ArchivedLogs:Vignette - Lucky

Vignette - Lucky
Dramatis Personae Kelly
In Absentia	2013-11-11 As wounds heal, Kelly reflects on how lucky he had been.
Location <XS> Medical Lab - B1
Gleaming and sterile, the school's medical facility is all cool science in contrast to the mansion's old-world old-fashion. All stainless steel and antiseptic tinge, the room is filled with the quiet whir-click of the various implements that comprise its medical equipment -- all state-of the art. The hospital beds are curtained off for privacy when they have patients, and in one of the alcoves there is a small operating theatre visible. More heavy-duty equipment is visible in the lab in the back, where the securely locked cabinets keep sensitive equipment out of the reach of teenage fingers. The gauze came off in long strips, occasionally blotted with a thick dried green that stuck through the layers, forcing a crunchy ripping noise as it was peeled away. The pink skin underneath was spotted with freckles, but the thick grown of still green bark was a stark contrast. Some green scabbing still visible around its edges. “You’re lucky, you know, I think it’s healing over nicely. No infection, no more bleeding. Tell me how this feels.” The attendant asked as he undid the dressing, pressing softly against the new growth there as the teen sat shirtless on the edge of the bed. Kelly winced as the prodding fingers sunk into his side. “Ouch.” He offered flatly, though with a mocking smile. He tried so hard to push out a tough boy persona that you could almost see the edges of it where his crayons didn't quite stay in the lines. “But that’s not supposed to be there.” He insisted, pressing to the new plant grown, and then comparing it to his other side. Indeed his other side was not the central focus of a zombie buffet, and while there was a small patch of thick woody bark on his left side… the right had grown much much larger. The rest of his wounds had healed over normally, and even the nubs of vines on his right hand had begun to grow out again, almost half as long as the vines on his left. “Alright, take it as easy as you can for the next couple of days, and remember to finish the full round of antibiotics. I don’t want you to stop just because you’re feeling better. Keep it clean, and for goodness sake DO NOT pick at it.” He finished off the list of exhausted instructions. Sleep deprivation, bruises, and fatigue pushed back as something simpler to deal with presented itself. Something that could actually be helped. And then he left with a pat on the boy’s shoulder. One Kelly saw coming, and so the jerk in his skin was brief. The panic of the contact subdued, muted. But then he was alone. The thin blue curtain between him and the others down here. The sick, or the worse. “Lucky,” Kelly said to himself, looking down at his skin, the changes to his body seizing the opportunity to replace the human flesh with its own. But then he turned his eyes over to look at the shadows of kids around him. To hear the thrashings against binding. The startled jumps and tense reaction to those who were still well enough to tend to them. Survive. That’s what he was good at, after all. It’s pushed him for months, running, scraping, stealing, and cheating. And now this. They offered out a hand, an opportunity, a promise. But they couldn't even take care of their own. Strangers crying over friends he’d never known. Brief hellos and guarded conversations. And all too many bitter goodbyes. Trying to make a human connection at the end of the world. For two days he’d met some of the best intentioned people he could imagined. Just to see the end of what must have been an impossible dream. And surrounded by so many so much like himself, he’d never been this alone. “Lucky.” He said again, and got up. Maybe he was.