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As Intern stood in front of the hospital building, looking surprisingly small from the front, it couldn’t help but feel a little strange.
The morning was still young, the first rays of sun nowhere to be seen, but Intern could see just fine in the dark, thankfully.
What it was not so thankful for, however, was the gaze that never left him, hollow eyes peering out from the window on the second floor of the hospital. Intern looked away, walking in through the front door, not the back.
Although the surroundings were new and unfamiliar, Intern had been trained many times over, the steps drilled into his mind. It walked over to the check in counter, unlocking the door with its ID and stepping inside, lifting the shutters and setting the coffee machine up, preparing for the day’s work. It felt like there were eyes watching its every move, but it tried to ignore them…
Intern busied itself with whatever it could get its hands on. It started to get engrossed in figuring out how to work the monitor and printer, so much so that he only stiffened when a cuboid metal object sunk into its fur.
“Identify yourself.”
Intern froze immediately, the papers it was holding dropping to the floor, and it flinched again at the sound. Shoot. Doc would be so mad at it— It was its first day, it couldn’t leave so soon, no it couldn’t—
Luckily, whoever it was must’ve realised something, and the pressure eased away from the back of Intern’s head. It immediately turned around, pressing back against the desk table, shifting its arms away from view, thought they were already fully covered by the sleeves of his gray hoodie.
Intern took in the sight in front of it, a black cat staring at it with piercing eyes, bright yellow like the moon. The smile on Intern’s face was a slight frown as it stayed still where it was, the gun in the cat’s hand still there, but not really pointed straight at Intern anymore, thankfully.
Intern stood still under the cat’s scrutinising gaze. It tried not to flinch when a black paw darted out, grabbing something on its clothing. “You’re the new intern?” Only then did Intern realise that he was grabbing the little name badge on his hoodie. It nodded quickly. “I was told to just come in on my first shift…”
The cat stared for a moment longer, then slotted his gun back into his belt, releasing his grip on it. “I see. Call me Agent. I’ll be your mentor for the time being.” He spoke curtly, turning to leave, glancing back only once to see whether Intern was following. The rabbit quickly scrambled after, of course.
Intern’s morning might’ve started out a little rough, but it was fine. As the hospital check in opened up properly for the day, more people started coming in for their shifts too.
Agent taught Intern how to check patients in and provide basic medication, though he also took it on a guide around the hospital, even to the advanced rooms that it shouldn’t be using yet.
“That should be all.” Agent brought it back to the check in counter eventually. Intern had felt so productive today! It had even figured out how to work the coffee machine, and Agent let it make a cup for both of them. “If you have any questions, just ask.” Intern nodded. Agent acknowledged its action, before reminding it to watch out for anomalies or weird behaviours.
How ironic.
Intern shook the thought out of its mind as it focused on dealing with the check-in counter alone. What were the chances that someone were to catch it like how it was catching the anomalies? Probably quite high.
Most of its shift went smoothly, occasionally darting in and out of rooms to provide basic medication, but it barely helped out once the nurses came in. Intern marveled at their efficiency, trying to lend a hand. Sadly, after the check-in counter’s bell rang a time too many, the nurses had ushered it back to its place.
”Thanks for bringing things around for us, Intern, but we have it handled,” the Head Nurse assured as she passed it by.
Intern tried to give her a wider, encouraging smile to thank her for her hard work, but she was already gone. A little dejected, Intern felt its ears droop a little as it went back to dealing with visitors. The check-in counter was empty for now, Agent having wandered off somewhere, and Security out on his lunch break. Maybe Agent went to go join him, Intern mused thoughtfully. Security seemed pretty cool yet not very approachable. Intern hoped that it would have the chance to talk to him soon.
As the hours dragged by, the repetitive, boring task of signing animals in was getting tiring. Intern’s sanity was slowly slipping too, as the coffee was prioritised to the nurses and doctors. At least it had managed to nab a chocolate bar. Intern rubbed its eyes as it checked another visitor in, missing how the animal’s arm had twitched a little weirdly as it settled the documents.
”Here you go,” Intern passed the documents with its usual smile, albeit a little tired. The animal smiled in return, reaching out a claw- hold on.
Intern jerked back as the anomaly’s jaw opened wide, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth, pouncing at it through the window. Despite being one of them, Intern couldn’t help but let out a shriek, stunned.
Intern tried to get up, scramble away, anything, but the anomaly’s awkward limbs kept grabbing a hold of it, sharp claws threatening to dig into its flesh—
“I’m not tasty-! I promise-“ Intern kicked at the anomaly, stunning it sometimes, but it felt it’s back hit the wall. Intern tried to reach out for the taser, belatedly realising it had been taken by Head Nurse earlier. Shoot.
It was going to die, by an anomaly no less. Isn’t this cannibalism? Shouldn’t Intern tell it? Does it even care? As a red mouth of teeth roared in its face, Intern shut its eyes, trembling a little as it accepted fate.
Click.
Instead of being torn into pieces, a weight fell over on it.
Despite its three hearts, Intern didn’t dare breathe, didn’t move a muscle as it firmly kept it’s beady eyes screwed shut. It wasn’t until after the weight was lifted off it, paws shaking its shoulders and faint voices calling, then it opened it’s eyes.
