Shade of Human

Ten - SoH

Ten:

Clarke was not kidding when he said this place could have doubled for a nightmarish horror flick location with a little lightning and thunder. We ended up waiting about fifteen minutes for the white-clad orderly to get a call over his walkie.

“So, any sensors around the fence?”

I asked him. Clarke gave me a reproachful look.

“This is a state-funded crazy bin, not the CIA, Hannah. No, I’ve already checked, just CCTV inside, and several fire doors we will want to avoid, otherwise, just locks and white-clad men who are giving me flashbacks of the horror stories my gramps used to talk about in his day!”

I managed not to snigger because I understood the veiled reference to a certain group of white-clad crazy people.

“Well, at least they don’t have the bedsheets on their heads to match?”

I put in. Clarke smirked in a cocky manner.

“So, how are we going to get in?”

Clarke asked. I nodded to the furthest point in the fencing.

“Up and over, like all the other thieves.”

Clarke gave me a dubious look, and he doubtfully put in, “I’m not sure I can scale that.”

I disguised my amusement, “I will boost you over, then I will climb up after you. Just try to stick the landing on the way down, okay?”

I cautioned him. He gave me another baleful look that bespoke his wounded pride. He did not cherish being handled by his very skinny, very much shorter female bestie. He was accustomed to being the stronger one in this little friendship we had going. I just hoped that his wounded pride would not do irreparable damage to our partnership in the long run. However, if he distanced himself from me, it was possible that he could live a normal and safer existence. The selfish side of me wanted to cling to our connection, but the rest of me was almost hoping for Clarke to decide I was too much to handle.

As it stood, there was no comfortable middle ground. Danger seemed to literally follow me. I was flying blind and oblivious to who or what I was. Clarke was a normal human, minus the fact that he could see the haunt thing. He was better off treating me as Jerry was, with a respectable level of social distancing. Since I had gotten out, Jerry had made himself scarce. He had never once visited me while inside. Even some soccer teammates came, mainly out of curiosity. When you are bored as f**k, everything counts, even the whims of selfish brats.

“Fine, but if you are doing this just to get a good look at my ass, we are gonna have to revisit our boundaries as friends.”

He mused. I popped him in the chest with my palm, but easy enough not to cause any actual damage.

Clarke weighted about one-sixty, but I lifted him without too much difficulty. His eyes bespoke how odd that was, considering my size and my muscle mass. I was more of a flexible and light trim athlete, so even I knew I should not be able to lift a growing guy. After Clarke was up, I did not need to see to know he jumped into the brush on the other side, because I heard what I could only describe as a muffled sound of a strangling bag of wet cats. At least he had the sense to cover his mouth on the way down.

I found a foothold on the link and I propelled myself up. I felt my heart leap in my throat as I not only scaled the fence in a single deft jump, but I shot well over the linked fence and the higher wrought iron one behind it, and I fell for a few seconds that almost felt like the beginning and end of my own private universe. I landed on my feet. My knees absorbed the shock of the impact so completely that it almost felt as if I had merely hopped in place or skipped a rope, not jumped over a fence in a single motion.

“Jesus!”

Clarke exclaimed. He covered his mouth again while searching to see if any white-clad creepers were stalking the yard.

“Which way do we go?”

Clarke asked me as if I had the power to figure that out with no information.

“Tablet, wifi?”

I asked as I pulled him back down into a bush. After getting the hint, he tapped the dulled screen and connected to an open internet option. Then he was inside the hospital’s network within thirty seconds. Clarke was a real genius when he wanted to be. He could declare himself the Gandalf of the inter-webs and it would be true. Then again, I am sure some sixty-year-old former hacker already had that name taken by now.

“Ok, records room is at the right and all the way to the back. Problem is, we must find a level three access badge, then we can unlock the door. They are purple-colored key cards according to this.”

Clarke informed me. I nodded. I put my blue-tooth earpiece in my ear, and I opened a call to him.

“You stay out here and be my tech operator. I will go inside, just direct me, and maybe try to hack into the security feed so you can see what is down each hall before I hit it.”

Clarke looked like he was seconds from protesting, but he finally nodded stiffly.

“You put me on b***h duty again, and we gonna have words, Hannah!”

His warning was met with a sassy eye roll. Which seemed to peeve him only further. I managed not to taunt him any further before I dashed off towards the hospital.

