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Today was a stressful day.
Security was working the front desk this shift, but her sanity was slowly starting to go down. Six anomalies in a row? Where were all the patients? They had only let in one, and that had ended up being a mimic. Honestly, Security was just tempted to let in anomalies just to taze them.
After another cursed photo, Security had to close the shutters once again. She was getting really damn tired of this job. It was like the entire world was anomalies now. She wouldn't be surprised if one of her coworkers was secretly an anomaly, too.
She missed how her job was before all this. Back when she only had to worry about actual patients fighting hospital staff. Now, everything was way too stressful, and she hasn't even gotten that significant of a pay raise.
Security heard the ding of the coffee machine. She walked over and brewed a cup. Her sanity was at a dangerously low 33. She seriously needed some damn coffee.
Taking a sip of her coffee reminded her of that one new hire that didn't even last a week. He had gotten attacked by an anomaly and didn't make it to the coffee machine in time before he died from job stress. It was unfortunate. Thankfully, Security wasn't too sad. She hadn't really gotten to know the guy, and if she was being honest, he was annoying.
She had learned to not to get so close with the new hires. She would always distance herself, waiting for them to survive at least a month before she got to know them more. It made their deaths easier to handle.
It was a surprise that the new intern was still alive after three months. In fact, the new intern was honestly really good at handling certain anomalies. They were the one who found out the bed monster needed maple syrup. Cheers to them.
"Hi… I'm here for my appointment…"
Security looked up at the animal, who gave their appointment paper. Security briefly looked over it, then grabbed the camera to take a picture of the animal. They shook the photo for a few seconds before color appeared. Yup, this patient was normal. That's good. Security walked to the cameras. The patient was normal there, too. Awesome.
She walked back to register and print the name tag for the patient. After those few seconds, she handed it back to the patient. "You'll be in room 3!" She told the patient.
Security looked up at the screen. Check in patients: 5. She was about to end it.
Two animals started walking in, which meant Security was going to have to juggle 2 check-in windows. Alright, that's fine. The secretaries did this, she can do this too.
Security walked to the cameras and noticed how one of the animals was looking directly at the camera. It freaked her out. It was so creepy, the way their neck would've most certainly have been broken by now.
She exited out of the cameras and began to check in the other animal. They were a yellow fish with the circle eyes. After a few minutes, the patient was registered. Security quickly closed the shutters on the other animal. After hearing the anomaly bang its head on the shutters, she opened the shutters again.
Security heard the door to the check-in office open, and the head that popped in was of one that belonged to a pink dog. Nurse was her profession.
"Can you be any fucking slower?" She huffed, clearly bored of waiting for more patients. "Head nurse and that new black cat assistant are taking care of the one patient you let in."
"Girl I'm trying, there's just so many damn anomalies." Security looked at the photo—FUCK. Cursed photo, -10 sanity. She closed the shutters. "Why don't you help me if you want to be so damn impatient?"
"You know what, sure. I will." Nurse walked in, brewed some coffee, and sat at the other check-in window. She sighed, waiting for the next animal to come to the window.
Nurse wasn't actually this mean. Earlier this week, she had been working a 48 hour shift. She was extremely exhausted, and Security didn't blame her for that. Taking care of patients for 48 hours caused her to lose a ton of sleep.
"Anomaly," Nurse commented at the animal that had come to her check-in window. After Security checked in the animal at her own window, she closed the shutters. Again. At least another patient was in the hospital.
Two more animals walked in— Oh, Ron from Accounting! And another animal, one that was a pink bunny with spots.
"You ever feel someone watching you from the corner of your eyes?" Ron from Accounting asked Security, tightening his briefcase.
"All the time, if I'm being honest… hah…" Security nervously chuckled. While she knew Ron from Accounting was a safe patient, the guy still creeped her out a little. Maybe it was because he worked for the animal corporation. Those guys were always sketchy…
"The feeling amplifies every time I see that tall bunny creature in the corners of the hospital… gosh, it's very creepy," Security continued
"Yeah...I used to work with that guy…" Ron from Accounting admitted. Security was slightly surprised. The tall bunny stalker worked for the animal corporation? What kind of creatures is the corp hiring?
"Just make sure not to stare at him." Ron from Accounting began. "He is shy."
The stalker is a man?
