Everything was dark. It felt like days had passed since he'd last seen the light of the sun. Nicolas couldn't feel anything. His arms, legs, even his beating heart. He wanted to speak yet his voice wouldn't come out.
While being in complete silence, only a single thought remained in his mind. Like a movie stuck in five seconds, his thought was repeated by his subconscious countless times.
How long have I been here. How long have I been here. How long...
In this darkness that seemed to distort even the passage of time, a murmur broke the silence. Then, other murmurs joined in, creating a cacophony that brought Nicolas gradually back to his senses.
He could finally feel his body. Opening his eyes, a blinding light made him cover them with his arm. Afterwards, he waited for a minute to get used to it.
He was currently inside a room colored a calming pale blue. Through the window he could see that the sun had already set. The bed where he was lying at was hard and it was exactly like that of a hospital.
Looking around, he saw many monitors displaying some gibberish and things he couldn't understand. It took Nicolas a few seconds to conclude that he was inside a hospital. His white robe probably gave it away and the doctors passing by in front of the door.
Focusing his attention at them he heard their discussion and was shocked from his condition.
"... What should we do doctor? There's never been such a thing before."
"Do you believe that he was born like that? His brain and nervous system aside, the empty tumor in his heart is certainly unnatural."
"I know that and I believe we should dig into this problem more."
"Thankfully there has been nothing abnormal detected in the body and no radiation at all."
"What will we do if he wakes up? He was brought here by the police, but no one's here to guard him."
"You worry too much Jones. Right now he's in a coma and he might die the next day if his body starts convulsing again. I bet you twenty that if it happens again he'll die."
Nicolas, listening to the doctors carefully, was terrified. Who wouldn't be. If everything is true then he may be used as a lab rat or dissected and studied by a bunch of crazy scientists in order to satisfy their curiosity.
I refuse to die for you fuckers. Catch me if you can.
He needed to get out of there and fast. The only ways out were through the door and the window. He took out all the medical equipment on him and got up. Following that, Nicolas walked to the window while staggering.
He supported himself on the wall. It seemed like his balance was faltering, but he was recovering rapidly nonetheless. Outside the window was a ward and fifty meters away was a gate. It was his way out.
It seemed like luck was on his side. He immediately opened the window and jumped, leaving behind him the doctors' voices. Landing on his two feet, he remained in his position for a second. Even a jump from one meter off the ground made him dizzy.
Regaining his composure he started walking to the gate. The walking gradually turned to jogging and finally to running. His steps were light and made almost no sound. Unfortunately, right now he was wearing some cheap, almost paper like slippers and couldn't run any faster.
But this was enough. By the time Nicolas left through the gate, the guard hadn't even gotten out of his outpost.
Running to the outside Nicolas saw a line of taxis waiting by the hospital's outer wall. He opened the door to one of them and got inside. The brown skinned man was startled by his sudden intrusion and even more so when Nicolas aimed a syringe at his neck.
Then, Nicolas spoke to him with a panting voice.
"Drive or..I will."
Nicolas wasn't in a position where he could drive and he knew that. But he was threatening enough. The middle aged man started driving without a second thought. He was sweating along with quick breaths that gave the air a stench of garlic. Nicolas found it almost unbearable.
The man with a trembling voice asked him after he got the car on the road.
"Wh-where to?"
Nicolas hesitated to give an answer. Not because he was out of breath, but because he didn't know what to do next. He knew he would be hunted down by the police. If his heart and brain have really been transformed to something no one knew then the government wouldn't just let him be.
A silence had filled the air. Eventually he decided where to go and his next course of action.
He would...
"...Take me to Peristeri..."
...go home and get his things. He would abandon his family, his normal life, all in order to find out what happened to him.
"...and give me your phone."
*
Half an hour after Nicolas' escape, a man dressed in a black shirt and black jeans approached the panicked doctors.
He was around the age of 30. His bulging muscles restricted by his shirt made him look like a professional bodybuilder. His hair, shining under the light, were perfectly combed to the back.
Suddenly a police officer stopped him from getting any closer to the room.
"You can't approach any further. This is a crime-"
At that moment, the black haired man showed him something that looked like a badge and said to him in an icy commanding voice.
"Get out! From now on this scene is under my jurisdiction! I'm talking to you too nerds! What are you waiting for ladies?!"
His intimidating voice sounded like a canon throughout the hallway.
The police officer took the doctors with him, hesitatingly, while he was calming them down. The man seemed to be of a higher rank than the officer in charge but his badge looked weird. It wasn't from the police force. Additionally the officer was of a fairly high rank, a police colonel.
The question the hospital director had at the moment was who that unknown man was that could do something like that without even a piece of paper. Just a single badge.
Without any hesitation the man walked into the room. What he was looking for wasn't how the boy had escaped from here. He was looking for something else. Looking around, he saw a few files and images on top of a desk.
Straight away, he checked them out. With large steps, he approached the desk and took the files in his hands. His blue eyes narrowed down shortly after taking a look. The images showed exactly what the doctors were discussing earlier but with more details.
Without waiting any longer, he took a lighter and burned them on the spot. While throwing the burning papers in the trash, he whispered in a low voice.
"Such a pity... I wonder what he'll be..."
Following that, he touched an earpiece in his ear and shouted.
"The target's been confirmed! Fire!"