Once both wrists were loosened, the nurse turned to a counter a few feet away and grabbed a Styrofoam cup and handed it to Angelica. Angelica sat up slowly and sipped. The ice had melted some, leaving a small amount of water on the bottom. It wasn’t long until she was upending the cup trying to get it all out. It wasn’t until she had a piece of ice fall out around her face and bounce down her gown that she realized that she’d been changed.
She cleared her throat a couple of times, then picked out an ice cube and tucked it into her cheek. “Thank you,” she said, her voice raspy as the nurse took the restraints off her legs. “I need to use the bathroom.”
“I thought you might,” Coraline said, and held her hands out.
Angel took them cautiously, but the woman didn’t try anything. Angelica found herself to be slightly weak and wobbly on her feet. The nurse led her to a closed door and opened it for her.
“I’ll give you your privacy, but holler if you need help or fall.”
“Ok, thank you.”
When Angelica finished, she found the nurse checking off something on her chart. Angelica made her way over to her.
“Remember sugar, you promised,” Coraline said, barely looking at her.
“I don’t have any reason to hurt you,” Angelica said. “What is this place?”
“You’re in the medical wing of District 10’s Kelso Confinement Center.”
“It’s seriously called that?”
“Yes, unfortunately,” the kindly nurse told her.
“That’s the most fucked up shit I’ve ever heard. Why are you here?” her voice still rasped, so she got some more ice out of the cup.
“I was voluntold.” The woman laughed as she said it. “Lots of people working around here like that. They come in and tell you where you’re going. If you don’t want to go, they make sure you go.”
“What did they do to make you go?” Angelica couldn’t help but ask.
“One day at work, I get a phone call from my neighbor who’d been watching my son, Caleb. Child Services was there with a court order to pick him up. It seems that my refusal to cooperate and get the vaccine they’d pushed through quickly made me an unfit mother. I wasn’t necessarily against it, I just wasn’t ready. It went through so fast. It was so new, I needed time to do some research, and make an informed decision for myself. .”
“They took your kid?” Angelica asked.
“Yes,” Coraline said. Angelica could see a flash of anger in the woman’s eyes. “So, I made a deal with the devil, and here I am. My son Caleb and I now have our own room in the Confinement Center, with our own bathroom. I hate that I had to do it but—”
“What about your husband?” Angelica asked.
“The streets took him from us years ago,” the nurse told her shortly. “Now, do you want food first, or a shower?”
At the word food, Angelica’s stomach growled. “How long was I out?” she asked.
“A few days. They kept you sedated until they could figure out what to do with you.”
“I thought they shot me,” she said, suddenly remembering the pain in her neck. Her hand went to the spot, and she found a raised bump with a small scab there.
“The old guy had some sort of pneumatic tranquilizer gun he used on you. When they brought you in, you were a bloody mess. I thought somebody shanked you in the neck.”
“And you’ve been taking care of me?” Angelica asked.
“Mostly. Other nurses could, but I wanted to make sure you were left alone by the guys, and woke up without any more trauma.”
“Is… are you talking about rape?” Angelica asked.
“What you did… You took on the team that snatched you. They weren’t just some buffoons, that was one of the district's special teams. One of the barrack’s buildings has windows that face the parking area. They saw…”
“I remember a guard running out from one yelling to shoot me before any more get any ideas.”
“Well Hun, they got ideas,” Coraline said, then went to a phone on the wall.
Angelica listened as she ordered her a double helping of lunch to be brought up to the room. She hung up the phone and turned around.
“There was a small uprising on that side of the camp. Several guards were hurt. They blamed you. So, if hurting you while you were sedated… I just wouldn’t let that happen. I’m not 100% for sure it would have, but I feel like I owe you that. Then that creepy older guy is a doc and reminded many of them what a doctor or a nurse could get away with.”
“So, I have him to thank too?” Angelica moaned. “I hate that. Is he still here at the camp?”
“He is,” Coraline said softly. “He’s waiting for something.”
“Yeah, I think I can figure out what.”
“You want to talk about it?” the nurse asked as she pulled out what looked like scrubs and a neck lanyard and put them in a pile on the countertop, then she bent over and from a small basket, she pulled up some hospital socks, with rubber grips on the feet, and put those on top of the pile.
“Not really,” Angelica said, thinking of Rob. “My husband is out there somewhere, and my son and my mother-in-law. I wonder if they got them.”
“I can ask around quietly, but now that they cut you off the sleepy juice you won’t be near me for long. I can get you some lunch and a hot meal in you, but I think they are sending you to the barracks this evening.”
“What time is it now?” Angelica asked.
“Almost noon,” Coraline said. “You have time for a shower after all. Food is going to run about twenty minutes.”
Angelica’s stomach growled again. “Any chance of a razor?” she asked, taking the pile of clothing.
“No, not even for those of us who sold our souls.”
“Well, this sucks,” Angel said, stomping
