No Time To Bleed

“Can you get the hell off me?!” I shoved the man back. “I haven’t been felt up on this much since the security guards at my school!”

I was in a white hospital robe and a doctor looking room. I guess my numb mood had passed and all I was feeling now was anger.

The young doctor looked at me, cheeks blushing. “I’m sorry. I have to feel your breasts for lumps.”

“Isn’t that for breast cancer?” I crossed my arms over my chest and sat to the bed in the room.

This man was tall, appeared to be in his early 20’s with chestnut colored hair, and hands covered in latex.

“And how do I even know you’re sanitary! You could have lupus!”

The doctor sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Lupus is not contagious by hands. It's autoimmune disease! Females infected typically have lumps on their breasts!”

I huffed again and looked around the room. This place was pretty bare.

“I know you’ve been through a lot. We all have. I just want to make things easier for you.” He sounded sincere, but then again, who did he work for?

“So, what are you now? A psychologist? I’ve had experiences with those.”

The man chuckled. “Anger issues?”

I shrugged modestly. “Maybe.”

He grinned again. “You remind me of my daughter. She’s quite the firecracker.”

I guess this man really didn’t know what Lexicon was all about.

“And you work for Lexicon? Like they give you your paycheck every week or month or whatever?”

He nodded, sitting down to his leather chair. This whole place seemed like another universe.

“And how old is your daughter?”

He was scribbling away at his notepad. “13. She’s so young, but I love her. Her mom died a few years ago. She’s never been the same since.”

It almost made me cry, another girl who’d never really gotten to know her mother.

“Well, you should look at her medical records…”

His eyebrows rose as he finally looked to me. “Hm? What was that?”

I crossed one of my legs over the other and swallowed. “Just make sure you know what injections your daughter is getting, okay? This whole flu thing turned into the zombie virus right?”

The doctor crunched his eyes together. “What do you mean?”

I groaned. Geez, for a doctor he was mighty slow.

“Never mind. Can you turn up the heat in here? It’s cold.” My paper thin robe wasn't helping at all.

The doctor nodded, preparing to go over to the heating panel, but a knock at the door came.

“Doctor Skyles, we need to talk to your patient privately.”

Doctor Skyles had peeked through the door before looking back at me. His face was suddenly pale as he eased the door open more.

“Um, sure. Just page me when you’re done talking to her, okay?” His voice sounded shaky, almost worried.

A woman and a man stepped in as he walked out.

The man held a sturdy built, one that seemed to come naturally and not from forced hours in the gym. He had sort of a comforting air about him, but I was sure that was fully deceptive. His hair came out in thick black tufts, but not without the occasional gray strand. He never smiled as he entered the room, as a matter of fact; his jaw appeared too wide and set in stone.

The woman was extremely thin, almost verging onto unhealthy as she clicked her way inside with heels and a clipboard before her. She saw the world through wire framed glasses.

The door closed behind them.

“Jasmine Rushman.”

Goosebumps immediately shivered up and down my spine.

How the hell did they know my name?

“Born and raised under the custody of Daniel Rushman. Biological mother known as Linda Eckles. Your parents never married because your mother could never stick around with one man long enough to stay rooted.”

My jaw clenched in place. “What do you want?”

The man stepped forward, suit and tie probably from the finest stores. “And somehow you ended up with the bunch you came in with, how is that?”

His stone gray eyes bored down on me. My body felt shrunken against his glare.

“What do you want?” I repeated.

“I want to know why you broke into a Lexicon compound, disrupted vital files with one of our subject’s help, and managed to make it our alive.”

Oh, so that’s what this was about.

I chose to play dumb just to annoy him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We have the videotape. Would that refresh your memory?”

“Then, if you have it, why are you standing here questioning me?”

His eyes narrowed.

“What’s your name anyway?” I smirked. “I’d like to know the name of the guy who’s so undeniably stupid enough to think I’m remedial.”

His jaw clenched. “My name is Brett Wiggins.”

My eyebrows rose. You have to be shitting me. This guy was Rodney’s dad, the same Rodney who’d helped me break out of Lexicon. Holy shit. No wonder his son hated him.

We just all stayed there in silence for a bit.

“I want you to understand something, Jasmine.” He looked to the woman behind him and she nodded, pressing a button to the recorder in her hand.

“Lexicon is a company that prides itself on its privacy. Even people in its highest reaches are kept track of very carefully considering they’re the highest in the food chain.”

My hands pressed against the bed sheet’s thin fabric. Food chain, how ironic he’d say that.

“We hold tabs on everyone. We hold leverage on every employee, holding them responsible for all of their actions. It’s why we’re able to keep such secrets.”

I was trying not to jump from the bed and lunge at the man. I bet I could get a few good right hooks in before he got his guards to rush in.

“Some may call the act blackmail. But, we all it protecting our assets.”

So, Lexicon blackmailed their employees to keep all their secrets? That wasn’t such a shocker. But would a father do that to his own son?

“And we have swift ways of dealing with people who threaten that. Do you understand me?”

“You’re saying if someone were to know that your company caused the virus, you’d kill them?”

Brett smiled and nodded. “It’d be quite easy. Especially since your father is so far away. We’ve actually talked to him. He’s convinced your still out there being searched for.”

Years of turmoil had ripped my emotions away from my dad, but I could never deny the fact now that I actually missed him. I couldn’t deny that it’d kill me if anyone ever hurt him.

Everyone else with us had nothing to lose. I mean, Aliah had her baby, but what did Alex or Clarissa have?

They could easily slip words and endanger everyone.

So, I couldn’t let them know I had a connection to Ryant or Max either. To Lexicon, I saw just some girl who’d gotten tangled up with some powerful enemies.

“And as for your uncle, we’ll have ways of dealing with him.”

“You won’t lay a finger on my uncle.” Protectiveness poured venom into my words. “I’ll kill you.”

“And then go to prison for murder, you’d like that wouldn’t you. It’d satisfy your antisocialism wouldn’t it?”

I couldn’t believe how incredibly deceptive this man was.

He leaned down to eye level with me and I suddenly saw nothing in this man that could trace back to his son, Rodney. Rodney must have taken after his mother.

“You tell anyone what you’ve learned about my company and everyone you’ve ever loved will dead. Just like that little boy your friends left behind burning on that highway.”'

My lips trembled as he walked out the room and left me to my unshed tears.

Lexicon had to be fucking taken down.