Chapter 8: Epilogue
The hospital room was silent save for the soft beeping of Nico's heart monitor. Nico was a picture of stillness, his chest rising and falling steadily with each breath.
The overworked nurse was in the room, checking his vitals and rolling him over to avoid bedsores. She was a pretty young woman in her mid 20's, with dark blonde hair she kept pulled up out of the way.
She had heard he was responsible for some terrible things. At first, there had been police officers outside, waiting to take custody if he awoke. Then they'd just left him cuffed to the bed. But even that had been deemed unnecessary as time went on. He'd been in the hospital for over four months now, and the nurse had heard that his wife was finally ready to accept the truth and remove him from life support.
Nurse Gina couldn't believe what they'd said about the man. He had drugged and raped women in his office. His wife hadn't believed it either, saying she met some of the supposed victims when visiting her husband and none of them had seemed like victims to her. She suggested that all those women had actually been after her husband, trying to ruin a good man's family.
Either way, it would all be over soon. Taking his pulse, she noted that it was actually quite improved today. She moved to the computer to update his vitals one last time. Touching the mouse to turn off the screensaver, she was surprised when, instead of the hospitals login screen, she was bathed in a splash of colors. She couldn't turn away or even close her eyes as the colors warped and melted into each other. She felt that something was wrong, and a tear trickled from her eye. But she was at the tail end of her third double shift in three days, and her brain was firmly in the grip of the program.
Finally, the screen went blank, and Gina tore her eyes away, gasping for air.
"I know. It's a bad monitor and an old version from a hidden server I kept. It hurts, right. Nurse. Look at me." Surprised at the voice from behind her, she turned without even thinking. Having obeyed his command, the program fully set in place.
"Thanks, nurse....Gina, is it? Now, stay still and dont say a word."
She watched as the man she thought still comatose lifted himself up on one elbow.
Nico scowled. Well, at least hed gotten someone pretty, though it was hard to tell with all the weariness in her eyes and face. "It seems I've been asleep for a little while. I imagine I'm in a bit of trouble, so you're gonna help me get out of here. Now." He growled.
Gina went to the corner of the room and grabbed a wheelchair folded up there. She immediately began loading him into it as best she could.
Nico growled once he was finally settled. He hadn't actually expected that to work. This girl must be really tired. Never mind. He just needed to get somewhere safe and rest a bit. He'd find a newer model of his program and then.... well. It would be safer to disappear, somewhere he wasn't being hunted. He could figure out what went wrong, and then he'd be back. Whoever had betrayed him, whoever had forgotten him, they'd regret it.