Chapter One
"Let there be light..."
My eyes hurt. That was the first thing I realized as I woke up. It was a burning stabbing pain and they were filled with a blueish white glare. I tried to reach up to cover them, but my arms weren't moving. I tried to turn my head but it wouldn't move either. Then the glare suddenly faded and I felt the stinging pain almost instantly vanish.
"Can you hear me?" a voice reached my ears. It sounded faint and far away. "You can! That's fantastic!"
I tried to speak and realized I couldn't. My mouth felt numb and I tried to touch my teeth with my tongue with no success. Was I paralyzed? Had I been in some kind of an accident? I tried to think back and realized I couldn't remember anything before the pain in my eyes. I knew things, but didn't know how I knew them.
"I can see you're trying to access the left inferior frontal gyrus...Broca's Area. That means you trying to talk. At the moment that's impossible...I'll put you back to sleep, I only brought you up to get an EEG. Relax, this won't hurt a bit."
The world faded to black.
"Hello?" the voice was the first thing I heard as I woke up. It was stronger now and I could tell it was male. I couldn't see this time, it was dark.
"Hello..." my voice sounded raspy and coarse and I still couldn't feel my tongue. I was speaking English, but it felt labored. As if it wasn't my native language. "Where am I?"
"In my lab."
"Who are you?"
"Dr. Tucker Wells."
"Who am I?"
"Ah...that's sort of a tough question to answer. I've been calling you Aidos in my notes."
"What's going on? What happened to me?"
"You were in a series of accidents. I patched you up."
"This is a hospital? I thought you said it was your lab?"
"No it's not a hospital. I run a private facility."
"Where is it?"
"Hodgkiss Wells. Just outside Pahrump Nevada."
"How did I end up here?" I said before I started coughing.
"I was afraid that would happen. You need some more rest..." I faded out again.
I dreamed of fire burning me all over.
"Good morning Aidos. How are you feeling?" It was still dark.
"I had a nightmare."
"I saw. Your EEG was pegged, but I didn't want to risk bringing you up. Your endocrine balance is already on a highly delicate level and any further medications could disrupt that process."
"What kind of doctor are you?"
"A biochemist and an MD."
"Did I have any identification?"
"Not when I found you."
"Is there something wrong with my eyes?"
"There shouldn't be. I saw the pain you were in earlier and decided that slowly ramping up the ambient light might prove less traumatizing. I can begin now if you'd like."
"Please."
A a layer of gauze was removed allowing a faint glow of light to seep through, but I felt nothing. I mentioned that.
"I put a chemical block on your sensory nerves. Otherwise you'd probably be in agonizing pain."
"How badly was I hurt?"
"Badly. Very badly."
"Am I paralyzed?"
"I don't think so. I only have you restrained so that the sutures will heal properly. Your toes and fingers curl properly when the nerves are stimulated. Try making a fist now. Excellent! Now scrunch your toes...both feet. Wonderful. Circulation is good, and temperature is fine and they are responding to your motor impulses."
I felt dizzy and faded out again.
I woke up when the white glow hit my gauze covered eyes.
"How are you feeling Aidos?"
"Not too bad actually. Doctor, this is a busy clinic isn't it?"
He snorted, "Hardly. At the moment you're my only patient. Vitals look good."
"Can we take off the gauze now?"
"I think so..." he began to unwrap it and I saw a guy in his early 30s looking down at me. The light seemed strange and colors were slightly off though. I mentioned it and he nodded. "You had a massive concussion Aidos. There was pressure built up by a leakage of blood on your brain and caused a possible cerebral insult on Brodmannn area 17. That's part of the brain that controls visual interpretation, so having your sight seem a little off is not really that surprising."
He pulled out a small penlight and checked my eyes. "The pupils are reacting properly."
He turned away and I took the opportunity to look around. I was on a tilting table and at a thirty degree incline with my entire body strapped down. The room itself was filled with new looking medical stuff and was very clean and white. The other thing I noticed, was an IV stand next to me with a bright green liquid in a glass bottle. Not a plastic bag.
"What's that green stuff Dr. Wells?"
"It's a new medication that promotes cell growth," he walked over and and moved it just out of my line of sight. "We're using it to help your broken bones knit."
