[Street War] After the Blast

Light finally returned to James' eyes for the first time in nearly a month. The lights in the room were nearly blinding and the nurse leaning over him to shine a light in each eye wasn't helping either. Opening his mouth wasn't nearly as effective as his eyes as an incoherent gibberish came forth through the small tube and anesthetic which was making the entirety of his body numb and the entirety of his head really... drugged. In a few moments his eyes were once again working enough to make out shapes, such as the nurse writing something down on a notepad and the restraint keeping his left arm attached to the bed he was on.

The nurse checked James's vital signals among other things, recording all relevant data before nodding gently to the patient. "Can... you... hear... me?"

"Mghh... ngmm.... tube." James said, acknowledging her at the very least. The recorded data was going on a list of injuries as long as his arm.

"Good. Do you remember anything, honey?" The nurse gently smiled at him, her voice soft and comforting.

He nodded. As far as he could remember he remembered everything up until the missile impact that landed him in this bed.

"That's good..." The nurse took her hand and placed it on James's forehead. "You were in a coma for about a month. Count your blessings, honey." She moved her hand down to his chest. "Don't be alarmed. I'm going to check the effectiveness of the anesthetic. Please tell me if you feel anything." She moved her hand from place to place, putting light pressure on each.

"I feel nothing..." He said, waiting for him to see the nurse poking elsewhere before saying, "I still feel nothing ... nothing...." James said. The drugs were keeping him fairly dead to the world.

"Ok." The nurse flipped her notepad closed and stood up, smiling. "I'll go get the doctor." She turned and walked away, leaving James alone.

She could be fairly certain that James wasn't going anywhere. While the nurse was gone he tried flexing his fingers to return some feeling to his extremities but for the time being all he could feel was the drugs in his body.

Within moments, a doctor clad in a sterile white outfit entered the room. He was a young Nepleslian man, no more than 35 years old. He was slightly overweight, and his cheeks puffed out a bit. His hair was frazzled, the reason for this clear as the doctor ran his hand through it while reading James's chart.

He flipped through the information as he approached the head of the bed.

"James, I'm Doctor Bill Writter. I've been monitoring your condition for most of the month or so that you've been here. How do you feel?"

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The doctor nodded, again running a hand through his shaggy hair. "We had to put you on an extensive drug list throughout the weeks. Your body was a wreck when it arrived here."

James had long sense figured out that he was on some sort of drug and that his body was definitely not as it should be. For the time being he just nodded.

"I'm sure that you are aware of the immense luck you possess to be alive right now. What happened to you?"

If James was possessing immense luck he certainly wasn't feeling it right now though he should be happy enough just to be not dead. "I was a little to close to an exploding bomb."

"I see. That would explain a lot." The doctor didn't want to probe any further into the matter. "You experienced extensive internal and external trauma to your body, particularly your ribs and lower back. You broke 6 ribs as well as your sternum which I can only assume happened from a massive blunt trauma. Your left thigh has been repaired of a gaping open wound. You also suffered several fractured vertebrae as well as a concussion."

The doctor paused for a reaction.

James was also pausing, leading to an awkward silence for a few moments. "...... so, have you finished repairing my body?"

Dr. Writter feigned a cough before continuing. "You've had multiple surgeries performed on your body, the main one of which was the replacement of your partially-shattered pelvis. It was a difficult surgery, even for facilities as advanced as this. We also attempted to surgically repair your damaged nerves, so that you wouldn't suffer complete paralysis to your lower extremities. We believe the surgery to be successful in achieving that goal..."

"However, we could not repair everything. Fixing nerves is arguably the most challenging operation any team of surgeons will have to perform. We predict that you have some permanent damage."

James nodded, "So when will I be able to see what is still working and what isn't?"

"The surgeries were performed weeks ago, so your body should be as well mended as it can be. You may try to stand as soon as you are able to. If you would like to hasten the procedure, we can flush your bloodstream of the chemicals inside of it."

"Alright, I'd like to get on my feet as soon as possible," James said.

"Ok, we'll need to knock you unconscious for the procedure, which will take about two hours."

James nodded, "Alright, lets get it over with."

The doctor hooked an IV into James, then pressed a button on a large machine above the bed that controlled the release of intravenous liquids. As James lay there, a warm sensation flowed through his body. The world started rolling moments before he blacked out.

