3.50 - Enroll Today
I lay in my bed, listening to the quiet rustle of activity as the nurses went about their normal routines outside my room. I wasn't entirely sure what those routines were, considering the circumstances, but they went about them, nonetheless. A pretty brunette nurse passed outside my room, pushing a trolley of desserts. She swayed her hips suggestively as she walked, a ditzy expression on her face, and called out, "Sweet treats? Sticky buns?"
When they're primed for it, they really do lay it on thick, I thought to myself. I waited for the activity outside to settle down a bit more, but that never seemed to happen. Then it struck me: It wasn't like they were going to take breaks or go home for the night, was it? This was the level of activity I could expect as a constant until I did something about it... which meant there was no reason to continue waiting.
I slid out of the bed, wincing at the sudden pain in my abdomen. The stitches were secure, and the dermal gel would ensure a fast heal time, but the site of the wound was going to be painful and inflamed for a few days. Hopefully that gives me enough time, I thought.
Checking that my belongings were safely secured in the nightstand - purely a force of habit, since there really wasn't any danger of them getting stolen - I put on my pants, grabbed my notes, and crept to the door.
The nurses' patterns were regular enough that I was able to spot the opening with little difficulty. It would take some tricky timing, but if I was careful, I could reach the front entrance without being detected. I watched the head nurse, standing at the phone just across the hall from my room. She was pretending to have the same conversation about clothes shopping with her friend, presumably on the other end of the line - I briefly wondered if the conversation was truly two-way, prerecorded, or if the friend actually existed at all - and chatted away happily, toying with her auburn hair. In five seconds time, she would unselfconsciously lift the hem of her skirt to pretend to check the label, giving anyone who cared to look a glimpse of her garters and panties. She would then turn to face the wall for fifteen seconds, giving me time to make my way down the hallway.
On cue, she performed her little show, and I was once again treated to a view of her silk panties. I was surprised to see that they were a different pair from the ones she had worn on the previous cycle of the scripted loop: She must change them during some part of the script that I hadn't seen. Probably somewhere she would be likely to be discovered, to provide an excuse for yet another scenario.
I was so distracted by this fact that I nearly missed my window of opportunity to dash across the intersecting corridor just in time to be concealed from the physical therapist's view by the very door she just opened. She, too had changed her costume slightly since the previous cycle, having exchanged her yoga pants and tank-top for a brightly-colored exercise outfit, which hugged all her curves.
As the door slowly swung shut, I had just enough time to duck into the covered, empty area beneath the passing snack trolley, hiding me from the French maid cleaning woman who would, in three seconds, "accidentally" drop her polishing rag so that she could bend over at the waist, showing everyone the sheer fabric of her black lace bikini. As soon as I heard the maid say "Oh my, I haven't finished polishing this knob", I knew I would have six seconds before I had to roll out of the trolley, placing me directly in front of the main entrance. I tensed, waiting, counting the seconds and trying not to get distracted by the off-tempo clicking of the snack girl's heels. Three, two, one...
I rolled out, exactly where I had planned. The snack girl gave an excited yelp of surprise, and I made a mad dash covering the six feet to the door. I had made it without being spotted! I reached out to open the door, my hand falling on the handle...
"Sir?" I didn't recognize the voice of the nurse, nor could I immediately identify the source. As soon as she said it, however, there was an automatic "clunk" sound from the door, unmistakably the sound of a heavy, secure lock. I glanced around for the source of the voice.
In an alcove adjacent to the main entrance, there stood a blonde nurse carefully and deliberately adjusting the tops of her thigh-high stockings. I recognized her as one of the nurses who had assisted in surgery, but I hadn't seen her in the multiple iterations of the cycle I had observed. She must have been standing there, ready to give a passerby a little peep show. Then, looking back at the door, I realized: They're directly connected to the security system.
She casually let go of her stocking, leisurely brushing down her skirt without actually managing to get it to cover her up any more. She smiled welcomingly at me. "Oh, sir, we didn't realize you were up. Is there anything we can do for you?"
I hesitated, slightly wary. "You're not going to try to get me back to my room?"
She blinked innocently at me. "No, sir, not at all. Since we don't have any doctors' orders to the contrary, there's no need to confine you."
"I can roam the hospital freely? Is there anywhere I can't go?" I asked.
"Unless we're instructed otherwise, nothing in this hospital is off-limits. While you are recuperating, the hospital staff is to extend to you every courtesy." She said these last two words in a breathy tone, absently tracing a finger down her chest.
