“Hey Charlie. How are things?” Abigail said, as she stepped through the front entrance into St. Blair’s Municipal Hospital. Abigail was a young woman, aged 29, working as a nurse at the hospital. Her light brown hair was cut in bob, circling her cute, round face. She had on a pink dress that went down to her knees and a matching square pink hat, the uniform for all of the nursing staff here. Over that, Abigail had put on a thin, light blue jacket. Even though it was summer right now, the air conditioning kept the hospital cold, too cold for her, so she always made sure to bring a sweater or jacket. Finally, she had a pair of white sandals on her feet.

“Not bad.” Charlies replied, taking Abigail’s Security ID badge as she pulled it out of her dress pocket and handed it across the security counter to him. “Some of my buddies and I are going to take the weekend off, head up into the mountains and do some camping.”

“Lucky.” Abigail replied, taking her card back. The way things were piled up for her and the nurses, they’d be lucky to get time off for Christmas at this rate. She started to walk towards the elevators when Charlie coughed.

“Your bag.” He said, nodding to the young woman’s purse.

“Oh, right…” Abigail said, cheeks flushing red. “I completely forgot.” Hurriedly, she unslung the small cloth bag from her shoulder and handed it over to the security guard.

“These new security measures are a pain.” Charlie said. Abigail nodded. “The sooner the feds finish up with whatever they’re doing and move out the better.” About two days ago, a whole posse of men and women in dark suits and glasses had shown up, waving around badges and commandeered the entire thirteenth floor of the hospital. What they were doing up there was a matter of much debate amongst the hospital staff...fruitless debate, seeing as how none of them had any clue what the feds were doing and they were unlikely to ever find out.

“Last I heard, they weren’t even letting the janitors up to the 13th to clean.” Charlie continued. “They brought in their own cleaning staff for that floor.” It was likely only because there weren’t any other hospitals in the city that could take St. Blair’s patients, not to mention the ones that weren’t in any condition to be moved. The security guard casually glanced through the contents of Abigail's pure. Satisfied she didn’t have any guns or bombs stashed with her cosmetics, change purse or handkerchief, he zipped the bag back up and handed it back to her. “Have a nice day!” He told her.

“Thanks!” Abigail walked to the elevators. Another nurse was standing there, waiting for one to arrive. Also standing there were two men and a woman, obviously federal agents from their dress and their demeanor. The female agent glanced over at Abigail when she approached, but ignored her as she struck up a conversation with her co worker.

Beside the three agents was a large metal container. It looked big enough, someone Abigail’s size could have easily fit inside it, with room to spare. It was on wheels, to make it easier to move. When the elevator arrived, the agents quickly wheeled it into the elevator. Turning around, one of the men frowned at the two nurses. “You can take the next one.” He told them, punching the button for the thirteenth floor. The doors closed.

“Rude.” Abigail said, with a sigh.                  

“Tell me about it.” Her friend replied.

A few more doctors, technicians and nurses arrived while they were waiting for the next elevator. They crowded in. Abigail pressed the button for the fifth floor, where she was usually assigned. The elevator stopped, the doors opened. Abigail sighed as she stepped through. “Alright. Let’s get the day started…”

The young woman was hoping to swing by the staff room and grab a quick cup of coffee before she started her shift, but as Abigail was heading there, a man in a labcoat walked up to her, looking intent.

“Nurse, could you please help me. I have a patient who needs some assistance.” The man said. Abigail quickly looked the man over. He was an unassuming looking man, about thirty, slightly balding, with glasses. She didn’t recognize him, but she saw the security badge, clipped to his jacket.

“He must work on another floor, usually.” She thought to herself, following the doctor. The staffing arrangements had all gone to hell when the Feds had thrown everybody on the thirteenth floor onto other levels when they took over. The doctor led Abigail to one of the examining rooms. As she entered, Abigail saw the screen was drawn around the examining table.          

