Hospital Visit

Hospital Visit
Alex's POV

"Forty seconds!" Reed's voice echoed through the room as I watched thousands of students on the screen start to fall.
But they weren't changing into robots like I expected. Instead, they were falling to the ground, holding their heads in pain. Some were yelling. Others were completely still.
"What's happening to them?" I yelled at Professor Martinez.
Reed's laugh was cold and mean. "The nanobots aren't working properly on so many people at once. Their brains are rejecting the devices. Very messy, but very successful."
On the screen, I could see students falling like flies all across campus. But the worst part was watching Ethan. He was stumbling down the stairs from the top, holding onto the railing like he could barely stand.
Then he fell completely.
"Ethan!" I screamed, running toward the door. But the robot students moved to block me again, even though some of them were fighting Reed's control.
"Let me go!" I pushed against them furiously. "He needs help!"
"Oh, he'll get help," Reed said through Professor Martinez. "The kind of help that includes a nice, long stay in the hospital. Where I have many friends."
My blood went cold. Reed had people working at the hospital too.
"Twenty seconds until full activation," Reed stated cheerfully. "Though at this point, it's more like twenty seconds until I have the entire school under my control through fear instead of nanobots. Much more fun, don't you think?"
That's when I heard something that gave me hope. Sirens. Lots of them.
Through the window, I could see ambulances rushing toward campus from every direction. Someone had called for help.
"Who called 911?" Reed ordered, and for the first time, he sounded worried.
"I did," said a voice from the back of the room.
I spun around and saw Liam standing in the doorway. His eyes weren't sparkling blue, and he was holding a phone.
"How did you get in here?" Reed snarled.
"While you were busy with your evil villain speech, I snuck in through the kitchen," Liam said. "I've been recording everything. The cops are on their way, and I already sent the video to every news station in the state."
The robot classmates turned toward Liam, but he was ready for them. He pulled out some kind of gadget that looked like a TV remote and pressed a button.
Suddenly, all the robot kids froze in place.
"Signal jammer," Liam explained. "I borrowed it from Professor Chen's lab before Reed got to her."
Reed screamed with rage through Professor Martinez, but without his robot army, he couldn't stop me from running to the door.
"This isn't over!" he yelled as I pushed past the frozen students. "I'll get Ethan at the hospital! You can't protect him forever!"
I didn't stop to fight. I just ran.
Outside, the college looked like a war zone. Ambulances and police cars were everywhere. Paramedics were helping students who had fallen, loading them onto stretchers and rushing them toward waiting ambulances.
I found Ethan laying on the grass near the student center. He was aware but pale, and a paramedic was checking his vital signs.
"Ethan!" I dropped to my knees beside him.
"Alex?" His voice was weak, but his eyes lit up when he saw me. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. How do you feel?"
"Like someone hit me with a truck." He tried to sit up, but the fireman gently pushed him back down.
"We need to get him to the hospital," the rescuer said. "His brain activity is all over the place. We've never seen anything like it."
"I'm coming with him," I said strongly.
"Are you family?"
I looked at Ethan, and he squeezed my hand weakly. "He's my boyfriend," Ethan said, and even though we'd never publicly used that word before, it felt right.
The rescuer nodded. "Okay, but you'll have to ride in front. We need room to work on him in back."
The ambulance ride was the longest fifteen minutes of my life. I kept looking back through the little window, watching the firemen hook Ethan up to machines and check his blood pressure over and over.
At the hospital, they rushed Ethan into the emergency room while I had to stay in the waiting area. I paced back and forth, checking the clock every thirty seconds.
That's when I noticed something weird. The nurse at the front desk kept looking at me. Not like she was curious, but like she was watching me. Studying me.
"Alex Grant?" she called out.
"Yes?"
"The doctor wants to see you. About your friend."
She led me down a path that seemed to go on forever. But instead of taking me to a room where I could see Ethan, she stopped at an office door.
"Right in here," she said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Something felt wrong, but I was too worried about Ethan to think clearly. I walked into the office.
"Hello, Alex," said the doctor sitting behind the desk. "I'm Dr. Williams. Please, have a seat."
I sat down, squirming with worry. "How is Ethan? Is he going to be okay?"
"That depends on you," Dr. Williams said quietly.
"What do you mean?"
Dr. Williams smiled, and I felt my heart stop. Her eyes weren't glowing blue, but something about her look reminded me of Reed.
"You see, Alex, we've been studying the effects of nanobots on human brain matter for quite some time now. Your friend Ethan has provided us with some very interesting facts."
"You're working with Reed," I whispered.
"Reed is working with us. There's a difference." She leaned forward. "We represent certain government agencies that are very interested in your unique situation."
"My unique situation?"
"You're the only person who has successfully fought off total nanobot integration. That makes you extremely valuable."
I started to stand up, but the door behind me opened and two security guards stepped in.
"Please, sit down," Dr. Williams said kindly. "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to run a few tests."
"Where's Ethan?"
"He's safe. For now. But his state is... deteriorating. The nanobots in his system are causing his brain to swell. Without proper care, he could die within the next few hours."
I felt like I was going to throw up. "What do you want?"
"It's simple. We want you to volunteer for our study program. Let us study how you broke free from Reed's control, and we'll save your boyfriend's life."
"And if I refuse?"
Dr. Williams smiled. "Then Ethan dies, and we take you anyway. But this way, at least one of you survives."
I stared at her, trying to think of a way out. But I was trapped in a hospital room with two guards, and Ethan was dying somewhere in this building.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?" I asked.
"You don't. But it's the only chance he has."
I closed my eyes and thought about everything Ethan and I had been through. The fake Emily profile, the drawings in my sketchbook, his statement that he loved me, fighting Reed together...
I couldn't let him die. Not when I finally had a chance to be with him for real.
"Okay," I said quietly. "I'll do it."
Dr. Williams smiled proudly. "Excellent. We'll start the tests instantly."
But as the security guards moved to take me out of the room, the lights suddenly went out. Emergency lights kicked in, bathing everything in red.
An alarm started blaring, and I could hear people shouting in the halls.
"What's going on?" Dr. Williams ordered, grabbing her phone.
One of the security guards listened to his radio, then looked at her with fear in his eyes.
"Doctor," he said, "we have a problem. All the patients in the nanobot study wing just woke up. And they're not acting like patients anymore."
Through the office window, I could see people in hospital gowns walking through the halls. Their actions were too coordinated, too perfect.
Their eyes were glowing bright blue.
"Reed," I whispered. "He's here."