"The End" Chappie 5

CHAPTER FIVE: “Leave now or else.”

Terry Anderson wasn’t caring about what was going on with all the disappearances. He wasn’t caring about what was going to happen to those who were left. He in general wasn’t caring about anything about the future, or anything at all.

Except yesterday.

Yesterday was truly a day to remember in his book. It had started off with treating his ex-wife’s new son’s sprained arm. He remembered taking a deep breath before turning into Room 39.

“Terry? Is he going to be okay?” Diana Jones asked, “I mean, of course he’s going to be okay, it’s just that is there anything else to be worried about?”

You mean besides you leaving me as opposed to working things out?

“No. Nothing,” He began to turn away.

“Wait, Terry.” Damn it.

“Yes?”

“I…Thank you. For taking it all so easy. I just couldn’t – “ Don’t you say it, “ – you know – “ Don’t you dare, “ – go on with it.” Bitch.

“It’s alright, really,” Like hell it was.

“You know I still love you, right?” she touched his arm.

Terry looked at her face and saw

something wrong in her eyes.

“Don’t lie. You wouldn’t have left if you still did.”

“Terry…” Shocked. Found out.

“Get his kid, and get out of here. I’ve got work to do. I’m busy,” Terry didn’t wait for a

response, and as he had turned out of the room, he remembered thinking, What was that? How did I know?

***

That had only been the start of the weirdness. Later that day, when he was having lunch with his friend, Dr. Jim Grey, he had the dizzy spell.

“Dude, it’s better for everyone if you just don’t think about marriages and all that stuff. Live in the Now, and all. That’s all I’m sayin’,” Jim advised.

“Easier said than done. Look at you; you’ve never had to worry about the pressures of marriage by your parents. They were trying to get me married when I was a freshman in college. It was insane.”

“I get what you mean. Just take it easy, things will get better, I promise.”

“I hope you’re right,” Terry stood up and things got blurry, he could swear he was seeing different colors around everyone’s heads. Red, blue, green, even purple…Everywhere, spinning, blurring, mixing…Darkening…

He remembered hearing Jim asking for some help before he faded into darkness.

***

When Terry woke up, he immediately got out of the bed he was in, and began to walk out of the room he had been placed in. And, of course, Jim was there to grab him and force him to sit back down.

“I can’t, I have that review to go to,” Terry mumbled.

“You missed it man,” Jim said, “They told you to take some time off. Until things clear up for you. When you’re checked out and back to normal.”

“I’m fine. And I don’t have cancer or anything of the like. I just got dizzy, that’s all.”

“You yelled out some stuff about the colors you were seeing. You said I was purple and blue, if I recall right.”

“Let me talk to the Board, Jim.”

“Fine. There’s no stopping you anyway, so better to give in early than to tire you out too much beforehand.”

So Terry made his way to the Board’s room. He stormed in, and demanded that he be allowed to keep working as opposed to ‘taking time off.’

“Dr. Anderson,” the Head of the Board said sternly, “if you do not leave this hospital at this moment, and stay away from your duties until you are back to your old self, we will have to remove you from your position.”

“You can’t do that. That’s not reasonable. I’m the best surgeon you have here! You can’t afford to keep me from my patients!”

“Leave now or else, that is final.”

And so Terry Anderson left the Moonlight Hospital of Maine. When the night before what would later be known as The Fall approached, Terry fell asleep thinking about what had happened in Room 39.

***

Terry Anderson’s last waking thought that night was what had happened in Room 39. Today, he sat thinking about what had happened in the room he currently sat in.

Room 39.