How does he manage to get himself into these types of situations? Issac thought, turning him over with a soft nudge of his feet.
He bent down and rested his hand in front of the man's nose, feeling warm air hitting his finger. He is alive. Is that a good thing or bad though?
Who would even hit him and run? Did they steal his money or something?
Reaching out, Issac pulled out his wallet with everything still intact inside it. Money, cards, everything is still there.
Strange. What did they hit him for? Was he just unlucky?
A groan pulled him out of his thoughts as Soren began to open his eyes, staring up at Issac. "What happened?"
"You were hit," Issac said, holding his hand out for his friend to grab onto. "They did not take anything from you though. I checked."
A flash of panic passed Soren's face as his hands quickly reached into his coat pocket, relief washing over him.
Issac looked at his friend suspiciously but did not say a word as he helped him up, handing his wallet back to him.
"Check your belongings." He said as the man took the wallet from him and shoved it back into his pocket. "Do you have everything?"
"I do," He said, hand still on the coat pocket nervously while Issac looked away.
Not my problem whatever secrets he has from me. He thought, about to pull out another cigarette from his pocket, clicking his tongue when he saw the empty packet. I need to buy a new packet.
"Do you know what happened?" Soren asked, rubbing the back of his head and wincing.
"There was some kind of rush of fog," Issac explained, fidgeting with the empty box of cigarette in his pocket, slightly nervous. But he could not tell the reason why.
His heartbeat sounded a little bit louder than it usually was, his palms felt sweatier and he could hear the blood rushing to his ears.
"Want some?" Soren asked, holding out a box of mint. "You look a little on the edge."
"Thanks." Issac held his hand out as his friend poured a couple of mints into the palm of his hands. Shoving the whole lot into his mouth, Issac began to chew at the mints as the two made their way to Soren's hospital to get checked.
All the while, Issac continued to chew at the mints, his heart still not settling down as everything felt as muddled as the fog all around them.
Annoying.
_______________
Ding.
Issac took his blank gaze away from Soren getting patched up by the nurses, scolding him over and over again while the man smiled sheepishly. He pulled out his phone and stared at the message from 'Isabella'.
It was blank with just a full stop right at the centre of the message, making Issac sigh.
"Everything ok, Dr Zaid?" He heard a sing-song voice ask as he turned to see a nurse smiling brightly at him.
"Yaline." He greeted as the brunette walked up to him, a bright smile on her face. "And I am still working on my PhD. I am not a doctor yet."
"I just like teasing you like that." She mused, grinning up at the man, hair neatly in a bun. "What are you doing here?"
Issac stared down at the woman, she is a tiny person, petite almost to the point of malnourishment. But she insists that she eats healthy, despite Issac's disbelief.
"What do you think?" He asked, looking her over. She does not look as tired as the past couple of days since he saw her.
"Don't tell me that you are injured again." She mused, looking up at him with an expression like she is asking for confirmation. "Right?"
Issac would get injured randomly and he would take care of those injures by himself. But some of them are too bad, like the time he sliced a nerve on his left leg, having to get several stitches on the wound.
He would normally get looked at by Soren, but if he was too busy, he would send Yaline to him and she got him patched up in no time.
She once asked, "Why not get a proper checkup? You seem to like getting injured, and that too badly."
"I don't want any records of them," Issac replied while she was busy staring at Issac's entire shoulder facing the opposite direction. "It is enough that you two take such great care of me."
"I am flattered." She said, with a swift move, snapping his shoulder back in place and then bandaging it up. "But you cannot keep saying that and expect Soren to allow you to keep coming without an appointment."
"I have been doing it ever since high school." Issac shrugged, putting on his shirt, the sore spot on his shoulder making it hard for him to move.
Yaline chuckled, helping him with the shirt, "Soren is … gullible."
"And that is too kind a statement to that idiot of a person," Issac remarked, putting on a coat, with her help of course.
"I am not nearly as kind as you are." She said, putting the box of bandages back. "You are too kind for your own good, Issac. Then again, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for your kindness."
Issac was about to ask her what she meant when Soren burst into the room, a dazed look on his face as he collapsed onto the chair Issac was sitting on.
"How many hours was it?" Issac asked, Yaline pulling the coat off Soren who did not have any more strength to even move.
"48 hours." She said, poking Soren. "Dr Usoro. Please lay on the bed. The chair will give you severe neck cramps."
The white room was filled with shelves of medicines, a plastic skeleton of a human in a glass case at the far end of the room, charts of the human body filled the walls.
The table had a plastic human head on the table that Soren lovingly named as Jared. At the far corner of the room is a door where a single bed lay, nothing else.
There is a bed in the other room but it is for the patients to be examined by Soren.
"Let me," Issac said, picking Soren up and laying him on the bed while Yaline wrapped the covers over him. "He has his own bed in his office?"
"He has been called for more and more operations, most lasting more than twenty hours," Yaline explained, taking his shoes off as Soren fell into a deep slumber. "This was a storage room, but after seeing how he fell asleep on his chair for hours on end, we decided this was the best course of action."
"I see," Issac said, looking around the room. There is a single window in the cramped room that he walked to.
The view outside is just the wall to another building. Sunlight is not even going to enter this room. That would explain the musty smell.
A wave happened at that moment and Issac missed his chance to ask Yaline what she meant by what she said earlier.
After that, the days became busier and he never found the time to talk to her again. Until now.
_____________
"Ooooh~. So it is Soren." Yaline's voice pulled him out of his thoughts as Issac turned from her to Soren who looked more like a mummy than a person, bandages covering his entire face as the nurses laughed at him.
"How are you?" he asked the woman, ignoring Soren shouting for him.
"I am ... fine." She said, smiling up at him. "In fact, I am doing much better now that a certain someone is not coming in as frequently to be patched up like some kind of zombie. Wait ... could that be what you really are?"
"Perhaps," Issac said, not realising that she meant that in a way to tease him. "I do have the characteristics of one. I need to be constantly patched up and seem to be rotting even though I am able to move."
Yaline stared at the man solemnly before chuckling and grabbing his hand and holding it to her cheek, surprising him.
"What are you-?"
"You are warm." She said, cheek leaning into his hand, eyes closed before opening slightly. "A zombie would be cold, they are dead after all. But you are alive."
"That is a fair point," Issac said, a faint smile on his face. "I suppose I am more alive than zombies."
"You are." She said softly, letting go of his hand as the feeling of her cheek on his hand lingered slightly. Almost pulled out of a trance she grinned at him, pointing at his face. "Don't you forget it?"
"I won't," he said, nodding.
Ding.
Using his free hand, Issac pulled out his phone as Soren made his way to them, bandages draped around his face unceremoniously.
Yaline made fun of him before helping him remove the bandages and properly wrapped them around his head.
"What happened?" She laughed.
"I think I insulted them in some way," Soren said sheepishly while she tightened the bandage, securing the ends in a knot. "You are a lifesaver Yaline."
"Think nothing of it." she winked at him. "Someone's got to look after you otherwise we will find you on the floor, dead."
"Not a pleasant thought at all," Soren said, scratching the back of his head and wincing. Turning to the other man completely ignoring his existence, he asked, "What are you doing, Issac?"
"I have to get to my clinic, a client is waiting," Issac said, shoving the phone back into his pocket. "I will see you tomorrow, Soren. I will take my leave, Yaline."
The man's groan could be heard even as Issac reached the exit, the frown growing deeper on his face.
What does this woman want now?