Redeemer

Chapter 5

“So this is your John Doe?”

“Yes, this is him. He was brought in here a couple of days ago.”

Paxton groaned softly as his ears picked up a faint voice buzzing somewhere near his ear. His head felt like someone had it in a vice and was twisting the handle mercilessly while his body felt like it was trapped somewhere in the void between awareness and unconsciousness. He felt awake but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t force his eyes to open.

There were two distinctive voices somewhere near him, one was soft and feminine with an accent that sounded German. The second voice, however was defiantly male and had a foreign twist to it.

“Any ID on him?”

A pair of soft, thin fingers touched his wrist gently and felt for a pulse.

“No. He wasn’t carrying a wallet or any ID when they brought him in.”

The male’s voice hummed quietly and soon Pax’s ears were able to pick up the sounds of a pen scratching against paper.

“What about the other one they brought in with him? Is he awake?”

The fingers removed themselves from his wrist and a pair of feet shuffled across the room.

“No. He’s recovering the fifth floor. Poor thing was in surgery for almost five hours. His only took three.”

The scratching sounds halted and the man’s voice spoke with a confused tone.

“Wait, I thought he was the only one who was hit? Over five eyewitnesses claimed his friend wasn’t anywhere near the car or the street when the accident happened.”

There was a long paused between the voices and Pax feared for a moment that he lost consciousness. His ears strained to hear any words they could pick up. He wanted to know where the hell he was and what had happened.

“Well, when the ambulance arrived on the scene he was already unconsciousness and bleeding severely but once they pulled his fried away from him the poor boy passed out. They brought both of them here and– well you can just imagine the shock our staff received when we looked them both over.”

Pax listened closely but felt his patience where thin when the two voices stopped talking once again. Josh was here? Where? Was he okay?

“J...osh.” He felt himself moan pitifully.

Once again the scratching sounds stopped and even though he couldn’t see them, Pax could tell the owners of the strange voices where staring at him.

“He just said something.”

“He’s been mumbling things in his sleep ever since he was brought back from surgery. He keeps repeating the names Josh and Oli over and over again.”

The male voiced hummed once again and Pax guessed he was writing more things down.

“Josh and Oli...any others?”

“Not that I’ve heard. They have him on enough morphine to kill a horse so he probably has no idea where he is or what he’s saying.”

“Mmh, well I think that’s all I need for now. You’ll inform me when he wakes up? Good, thanks for your time Ma’am.”

“Your welcome.”

Sounds of heavy footsteps echoed inside of his head and Pax felt himself fall into the dark void once again.

*************

After what felt like a few seconds, he felt himself regain consciousness again. This time, the only thing he was aware of was pain. Sharp, white hot pain that completely engulfed the entire right side of his body.

He felt himself groan mentally and he focused all of his remaining energy to open his eyes. Scorching bright light greeted him and he snapped his eyelids back closed and waited until they adjusted to open them again.

Everything around him was white, the walls, the ceiling. His vision sharpened enough for him to notice that he was in a small room and resting on a cushioned surface. There was soft cotton under his fingers and he curled them around the source in order to determine what it was.

It was a blanket and the cushioning under him felt like a bed. Where the hell was he?

A second later, something small and warm lightly touched his left arm and Pax quickly realized they were s pair of thin fingers.

“Kann Sie hören mich?”

Paxton’s eyes focused on a slim figure standing on his right wearing a white uniform. A nurse.
“Ja Englisch bitte.” Pax whispered.

The woman smiled lightly at him. “Is this better?”

Pax nodded weakly and turned his head in order for him to get a better look at her. He face was aged but still looked young with pale blonde hair tied up into a bun. Her voice is what stood out the most to him, it was one of the main ones he heard when first woke up.

“Do you know where you are?”

He shook his head.

“Well, you’re in a Hospital. You were hit by a car five days ago and the ambulance brought you here. You’ve been unconscious for most of that time.”

Pax blinked, confused and tried to recap his thoughts. His memories where in shattered fragments, he could faintly recall laying in the middle of a street after something heavy rammed into him. Before that, he remembered running into the street. He was running from something, but what?