”…tern! Intern! Can you hear me?” As the rabbit’s vision cleared, a pair of huge, yellow, gleaming eyes stared back, dark pupils slitted into a line of urgency, relaxing a little in relief as it opened it’s eyes. “…Agent…?”
Agent let out a small breath of relief, heart beating loud in his ears. He had just left the front area of the hospital for a while, helping out the nurses get rid of anomalies lurking around the rooms. He had even checked in on the Intern before doing so! He watched him from the side, staying out of sight, but making sure he was still doing fine at the counter.
Of course this just had to happen when he hadn’t been looking after his junior.
Agent had come running over from the other end of the corridor when he heard the Intern scream, heart pounding faster than usual in his ears. It was only Intern’s first day, maybe he just scalded his tongue with the coffee. Or tripped over something. Surely he couldn’t be…
Agent skidded to a stop outside the check-in counter, slamming the door open with his gun ready. His heart sank a little deeper when he saw an anomaly pounced over the Intern, taking aim quickly and firing.
As the creature finally fell limp, Agent rushed over, pushing the creature off the poor rabbit as he quickly checked his pulse. Still beating. Maybe a little too fast and irregularly. “Intern-!” he gently shook the rabbit, eyes scanning over him for any wounds. He felt the presence of a nurse entering the room too to check. Thankfully, The bullet didn’t seem to have hit him. Agent, however, did notice a wound by his ankle, looking pretty deep yet not really bleeding. Agent narrowed his eyes at the detail before his snapping back up to the Intern’s, the rabbit finally opening his eyes.
Before it could react, a bright light shone into its eyes. Intern flinched and turned away from the light source, covering its eyes.
“Intern. Does it hurt anywhere?” The steady, deep voice came back, multiple paws patting it over. Shoot. It couldn’t let them see its fur. It was matted, tufting up at awkward places… absolutely nothing like the real animals it had seen. Intern shifted away from the wall, pushing the paws off — it was a nurse — as well as putting space between it and Agent.
“I’m fine! Just a bit… startled…” Intern’s voice trailed off as it caught sight of the limp body on the ground. It’s eyes were still wide, jaw open at a ridiculous angle, neck now bending at an inhumane angle. There was also a hole through its forehead…
Intern looked away, feeling sick. It could feel the chocolates and the coffee cups that it had taken earlier starting to rise back up.
“Intern. Are you sure you’re okay?” Black fur stepped into its view, obscuring the fallen anomaly. Intern nodded half heartedly, giving a light smile and some excuse as it brushed pass the agent, something about needing the toilet; which wasn’t a lie.
Intern was glad that somehow no one had followed it as it shut itself into a toilet cubicle, retching up its insides. Shame for the coffee and chocolate. It had tasted better than most things it had ever eaten.
Intern simply stayed there for a moment longer, catching it’s breath as it tried to calm its three racing hearts. Anomaly. It was an anomaly too. That was what it would become if they ever found out… a limp body on the floor.
Intern tried to shake the thoughts away, but the sight of the body wouldn’t leave its mind. It didn’t know how long it had been in there, but a soft knock on the door could eventually be heard.
”Intern…? Are you in there?” The familiar steady voice came through the door, albeit a tinge of awkwardness in it. Intern quickly stood up, flushing the toilet. “Fine-!” He called over the sound of the water, unlocking the door and stepping outside.
Once again face to face with the black cat, Intern avoided his gaze as it washed its hands. ‘Sorry for taking so long, I’ll be getting back to work in a jiffy, I’m sure there’s lots of patients waiting to be checked in, am I right, ahaha…” Intern didn’t know what prompted it to rant, but words just kept flowing, like he suddenly couldn’t deal with the silence anymore now that Agent was there.
”Stop.” The command was enough to make it flinch and shut up, the repetitive motions of washing its hands stopping under the flowing water. Intern had never been good with commands, or maybe it was too good at them, all thanks to the Doctor. Agent however, seemed to regret it as a quiet “Sorry,” followed.
As the tap water slowly stopped flowing, Agent spoke up again, weighing his words carefully. Intern could see him through the mirror, staring back at Intern intently, but avoiding direct eye contact, focusing. “You don’t need to pretend to be okay.” A light paw came to rest on Intern’s shoulder. “I know it can be hard. Although they’re anomalies. I felt like that too, after I killed one for the first time.”
”…Really?”
“…Yea, It stunned me quite a bit.” Agent confirmed. There was a pause of contemplatory silence, before he squeezed its shoulder slightly and let go. “I’ll cover the rest of your shift. Just take a break by the snack bar behind the counter.”
Intern turned to look at him for that one. “I can still-”
“Take a break. I’ll decide whether you’re fit to continue.” At that, the black cat padded out once more, assumingly to the check-in counter. The bell had been heard once more, after all.
Intern hesitated slightly, before trailing after Agent, following him back to the place of his attack. It had already been cleaned up, not a hint of what had happened earlier to be seen. Security was also back at work, Intern noted through the window, sitting to watch the cameras to make itself useful while Agent checked visitors in.
Agent didn’t try to bring up the matter anymore, busying himself about with the visitors, yet checking in on Intern now and then when it zoned out. Once, he even pushed a warm cup of coffee into its hands! Intern was grateful for the gesture, drinking it all in one go.
As they now worked together for a bit to catch anomalies, Intern watched the cat with a newfound interest. Sure, it wanted to try to make friends with everyone but… Intern thinks that it liked Agent a little more than the rest.