The Plain White Room Read Free Page A

looking guy, though. Lepus had got him chatting while waiting for the toilet, standing in front of a mobile metal nurses’ station. Hours earlier, Lepus had snuck his way through locked doors to get to the roof. Waiting unseen and then walking through behind passing staff. Despite his lack of social graces, he wasn’t physically awkward.
    The final door to the roof had FIREDOOR written bold in red on it. Connected to an alarm which would have gone off if he had tampered with it. He decided not to go further. He knew there was no way he was getting through that door without it screaming with emergency sirens.
    There was not enough time; someone would be on the roof in seconds. Lepus sighed and looked out the window. He couldn’t see past the hospital grounds, and a dark cloud was beginning to envelop the building. It continued to get darker and darker until the window was just a shiny black slate.
    His mind blurred, and he seemed to be in the ambulance before he turned away from the window. The ambulance bumped and jolted as it drove along. The older looking paramedic watched over Lepus, no judgement in his eyes. Lepus's daydream faded, and he started concentrating on the sounds coming from nearby him. His mind cleared, and he realised he was already halfway through a conversation with the man sitting over him. The man had a wholesome and familiar demeanour which made Lepus feel like he was home.
    “I was an accountant before I got this gig, for a long time.”
    “I’m sorry, but where are we going? Which hospital?
    “Hospital… son, weren’t you listening before?” The man leaned forward, touching Lepus’s shoulder.
    “Jerry, I don’t think this one is quite all here yet,” The ambulance hit another bump. Lepus tried to calculate his odds of jumping, then tried to use the shakes to measure the speed they were going.
    Numbers that usually came so natural to him seemed hard to work out, like a piece of his brain wasn’t quite there yet. He closed his eyes and leant back into his stretcher.
    The sounds of movement and the man prattling on in the background faded out as Lepus’s mind began to wander into sleep.
    ***
     
    Lepus’s head throbbed, and he didn’t know why. His eyes blinked open, and he sat up in his hospital bed. His room seemed to bend and twist. He slipped out of his bed like a worm out of mud and crawled to the door. Once he was outside his room, the hallway seemed indomitable and long. The colour of the walls appeared to darken and to whisper, unseen voices cackled. They became louder and louder.
    He crouched in the confusing and seemingly endless halls, rocking back and forth. Milton approached Lepus,
    “Oi hey, come help this fella!”
    He crouched over Lepus, saying “Hey mate, you okay? Hey come help him, he’s bloody sick he is. Don’t worry mate; you’re alright, we’ll help you out.”
    The man who stood over him had only one arm. He wore a light green stockman’s coat, jeans, and steel capped boots. The sleeve of the jacket where the other arm would have been was tucked into the pocket tightly so that it didn’t move around.
    “I don’t understand; I don’t think I’m meant to be here. I… I’m confused, I thought I knew where I was, I thought –”
    “Nothin’ to be scared of here mate, not while I’m here, I’d know, I can handle myself.”
    “I think the halls are endless, are they endless?” Lepus said, shaking.
    “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing okay? Military Police me, everyone is safe here while I’m about. I was a plain clothes copper too before that ; I’ll help you back to your room,” The man said as he attempted to pull Lepus up with his one arm.
    By this point, the nurses were also, sweeping in seamlessly, as if floating, half holding Lepus up, half carrying him back to his bed. They all seemed to glow, under the florescent lights.
    “Son, the afterlife is just like life. There is certainly Heaven and Hell; it’s just that you chose where you're