Scott didn’t know how long he was sitting in this strange room. This room the doctor set him in after everything. A smaller room to catch his breath, he assumed. No one else came into this room after the doctor left him here. Scott sat there, staring at his child in his arms. He did nothing but stare. That’s all he did. No other object stirred, not even the baby. Dead silence. The baby was calm and fast asleep, as happy as one can be. Scott felt his eyes grow dry and cold as he stared, yet he didn’t blink. He felt nothing. All he felt is cold, searing emptiness. He had no thoughts, no expression. All he did was just mindlessly stare at his son… what more could he say? What more could he do? He was at a total standstill in his life. He didn’t have the one thing he cared about most in his miserable life anymore. He had nothing. Nothing, except his son. He never wanted to raise a kid on his own. He never wanted to go through the rest of his life alone. His eyes started to well up with thick tears as he thought more about Willow. As they dripped down his cheek, not once did he blink. Not once did he wipe away the tears. He sat there in silence and no movement as the tears rolled off of his face and onto the blanket his baby was wrapped in. The baby had the calmest face Scott has ever seen. Scott felt his heart soften a bit the more he stared at his son. He definitely didn’t hate his son, nor would he even blame him for anything like this. No, he wasn’t completely alone. He still had a child to raise. Scott started to get some feeling back, deep down. He soon discovered he felt confused, and scared. Mostly alone. He had no one to help support him anymore. No friends, no family. The family he possibly had he never knew. He blinked. It was a very slow and painful blink. He looked down at his baby again and felt a twinge of happiness, buried underneath all the other emotions he was feeling at once.

The knob on the door twisted open as another doctor walked in to greet him. Scott slowly turned his head from his baby to look at who arrived. It wasn’t the same doctor who assisted his wife, this doctor was shorter and stubbier, with a thick set of glasses set on a very red and round nose. Scott blinked slowly. He had a clipboard with a stack of papers attached to it. Before the doctor said anything to him, he sifted through every single page in a quick manner. After that, he set the clipboard down on a table that was just behind the door and adjusted his tie while simultaneously fixing the glasses on his face. He turned to Scott.

“Hello sir, my name is Dr. Klein. I uhh… heard about what happened and I just wanted to offer my sincere condolences…” The doctor did a motion like he was removing a hat upon his head and brought it to his chest. He adjusted his glasses again. “You’re probably wondering why I’m here. I specialize in the care of newborn infants.” He glanced over at the clipboard laying down and sifted through it again until he came upon a page he took a minute to read off of. Scott couldn’t see what it said from where he was sitting. The doctor’s face turned into a grimace. “Now uhm... I’m really sorry to say this after all that’s happened to you but… uhm.. it seems like your newborn is suffering from a birth defect. It keeps him from making any noise so he suffers in silence.” 

Scott’s heart dropped when he heard the sentence. He couldn’t believe what he just heard… first his wife dies and now his infant is dying as well? Scott’s eyes started to well up again as he screwed up his face. His hands gripped the infant’s blanket as he fought the urge to scream, not just at the doctor but at the world, for making his life so horrible. For making him live in actual hell. The doctor adjusted his glasses for a third time. “Oh hoho don’t mind me! I need to get a new pair of glasses hoho.” the doctor let out a few laughs. Scott looked at him with hurt confusion as to why he was laughing at a time like this. The doctor continued. “I’m gonna swing over to the other room and grab the vaccine that helps him fall asleep well uhh… forever! You just sit tight, I won’t be long hoho.”

The doctor turned around with a swivel and left the room. Scott paused for a few moments to process what Dr. Kein had just said. My baby is sick…? My baby…. He glanced down at his son who was calmly sleeping. His baby woke up gently and slowly opened his eyes. When he realized his dad was watching him, he looked right into Scott’s eyes and gave the sweetest, toothless grin. The stubby arms of his reached out towards Scott’s face. Scott started to cry even more, but then realization struck him… the feeling of fight-or-flight overwhelmed his desire to cry. He needed to get the hell out of here. He stood up quickly while holding his giggling baby close. He unwrapped the blanket around the child’s body and wrapped it around his own body in a sash-like manner. He then carefully placed his baby in the new sash. It fit very snugly and securely, he thought. He snapped out of it sharply and looked around the room for potential cameras or peepholes, and hastily, but quietly, made his way to the clipboard the doctor left in the room. He noticed something that stood out on the first page, he didn’t have to touch the rest of the stacks of paper to know what was going on. He sat there in stunned silence. Somehow he knew they were planning this the whole time, yet he fell for it. He knew there was something wrong with this place. He knew there was something amiss once he walked through the hospital’s front doors. The doctors and nurses weren't real, this hospital wasn’t real, for what words stood in front of him, he understood everything. Why there were so many guards, why there were so little people. He knew… deep down he knew… this whole thing was essentially a trap. A trap for anyone who needed serious medical care. A trap for anyone gullible enough to trust anyone from the capital. A trap set up by the government… a trap set up by Luis. The words read out “CHILD FOR TERMINATION” in big, bold letters. Scott’s eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched in a very dramatic manner. He took a sharp and vicious inhale. All he felt inside was pure rage. He wanted to beat the skull of the doctor who touched his wife, he wanted to shoot every single person he saw throughout the hospital, he wanted to blow everything to pieces... but most importantly, he wanted to strangle the life out of Luis. Luis fucked up everything… Luis fucked up my life… Luis killed my wife… I’m not gonna let you take my fucking son.. As Scott thought this, he swiftly moved his hand to grab the page off the clipboard and stuffed it in his jacket pocket.

