The Union of Democratic StatesBoard

Where are you...?

You jolt up, eyes snapping open. For most people, such a rude awakening would have been the result of a nightmare, an image that jumped started your body into consciousness. However, for you, this is frighteningly regular occurrence. Normal, in fact.

Only this time… you aren’t under your familiar sheets.

The room you’re in isn’t actually a room. Rather, it is a long, stark white hallway. Large white hospital beds with pale blue mattresses line down as far as you can see in either direction, their forms, general structure familiar, yet weirdly different from the hospitals you’re used to. No one occupies those beds, save for you, freshly dazzled, in your own gurney. As you glance at the IV drip line feeding a clear liquid into your veins and the monitor resolutely beeping out your heart beat, you start to feel a tight clenching in your chest.

It’s then that you hear a door open a couple of beds down from you. As the sound of rubber soles smacking the floor hits your ears, you turn your eyes to see a woman in a white lab coat striding towards you with a clipboard in her hand. Middle-aged, pretty, and professional with carefully done hair strung out in a pony-tail and manicured fingernails. Her dark eyes and eyelashes only accentuates the slightly nervous and worried look she has when she glances at you, though she quickly wipes it away the moment she realizes you’re gazing back.

The doctor, straightening her shoulders, hastens her step until she’s at the foot of your bed. She peeks at your monitor for a second before returning her gaze to you and giving you a professional smile, albeit a little stressed and shaky. She also keeps glancing to the side, as if worrying at something imminent, or watching.

”Hello…” She states your name. “I’m Dr. Smith. And I just need to ask…” She begins but then abruptly drops off as she lapses into thought.

At this point, you’re feeling a bit weirded out. You’ve been hospitalized before, but not like this. You wait for her to continue, trying to prompt her with your facial expressions, but after a few seconds you realize you’ll have to break the silence…

You…
1. Crack a joke. What’s the worst that can happen?
2. Ask her what’s wrong. She’s acting strange…