"Great, I'd like to go outside, then."
She pouted. "I'm afraid we can't permit that. The school is private property, and you aren't an enrolled student." She brightened, adding, "I can get you some application papers, if you like."
I consulted the hand drawn map I had carefully sketched out. "Always have a backup plan," I murmured to myself. I turned the map, orienting it to my current location, and found the door I had circled as "plan B", across an adjoining hallway.
"I can go anywhere in the hospital, right? Can I go in there?" I pointed at the door. It was painted the same color as the wall, and there was no handle, only a keypad. She looked where I was pointing.
"If you can open it, you can go in. I think it's locked, and I've never seen anyone use it."
I turned away, consulting my notes, and tapped in the code: pZFj3. The door swished open automatically, revealing a long staircase leading down. Down from the ground floor, I thought, this must be the place. I cautiously began down the steps, hoping it wasn't nearly as far down as it looked.
---
As I reached the bottom, I reflected on just how bad an idea this had been. The throbbing in my side was doubtless related to my surgery wound, but the pain was the searing, nauseating agony of overexertion. I punched in the code again at the bottom door, and the door slid open, revealing an empty, echoing blackness. Distantly, I could hear movement and machinery, but the echoes made it difficult to tell how far. I felt along the wall outside the door until I found the light control, and activated it.
The massive tunnel flickered into visibility, and I took a moment to appreciate the sheer engineering involved in its construction - and to catch my breath. The space was cavernous, with catwalks far above me running alongside what appeared to be water and electrical supply lines. My map of the subterranean complex was far less detailed, highlighting only the important points of interest. I thanked the engineers' consideration in placing the transit storage are so close to the hospital access point, and set off in my newly-acquired buggy towards the movement sounds I had heard.
Not long after, I arrived at my destination. A handful of pretty women dressed in cutoff overalls (and nothing else, I realized as one bent over to pick up a box, giving me a clear view down her front) were unpacking boxes of supplies. Initially, it just seemed to be articles of women's clothing, dry goods food, and bed linens, but then I noticed the medical supplies and nurses' uniforms. Of course, I realized, they're stocking the hospital. Lining the wall behind these girls were dozens more, all dressed identically, standing silent and inert.
The girls didn't seem to notice me as I approached. They probably were only tasked with moving supplies around unless told otherwise. I parked my buggy at their loading area, and made for the door marked "Chamber 6". Inside the domed room, massive data arrays lined most of the walls. To one side was another door marked "6F", and directly across from that, blessedly, an elevator, which I immediately made use of. The elevator only had two possible destinations, so I chose the one at the top.
I emerged in the elegantly decorated entryway of an office of some sort. A large banner hanging from the ceiling welcomed me to the Admissions Office, and a mural across from the elevator invited me to "check out our student body!" Rather than the traditional scenes of higher learning, this depicted frolicking groups of attractive students wearing very little and doing almost nothing school-related. Even the sporting portion of the mural showed only a group of cheerleaders waving their pompoms and performing various acrobatic feats. One was mischievously spanking herself, winking at the viewer. "Not really going for accreditation, are they?" I said aloud.
My voice echoed in the otherwise silent lobby. I was startled by a noise behind me, only to find that it was the elevator closing behind me, its doors decorated to conceal its appearance from casual observation. Not actually hidden, but easily overlooked, if you didn't know it was there.
The building seemed completely deserted. Human employees only, I guess, I thought as I arrived at the records office. There was a row of old-fashioned data consoles atop a customer-service counter. I vaulted the counter, immediately realizing my mistake, landing hard as my body doubled up in pain. I lay there, groaning, for a few minutes before getting to my feet.
I was surprised by how quickly the workstation booted up, but remembered that it wasn't really an independent device - it was just an interface to the always-on data arrays down below. I pulled up the student registration program, using the passwords and commands I had jotted down in my notes. When I reached the selection area for "student attributes," I put a tickmark in the box labeled "Honor roll," then hit save. A message filled the screen, reading:
PLEASE ESCORT HONOR ROLL STUDENT TO CHAMBER 6F FOR ADDITIONAL STUDENT RECORDS
Satisfied, I dashed back to the elevator, having noted the tell-tale lines denoting its doors earlier. Upon arrival in chamber 6, I crossed to the door marked 6F. As I crossed the room, I could see a flurry of increased activity outside. Whatever the girls were doing, it wasn't just unloading supplies for the hospital any more.