James awoke in a different room of the hospital. His body was free of any attachments. Next to the bed was a set of rails. At the end of the rails sat a round inflated beach ball. At the far end of the room, to the right of the bed, was a large tank full of a bubbling liquid. The room was surrounded by a window that ran from four feet above the ground to the ceiling. The nurse James had met earlier stood to the left of the bed.

James opened his mouth to talk and said, "Ooow.." He could feel the rest of his body now including the multitude of prosthetics that had been attached where insufficient bone or muscle had been left. "Ok, lets get this started," He said, reaching for the rails to the side of the bed and pulling himself off the bed.

The nurse positioned James's arm over her shoulder as she helped him out of the bed and guided him to the rails. "Try to walk between these rails. Use the bars if you need help. I'll be standing by you, so don't worry." She positioned him at the beginning of the bars. "Whenever you are ready."

James took hold of the rails and moved his foot, stumbling and nearly falling in the process. "uhg," He said as he began the physical training. These definitely weren't his legs or at least not as he remembered them.

"Don't worry honey, it's always hard the first time. Remember, you haven't walked in over a month. Just try to do it like you've always done it." The nurse said reassuringly.

James hoisted himself back up and began walking again to slip once more. It would be quite some time before he got the hang of walking once again.

"How do you feel? Is there any pain?"

"Yes, everything below my neck hurts." James said, "Especially below the waist. What exactly did they do as far as rebuilding?"

"They mended your pelvis with a synthetic material which is supposed to imitate bone. Almost the entire left half of it is now this material. The doctors almost removed your entire pelvis, but that would have left you without legs."

"... Good thing they didn't." James thought about it for a moment, wondering if everything worked as it should. "Ok, I think I have the hang of walking once more." His footing was unsteady at best but at the very least he didn't need to hold onto the rails anymore.

"Ok," the nurse said. "Now I want you to walk over to the beach ball, pick it up, and place it in that pool over there. Take as long as you want."

James did so, stumbling in the direction of the ball before kneeling down and picking it up. "So, how long does this normally take?"

"Physical training and all?" James asked as he walked toward the pool.

"Usually, we would restrict you to the hospital for about a week."

"So I should get comfortable here?" He asked, getting over to the pool and dropping the ball, and nearly himself, inside.

"Nope. You'll be leaving as soon as you feel capable." The nurse smiled.

"Speaking of leaving, when will I be able to make a call?" He asked.

"You don't need to worry about that. The people who paid your hospital bill will be coming by to pick you up."

"Did they say when that would be?" He asked.

"No, but we contacted them as soon as you woke up. I want you to now walk as fast as you are able. Walk to me." She held her arms outstretched to James.

James turned and stumbled in her general direction until he was within arms reach. "Did they say who they were?" He asked.

"Nepleslian military. I'm not going to ask any questions."

She braced herself to receive his stumbling body.

He ended up virtually falling into her arms. "Did they provide any proof of that?" He asked.

"Don't worry so much, honey. We wouldn't let you go off to psychos. From what I hear, these people needed to have a lot of access to make the request they did."

She let out a slight huff as his body slumped onto her.

"Alright," James said as he straightened himself up.

The nurse led him back to the bed. "Good job. Now please, sleep and regain your strength. You'll want to have as much energy as possible when you leave."

James nodded, "Fine. When is the next session?"

"As soon as you're ready. Now, please sleep." The nurse smiled, brushing her hand against his forehead and pulling the covers over him.

James was soon asleep again.

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James awoke once more, in yet another unfamiliar area. He was seated in an uncomfortable orthopedic chair with his legs sticking out at a rather sharp angle above the ground. It caused him some discomfort. The room was tiny, only 10 feet by 10 feet, most of which was taken up by the chair. There were no windows--only overhead lights that beat down on him and a small door in front of him. The door opened and in came Dr. Writter.

"Sorry about the room," the doctor said apologetically. "It's just that space is at a bit of a premium and the chair is all this room really needs. How do you feel?"

~I've really got to stop waking up in strange people's rooms~ James thought to himself. "I feel sore all over and uncomfortable."

"Understandable. This isn't going to help, either. Please be patient and tell me, on a scale of 1-10 how bad this hurts."

The doctor positioned himself against James's outstretched legs and pushed down on the pads of his feet.

"OW!... er, 6." James said, "What was the point of that? Can't you just use nanomachine therapy to fix everything?" His patience was starting to run thin, especially when it involved sitting and being poked in painful ways.

