“Look who’s awake,” the nurse said brightly. All the cameras in the room obediently turned to look. There were several cameras in the room. In this way, it was like every other room in Night Vale.

“Where the hell is this?”

“You had a touch of an accident,” the nurse said. “I wouldn’t worry about it. But then it didn’t happen to me. You should probably worry. Have a great day!”

She trilled this and whisked out the door. She was the type of person to trill and to whisk.

The hospital room was small. Just a sink and a cabinet of supplies and a window looking out on the abandoned coal mine. The hospital had been built next to the mine for the convenience of the mining company and their many, many injured miners. It was not a safe mine. Fortunately it had been closed down years ago after a great deal of public outcry. Now it had been converted into a prison for the Sheriff’s Secret Police to keep people who didn’t vote correctly in municipal elections, its sordid past long behind it.

Between the door and the window was Jackie’s bed, and on it, her. Above her were several cameras and a loudspeaker. Her left arm was in a cast. How did she get here?

The loudspeaker crackled. An authoritative voice of indefinite gender issued from it.

“Ask your doctor if she has a plan for the future,” the loudspeaker said. “Ask her what it is. Criticize it.”

“Hello?” Jackie said.

There was a doctor next to her. The doctor had presumably entered through the door and walked up to her. Jackie just hadn’t seen the doctor do that.

The doctor rubbed her hands together.

“Well, what do we have here?”

The doctor was washing her hands, although Jackie did not remember her walking to the sink. Then she was by the bed again, her face quite close. There were no transitions, just her in one place and then the other.

“You’ve been in a terrible accident. Are you in a lot of pain?”

“I don’t know. No?”

“We have you on a lot of drugs. The drugs keep you from feeling the pain. But the pain is there. You’ll have to believe me. But can I tell you a secret?”

Jackie wasn’t sure.

“Yes?”

“The secret is that you don’t have to believe me. You have no reason to trust me at all.”

The doctor winked, and then she was gone again. Or she walked out the door, is presumably what she did, only Jackie hadn’t noticed her leaving.

The loudspeaker came alive again.

“Ask your doctor a question only she would know the answer to.