Chamber 6F was dominated by what looked like a sophisticated piece of medical imaging equipment, with a control console next to it. A message was flashing on the console's display:
INPUT DEPLOYMENT PARAMETERS
The stock program wouldn't be sufficient for my purposes, since it might draw undue attention to my search before deployment was finished: With some changes to the promiscuity settings, I might be able to acclerate the process, affecting more units in a shorter period. "Time to put those programming skills to the test," I said, as I began the process coding the specifications I would need.
---
About two hours later, my customized executable had been successfully integrated into the existing codebase. Reluctantly, I applied the patch to the active runtime, knowing that it could potentially introduce instabilities. I couldn't afford to play it safe at this point.
The screen now flashed a new message:
READY TO RECORD PHYSICAL PARAMETERS
Below this, a diagram showed a stick figure undressing, then stepping into a rounded rectangle. It took me a moment to realize that this indicated the large imager. "I guess they'd need a way to recognize... well, virtually any part of me," I said to myself, as I hesitantly undressed, glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one was watching me. I knew, rationally, that the girls outside were hardly going to wander in, but the instinct was hard to break.
I took my place in the scanner, fighting the reflex to cover my penis. All part of the process, I reminded myself, as the scanner beam worked its way up my body. I was surprised to feel a light tingling from the beam, which was surprisingly ticklish on my surgery wound. The beam halted as I spasmed from the tickle, and an even, genderless voice stated "Students are reminded that movement interferes with the scanning process. For timely recording of student information, please refrain from sudden movements."
"Sorry," I apologized to the doubtless automated system. I held as still as possible, allowing the scan to complete.
"Student information successfully recorded. Welcome to the BMOC program!" The voice announced, and I sighed in relief as I exited the booth. While I re-dressed, a spotlight flickered on, indicating a nearly barren shelf unit directly across from me. I waited for an announcement to explain things, but only heard the sound of the girls outside. I realized this must have been a part which would have been explained by a human employee.
I picked up the solitary, small electronic device on the shelf and examined it carefully. It was a small remote-control-looking device with only one button. Block lettering below this button identified it as a Staff Orientation Module. There was an indicator at the top labeled "Charges", with a flickering number 10 in the display. I pocketed it.
As I headed back to the buggy, I found the girls were now bustling with activity. Almost all of the previously motionless women were now milling about, retrieving books, magazines, framed pictures, video and audio discs, and even a few portable data modules from a bank of machines which were dispensing them. What few pictures I could see appeared to simply be random static.
Some were unpacking boxes of French Maid uniforms, and were unceremoniously stripping their fellow workers of their overalls (confirming my suspicion that they weren't wearing anything else), and dressing them in the revealing costumes while the others continued working. I noticed that the workflow didn't exactly allow for underwear, and once a maid had a full load of materials, she would depart at a hurried pace down one of the darkened tunnels.
---
Back at the hospital access point, I noticed the elevator I had obviously overlooked earlier, and rode it back up to the hospital.
This time, I came out in what appeared to be the nurses' lounge. Three nurses were present, two of them raptly watching the snowy pattern on the vidscreen, with the third flipping through a magazine of random dots. They immediately noticed my presence, but didn't object. "Hello, sir!" one of them cheerfully called to me.
"What are you watching?" I asked, genuinely curious how they would describe it.
"It's a new show," one nurse told me, not taking her eyes off the screen. She was seated in an almost pin-up pose, and her face held an expression of utter fascination. "It's kind of confusing. I think I only understand about 10% of what's going on."
Her companion chimed in, "I think I'm picking up about 20%, but this book is helping." She held up a small paperback. It's cover was a random checkerboard of black and white. I suspected its contents were, too.
"Mind if I borrow that later?" the first asked.
"The maid dropped off a whole bunch of them earlier," the second said, indicating a shelf next to me.
"I'm only 30% into this magazine, and I'm already convinced you two should read it," the third nurse informed her coworkers.
I might as well get started on the search, I thought to myself, taking out the orientation module. Three units wasn't much, but they might give me some insight into more effectively catching more. I thumbed the button. A faint buzzing briefly filled the air, then dropped out of my hearing range. Each of the nurses instantly froze, tilting their heads to one side.
"Oh, that feels..." sighed the one with the magazine.
"Could you just... I could... a little..." stammered one of the ones watching the vid.
"If you want, I'd... Anything you..." the third one rambled.
Just as suddenly, they shook their heads, as though coming out of a daydream. Time to put it to the test. "So, ladies, how do you feel about stripping for me?"
"100% in favor!" they chimed in perfect unison.