He would have loved to think more about it but it obviously wasn't the right time. When Eleanor was fairly better, she looked at Alrick who was sitting beside her on the capsule. She had so many questions but asked the most important one first.
"Are we dead?", she looked at him eagerly and it was hard to tell if she wanted a positive or negative answer but he decided to be direct.
"No... Not yet at least"
"... So all the stuff I dreamt of?.. It was real?", her voice was shaky and expectant, hoping it wasn't true. Alrick sighed, running his hand through his head. It was something he did when he was stressed about something.
"Yeah... it was", the air between them was silent. Soon, the silence was broken. "Where's Nana?", she asked, he pointed to the capsule behind them, just beside hers. Eleanor jumped down and made a bee line to Nana Mae, the old woman laid lifeless and moving.
"Nana? Nana! Wake up!", she began pounding on the coffin and screaming hysterically. Alrick had to get off her capsule and pull her away from Nana Mae.
"Alrick? Why isn't she awake like us? Why?!", she struggled to pull away from him but he held on tight, not letting her go no matter how hard she screamed or hit him.
"I don't know Ellie, she's dead. They all are", he knew he sounded harsh but he wanted her to understand quickly and not waste her time. She cried and reached out for her grandma before turning around and hugging him tightly, "Nana!", her sobs broke his heart, he reciprocated the hug not minding that they were only wearing lab coats.
The two remained hugging in a room filled with corpses.
Some hours later—or so he counted—he was lying down with Eleanor on her capsule, still hugging her. His arms were around her waist as she hugged his neck, burying her face in it.
How he got here was not a mystery; she had insisted on it. He wanted to refuse, but she wouldn't let him. She was grieving, and he had no choice but to give in. When they were kids and she was sad, she'd always demand hugs like these or a nap together. It was a habit of hers, and they were harmless at the time.
He regretted it almost immediately. Times had changed. With only their lab coats on, he would be lying if he said he couldn't feel anything. He had to use all his willpower not to think of how soft her body was, or how he never realized how endowed she was... God, he was doing it again!
He had to take in deep breaths and focus his mind elsewhere—like counting capsules or looking for any doors. That's right! They had to escape! His eyes carefully scanned the white room for any way out, but he couldn't see anything obvious.
He moved his head gently so as not to rouse Eleanor awake. After a while of stressfully looking around, he finally found something. It was a black, squarish device on the white wall that stood oddly out of place—there were several around the room.
Luckily enough, Eleanor's capsule was not too far from one. After studying it closely, he came up with an idea of what it might be. It resembled a sort of keycard reader he'd normally see in apartment buildings, but it was more ahead of their timeline.
He figured it opened a door out of there, but getting a key was the problem. No one ever went in there, despite all the noise they'd been making. He bet they doubted corpses would rise from the dead, so the surveillance here must be close to nothing.
His biggest fear now wasn't getting caught by their captors—it was actually starving to death. There wasn't anything edible in the room, as far as he could tell. He hadn't made a proper search, but he figured the result would be the same. He wasn't sure how long they'd be able to last like this.
After a few hours of doing nothing, Alrick suddenly sat up out of Eleanor's hold. She wanted to protest, but he put his finger on her lips to shush her while he looked toward a particular wall on the other side of the room. It had a keycard holder beside it.
He could faintly hear something in that direction. It was obvious the room wasn't completely soundproof, and he didn't want to risk getting caught from even breathing loudly. His senses had always been on another level—just like his unnatural strength and reflexes.
He cursed before pulling her down to the ground between her capsule and another, signaling her to be as quiet as possible. After a couple seconds of intense silence, a quiet beep echoed through the room before they heard strange sounds, like something pulling apart.
He took a risk and raised his head above the capsule. The capsules were horizontally facing the wall, so it'd be hard for anyone that walked in that direction to see them. His eyes widened in astonishment as he witnessed the wall pulling apart to open up a doorway.
Soon after, two men walked into the room one after the other, the walls closing up once more. Not bothering to look around the room, they walked toward the transparent operating room and took out a clipboard, discussing something amongst themselves. He wasn't bothered to know—he was more interested in finding a way out.
One of the men began to make a move. He walked out of the operating room and toward the cupboards. He opened the one at the end and took out a black metal box that Alrick had seen there before. The man carried it and began walking toward the capsules.
Alrick quickly ducked back to the floor, hoping he wasn't seen. The footsteps got closer, and the two didn't dare to breathe. Much to their benefit, he went down another row of capsules. Alrick peeked his head out to see what was happening. The man had used a black card on one of the capsules, causing it to open up. He then pressed a button on the black metallic box.
It opened up and turned into a floating stretcher, which he loaded the body onto before walking back toward the operating room, the stretcher floating behind closely him.
Eleanor covered her mouth as she noticed the body. It was her neighbor. She almost broke down again, but Alrick covered her mouth quickly to avoid detection. They couldn't risk it. They heard the men dressing up in what was probably their scrubs, followed by sawing noises and something being cut.
Eleanor's tears wouldn't stop and rolled down Alrick's hand. He didn't have time to soothe her and focused on keeping them both quiet. The look in his eyes was dark and quiet.
After hours of those gruesome sounds they wished to unhear, the operating room doors finally opened. The footsteps came again. This time, they stopped at Eleanor's empty capsule—they were just behind it and had to hold their breaths. The man was quiet for a while before speaking, "Hey Dean, have we taken 078 out y-… Aah!!—"
Alrick had covered the man's mouth after stabbing him in the neck with a scalpel. He had gotten off the floor and onto the capsule in a matter of seconds, so the man couldn't even react before being attacked. Even Eleanor was surprised.
He used his weight to push the man backward, making them both fall. The man's neck snapped from hitting the capsule behind him, then falling on the floor with Alrick on top of him and the scalpel still in his neck.
The room was eerily quiet after that. Alrick remained frozen on top of the now lifeless man, his hands shaking as he quickly backed away from the body.
"Matt? What happened?" The man named Dean had stopped what he was doing. He waited for a reply but received none. He took off his scrub and walked out of the operating room.
His heavy footsteps echoed as he made his way to where he had last seen his colleague. After trying to guess the exact spot, he froze at the discovery. Matt laid lifeless on the ground, a scalpel in his neck, in a pool of his own blood.