Ron from Accounting handed his appointment to Security. She quickly skimmed over it before taking his photo and registering him as a patient. She handed the name tag to the blue dog, sneaking a glance at the nurse who let in another patient. They were a green cat whose name was Toby Brown. The patient wasn't very brown, to be honest. "You're going to room 2!" Nurse told the patient.
"Alright, uhhh, you're going to room 6." Security slightly stumbled at their words. Thankfully, Ron from Accounting didn't notice.
Security looked at the screen. Check in patients: 2. "Go take care of the patients now, Nurse." Security closed the shutters on two obvious anomalies. Nurse nodded, waving goodbye before walking to the rooms 1-5.
Security noticed the coffee machine's cooldown was over. She walked over and brewed another cup. She should probably stop drinking so much coffee…
"Uhh, hello? I'd like to check in as a patient??" Security nearly spat out her coffee, immediately rushing to the check-in windows.
"I'm so sorry! I'll get started with the process right away!" Security took the appointment sheet from the patient, quickly looking to make sure all the details made sense.
Room 8? Surgeon wasn't scheduled to come today, and no one else was allowed to do surgery. This animal was either an anomaly or the paper had the wrong date.
"Sorry, but I think this paper has the wrong date… I'll go check in with my higher ups to make sure this isn't a mistake!" Security walked out of the check-in room and walked to the right of the shop, right where the door to Doctor Harlow's office was. After knocking a few times, Doctor Harlow answered.
"What brings you here?" He questioned. Security tried to ignore the slightly accusatory tone.
"Do we have a surgery today? Or is it the wrong date?" She pointed to the date and the room number. Doctor Harlow sighed.
"That's a faker. You can shut them out."
"Ohhhh, okay…"
Security ran back, noticing how another animal was waiting at the other check in desk.
"Good news! Our surgeon should be arriving soon! So sorry about the delay." Security was being a lying asshole. She just wanted to finish checking in patients.
After doing the paperwork process, Security let the faker in. She pulled out her taser from her pocket and pointed it at the faker.
"TASER TASER TASER."
-15 sanity.
The faker convulsed at the floor, screaming and yelling from the pain. They got up, slightly struggling to stay upright. "I'm getting out of here!" They yelled before running away and out of the door.
While that sure was funny, Security felt kind of guilty for tasing an innocent animal. She smiled at the other check-in window, with who is supposed to be the last patient of the day. "Are you ready to give me your paperwork?"
The animal hesitatantly nodded, probably worried they were going to be tased next. Their paperwork seemed fine, though, so Security took a photo of the animal and looked at the cameras. Nothing wrong with this animal.
After printing out the name tag, Security waved to the animal and said, "Room 1, okay?" The patient waved back and nodded before shitting out a patch of green slime. Ewwww…
Security scrunched up her nose, walking to the fire extinguisher to get rid of the slime, but Head Nurse was there first. With cough syrup in hand, she cleaned up the slime, giving Security a thumbs up. Security gave a thumbs up back.
"Security! There's an anomaly in room 2!" Nurse yelled. Security ran, grabbing her taser and putting it directly in front of her. She opened the door, expecting to see an animal with its mouth wide open, showing all its disgusting, yellowy-brown teeth with green goo all over it. Instead, Security saw… nothing?
Suddenly, she felt a sharp, painful bite at her ankle. She looked down and saw the anomaly. Fuck. She had forgotten about crawlers.
Security bit her lip, trying to handle the severe pain from the anomaly bite. It had punctured through her skin, leaving wounds all over her ankle and blood escaping. Security tried to aim her taser down, but the anomaly bit her other ankle really, really deep.
"Fuck!" She yelled, grabbing the doorknob for support. She was going to struggle with walking for a bit, wasn't she?
She tried to kick the anomaly off her, only successfully knocking back the creature two feet. Tears started forming in her eyes, threatening to spill.
Security thought she was going to die. She lost another 10 sanity from another bite, enlarging the already deep bite wounds.
Security completely lost her grip on the doorknob, falling to the ground in the hallway. She tried crawling away from the anomaly, stupidly backing herself into a corner.
"Awh fuck…"
Security closed her eyes, expecting nothing waiting for her, but she heard a gunshot right in front of her.
Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and saw the medical assistant, the black cat, right in front of her.
"I- uhh… thank you…" Security mumbled. She winced, her bloody ankle was making a pool of blood, seeping through her clothes.
