"Mark!"

Thap thap

"Mark. . ."

Thap thap

"Is he dea-" 

"Mark!"

Thash

"Mmm. Awake. . .mmm." 

I open my eyes to a blinding sea of white, vague silhouettes of shadows dancing in my vision. Rubbing my eyes, I try to focus again, but to no avail. 

"Hey, stop that, you'll push your eyes in if you continue rubbing them like that. Just give it some time to adjust to this brightness first." advises a familiar gruffly voice.

"W-winston, is that you?" Again, I try to pry my eyes open - I never thought I'd run into them again, I'd convinced myself that I'd never see them again. I was sure I died, I'm still half doubting all of this.

"Stop man, it's okay, it's me - Winston." I feel him pry my hands away from my face, examine my eyes - they feel swollen. "Conny, fetch the ice bag from the cooler," a moment of hesitation, a short silence, "NOW!"

"There you go buddy, apply light pressure." Mark instructs as he pulls me to my feet.

"Ack!"

My leg. 

“Oh shit! Here, lean on me.” Winston says as he shoulders me. With his support, I shift my weight to my good leg. "Is it broken?"  

"I'm not sure. It just hurts," I say. "Thank you.” I wince at the pain I feel when I stretch my jaws, smiling seems to be a no go for now.

Thok! Thok! Thok!

Opening my eyes just a little I see a metal door on the ground in front of me, vibrating at regular intervals in tune with the impact it takes. So that's the metal door I got pulled in through. 

"Don't worry, that right there is a door that's apparently made of bulletproof material,” Winston says, giving a pointed look to the right, “it can withstand even a machine gun barrage.”

"Mark!"

"Woah!" I get tackled with love. Opening my left–less swollen–eye I see that it's Melissa. She hugs me tightly, a little too tightly. "M-melissa, loosen up, you're choking me."

"Ah, sorry. Wait, let me help you sit down somewhere. We should have a comfortable chair here somewhere." She says, guides my limping self to a big brown Swivel Chair behind an office desk, and slinging out my arm from behind her she sets me down on it. She gently lifts my injured arm and I feel her unwrap my makeshift tourniquet, "I have some hot water with me, let me clean the wound and retie your wound with a fresh cloth." I humm my agreement. She leaves. 

Minutes later, I feel warm water trickle down my arm. “It’s Melissa,” she says, so as to not startle me. Holding up my arm, she gently rubs down, cleaning the trickled down blood on my arm I think. The retightening hurts a little though, but she eases up when I hiss in pain. 

"Thank you." I say, genuinely appreciating her help. Her gentle hands leave my arm and the sudden emptiness prompts me to open my eyes almost instantaneoulsy. She's not in front of me, but then I feel a tug, and look down to see her tying a ice pack to my broken ankle. Deflating in relief I close my eyes again, cover it with the ice pack in my hand. 

"Am I really alive or are you all dead with me?” I ask genuinely, “Is this the afterlife?"

Melissa chuckles, "Yes, and I'm your guardian angel."

"It may as well be the afterlife, it sounds like a living Hell out there," confides the looming security guard–Conny, I think. I look at him, with my less swollen eye. He's standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, his eyes staring right back at me, as if he's challenging me to say something. 

Thak thak thak!

"Please help! Is there anyone there? If you are, please let me in,” the pounding on the door continues, "Please!” he begs, desperation clear in his voice, “they're coming . . . I-I'll die if I stay out here any longer."

Conny strides over to the door, to open it I hope. "Conny, you son of a b*tch, get your ass back here. I already told you not to help that ass open the escape door," I follow the trail of the voice to a face I hoped I'd never see again after today. Conny being rude to me today is one thing, and even though it pains me to say this; I understand his situation. He was just doing his job, but what this person did was both illegal, illogical, and unfair - my old Boss. I stare at him, my eyes narrowed to slits of fury. 

"Conny, I warn you again, you musclebrained idiot. You'll lose your job if you disobey me one more time."

Spinning on his heels, the looming security guard faces the bald headed idiot, "If you haven't noticed till now, Boss, the world's gone to shit, and so has all its logic. You're gonna force me to do some more heinous shit to keep this shitty job?" he spits on the spot in front of my ex-boss, "Go to hell with your f*cking job, and your f*cking fancy requirements." 

Spinning back he resumes his stride towards the door, but just as he's about to fling it open, the pounding stops. "No, no, no! Stay back. Don't you dare come any closer, shoo, shoo!" 

"KREE!"

"AAAAA-"

Silence. 

Munch munch munch