DAY 54: GREENHOUSE (FOURTH SHIFT)

[deathandgin]

By the end of lunch, Alaric was still hungry and still stuck on the middle of a perfectly balanced scale, the only difference with the scale having a new, possibly unrelated third option: it was either some sort of conspiracy (obviously of the supernatural sort), he was actually crazy, or he’d just had the very bad luck of being kidnapped by

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[pullstrung]

Most of today was a hazy blur, though Woody could still pin-point the exact moment everything took a nose-drive into a downward spiral. Thankfully (or not-so-thankfully, depending on how you looked at it), whatever they'd stuck him with this morning had worn off, letting him think much clearer -- and get an earful from his nurse.

"Really, Mr. Wheeler, you're far too old to be causing a scene like that," she scolded him in a way that sounded uncomfortably like Andy's mother. "I hope that you'll stay calm and set an example for the other patients the next time things get out of hand."

Woody barely refrained from rolling his eyes. That would have been all well and good if he hadn't seen those soldiers beat Scott up. Not that Scott should have thrown himself at them the way he practically did, but what kind of friend could he call himself if he'd watched a fellow patient get pummeled without doing anything at all?

It sure hadn't been one of his brighter ideas, though -- he could admit that much to himself. Woody wasn't about to forget it anytime soon, either. That gas they'd pumped into the cafeteria had left him wanting to pull his eyes off for the better part of the morning. Woody was going to avoid getting another face-full of that stuff again, that was for sure.

Still, his own experiences only highlighted why it was important to make sure Buzz and Scott were okay. Once the nurse let him check the bulletin board, he she escorted him into a place she called the "greenhouse".

Woody knew what greenhouses were, of course. He'd gone with Andy before, catching glimpses of all the different kinds of plants while dangling from the boy's hand. Still, nothing quite prepared him for how small this one felt. Lapsing into silence, he breathed in the moist, heavy air as he looked around. All the other patients were either mingling, or using some gardening tools.

"Take this," the nurse instructed as she suddenly pressed a small shovel into his hand. "If you want to move some of the potted plants into the garden, you can talk to one of the supervising nurses for further instructions." Before Woody could even protest, she brushed past him and stepped through the exit.

"Moving some potted plants," he muttered to himself as he gave the shovel an irritated look. "Gimme a break..." Personally, he had no interest in this kind of stuff, so he wasn't sure what the nurse thought he'd get out of digging around in the dirt. There were so many other more important things he needed to do!

[For Riku.]