Countd0wn

Chapter 19: One Brave Girl

She had been cuddling her teddy bear when they had first found her. It was in the back room of the store that Wren had found, and she was sitting on the dusty old bed. Wren had walked outside to talk to Sparrow, and he had been gone for a while. As she was about to go outside and see where he was, two men in black armour rushed in, and one of them pointed a weird gun thing at her. It was just like she had dreamed. Then, the gun thing spat out something, and she fell asleep.

Ivy had slept for so long, like she did when Wren had given her those sleeping pills that one time when she had been having trouble falling asleep on their first few nights in the forest. She didn't remember having any dreams, especially no dreams like the ones she had been having for a while, but when she woke up, she thought she was in a dream.

She was lying on a comfy bed that reclined, like the kind that she had lied in when she had to go to the hospital for her shots one time. As she looked around at the room she was in, she could see a window with a bright light outside that hurt her eyes when she looked at it. There was flowers, paintings, and a clock on the walls.

She was dressed in a small hospital gown, and she saw that she had a small white thing on her arm that was hooked up to a machine that was making a beeping noise. When she looked at it, she got scared as to what it was, and the machine began to beep faster. 

Ivy looked around, and saw that her teddy was right next to her on the table, and she gripped it tightly, speaking out loudly. "H-Hello? Please? I need help..." As soon as she spoke up, the door on the other side of the room opened. A man in a long white coat and glasses walked through. He looked like the doctors Ivy usually saw on television.

The doctor kneeled down and put his hand on Ivy's shoulder, smiling a small smile, trying to appear as friendly as he could. Ivy knew that look. She had seen it too many times whenever she had gone to the doctor's to get a checkup. "Hello Ivy. My name is Dr. Howard Smith. You can call me Dr. Smith or Howard if you want. You ok? Can I get you anything?"

Ivy looked at Dr. Smith with a bit of fear in her eyes, and she started to breathe a bit slower, but was still scared. "Please, where's my brother? His name is Wren, he's 19, he's tall, he has black hair-"

Dr. Smith rubbed Ivy's shoulder comfortingly, and looked at her with warm eyes. "I'm sorry sweetie, but you can't see your brother just yet. He's very sick, and needs to be taken care of. He'll come see you as soon as he gets better, ok?" 

Ivy's mind raced with fear and worry. Wren was sick? Was he sick like Mommy had been? Was he going to turn into one of those monsters? She could feel the tears beginning to well up in her eyes, but then she remembered what Wren had told her whenever he had to leave for a bit. "Vee, just remember, if I'm ever separated from you, remember I will stop at nothing to find you, ok?"

She knew that wherever he was, and wherever she was, he would come find her. So, she managed to keep back her tears, then leaned her head down and nodded slowly. Dr. Smith smiled and sat down in the chair next to her. "Now then, Ivy, if you're hungry or thirsty, we can get you anything you want. Just ask, ok?"

Ivy was getting a little suspicious. Mommy had always told her to never take food or stuff like that from people she didn't know. And this guy was kind of weird. His smile always seemed forced, like someone was telling him to do it. Whenever she looked into his happy eyes, she could see a sort of pained look behind them, and it scared her whenever she looked.

She looked up at Dr. Smith and shook her head. "I'm ok...thank you...how did you know my name?" Smith then looked up and to the left slightly, like he was looking at someone else that wasn't there. He then cocked his head like he was listening for something, then went back to normal and looked at Ivy again.

"Well, your brother told us that. When we found you two, he was very grateful for us, and he wanted to make sure you were ok. He was saying your name the whole way here." That didn't sit well with Ivy. Wren was always suspicious of new people. He had been suspicious of Sparrow when she had first arrived, so why not these guys? Was it because they were adults? No, Wren had never really listened to adults anyways, except for Daddy and Mommy.

Ivy looked up at Dr. Smith again and hugged her teddy bear close to her chest. "You said that my brother was sick. What is he sick with? Is he going to be ok?" Again, Smith cocked his head and appeared to listen for something, then looked back at her as if nothing had happened.

He then sighed and laced his fingers together, and made the face that all adults make when they're about to tell you something that's bad, but they try to make it something happy. "Well, we don't exactly know. You and your brother were out in the wild for a long time, and a lot of those things are out there too. He might have contracted a disease from one of them. But I'm sure he'll be fine. We treat people like that all the time."

What the man said also didn't ring true with Ivy. Wren was fine. He had been fine for almost a year now. Unless he was referring to his powers...but how could that be mistaken for a sickness? Nothing seemed right to Ivy, but she had a feeling that she shouldn't mention it. So, she stayed on the bed and quietly replied. "Ok then...can you keep telling me how he is?"

Dr. Smith smiled and nodded. "Of course. We'll let you know every single day how he's doing. In the meantime, you can stay here, and do anything you want. We want to make sure you're ok too. We've got whatever you want. Food, candy, water, TV...bet you haven't watched TV in a while, huh?"

Ivy looked at the man and nodded slowly, and then he smiled back at her. "Great. I'll bring that right in...but you have to do something for me first, ok? Ivy...can you tell me about the dreams you've been having?"

Ivy was shocked, and her eyes went wide. How did he know about her dreams? She hadn't told anyone about them, and she barely even remembered them. But the ones she did remember...she didn't want to talk about. The machine began to beep fast again, and Ivy scootched away from the doctor and squeezed her teddy tightly. "I...don't like to talk about them..."

Dr. Smith's face flickered with a look of disappointment, but went straight back to happiness. "Alright then sweetie, that's no problem. We'll come back to it later. In the meantime, I'll go get your TV and food, ok? I'll be right back."

Smith walked out of the room and closed the door. Ivy got under the covers of the bed, and held her teddy bear against her chest, and the machine kept beeping. She looked around the room again, and suddenly found herself wanting Wren and her parents very badly. In the small space of the room, Ivy Sawyer began to cry.