The nurse gently reached forwards and held his wrist of his left hand. As she raised his hand to check his pulse, Pax saw his left hand was neatly taped up with a clean bandage and as he stared at the empty space where his ring and pinky finger should’ve been, his brain suddenly powered on.

Bit and pieces of memories started flashing behind his eyes; the dark factory, the sounds of people screaming and the evil laughter that followed, the horrible man inside the locker-room who kept grinning as he described killing someone.

Pax whimpered and closed his eyes as they started to water.

“Are you alright?” The nurse leaned forwards with a concerned look on her face.

He didn’t say anything; he just moved his eyes towards the cracked ceiling and stared at it blankly. Oh god, that horrible place wasn’t a dream; he really did escape from that hell. The nurse felt his hand shake and she gave him a soft smile and gently rubbed his arm. Her fingers were soft and warm and Paxton felt himself relaxing into their comfort.

“Do you remember your name?”

He thought for a long moment before he decided he might as well give her his name.

“Paxton.”

“Paxton.” The nurse smiled warmly at him and let go of his arm. “I’m Natalie.”

He tried to return her smile but it soon turned into a grimace. The whole right side of his body was in pain. He turned his head and frowned when he saw his right arm was in a sling and he couldn’t move it, no matter how hard he willed it too.
“The impact from the car dislocated your shoulder incase you’re wondering. It’ll probably be a few more days before the nerves return and you can move it.”

He stared at his arm for a few more seconds before he let his head fall back into the bed. He remembered the accident clearly inside his head now. He remembered running down an alley into the street and not seeing the car that hit him. As he replayed the scene over inside his head, he realized the last thing he could recall before the car hit him was someone screaming his name.

“Josh.”

The nurse gently let go of his arm and leaned over him once more. “Josh? Is that your friend’s name? The blonde one?”

He nodded fearfully and tried to turn his head, seeing if he could locate his friend. When he saw that he was the only patent in the room he turned his head back towards the nurse.

“W-where–”

“Your friend’s on the fifth floor. He still needs more time to recover from his operation. You both do.”

Pax felt his heart move up into his throat. Josh was here, his friend was in this building somewhere alone and that thought was more then enough to send Pax into a sever stage of panic. Both times Josh was out of his eyesight something horrible happened to him.

He forced himself to move, gingerly pulling himself upright despite the immense pain coursing through his body. His vision went blurry and feeling lightheaded, he slumped forwards. The nurse’s arms grabbed him a moment later.

“You’re in no shape to be moving around like that, lie back down this instant!” She yelled sternly as she pulled him back on the bed.

Pax tried to shrug her arms off but he didn’t have enough strength to and soon, he found himself on his back again, staring at the cracked ceiling.

“You’ll only agitate your injuries more if you thrash around like that. You’re going to need a few more days of bed rest; I’ll strap you down if I have too.”

Pax ignored her, his eyes still staring up at the roof but eventually he got himself to nod. The last thing he needed was to be restrained and left completely helpless once again.

“Good. Now that you’ve calmed down, how about something to eat?”

He didn’t answer and from the way the nurse shook her head, he knew she didn’t expect him too and soon, he heard her footsteps walk away from him and out of the room. Once she was gone, Paxton didn’t try to hold himself together.

Tears started crawling down his cheeks and a whimper tore from his throat. Five days, he’d been here for five whole days? Five whole days and no one found him yet, or drug him back to the factory?

(Josh...)

Was Josh even okay; did any of the E.H. bastards find him?

More tears ran down Paxton’s face and even though it was painful for him to do so, he rolled onto his left side and buried his face in the soft pillow and let all of the fear, pain and heartbreak from the past few days run its course.

*********************

The next few days pasted by at a slow, grueling pace as Pax drifted in and out of drug induced sleeping periods.

He tried to get himself to sleep, fully taking advantage of the opportunity to rest as the wariness from the past few days caught up with him but almost every time he closed his eyes horrid images of the factory appeared in his mind; resulting in numerous nightmares.

Most of the time, his nurse, Natalie had to drop whatever it was that she was doing and forcibly shake him awake. One particular nightmare, where Pax found himself back inside the tiny torture room with the German asshole coming at him once again with the chainsaw, she had to call for one of the male orderlies to help her restrain him and after the man had received a few punch to the face and a swift, painful kick in the groin from Pax’s knee, he strapped the struggling American to the bed with a set of leather cuffs.

