The Ridires entered into the cell. After Anton yell at them a couple of times, they finally decided to move and see what was going on.
Inside there, Casper was laid on the floor, in a puddle of different excrements. His eyes were distant and empty. He had some spasms all over his body and was trembling a lot.
"What? He was like this when we dragged him into the cell last night?" One of the three Ridires asked, looking confused at the soldier.
"As I remember, differently of last time, he didn't wake up during the path until this cell… But, the majority of prisoners don't wake up so quickly after we mind-blank them." The second pondered, looking disgusted at that scene and crouching on the ground. He tried to find something inside Casper's eyes, any hint that he had consciousness inside his mind, but it was strangely distant.
The third Ridire that seemed to be more carefree of them just kicked Casper's foot, as if trying to confirm if he was alive or dead.
"As I can see, he reacts to external influence. When I kick his foot, his muscles tense. Maybe he is just traumatized? That's something quite normal, y'know?"
Anton looked at that Ridire with clear anger in his eyes, clenching his fists. However, his body could not receive the response to snap. The mask would not allow him to do so.
"Are you paying attention to what you are seeing? He isn't in a normal state, man. This guy is completely broken. I will call a scientist responsible for him and we will see what we should do for now."
The first Ridire scolded his partner, even if he himself was bothered with all that situation. He reached his communicator and then started to ask for support in cell 32-B.
It did not take too long for a scientist to appear in that cell in a rush. The man was trembling all over and with his eyes widened.
"Please, excuse me, excuse me." He spoke hastily, opening the way through the Ridires.
He immediately crouched beside Casper and started to examine him.
"What happened with you, buddy? And the freaking plan you were talking about before? You were supposed to survive this Dark zone to make everything happen… How could you dare to be such a weakling just now…? If you be like this now... my plans..." Anton thought, frustrated.
He had not the least empathy with Casper. In truth, he nearly hated that man. Just for him to have any relations with the Jarls was enough to make his blood boil. But empathy was not the point there. Anton had just that chance to escape from that hell. Without Casper, he had no hopes to be a free man again. Be with or without a mask, he just wanted to be outside again.
If that boy could not accomplish his goals, Anton also couldn't.
"We need to bring him to the nursery. He isn't in a good state right now. I don't know exactly what happened during the procedure from last night, but he is probably with a psychological trauma that can turn irreversible if we don't act quickly."
The Ridires nodded to the scientist and reluctantly helped to move Casper out of the cell and carry him until the nursery.
Anton remained in the cell, looking to the gate closing in front of his eyes. He was about to going crazy there. All he wanted to was run for it, pass those gates, and do something to escape from that damn prison. However, no matter how much he effort, he could just think in that idea, even imagine; an image so real and palpable that seemed to really happen… But he never moved.
…
The nursery was trying to obtain a response from Casper. She tried all sorts of things, and every single test she did lead to the same results: Casper was still conscious, somehow, but his mind was not working as it was supposed to.
Worried, she turned her back from her new patient and looked to the scientist who was fidgeting and peeking at Casper behind her.
"Look, I don't know what the heck you guys did with this inmate, but I never saw a case like him. I mean, everything leads me to conclude that something isn't normal with Casper, but there are inconsistencies about other physiological matters. He is and isn't insane, that's the better response I can do with this fewer time of examination."
The scientist looked to the floor, pensive. He was shaking his head slightly, denying something.
"No, we didn't do anything different from what we usually would have done in other procedures. I really can't even guess what happened with him. There wasn't the tiniest mistake in our work from last night, and he seemed to be enduring it well from the start to end."
The nursery thought for a while, turning to face Casper and looking right inside his empty and traumatized eyes. She squinted like she was trying to discover something.
"This Casper… he is that anomaly, right?" The scientist looked to her dumbfounded, not knowing how a nurse came to know about that matter. In the end, he nodded.
"Well, if that's the case, we have a serious lack of information here. I mean, Casper isn't from this world. We can't treat him as if he was just like every ordinary person here."
"But, he is human. That's clear!" Protested.
The nurse sighed.
"That's not what I mean. I am trying to say that, although Casper is very similar on the outside, and in some points inside him… We don't know until what point. The brain is a powerful and complex tool, that we still don't understand completely even nowadays, as advanced as we are now. And if Casper has particularities in his brain that people have in his world, but we don't?"
The scientist got quiet, and alternated his look from the Nurse to Casper, sweat descending on his forehead.
Both remained conversing about that matter, rambling about Casper's condition. The time came when the scientist needed to leave, and the nurse restarted her procedure to examine and treat him.
The soldier seemed very sensitive to external influences. At some point, when the nurse said to him to do something or called his name, he would look at her and maybe raise his arm. His eyes never changed, though, nor the constant spasms through his body.
Some accurate tests said he was conscious, but others said the contrary. The more she researched, the more split that situation became.
In the end, she needed to change her focus. Casper was not the only person that she took care of. The nurse gave some pills to him. Those pills would probably help the White warrior to not go crazy and become dangerous, maybe even recovering his consciousness.
She asked for some other nurses to move him to an exclusive room for insane prisoners and left.
The nurses did as she wanted, and soon Casper was laying on a comfortable bed, in a room with about other 6 patients.
That room was some sort of a little hospice. It was not so bad as people would imagine it was.
There were a few of them doing strange things, others with a peculiar manner of look or interact. There was one that seemed completely normal, although it was a certainty that he was there for a good reason.
The room was entirely white, from walls to blankets or even the furniture. Everything was well organized, and the mess that remained was mostly on the beds, in which most of the patients did not stop to mess up.
A nurse was inside the room assisting some of the patients and giving them medicine. She was by far the kindest nurse of that nursery until now.
The hour passed by, and soon it was the end of the afternoon. That woman stayed all this time there and did not exit the room once.
After some time walking around and helping out most of the patients to lay on their beds and go sleep, she got out of there, waving to them.
Once the door closed and the room was immersed in darkness, Casper threw the blankets aside and sat on the bed.
He stretched his arms as strong as he could and snapped the back. His neck was also tense so he worked on it as well.
After an entire day pretending the insane, staying for hours in the same weird positions, and doing the most unlikely things, Casper was feeling all his body stiff.
It was a bother to remain like that for so long, particularly during his time in the hospice. And the part of the excrements… Well, he preferred to stay omitted about that matter.
However, all that effort would pay off. Now that the first step was done, the rest would be easy.
"Let's go. This time, no mistakes!"