Silence Falls

Otep had been en route to the table that her friends populated in the recreational room when out of the corner of her eye she pinpointed three nurses questionably herded together within the nurse’s station, and the door was left wide open for optimal eavesdropping opportunities. She was highly intrigued by this enticement, but still the blond continued on her ‘placid’ way only until she passed the first table and then she walked straight by her awaiting friends. Not having paid any attention to what was on the old-school tiny TV with it’s bad connection, they instantly took notice of her deserting them and gave her a ‘where do you think you’re going’ look. Otep merely set a finger to her lips over her shoulder at them before inconspicuously sneaking along the wall of the nurse’s station undetected, trying to deduce the staff’s whispers as they began to get louder. Even when Otep discreetly slid her back against the transparent glass of the station in full view with her back to them and her arms crossed over chest, they didn’t take any heed of her or the fact that she was listening in to their hushed conversation.

“Okay, so what time are they coming then?” Nurse Julia asked the other two nurses, her hands set on her hips as her green eyes whizzed between the two, waiting for an answer.

“You mean the contractors?” Nurse Katherine inquired, evidently unsure as to whom she spoke of.

“Duh!” Nurse Julia huffed impatiently, rolling her eyes at the dunce of the two.

Otep ears picked up the sound of shuffling papers from within the nurse station. What she wouldn't give to peruse the black print on those crisp sheets with her own eyes instead of having to stand nearby and hope they’d be stupid enough to translate the information word by word for her.

“The three contractors should be here later on tonight.” Nurse Katherine finally declared with more confidence in her voice than she had before.

“Why are they even coming here in the first place?” Nurse Mary wondered aloud to herself.

“Something about that wall right across from our station possibly showing signs of some kind of rotting, I guess. All I really know is that it’s serious enough for the board to call in some professionals to check it out.” Nurse Julia sighed in a very stale tone.

“Ohhhh I didn’t know...wait, hold on a second.” Otep heard Nurse Mary begin to say and then felt the vibration of a fingertip tapping on the glass behind her from within the Nurse’s station. Impersonating a dazed patient down to the listless actions, she gradually turned around to face the three nurses glaring back at her, her fists rubbing at her heavy eyes as she cocked her head to one side in question.

“You need to take a seat in front of the TV, young lady, or we’ll put you in a straitjacket and send your ass to a padded room for the rest of the week!” Nurse Mary snapped at her in an authoritative tone.

Otep widened her eyes in mock fear and frantically nodded her head in conformity. The three nurses watch her clumsily pilot her way to a table with some other patients and plunked herself down in an empty plastic chair.

Holy cow, Otep almost couldn’t believe it! Contractors were coming here to examine a rotting structure which could only mean one crucial thing.

Blueprints!

“Otep? Otep!” Alexis hissed at the blonde, trying to get her attention. Once her green orbs locked on her brown eyes, she repeated her question once again as she leaned over the table. “What the hell was that all about back there?”

“Yeah. Why were you standing around the Nurse’s station for?” Natasha added, arching one of her thick dark brows up into her thick black barbie bangs.

“Are they still watching me from their little box?” Otep asked, keeping her back to the station. When she garnered nothing but ‘nos’ she leaned forward with a grin. “I overheard them talking about something in secret.”

“Is this secret the moment we’ve all been waiting for?” Onika anticipated, her brown eyes desperate as she gripped the edge of the table. “Please tell me it fucking is!”

“It can be if we play our cards right with no mistakes.” Otep stated, watching the hope twinkle like stars in their eyes. They could hardly contain their excitement from showing within their smiles. “Listen up, tonight the Hospital is giving three outsiders access to this building. They’re supposed to be contractors sent here to patch a possible rotting wall across the very station behind me.”

Befuddled, Demitria’s brows furrowed. She’d been following Otep up to this point and now was utterly lost. “Um, I’m sorry but I don’t get what these contractors are supposed to mean to us and getting out of this place?”

“What is something a contractor has to secure before renovating a site like this building, for example?” Otep questioned them, her green eyes browsing each of their faces.

She didn’t get an answer from any of the girls who were struggling to figure it out. It wasn’t their fault, and so she was patient with them. It was the medication being put in their bodies. They were messing with their minds. Hell, Otep couldn’t count the times where she’d be in one place then all of a sudden woken up somewhere else in the ward with no recollection of how she got there. She declined to solve the mysteries she’d woken up to, she didn’t want to know. Whatever the reason was, it wasn’t good.

“Shit, I’m gonna need a better hint than that, Otep.” Onika moaned, dropping her face into her hands. She felt so out of herself today, almost like an out of body experience. She wasn’t within herself, but she was at the same time. It was bizarre, and highly annoying in a situation like this where you needed your head screwed on tight to your shoulders.

“Blueprints.” Otep answered with an open-mouth grin. “These contractors are gonna have the blueprints of this place that we need on them when they come later on tonight!”

“My god...b-but what are we supposed to do about it though?” Demitria stuttered out, not seeing this as positive news but rather an impossible feat expected of them to achieve in order to escape this prison. “I mean, they’re not exactly gonna hand them to us if we politely asked them for it.”

“You got that right.” Otep conceded her point. “That’s why we’re gonna have to come up with a plan to get those blueprints from them before they walk back out of this place.”

Alexis felt her lips turn up in a knowing smile as she studied Otep’s face. “And something tells me you’ve already brainstormed one up before you even got to this table.”

“I wouldn’t be Otep if I didn’t, now would I?” Otep winked back at her.

“Enough chit chat!” Onika cut in impatiently, honing her eyes on their leader. “Tell us what we gotta do.”