WHERE AM I? (HCC 61)

Your Briefing:

Hannah Carmichael was a Super Spy,  trying to take down CGT – an evil spy agency which she used to be a part of. Her husband Zeke, was secretly working to take them down as well, and roped Hannah and her friend and fellow agent Stephanie into the fight.
Hannah’s mother Evelyn was a known terrorist and CGT enemy, but now seems to have been on the same side all along. Her Father James, was believed to be dead and missing for over a decade, but has now shown up from his fight in the shadows to help take them down once and for all.
Hannah and Zeke were surrounded by CGT assassins, trying to protect a world leader from World War – a project labeled Cataclysm by CGT. When things went sideways, Hannah was injected with something that made her world go dark. 

SIXTY-ONE

I opened my eyes and squinted at the sudden burst of light overstimulating my optical senses. The pain in my head registered and I groaned as I closed my eyes again. I heard shuffling around me and I flipped open my eyes, suddenly unsure of where I was. The light was harsh, but I forced myself to readjust quickly as the adrenaline and the panic overtook my other senses.
Women I didn’t recognise surrounded me and pulled on my arm, checking on an IV which was releasing a clear liquid into my veins. As I started to process what was happening, I tried to speak, but my throat was dry and all that escaped was a small squeak.
“Don’t try to talk Dear,” an older woman in a nurses uniform said as she readjusted my pillow. I nodded, trying to remember how I got here.
“You’ve been through quite an ordeal,” another nurse said and I turned, watching as she wrote down my vital signs on a notepad. Frowning, I reached for the small cup on the table beside me. The first nurse saw my hand and picked up the cup, handing it to me and letting me take a big sip.
When the water had loosened my throat enough, I took in a deep breath and locked eyes with the first nurse.

“Where am I?” I asked. A smile lit up her face and she nodded towards a window on my right. I glanced over at it and frowned as the sight of snow covered mountains lined the window.
“You’re in a hospital Dear. We found you and some others abandoned in the snow.”
I closed my eyes and tried to remember.
“What’s your name Dear?” The nurse asked.
I shot my eyes open and shook my head, “I don’t know. I can’t remember,” I said quietly. The frustration overwhelmed me for a moment and I allowed tears to escape. The nurse moved closer to my side and started stroking my arm, “It’s ok. It’ll come back to you. All of you had been out there for a long time; we almost lost the lot.”
I took a deep breath and swiped at the tears, nodding and looking around the room.
“Where are the others you found?” I asked, hoping they might remember who I was, or how I got here.
The nurse looked behind her and smiled, “Right over there Dear.”
I frowned, suddenly noticing her foreign accent, and tried to decipher it as she moved out of my view. Another young woman and an older woman were in beds side by side on the other end of the room.
They both smiled softly at me and I returned a sheepish grin.
“We were hoping for better news when you woke up,” the older woman said. Her voice was cracking like mine and I frowned.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice fading as my throat grew sore again. Their faces seemed familiar, but the memory wasn’t snapping into place.
“We don’t remember either,” the younger woman said softly. She smiled and shrugged, “I guess we’re all in the same boat.”
I looked back to the window and frowned as exhaustion overcame my eyes.
I gave in and closed them.

When I opened my eyes again it was getting dark outside, and I readjusted to the flickering lights inside the hospital.
“Good, you’re awake,” The young woman across from me was now sitting upright in her own bed, glancing around the room. I frowned and shook some of the sleepiness away.
“What? Why?” I asked, glancing at the older woman, now standing guard at the door.
“We’ve been getting scattered memory back since you’ve been asleep. We think something’s wrong,” The young woman said quietly, starting to get out of her bed. “Do you remember anything, anything at all?” She asked me, watching as I tried to think. The fog from earlier had lifted slightly and I closed my eyes, visualising anything.
Flashes of a Father holding a young girl tightly as she cried; a teddy bear that the girl was clutching; and a large snowy field were the only images I could recall. I groaned and opened my eyes.
“Anything?” The young woman asked, now standing beside my bed.
“Not really, nothing that would explain why I’m here or who I am,” I said.
The woman pulled the blanket off me and tried to help me sit upright, “Well, we’ve remembered things like guns, needles, and being bound and gagged.”
I frowned and suddenly remembered a blurry scene with guns aimed at me from all directions.

“What, are we going to just bust out of here? We don’t even know what our injuries are, or if we can find our way out there, let alone surviving the snow,” I said, pulling my arm away from the woman. The older woman moved away from the door and closer to me, her face softened and she smiled, “I know that I recognise your face; I just can’t remember how. I feel care and comfort. When I look at the nurses, or outside the window, all I feel is rage and suspicion. We need to get out of here and regroup; to try and remember.”
I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to decide. A flash of the first nurse from earlier filled my mind, but this time her expression was twisted into a snarl.
As I opened my eyes, a shiver went through my spine and I looked back at the two women who had been found with me. Nodding, I pulled myself out of the bed, looking for clothes.
A loud siren filled the room and I covered my ears. The door flung open and five nurses ran inside, two surrounding each woman. The nurse in charge raised her voice above the alarm, “No need to worry, we just have someone trying to break into the hospital. It happens more often than you think, people want our drugs.”
Nurses grabbed each of my arms and started to usher me out of the room.
“There’s a secure room we need to take you to. Just a precaution to keep you safe,” the nurse continued behind me.
They moved me through a dimly lit hallway and I noticed the other rooms we passed were empty. At the end of the hallway, I was moved through two large double doors. Behind us, the nurses and women struggled, and one of my babysitters moved back to help.

With a sharp tug, I pulled my arm away from the nurse next to me and started running. Shouting competed with the alarm, which still echoed through the hallways. I ducked into a small room, closing and locking the door behind me. I ignored the pounding on the other side, and turned to where computer monitors lined the walls; security feeds filling each screen. I could see the fight in the hallway, outside several external doors and other hospital rooms inside.
I took a breath and tried to decide my next moves. Something told me that I knew those women, but fight or flight was urging me to try and escape. The room only had one exit, but I didn’t trust what was behind it.
One of the outside monitors lit up and I stared at it, frowning at the man in heavy ski gear and a mask. I couldn’t see his face, but it had to be the intruder. He looked behind him and pulled out a bag of tools, standing at the door.

Another figure came into the cameras view and my breath caught. The face; I recognised his face. The memory of his face as we spun around a dance floor.
I glanced down at the controls and hit the button to release the door. 

Author’s Note:

Thanks for reading the latest instalment of the Hannah Carmichael Chronicles! Hannah will be back SOON for the next part of her adventure – we both look forward to seeing you there!
Christy Grace