The night that fallowed was filled with the sounds of Paxton’s struggling and frantic cries to set free and after a few hours Natalie finally caved in and untied him. Pax spent the remainder of the night curled in a tight ball and went through the fallowing day without uttering a single word. When he could finally bring himself to talk once again, the first words he found himself uttering was Josh’s name.

He still wasn’t physically able to see Josh yet but after constantly bugging his nurse and refusing to eat anything, she eventually started keeping tabs on the other American for him. He was thrilled to hear that the doctors had managed to patch up most of Josh’s wounds successfully and that his friend would heal alright.

However, he always ignored the questions that came his way afterwards. Even though his nurse seamed wonderfully kind, he didn’t fully trust her... or anyone else working in the hospital for that matter. What if some of the staff members had ties to the company like Natalia and the fuckheads that ran that messed up hostel?

What if his nurse, with her caring, motherly behavior was a member?

He didn’t know who to trust...he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to trust people again.

*********************

“This might hurt a bit.” Natalie warned softly as she gently unwrapped the bandage covering his left hand.

Pax winced slightly as the cold chill in the room nicked his bare hand and after a long passage of time, he finally removed his eyes away from the familiar sight of the cracked ceiling towards his left hand.

With his hand bare and scrubbed clean of blood it felt like he was looking at his severed fingers for the first time. The stumps were neatly stitched closed and had already begun healing over.

“I’ll have to remove the stitches in a few days but other then that you’re healing just fine.”

Once again, Pax didn’t reply, instead he forced himself to resume staring up at the cracked and stained hospital ceiling. After a few moments he cleared his throat and started asking his usual two questions.

“How’s Josh doing?”

As he expected, Natalie sighed and shook her head before she answered him.

“He’s doing just fine, as I informed you this morning. He still needs a few more procedures done before they can move him to the lower levels.”

“Is he awake yet?”

“Not yet. Because of his injuries they’re keeping him heavily sedated. He probably won’t fully wake up for a few more days.” She replied as she looked his stitches over.

He nodded his thanks and turned his head away. Natalie finished looking his hand over and wrapped it up in a fresh bandage a moment later.

“How’s your right arm feeling?”

Pax shrugged. “Still hurts, but I can move it kinda.”

“That’s good, I’ll remove the sling tomorrow and we’ll see how it feels–”

“Natalie, es gibt jemanden aus hier bittend um Sie. ” One of the orderlies called from the hallway.

“Geben Sie mich einen Moment bitte.” Natalie yelled back, rolling her eyes. “Excuse me Paxton, I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t say anything but his eyes fallowed her out of the room. When she was gone Pax turned and curled up on his side once again. He was tired of being coopted up inside of this damned room, he wanted to leave.

He wanted to see Josh, but he couldn’t; he still wasn’t strong enough to walk yet and there was no possible way his nurse was going to let him crawl all the way up to the fifth floor either. Natalie’s soft footsteps echoed in the hallway and she peaked her head inside his door way a moment later.

“Paxton, there’s someone here who would like to talk to you for a few minutes, is that alright?”

Pax frowned and rolled over onto his back, his mind reeling. Someone was here to see him, could it be Josh?

“Would you like me to send him in?” Natalie asked, still wearing her normal, motherly smile as she lingered in the doorway, waiting for his answer.

He nodded and pulled himself into a more comfortable sitting position. His spirits lifted slightly, if Josh was well enough to visit him then to two of them could figure out what to do next. Maybe they could’ve even get out of here before anyone found them?

However, his new found hope was shattered when a dark shadow appeared on the floor near the open door as a well built man wearing a long, black coat entered his room. His chest swelled tightly with fear as stared at the man and instinctively, his eyes moved slowly back and forth, looking for anything he could use as a weapon if he needed one.

“Good afternoon Mr. Paxton.” The man replied with a full, thick Irish accent as he pulled his wallet out of his chest pocket and held up something round and shinny. “I’m inspector Petraki, mind if I ask you a few questions?”