“Just go into the second door on the left across the courtyard. I just disabled the security on that door and I also looped the video feed, you’re welcome.”

Clarke said to me. I snorted into the Bluetooth connection.

“You will have to talk me through hacking their files once I’m in the records storage.”

I told him. Clarke hummed, and I could hear tapping from his end.

“Negative, you have to find a file. The patient’s name was Whitney Mack.”

I had never heard her name before, so it was a prick to my heart to hear it now. I knew nothing about her, other than she carried me to term and gave birth. All I knew for sure is that she possibly valued me more than her own life. That could be a born orphan’s fantasy, or it is the truth. Tonight, I hoped to discover firsthand what happened over sixteen years ago.

As I entered the door cracking it only as much as I needed to get my slender form through. I was not sure if the nerves I felt were from the excitement of the B&E or the heavyweight of the information just beyond my physical reach.

The first hall was empty—so to speak. The tiled floor appeared as if it was dusty and had been ill-kept for some time. The hall was a faded white color, and the dull gray panels along the sides only added to the horror-show vibe I was now getting.

I could hear distant rambling and screaming. I had not expected just how much this cocktail of ingredients could creep a girl out. Even if she appeared to have some slight advantages in the physical departments.

“Geeze, surprised they’re not being shut down for the state of this place.”

I murmured into my earpiece. I knew from experience that the Bluetooth could pick up even the slightest sounds and carry them well. Clarke and I used to have conversations while we were laying in our separate beds after we were supposed to have our phones off for the night.

“The part you’re in now is closed down for the time being. They are probably just keeping it sealed up to the residence. That is part of why I sent you in that door. Just head straight north, and you will come to a door all the way at the end of that hall has their physical records storage room.”

Clarke explained to me like my own tech support for petty crime.

“I can hear people freaking out, even in here. It is not fun, trust me. Be thankful that you get to lounge in a bush right now. At least you are not risking being pumped full of sedatives and tossed in a padded cell.”

I told him. I was mildly worried about that possibility, but I doubted they could catch and subdue me in all honesty. Just needed to keep my features obscured and I would be fine. There was a part of my rational mind that felt as if I should be terrified and disturbed by how easily this came to me. Most sixteen-year-old girls did not have the backbone to pull an Ocean’s Eleven on a crazy farm!

“I think I am almost there.”

I told him, as I spotted what looked like a dead end up ahead. Most of the lettering on the doors I passed was too faded to decipher, but I could make out the faded word “record” on the door. It was a bit of an optical trick to string it all together properly, but I was sure I was headed in the right direction. Besides, Clarke really was great at what he did.

“Um, don’t I need that key card?”

I asked. Clark hummed in my ear.

“Nope, thanks to them having digital locks. I have the door open now. Who is the best backup ever? That’s right, your boy here!”

Clarke congratulated himself. I sniffed in the blue tooth and I kept moving.

“Not to feed into the beast that is your ego, but this is easy with your wizarding skills.”

I knew when a guy needed a bit of an ego stroke, less that feel as if you take their talents for granted. I could practically feel Clarke preening under the praise all the way from here. He was one of those guys who could hide his dorky streak behind the veneer that was his athletic prowess. He was an exceptionally good, almost jock type of guy, but beneath that Clarke was a natural white-hat hacker and high-nerd.

“Good thing I remembered to ask about that. It would have sucked if I went off chasing down key cards and you forgot to tell me all I had to do was open the door!”

I stated. Clarke seemed to snap out of his stupor of self-love.

“Hey, would I do that to you?!”

He feigned innocence. I snorted derisively.

“Absolutely, if there was even half a chance of recording it and making a meme out of it, hell yes!”

Clarke was smart enough not to reply to that, because we both knew he loved to make his own custom memes. He loved to take our least flattering moments and immortalize them.

“That’s…accurate.”

He admitted hesitantly. I smirked and barely bottled up my desire to laugh at him.

“I’m here now. That door will not trigger an alarm or anything, right? I just twist knob and find the file, correct?”

I clarified. Clarke hummed in confirmation into my ear.

“Yeah, twist and find the file. I have you covered out here. Just get back here as soon as possible. It looks like they do a patrol after midnight. They will walk every hall and every door, even in that wing.”

He warned me to hurry. I opened the door and stepped into the past I was too young to remember I had.