Escape

The patient was surrounded by books. They were stacked about the bed; every horizontal surface was cluttered with them. The nurse explained that there was no one on hand to bring in books and take them away, certainly not himself, with a shortage on and too many patients to mind for that sort of thing. So when the volunteers from the major charities came by once every week or two, they hauled books in and out by the cartload.

He was grateful, he confided. Without the books, the patient quickly degenrated into screaming fits and they had to sedate her.

She was almost fetal in the bed, curled up around the book, her face unwashed, some gravy from lunch smudging up her cheek.

“I see that she eats.”

“She does eat; her obsession doesn’t block everything out. She’ll go to the bathroom, drink water, generally take care of things that are pressing and distracting. But showering is too big a bother.”

“Does she talk?”

“Keep it brief and concise, and wait an hour or so before bothering her again, and she’ll talk a little. It doesn’t take her long, though to want to get back to her book.”

“And a drug did this?”

“Yeah. We’re calling it Escape. Whatever the person normally does to escape reality, they do obsessively. We have a few more patients here, and there’s ten or so at Mercy, some more at Pinehurst.”

“So they’re not all books, then.”

“Oh no. Guy across the hall is this deep in movies. They put a three-vee feed into his room so we’re not wading in memories trying to get to his bed. The workout chick has a gym, but we do have to sedate her regularly to make sure she doesn’t exercise herself into a coma. The sex fiend is pretty much sedated all the time.”

“I guess so. They take this drug recreationally?”

“No, it wouldn’t be any good as a recreational drug, and it doesn’t seem to ever wear off. Whatever it changes in the brain, it seems to be permanent. My guess is that somebody’s slipped it to them. I’m sure the police have more info; I’m just taking care of these people. I’ve heard that they’re going to be gathered up into a home somewhere.”

“Broadview Home for the Chronically Escaped?”

The nurse smiled. “Yeah, something like that.”