Thinking of Ash occupied the majority of my time.
I felt positive that he was alive, but in what condition, I didn’t know. After seeing him, it had become more apparent of how ill he had been. It wasn’t serious, but it was enough to worry me, and I had no doubt in my mind that they weren’t feeding him antibiotics and chicken soup. But Razi did seem intent on keeping him alive, to use him as a tool to get me to obey her wishes.
But what were her wishes? What on earth did she want from me? I was a survivor, representing the sort of ideal that she was looking for, but there had to be more of us out there, more than just a dirty, disgusting, confused eighteen-year-old girl. What could I possibly provide for them? I was no stronger than the goons she had sent after me, and no smarter than the team of scientists and doctors she obviously had.
I couldn’t take it any longer. My hunger was gnawing at me from the inside. I had experienced a lack of food in the past six months but not like this. I went with very little, but never had I gone with none at all. I grabbed the plate off the tray, knocking the fork to the floor with an astonishingly loud clatter. The food was cold, but tasted like heaven. I ignored the fork that lay on the ground beside me and dug into the food, tearing off strips of cold chicken with my fingers and stuffing it in my mouth.
When I had nearly licked the plate completely clean, I set it on the floor, feeling a pain in my stomach. I knew it was in part because I had eaten entirely way too much way too fast, but I also knew a part of it was guilt. I had not even lasted a few hours. Who knew what was in that food?
I drifted in and out of dreamless sleep, not bothering to stand up and return to the chair. The ground was cold, hard and uncomfortable beneath me, but I barely registered this through my exhaustion. I kept imagining the sound of footsteps just outside the door, but when I crept over, there was nothing, and I started to wonder if I was going insane from being alone.
Time passed. I didn’t know how long. It could have been hours or days. The only sign of life besides me was the delivery of food. I never saw it appear. I would fall asleep, my head rested against the tile in the shower, or lying across the smooth counter top, and when I would wake, a new tray would be there, ready with a new meal for me.
I gave up on the idea of avoiding food. I was hungry, and the taste of real food, the first real food I’d had in so long, was too much. My body was growing used to it and would growl audibly each time a new meal was delivered. I would consume it fast, stuffing the food in my mouth before I could really think about what I was doing. After the deed was done, I would be filled with an overwhelming wave of guilt and would retreat back to my corner, my knees curled up to my chest.
A week must have passed, maybe longer, when someone finally came into my room. I was dozing only half conscious when the lights in my room came on fully and I jerked up, startled. The door opened slowly. A week ago, I would have run for it, pushed whoever was there out of the way and ran for my life. Now, I could only look at them, my eyes glazed. There was no energy. I was only a listless bag of bones.
There were two men, young men, probably mid to late twenties. They were both dressed in similar outfits to mine, nurses’ scrubs, but theirs were pure white, and had the Sekhmet goddess stitched on the front pocket. One went immediately to the large screen, typing quickly and navigating so quickly I could hardly keep up. The other came toward me, and lifted me to my feet. I didn’t fight him; I just leaned uselessly on him. My eyes met his for a moment, and I noticed that he was fairly good looking. I wanted to speak, find some sort of sympathy in his kind, brown eyes. Maybe he wanted to be here just as little as I did.
He stuck me hard, with a needle, right above my hip, and I immediately lost any sort of sympathy for him. I glared at him, but he ignored me. A strange sensation was filling my body, and I started to lose feeling in my legs. I slipped, heading toward the ground.
He caught me before I could fall and swung me up into his arms. “Damn it. I didn’t really want to have to carry her all the way there,” he said, his voice full of disgust.
His companion laughed. “You shouldn’t have stuck her with that so early then. Besides, you’re the one that volunteered to come and get her. Hoping she’ll be your match, Tommy?”