D.N.A: Does Not Assimilate
Eighteen

In the dark recesses of her mind, a place that none of the Greenwood medical staff could see, Niyota felt as the electrical charge of the machine shot through her. Screaming as the most excruciating pain ripped through her, traveling from her temples and all the way to the skull protecting her brain. It didn't stop there. She could almost feel the current of electricity making its way through some invisible crack in her skull, straight into the gooey mesh of her brain. One jolt. One

scream.

Then silence.

Lying there in the quiet darkness that had enveloped her at that first jolt, she only had the momentary thought that she had died. On some level hoping that she had, for then she wouldn't have to live with the ever-constant pain that her own father had turned against her, for a daughter that wasn't his own. Death was preferable to that pain. Then another current of electricity, different from the first-this one was stronger, sharper than she could've ever imagined-ripped through her, turning her alive from the inside out. Screaming in the silence of her own mind, Niyota desperate to scratch the flesh right off her bones, as the current tore through her on a new course. Almost able to see the blue electricity as it shot into her, running across every inch of her body, headed straight for the blood flowing through her. And eventually found its way at the base of her skull, into her brain, traveling along vines that grew throughout her brain and straight through a vital portion.

Her eyes instantly snapped open as an explosion of colors burst to life inside of her brain, a blue light ricocheting on every part of her brain. She saw the nurse bent over her where she lay on the examining table, releasing the leather straps that had been holding her confined to the table. This was her chance. The chance she'd been waiting the last month for. To get the hell out of the institute that the local police department had admitted her to, to replace the answers that everyone was too stupid to get to on their own. No more.

It was time to act.

Before any of them had the chance to notice that she wasn't dead after all and they would given time, she immediately went into action. Waiting until the nurse turned away from her, seeing no need to be worried about restraints considering all of them believed she was dead, Niyota sat straight up.

"She's ah..." one cried.

That was as far as the male nurse got. Slamming a fist into the firm jaw of the man intending to give her secret away, hands reached down for the strap on her feet and ripped it right from its hinges. Nurse Pam turned. "You're alive."

Flipping her legs over the side of the table when she noticed one of the doctors coming after her with a needle, she came to her feet and rammed the table into him. The doctor gave off one painfilled gasp as the table slammed into his chest, then was flung to the ground and the needle skidded across the floor. Ducking out of the one when another of the medical staff came after her, Niyota slid right underneath the table and came out on the other side. Jumping over the top again before he had the opportunity to realize what she was up to, a well-delivered kick to the face sent him flying backward. Niyota flipped off the end of the table and coming to stand directly behind the last of the medical staff, applied fingers to a pressure point at his neck. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Jumping over the bodies of the medical staff littering the operating room floor, she raced to the other side of the room and jerked back on the room. Restraining arms that thought to sound the alarm, she was thrown back into the wall and Niyota glared heatedly at the female nurse. "I'm getting out of here and you're going to help me."

"You're sick..." Pam began.

Niyota gnashed her teeth angrily at the woman's half-hearted protests, vehemently shaking her head at the mere notion of that being possible. "No. You don't believe that any more than I do. I can see it in your pulse, anytime my sanity is brought into question. I'm the sane one. Now you are going to help me get out of here."

Pam sniffled. "What do you want?"

Pleased that the woman had finally agreed to help her, though she was aware it wasn't done out of believing her sane, but simply to avoid being hurt. Either way worked for her. Keeping her gaze on the doorway to ensure that no one walked in, though the table pressed up against it made that near impossible to do. "Is there another entrance to this room?"

She shook her head. "No."

In that case, "Don't move."

Backing away as the nurse nodded jerkily, too terrified of the girl she believed to be mentally unstable to move, she walked a few feet away. Stopping at one of the men spread out on the ground, small of stature, she stripped him out of the white lab coat and Niyota hurriedly put it on. "Okay. Here's the deal. You are going to lead me out of here and don't think of double-crossing me."

"If I don't?" she challenged.

Rising back to her feet once she'd donned the disguise, Niyota slowly stalked the trembling nurse, almost feeling sorry for the panic in her eyes. Almost but not quite. "I may not be mentally insane, but your medical records are right about one thing. I am dangerous. My father and everyone I love is in danger because of that imposter and I will do whatever I have to in order to protect them. Even if it means hurting you and anyone else that gets in my way. So it would be in your best interest to do what you're told."

Standing immobile up against the wall, trembling in fear as she stared at the teenage girl giving her the ultimatum, Pam frantically nodded her head. "Okay. I'll get you out of here, just don't hurt me."

Again she was aware it was only this woman's desire to stay alive that had her agreeing and would double cross her the second she believed she could get away. Not on her watch. Niyota directed her towards the door. "Okay, lead me out of here then."