One Down, Everyone Else to go

My first day here and I've already fought monsters, saved strangers from a burning building, treated their wounds, and now I was supposed to tell this girl she was going to die? What's wrong with this place...

My mind was racing with options of how to get out of here and this situation. climb the fence and run or help the people and stay? Jump a guard, take their pass card, and bust down the doors of this place? How about knock them all out then jump the fence...

I could hear the lady screaming, busting down the walls of my thoughts and daydreams and bringing me back to the present. It occurred to me as I was trying to calm her down that I couldn't leave these people here alone. I grabbed a rag and some alcohol and poured some out onto it. I know I've already cleaned the wound once and this may be overkill but i needed to try and get the ooze out.

"This is going to hurt. A lot." I sad as I dabbed the rag on her cheek. She wailed and smacked my hand away as soon as it touched her skin.

"I'm sorry ma'am but I have to clean it!" I say frantically, searching for something for her to bite down on. I notice one of the other members of our group has a leather belt on, not very common now but easy to make.

"Sir! let me have your belt, now!" I shout and reach towards him with my free hand. he shakily undoes it and tosses it to me. I wonder if he knows what's happening to her... I grab her chin and pry her mouth open. When I place the belt in her mouth I tell her to bite down on it that way she doesn't break any teeth. She nods and grinds her teeth on the belt. I'm glad she understands the direness of this situation, she's cooperating just enough for me to work with her.

" Ok. One... Two... Three!" I count out before I dab her cheek again. She screams a little but its muffled by her clenched jaw and the belt. I continue to clean out her wound, from temple to chin and to the bottom of the cut itself.

The ooze kept coming back, no matter how much I clean the wound it just comes back. I took a closer look, trying to figure out where it came from.

"Does the wound always burn or only when i touch it?" I ask her. I need to figure out if it was poison, some weird medicine she's been implanted with, or something else entirely.

"No, it always h-hurts. A-and I'm light headed" As she says this she wavers a bit. I grab her shoulders, put the belt back into her mouth, and prepare to tell her these dreaded words.

"You've been poisoned. Those monsters? Their claws were laced with poison, and now some is in your cut." I feel bad for being so straight forward, but there's nothing much else to say. Her eyes widen for a second, but something clicks and she nods her head at me.

She's telling me she's ready for the rest of the news. I don't know if I can give it to her.

"It's pumping into your heart, to your brain. It's probably already in all of your major organs. You're going to die" It's sad, really, how she's already accepted her fate. She spits out the belt a bit, I guess she wants to tell me something.

"th-is place...it's not safe here. they'll make you into something you're not. Don't listen to them, I've seen you before. You're more than them" She says. By now she's gripping my arm with as much strength as she still has. It's creepy, saying she's seen me. I don't recognize her at all. Maybe she's seen my sister? Definitely not me.

Then it happens. she goes into shock, then a stroke sets in. I know its too late to save her so I usher the others out. The five I treated where the only ones in the room thankfully, but the people with sprang ankles took longer to get out. They ended up seeing most of it.

In the hallway, we were all quiet. No one wanted to say anything first, so we listened to thrashing in the room we left her in. People huddled together, hugging each other and avoiding gazes. We just let a woman die in there. I just let her die.

With a sigh I push off the wall and head down the hallway. She may have died but there are other people here to deal with. I make my way to the lobby of this "hotel" and search the faces gathered there for someone she might know.

"That lady, with the cut on her face, did anyone here know her?" I ask. Some notice the blood on my hands, my sleeves rolled up and my clothing rumpled. Those people back off a bit, but the others shake their heads in dismay. No one in that building, or this building, knew her.

"Fine. Well, I'm going to go rest. No one go in the kitchen until I clean it up." I really don't feel like going in there right now. I could go in there and finish her off, end her suffering, but her thrashing stopped before I even left the hallway.

There are stairs on the right of the lobby, probably leading all the way to the "Penthouse", but I only take them to the third floor. Every floor below me had locked doors, probably belonging to someone else. One of the first doors I see is open, and I don't even check to see if anyone is in the room. I take of my bloody clothes, they peel off like a second skin, and I start the sink for a quick sponge bath.

A climb into bed once I'm clean enough and fall into a restless sleep.