Survival

Chapter 37 Very nice

Mischa watched the needle enter her friend's forearm. The red liquid pooled into vial after vial. Rubber soles clacked against the floors as a shadow darkened her view. Her eyes flicked up to a woman in a white lab coat with thick silver glasses. A quick glance to either side confirmed the nurse sought her blood next. She swallowed and stood, using her sweaty palms to balance the act.

"Do you know your blood type, Ms. Hues?"

"AB positive, I think?" She'd only gone to donate blood once, and the whole experience had nearly left her collapsed on the floor.

"This is just routine to test for vitamin and mineral levels, antibodies, potential infections."

Once she had sat down in the vinyl chair, the woman tied a rubber band around her upper arm so tight Mischa's eyes slammed shut. The woman began to play with the skin on Mischa's forearm with her rough fingers. Mischa searched with her for the blue gateway to get her out of this place that much faster. She tried making a fist, but her veins just wouldn't cooperate and reveal themselves.

The woman sighed before piercing her skin with the needle. When nothing happened, she jerked it out and stabbed away three more times. The skin burned with each attempt. Why couldn't this woman find the damn vein?

The woman muttered something that Mischa could have sworn sounded like, "I hate working with the live ones."

Mischa's heart beat fast. She tried to recall the people she had seen a floor down experimenting on human bodies but couldn't discern if her imagination was going wild or others were seriously out to get her. A glance around confirmed the other nurse had finished up with April. She sighed in relief and put a smile, hoping she could talk her current prodder out of drawing blood from the back of her hand.   

"Maybe the other nurse can find my vein."

The woman's eyes narrowed, and her grip on Mischa's hand tightened uncomfortably.

"Are you implying I'm bad at my job?"

"Of course not. But a second opinion never hurts."

The look Mischa received made her wonder if the woman wouldn't just stab her in the chest out of spite to get that sample. She should have known better than to piss off people with potential weapons. She looked around for her own, but the room was short on scalpels. It was probably for the best since she didn't know if she had the ability to stab anyone effectively.

Moments later, the aforementioned nurse joined them. "How're we doing over here?"

"She's a stubborn one."

"Let's see if we can't fix this situation," he said as he pulled up a stool in the place of the first nurse. He glanced at her file. "Mischa, is it?" She nodded. "Let's give this another try, I'll get you to make another fist. Good." He looked closely at her arm and smiled. "There's the little bugger," he said as he slid the needle into her arm.

His gray eyes connected with hers and his bedside manner shone with his smile. "We'll try to get you out of here quickly. This is probably just a formality for you girls." He turned his head toward April who was still in the room. "I can't see them asking you two to go through this process when you haven't even grown up yourselves. They have plenty of options, and I'm sure it'll be a few more years before the whole cycle starts for you."

A few more years? They really intended to live underground for years and years, slowly repopulating by forcing it on the women of age to act as receptacles.

"How long do people plan to live down here?" Mischa asked.

"This facility wasn't hacked together at the last minute, sweetie. It took years, but it's built to last."