"We should get that dealt with…" Secret Agent grimaced at the wounds, carefully helping Security up. She walked the bat to room 2, helping her on the bed. "Take this chocolate, it has a bite left. It should help deal with the low sanity…"
"Thank- thank you." Security stuttered, trying hard not to focus on the pain. She looked up, expecting to see the black cat again, but they were gone. "Wha…"
The door swung open, and Assistant was back. "Sorry, I went to go get some stuff. Take this." In her right hand was a bottle of medicine, and in her left hand was a glass of water. "It should help with the pain for now."
Security took the glass and the medicine, feeling a slight sense of relief when her pretty dehydrated body finally had water in its system.
"That ankle needs to be washed. I'm gonna help you up, mkay?" Assistant placed a firm grip on Security's shoulder. Her other arm was placed at the guard's waist. Security was moved to the sink in the room, where Assistant reached over to turn on. She helped Security sit on the counter and moved the direction of the faucet so all the running water splashed onto the bloody ankle. The water looked disgustingly red. Normally, it wouldn't bother Security that much, but this was her blood. She was the one that needed medical treatment now, not the patients waiting to be checked in.
"I apologize in advance, this is gonna hurt." Assistant said quietly.
Security weakly laughed. "As opposed to that crawler trying to eat my legs?"
Her grin faded when she realized that Assistant didn't smile.
"Oh, it's that bad, huh?"
Assistant put an antiseptic wash on a clean piece of gauze and gently wiped the skin around the wound. Then, she grabbed another piece of gauze with antiseptic wash and placed it on the first wound.
"Fuck!"
Pain shot up Security’s leg so sharply that she sucked in a breath through her teeth. Her hands immediately gripped the edge of the counter.
"Sorry," Assistant murmured, but she continued.
Security's eyes watered. It burned horribly.
"Can you take a break!? Please? It hurts- It burns!"
"I need to make sure it doesn't get infected. You'll be okay, just handle it for a few minutes."
Security watched as Assistant wrapped gauze around her ankle, then secured it with bandages. She winced every time the material brushed against the puncture wounds. A few tears slipped down her cheeks, but she was grateful for the treatment.
"I've always wondered why you have a firearm." Security questioned. It wasn't supposed to be accusatory, but the tone might've come off that way.
"I bought it from the shop," Assistant answered, washing her hands that were stained with blood. Security's blood.
"On your first day? Damn, that's some good luck."
"Hah, yeah."
The room fell silent. Neither animal chose to spoke. Assistant simply helped Security back on the bed.
"Take it easy, okay? The hospital should be fine for a few days without their security guard."
Security nodded, feeling quite sleepy. "What happened to the other two?" By 'other two', she meant Head Nurse and Nurse.
"Taking care of the other patients. I'm honestly not surprised they didn't realize you were in trouble. You were pretty quiet despite being attacked by a crawler. Those are hard to eliminate."
"Mhm…" Security mumbled, feeling tears fall down her eyes again. "Ugh, I'm genuinely a horrible security guard. How the hell am I meant to protect anyone when I can't even protect myself?"
Assistant shook her head and adjusted the edge of the bandage where it had come loose, disagreeing with the negative self-talk. "That's not true. You've helped the hospital deal with many threats. The other staff are extremely thankful for your help. You're making the hospital so much more of a safer place for everyone involved."
"That's just glaze."
"It's not glaze, It's true. I remember that sometimes Nurse would talk about how thankful she is for certain coworkers, and you are on that list most of the time. She's grateful for your protection."
"That's sweet…"
"It is. Now don't beat yourself up about it. It's only one incident you messed up on, and it's a crawler. No one is gonna blame you for that."
"Thanks dude."
"Of course. Now give me a second. I should probably go write an incident report." Assistant left the room for a few minutes and came back with a paper in a clipboard and a cup of coffee. "You take this. I'm going to fill this out and talk to Head Nurse."
"Thank you again…"
Security took a sip from her third cup of coffee today. She seriously needed more sanity. The anomaly attack left her with a staggering 22.
"Before you leave," Security began, grabbing Assistant's arm to prevent her from leaving. She swore she saw the black cat blush a bit, but chose to ignore it. "Are you really a medical assistant...?"
Assistant blinked a few times, unsure what to say. Then, she answered. "I… will get back to you! Let me talk to Head Nurse about this incident first."
"Okay…" Security let go of the feline, watching as she left her line of sight.
Security continued staring at the door for a long moment, then looked down at the white bandages around her ankle.
She was really grateful for that black cat, even is she probably was hiding something.