“Please close the door, nurse...” The doctor ordered. “...and then put your hands up.” As Abigail turned back, she saw the doctor suddenly had a small, pocket pistol in his hand. It was pointed straight at her.

“What is this!?!” Abigail said, shocked.

The man grinned. “I’m sure you’re a smart girl...Abigail is it?” He said, reading her nametag. “You can guess.”

“This has something to do with whatever the government people are working on?”

“And a prize for the lovely lady!” Abigail’s captor replied. “This has nothing to do with you. Cooperate, and I assure you, you’ll be unharmed. Now, step up against the wall, slowly.”

Quickly, Abigail weighed her options. She could shout for help, or try and open the door...in either case he’d probably shoot her. Or she could do as he told her to and hope he was telling the truth and he wouldn’t shoot her later. Reluctantly, she walked over to the opposite wall, keeping her hands up.

“That’s a good girl.” The fake doctor teased. Keeping the gun pointed at her, he walked over to the counter and picked up an odd looking device from the counter. “Just close your eyes and hold very still. This won’t hurt.”

He held the device up to her face. The end pointed at her seemed to be some sort of laser optical device. Hurriedly she closed her eyes as he pressed a button. For a few seconds, the machines beeped. Through her eyelids, Abigail could still see the light as the lasers ran over her face doing...something. She had no idea what.

“Good.” The man said, setting the device down. “Now, if you don’t mind, take off your clothes please.”

Abigail started to protest, but the gun in the man’s hand settled the matter. Glumly, the young woman took off her jacket. She took off her hat. It was followed by her dress a moment later. The doctor took each item of clothing as she took them off.  Abigail kicked off her sandals and was left in only her underwear.

“Here. Get dressed.” The man turned and handed Abigail's uniform to someone behind the curtain. Turning back to his captive, he grinned. “Now, what are we going to do with you?” Keeping the gun pointed at her, he started opening the cabinets. “Look at what we have here! This should do nicely!”  Abigail groaned, seeing what the cabinet was filled with: a half dozen boxes of medical bandages...

“MMMPPPHHH!!!” Abigail groaned through the multiple layers of cotton bandages that covered the lower half of her face. More bandages had been wrapped around her arms and torso, practically mummifying her chest. Finally, her legs had been wrapped together above and below her knees.

The young woman kicked in frustration. She was sitting with her back to the cabinet, her captor standing over her. He smiled down at her. “Don’t you look cute! Just like a little present.” He turned to the curtained off area. “Are you done changing in there?”

“Just about.” A woman answered. A moment later, the curtain was pulled back. Abigail had suspected something like this, but seeing it took her breath away. The captive girl’s eyes widened in shock. Standing  above her was a near perfect copy of herself. The fake Abigail walked over. “Thanks for letting me borrow your clothes and ID for a little while… I don’t know if I’ll be able to return them.”

“Come on, we don’t have much time.” The fake doctor said, pocketing his pistol and walking to the door.

“Alright.” The fake Abigail turned back to the real one. “Here.” she pulled out the pink nurses hat and placed it on Abigail’s head. “I’ve never liked this kind of hat. Looks cuter on you. See ya!” Abigail groaned as the other woman slipped out of the room, shutting the lights off as she left. The lock rattled as it locked.

“MMMPPPHHH!!!” Abigail groaned into her gag. She started struggling against the bandages holding her captive, twisting this way and that, trying to find some way to loosen them. After a few minutes, she had to give that up. The overlapping bands of tight cloth had no give to them. Another few minutes were spent in vain trying to call for help. She knew the hallway outside the room was one of the busiest in the hospital even at the best of times. There was little chance of her cries being loud enough to be heard amongst the sounds filling the building.

“I’ve got to get out of here!” She thought to herself. “Got to tell someone what’s happening!” A second later, an alarm went off. It seemed to be coming from all over the hospital. And up above, on the higher floors, Abigail thought she heard the sounds of rapid firing gun shots. “On the other hand, maybe this isn’t so bad…”