Rebirth (2)

Suddenly I was awake, I was in a strange land fighting against a variety of humans in what looked like tactical armour from the video games I used to play and variety of strange alien looking creatures. Some of the creatures had human features but they also had animal ears and a tail. Some of the creatures had dark green scales and an elongated snout. They were all wielding strange looking guns, they looked like futuristic assault rifles. One of them shot lasers and another shot something I couldn't see but made a strange pulsatile pneumatic-ish sound.

<This is all very strange…. where am I?…what's going on?….is this a dream?>

Before I could think any further one of the aliens shot the pneumatic-ish weapon at me. I didn't have time to react or process it mentally, but my body moved of its own accord. I pulled out a black katana from the left side of my waist and sliced the projectile in mid air before closing the distance between us instantly and severing his head from his body.

One of the humans tried to run away from me and I held out my hand towards him. A path of ice appeared on the ground and tracked its way from me to him and frozen his feet. The ice started tracking up his body but stopped when I was interrupted by a deep gruff voice.

"I'll take care of these ones Eks, you go after the leader." The voice came from a dark-skinned man who could only be described as massive, it looked as it his muscles had muscles. He was holding a weapon similar to the pneumatic sounding ones, but it looked different and bigger. It was hard to

My body nodded in agreement and he fired his gun. An instant later the half-frozen man was relieved of his top half and there was viscera thrown in every direction.

<What the fuck was that? What just happened?>

As if ignoring my thoughts, my body turned, put away the katana and started chasing someone.

<I guess that's the leader?>

They had a large head start but I closed the gap in an instant, I reached out my hand towards them and the ice path appeared once again. This time the ice stopped at their ankles though. I walked closer to them and lifted my other hand to the sky and pitch-black clouds started to form. Suddenly I stopped walking and the clouds intensified, lightning was jumping between the clouds and was chased by thunder. My head turned towards my raised hand and I saw a lightning bolt come crashing from the clouds to my hand.

"For your crimes, I sentence you to death" came out of my mouth in a voice that was not my own.

<What's going on?>

With one fluid movement, I turned my attention back to man and threw the lightning at him. He screamed in pain when it made contact, but only for a millisecond because after that he had been vaporised and there was nothing left but his frozen shoes.

"That's all of them taken care of Eks" came the deep gruff voice.

"Good work Jon, good work team, they won't be raiding passing ships anymore. Let's head home." I replied in voice that wasn't mine with thoughts that weren't mine.

<This must be a dream...but it feels too real…..>

Without an answer everything vanished, and darkness embraced me once more.

Slowly light crept in through my eyelids, pushing the darkness away and its embrace. The light slowly got brighter and brighter and my ears were filled with the sounds of clicks, beeps and whirring noises. I hesitantly opened my eyes and was immediately assaulted by the bright lights, I squinted until the brightness faded. I looked at my surroundings, I was in a room that looked both foreign and familiar at the same time. I was in a bed of some variety and there were some chairs at the end of my bed, a bench with vase of semi-wilted flowers, an open doorway and a large window facing into a room with a long bench and several people moving around frantically in what appeared to be nursing scrubs. I turned my attention back to my room and looked at the machines to my left, there were a series of cables running from them to me. I recognised the machines as the ones used to monitor heart rate, blood pressure and vital signs. Next, I looked to the right and saw a familiar face. It was Paul, my best friend, we'd been friends since high school and still regularly caught up. He was asleep in the chair next to my bed.

<Scrubs? Familiar room? Vital sign monitors? Paul? I must be in hospital, probably in the intensive care unit.>

I tried to move my torso around to get comfortable and my movement must have disturbed Paul's sleep.

"Well look who's finally awake, welcome back to the land of the living Zack."

"Hey Paul, how long was I out for?"

"2 months."

"Haha very funny, but seriously how long have I been here for?" I chuckled.

"2 Months" Paul said with a dead straight look.

"2 MONTHS!?!"

"They airlifted you to the hospital and performed heaps of operations on you and then you slept for two months. That said you owe that facial surgeon a drink" he said with a wry smile.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" I took the bait.

"Because he turned your ugly mug into a bloody masterpiece, you look like Adonis, you lucky bastard" he chucked gleefully.

"Ok I'll have to check it out, where's Amy?" I laughed.

<If I survived then surely, she survived. I took the brunt of the crash. She must be in another hospital room or maybe she's just at home freshening up before coming back in...please>

Paul's expression quickly shifted from joking and laughter to serious and stern. He looked like he was struggling to find the right words.

"I-I'm s-sorry Zack but she p-passed away" he said mournfully with tears welling in his eyes.

"That can't be right!?!"

"I'm sorry Zack."

"This is all wrong, I took the hit!"

"I'm sorry Zack."

"She was supposed to survive and I was to die!!!" I shouted with tears streaming down my face.

Sadness and hopelessness were building up inside me. I did everything I could to protect her and it wasn't enough. I had failed her. The dark tentacles of despair were reaching up to grab me and pull be down into the abyss, but they were interrupted by a knock at door. I turned my attention to the door, there was a forty-something year old man standing at the door with my nursing notes.

"Hi Zack, I'm Derek. I'm one of the doctors here. I'm glad to see you're awake and are looking better. I know that this may be a lot right now, but we need to talk about some test results we've received. You are a medical student correct?" explained Derek.

"Yes, I am."

"Good, that'll make this explanation a little easier then. Whilst you were in a coma, we noticed that your blood results were a little off. They were returning a microcytic reading but with an increased number of cells and no anaemia or decrease in immune function. We thought that it may have been due to a form of bone cancer or a bone marrow related syndrome caused by the MVA. So, we sent you for a complete CT and bone density scan. We found no evidence of cancer or bone marrow injury, but we did find that your bones have healed far quicker than expected and your bones are now roughly four times as dense as they were previously. Additionally, we expected you to need several skin grafts throughout your rehabilitation due to the extent of your burns. However, as you may have noticed you skin has completely returned to normal." Derek explained the weird phenomena that had been going on in my body.

"How many times smaller were my blood cells? How many were there? What's your current differential?"

"They were four times smaller and there were four times as many than there should have been. At the moment we're completely stumped and thinking it may be a type of diffuse bone marrow or stem cell cancer. We'd like to run a few more tests and monitor you over the next few months if that is alright?"

"That's fine."

With that the doctor left. I decided to examine myself and try to make sense of it. I moved examined my arms thoroughly, I had no signs of scarring or burns from the crash and no restriction in movement. On top of that my arms looked extremely toned for someone who had seen the last two months in a coma. I continued my examination down towards my torso and abdomen, once again there were no remnants of the crash to be seen. It was all extremely toned; all my muscles were bulging. The fat that had clung to my body the last time I looked at it had disappeared. I continued my examination to the rest of my body and found the same results everywhere.

< Four times smaller blood cells and as many blood cells, four times as dense bones, minimal fat and rippling muscles, what the hell is going on?>

I must have looked perplexed because Paul chimed in.

"I know what you're thinking, it doesn't make sense how everything has healed, and your muscles have been maintained even though the fat has faded away. You even look slightly taller and broader. My advice is don't think too much about it. Just try to focus on your rehab and getting out of here."