Silence Falls

Eventually, the captured kids gave in to the fatigue of their upheaval and passed out during the long drive to what they deduced was back to the medical facility. In the end, their plot to escape the custody of the military soldiers that arrested them seemed fruitless the deeper they delved into it. Otep believed that because they were still alive and weren’t callously butchered like the other escapees had been, their captors had to have some sort of reason for keeping them intact. What could that reason be? They couldn’t fathom.

No one knew the time or what day it was when the van finally stalled to a full stop, uprooting the kids from their slumber and replacing fatigue with dread all over again. They quickly swarmed together in a group and tried to calm their breathing and their hastening hearts so they could listen in on what was going on outside the vehicle. The van shifted as the two drivers exited and slammed their doors shut with an unnecessary amount of force executed with the intent to startle their captives even more than they already were. Muffled voices among the crunch of gravel could be heard, but there were no words that they could decipher no matter how hard they strained to listen.

After several minutes had passed, the van’s door was wrenched open, allowing a bracing tide of cool air to surge in before directing a bright light in that was so extreme it somehow blinded the poor kids within even through the black bags over their heads. With goose bumps sweeping across their flesh from the cold, they withered back even deeper into the van and averted their eyes through hisses of pain. Blinking wildly in order to peek through the shrouds over their heads once more, they observed shadows flitting in front of the light flooding in a few times before strong hands dragged each and every one of them out of the vehicle, ignoring the shrieks or expletives lobbed at them.

What the kids were unable to see was that these men were garbed from head to toe in black burdensome armor, their deadpan faces shielded behind protective helmets as they transported the kids towards a monumental stone building where a group of men stood in white lab coats on the top steps, scribbling away on their clipboards. The building was as dreary looking on the inside as it was on the outside, but because of its sole function it made perfect sense to everyone else why that was so.

The captives tried shoving and heaving out from the soldier’s secure grasp but nothing seemed to loosen them. Beneath their shoes was the sensation of gravel, then the grind of stone, then the squeak of….linoleum? Oh no, not the linoleum! The kids started thrashing more mightily against their captors, their voices getting unruly by the second in what they believe was a recognizable place.

They were back.

They were back in the medical facility.

A woman with a low bun, white nurse cap, and dress with matching white shoes exited out of a room on the right to flag the soldiers with the newfound patients with a whistle. Catching their attention, she gestured for them to corral the kids into the room. “Bring them here, please.”

The soldiers stiffened their steel-like clasps on the kids to a degree of bruising, curbing them from any further tussling. One by one the patients were filed into the room. The other nurses stood up from behind their desks, waiting patiently for the last of the patients to enter so they could abet in the appropriate procedure of their permanent induction. The first nurse assisted in uncuffing their wrists while the second nurse removed the bags over their heads. The patients were once again blinded by the bright lights overhead, but took in what little that they could as they gently massaged the damage done to their wrists. The room was the size of a small classroom with gray linoleum floor and white walls. There were five nurses in total, three of them standing with the soldiers by the only exit. They all wore stark white with their hairs done up superbly without a strand out of place, their faces devoid of any human emotions. They looked like androids as they proceeded through their tasks.

The female patients clung behind the males who shielded them with their outstretched arms. One thing that immediately stood out to Otep was how distinct this place looked from before. Also, there weren't very many feminine nurses like these employed in the medical facility. She had memorized all those faces and none of these nurses were any of these nurses. Otep felt the blood drain from her face as her wide eyes snapped to Bert with terror. “Bert, where the fuck are we?”

Bert glanced over his shoulder to look her in the eye for a second before surveying the area around them himself. By the way he was browsing so meticulously, it informed her that Bert McCracken had no idea where they were either. And if Bert didn’t know, then they weren’t where they had thought they were.

“Hello children, I am nurse Gardner, and I would like to welcome you to your new home.” A nurse with graying hair announced. “If you have any questions I will answer them as detailed as I’m granted to, but if you get unkind with me you’ll be severely punished for it. I’m sure none of you would want that on their first day here, now would you?”

Every patient deterred their eyes to glare at Bam, perceptively giving him a warning to SHUT his mouth before facing forward again.

“Where are we? This doesn’t look like the same Medical Facility that we came from.” Otep interrogated with a surprisingly steady voice, arching a brow at her.

“Oh, well of course this isn’t the Medical Facility!” Nurse Gardner answered, watching them all closely for their reactions. “For your unacceptable behavior there, and due to recent events, you have all been sent here to the Psychiatric Hospital.”

Bert was completely stumped. Having lived in Silence Falls all his life, he had never heard of anything referring to a Psychiatric Hospital in the swamps before. Sure, there were stories told to scare little kids into being good little boys and girls, but he never associated any of it to being exact places!

“Psychiatric Hospital!? But we came from the Medical Facility before all this! Why can’t we just go back there?” Bam protested, too petrified to feel the outrage pumping through his veins.

“You escaped. That is a huge violation that we can’t forgive.” Nurse Gardner simplified. “And even if we could, you’ve been sentenced here under strict orders.”

Bert ears perked up when she said, ‘strict orders’. Orders were only ‘strict’ when they came from the greater authorities of Silence Falls. Could greater authority mean a particular Doctor McCarter? Bert had to know, but he couldn’t ask outright. Not without letting everyone know that he was the son of a greater power. No, he had to be a little inconspicuous with his questioning if he wanted answers. “Hold on a second, lady, are we…are we the only patients that escaped the medical facility and were brought here by these strict orders or are there more like us?”

Nurse Gardner’s right eye twitched at Bert's intellectual query. Normally, patients didn’t ask such questions due to the drugs they were injected with liquefying their brains. And yet this man seemed to have his head on his shoulders quite resourcefully. “Yes, you are. Shall we proceed onward? There is much to do in order to get you settled into your new residence.”

The kids started to probe for more answers but were hustled forward by the remaining soldiers to whichever nurse’s desk were in front of them and then to the next one to register into the hospital. Bert dallied until he was in the back of the line so he could mentally deliberate privately.

Doctor McCarter had to have been behind this arrangement too. After many years of protecting his own son, the good old Doctor wouldn’t have quit now even with the military’s sudden arrival. He would become more daring with time though, and his weakness will be exposed soon enough to the church and military. This Hospital wasn’t going to be friendly to Bert despite whose blood streamed through his veins, which made this a form of penalty for him, or ‘discipline’ as they would prefer to label it. This wasn’t the time to rummage through the past, but rather concentrate on surviving in this new place.