"Nanomachines are wonderful, yes. They were used as part of your surgery. But what nanomachines can't do is explain how good of a job they've done. That's for the patient to do." Dr. Writter, long accustomed to angry patients, explained with cool detachment. "This is the most efficient way to tell." The doctor put James's legs together and pushed them to the left, then to the right. "How about this?"

"Ow, and ow." James said, "... five and six." Unfortunately he was exploded and brought to a Nepleslian hospital. Elsewhere he might have ended up with a new body, high end prosthetics... which didn't hurt... or at the very least a doctor who wasn't intent on finding out how much things were hurting him.

"Looking good." The doctor put his hands on each of James's ankles. "Ok now I want you to push against my hands as hard as you can."

James did so. "Ow.... 6.. 7... 8..."

"Ok, stop. Good job." The doctor smiled and stood back from Wazu, extending his hand to him. "The artificial part of your pelvis seems to have grafted well to the other half. Congratulations."

"Wait... so if it hadn't would it have snapped just now?" James asked.

"Yes, and you'd probably be yelling at me at the top of your lungs," Dr. Writter said. "But don't worry: I had the adequate pain killers on hand and the surgical team was standing by."

"..." James didn't really know what to say to that but at least the doctor was honest.

The doctor withdrew his hand without so much as a pause. "I officially clear you of this hospital." The doctor reached into his pocket and handed James a small white paper bag. "These are you pain medications. They are very strong, so I recommend only taking up to two a day. Side effects are drowsiness, irritability and dry mouth. As soon as the pain in your body subsides, I recommend a lifetime prescription to minor painkillers as you see fit. You are a very special patient, one of the first to have this surgical procedure, so we're not sure of the long term physical effects the attachment will have. However, for the short term, I can safely say that it's a marvelous success."

"Well, I'm glad my body could be used to further Nepleslian medical science." James said with one hell of a fake smile as he started to get up and head out of the weird chair room.

"By the way, your caravan awaits you outside. If you need any support at all, please call the general department at this number. The doctor handed him a card as he walked past him.

James grabbed the card as he left the chair and stumbled towards the door, grabbing hold of the wall for a second to steady himself mid-fall. "Did the caravan identify itself?" James asked the doctor as his free hand put the card in his pocket.

"It's the military. I don't know what they want with you, but that has nothing to do with me. However, I do know that my patients don't want to see any Green outside their rooms. Please take care."

James nodded and headed toward the caravan, or at least where he thought it was, heavily favoring his right leg in the process.

The green APC was sitting outside the front of the hospital, idling, its engines rumbling loudly. As soon as James exited the hospital, two soldier clad in green rushed out the back of the carrier, grabbed him, and carried him back into the vehicle. Within seconds, the vehicle was gone.

James found himself sitting at the side of the APC with the two guards on either end of him.

James looked to the soldier at his right and calmly said, "OW!"

The soldier stood, turned sharply and saluted him with a stone expression. "SIR! SORRY SIR! Sergeant Wazu, we were ordered to pick you up, sir!"

James winced, ~ok, that was loud.~ He thought to himself. "Where were you ordered to take me to soldier?" James asked, sitting upright and looking down at the young man as officially as he could.

"We were ordered to take you to the government building for a meeting with the master admiral, sir!" The other soldier said.

James nodded, "Very well."

The soldier to Wazu's left reached into a chest under the large bench they sat on and pulled out a standard issue Nepleslian military outfit. "Sir, please put this on."

"Gladly," Wazu said as he took the outfit and began to dress right there. Though he had been told it pays to advertise he was more than willing to get rid of the rather breezy gown the hospital had given him.

The APC arrived at its location within ten minutes. During this time, the two soldiers tended to their superior's appearance, combing his hair and shaving his face. "Sir, do you need anything else done?"

Wazu looked at the bag the doctor had given him, "No, not right now." He said, picking up the bag and putting it in his uniform.

The back of the APC opened and the two soldiers assisted Heram James Wazu in walking up the stairs and into the building. A short elevator ride later and they were standing outside the Master Admiral's office. "Good luck, Sir."

Wazu nodded, "Thank you... so do I just go in?"

The soldiers looked to each other in confusion, before one answered. "I suppose that is the case, sir."

"Alright then." Wazu said as he opened the door to the office and limped inside.

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