I said instead.
He clicked his tongue at me and closed the bag. “Why indeed…” He shook his head again. “I suppose if you really wish to know, I am here looking for research materials… And your hospital’s security is delightfully vacant.”
I laughed, knowing how poor this area was, but also knowing that none of the staff here would ever lift a finger to protect their patients rather than themselves. I soon regretted it though, as more blood filled my mouth. Honestly, at this point I wasn’t sure whether I was glad to have one final conversation with someone, or if I was happier being left alone, but if I have to be visited by someone, I was glad it was someone like him.
“You, on the other hand,” The man continued, filling his bag with more items. “Are quite the mystery yourself, Young Miss… Forgive me for the cliché, but what is a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”
A vision of Joe’s lifeless body soaked in his own blood flashed before my eyes, and I cringed at the memory, curling into a ball. I didn’t want to see that again! I never wanted to see that happen to anyone ever again!
“I see.” He said, as his hands stilled on the bag. And by the sorrow in his expression, it was almost as if he could. “You poor dear, no wonder you were left here alone… There is no one left to mourn for you.”
I watched him as my vision began to fade in and out of focus, but said nothing. I was beginning to understand now, even if it didn’t make any sense… A great, wracking cough threw me to the edge of the bed, spilled yet more blood out of my body and onto the floor.
I saw the man shudder again out of the corner of my eye, before sighing and picking up his bag, stepping toward the door. “Regardless, my business here is concluded for the day…” He nodded briskly to me as my shaking hands grabbed at the mattress, dragging my body back onto the cot. “Good day to you, Young Miss, and may your current suffering… ease.”
I smiled at his attempt to comfort me. We both knew that I was dying, so I appreciated that he wasn’t trying to placate me with false reassurances. My last thought as the metal door closed quietly behind him, was that the strange doctor’s simple words wishing me good luck, were all I needed to leave this world peacefully.

Second Chapter: A Midnight Ride

Some time later, I woke up. I was still alive, I think, and was surprised to be so. What was even more puzzling, was what had awoken me in the first place?
My eyes scanned the dark room blindly until a soft light from the hallway caught my attention. The door was open… “Young Miss?” I felt my eyes grow wide as a familiar voice crept in through the doorway. “Young Miss, are you still among the living?”
I opened my mouth and coughed, choking on my own words as much as clotted blood. The squeak of the metal door, and the sound of wooden wheels on the floor echoed off the walls of the small room as the strange man from earlier approached my cot. I shrank back as an old terror filled my chest. Dear Gods, if he touches me, I-
“Fear not, Young Miss.” I looked up to find the doctor silhouetted against the light of the doorway, and in his hands, were the handles of an old wheelchair that had been pushed along with him. “I shall not touch you, however in this instance, I still may require your assistance.”
I stared at the rusted wheelchair in disbelief, unsure of what the man was planning. It seemed like he wanted to take me with him out of the hospital, but that was impossible! If I left this place, not only would the doctor probably die, but who knows how many others as well!
I looked up from the chair in alarm at the possibility, but that strange man only shook his head. “Yes, I am taking you from this disgrace of a medical establishment, but I assure you it is not that far, and we shall not come in contact with another living soul on our way there.”
Seeing the chair still sitting there next to my cot, I finally nodded in agreement, and tried to sit up. My arms trembled and dizziness overwhelmed me as I forced my weak body into a sitting position. I collapsed into the wheelchair, bruising my legs on the armrests as I slid into the seat. Blood spurted out from my lips, and I was forced to lean over the side of the chair to keep any more from spilling down my chest, and onto my stomach. My vision tunneled as I struggled to breathe, before blacking out entirely.
When I woke up again, I was being wheeled into another part of the building. The man ushered me through the rusty door and out into an empty hall. I cringed under the flickering lights as the temperature difference stole the breath from my lungs, and burned my body. The man then continued to wheel me down the hall, until the lights had gone out and we were engulfed in darkness…
I heard him click his tongue from above me as the man's steps echoed in the dark. "Useless machines, these 'crank generators'!" The doctor hissed. "Rust-covered monstrosities, the lot of them! I mean really- could it truly cost so much for a can of oil?"
A wave of dizziness swept over me as we turned a corner, but the doctor continued at a steady pace toward the exit. The doctor's quiet muttering was somewhat comforting as we traveled through the dark, and for once I almost felt like I was falling asleep… I haven’t slept peacefully in so long… it made me wonder why he was doing this, and what he was doing.
“In all honesty, feel quite sorry for you,” The man replied, answering my thoughts. “And I shall do my utmost, in the coming hours, to grant your wish and make your last moments more comfortable.”
“Thank you…”
The doctor chuckled. “No need to thank me, Young Miss, I am merely at your assistance.”
It didn’t take long before we were free of the building altogether as the strange doctor pushed me out the last rusted door, and out into the warm air. The stars swam in my vision as I watched them in awe, and in that moment, they were the most beautiful things I had ever seen… I turned away, feeling my heavy body slump in its seat, and saw a small dirt pathway winding up the hill, to the gravestones silhouetted by the moon.
I felt no surprise at our destination, only relief. The strange doctor had kept his promise… and I had only to see what lay before me to know his intentions. Most likely, I will lose consciousness again, before he had even buried me in the ground, and with luck, the pain would end…
“Thank you…” I said again. I tried to look into his eyes, to show him how much I meant it, but for some reason my body didn’t seem to work anymore.
“You are quite welcome, Young Miss.” His voice held a sorrow in it that I understood well, but I wish… it hurts to see others in pain, but it hurt more to that I was the one causing it. “Get some sleep, Young Miss, you have a long journey ahead.”
I laughed to myself as I did so, think how wrong he had been… Even if it’s just for now, I am not alone. I had him.
© Britt Clark