He slowly opened the door to the room he was in and stuck his head outside. From what he saw, two guards were standing down the hallway, with both their backs turned and both out of earshot of him. He slowly slipped his way out of the door and caught it so it wouldn’t slam. He snuck around corners and walls, formulating an escape plan in his head. I can’t exactly head out the entrance… too many cameras and people who would see me. I could try and go a back way.. but.. I don’t know my way around here. Scott kept slinking along a wall when a thought suddenly hit him. The brown door..! That could be a way out! He stood up for a bit to recalculate where the operating room his wife was in was at. Oh shit where the fuck is it…? I’m starting to panic more and more. I don’t care if I die, just let my son live..! I need to stay strong for my son... He glanced around more when he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. A guard came swinging around a corner with a cup of coffee in hand. The guard stopped dead in his tracks and stared right at Scott as the cup fell from his hand.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing out here..?” The guard demanded as he pulled up his gun. Scott’s heart started beating through his ears as the ‘flight’ sensation started to overwhelm anything he felt. Scott gave him a wide-eyed look before turning tail and running in the opposite direction. A few stray bullets whizzed past him and landed in the walls next to him. The guard started shouting things Scott couldn’t make out. Scott didn’t care where he ran, just as long as he stayed away from the footsteps approaching him. He still had no idea where the brown door was at… hopelessness edged away at his heart as he raced down the endless hallways, trying to find that door. He ran and ran and ran with no end in sight. Tears started streaming down his face in quick succession. I’m going to die if I don’t find the door… I need to do it for my wife..! I need to do it for my son..!! As he slid around a corner, a guard was standing there drinking from a cup, not paying attention. An animal-like abomination was at his feet, scanning around the room. It was silvery and very much metal in nature. It noticed Scott right away and let out a loud metallic roar as it’s eyes lit up to a deep, fiery red. It’s two foot fangs seem to have grown larger as it’s mouth slowly gaped open. Its paws seemed to have grown talons as long as Scott’s femur. His heart dropped in heavy fear as he swiftly turned heel and ran as fast as he could down the adjacent hallway. He heard shouting and the loud clanking of the animal-like machine pursuing him. He ran through a few more hallways as the clanking grew louder and faster. He looked ahead of him and noticed that there was only one turn. He turned down the only hallway that was left… a hallway that seemed mostly empty… The only thing that was left...Scott stood there for a second in awe at what he just found. The one thing that stood out from the rest. A brownish gold door set into the side of a beige and blue wall. The door…!! His only escape…! He hastily ran to the door as even more tears streamed down his face. Before he grabbed the handle, he snapped his head to his side to look down the hallway from where he came. The metallic beast was right there hot on his trail. It let out a deafening screech as it leaped at Scott. Scott swung open the door as fast and hard as he could. An extremely loud thud echoed throughout the halls as the monster smashed its head right through the reinforced glass. The brown door still stayed intact as Scott ran through it and slammed it behind himself.

The creature didn’t move for at least what seemed like twenty seconds. It awoke with a start as it pawed and growled. It hooked it’s talons into the door and, with one swift movement, jerked its head out of the hole where the glass was before. It stumbled around for a bit before standing still and glaring at the now dented, but closed, brownish gold door. It looked at it like a hungry predator on its prey. It paced around a bit before pausing again and staring at it. It seemed to be formulating a plan in its head. It slowly backed up and crouched down like it was about to pounce. It jerked it’s head down as low as it could go and jumped as hard as it could into the center of the door. A crash as loud as a gunshot could be heard down the hallways as the creature crushed it’s way through the metal door. The door fell to the other side with a pitiful clank. The creature whipped it’s thin tail and pawed at the ground in delight as it continued its pursuit…

. . .

(author's note) *tapas only lets you put 15,000 characters so I have to split it up sorry!*