"So," I said casually. "Have the police found out who I am yet?"
"What?"
"The police. I'm sure they're trying to figure out who I am. I think you should call them and tell them I'm ready to answer questions."
"Of course..." he said finally. "I'll let them know."
His face twitched as he spoke and I knew he was lying and doing it badly.
"Dr. Wells, can I get a mirror? If I can see what I look like, it might snap back some memories."
He froze, "Your face is still pretty banged up and swollen. We'll check it later when the swelling's gone down, but for now let me run the EEG and you can get some rest again."
He looked at the twitches on the screen in front of us.
"That's a lot of squiggly lines Dr. Wells."
He laughed, "Yeah it is. This machine measures how your brain is working, and because of your concussion it's showing a lot of messed up signals."
"Is it broken? My brain I mean."
"Just bruised."
"That's a relief."
He nodded and did something just out of my line of sight and I drifted off to sleep again.
I woke up and felt sore. I had been lowered to a horizontal position, but Dr. Wells was nowhere in sight. I then realized that I could feel things, like the pressure of my back against the bed. And the binding of the straps against my ankles, wrists, and forehead.
I pulled hard against the straps and there was a snapping sound. To our surprise my right hand was free. I brought it up in front of my eyes and saw pale skin. My nails were cut short and there was a ring of scar tissue around the wrist.
I reached across my body and fumbled at the buckle holding my left arm down. With both hands free I was able to undo the shoulder straps, waist belt and forehead strap and could sit up. and unstrap my thighs and ankles. I swung my legs off the hospital bed and looked down at my naked body. There were wires and tubes plugged into me and I carefully pulled them out. The catheter was the least fun. As I pulled the IV from my right arm I saw that I had torn the rivets out of the eighth inch thick leather strap. I stood up and looked for a mirror. There was a full length wall mount one and I took a look at my face and body.
I was tall, so tall I had to stoop to see the top of my head in the mirror, and had a figure proportionally like Christine Hendrick's. I had long thick black hair that went halfway down my back, and perfect white teeth. My face was exotic because my eyes were so pale gray it was hard to tell where the white stopped and the iris began. Finally, there were heavy scars all over my body including a thick 'Y' shaped one like I had seen in the movies on autopsied corpses. These scars were only slightly darker than the rest of my oddly yellowish skin.
"Am I dead?" I asked. If I was, hell is a lot weirder than the bible always talked about, because there is no way this was heaven.
I was at the door and opening it slowly and looking out into a...basem*nt? There was an airlock like thing that blew air out, but it opened into a pretty boring semi-finished basem*nt with the cheap plywood veneer paneling on the walls that had probably been there since the 70s.
I went to the stairs and heard a television playing the news on the floor above. I snuck through the kitchen and went looking for the bedroom, I needed clothes. In the second I found a white muscle T and a pair of hefty waisted sweats. The shirt barely fit over my chest and left a chunk of my belly and my abs exposed and the pants were like capris on me.
I grabbed a wad of cash that was sitting on the dresser, and a UNLV hoodie that was draped over a chair. It was really baggy and fit okay. I moved to the patio door on the wall of the bedroom, and pulling the curtain back, slid the door open and headed into the backyard. It was night time and I could see the glow of cars on a highway in the distance so I started jogging that way. I was still barefoot but my feet seemed pretty tough. They didn't hurt at least as I ran downhill over the stony soil along the weathered dirt road. As I got closer I could see the lights of a city. Dr. Wells had said he was outside of Pahrump.
I headed to the Walmart that was still open and went straight to the men's big and tall section to find some pants, shoes and a shirt that would actually fit. I was fairly certain nothing in women's would be sized for my height but I was able to get a bra and a couple of sets of panties that were about right. Once I had paid I ducked into the shadows my the dumpsters and changed into my new clothes. I felt a lot better once I was dressed and I counted my remaining money.
"$274.83...So now what?" I asked myself, "Go talk to the cops I guess...I started toward a parked squad car for the Nye County Sheriffs and felt a whispering in the back of my head not to get any closer. Shaking my head to clear it, I walked over. "Excuse me deputy..." I began. I had my hands visible and away from my body. He turned to look at me and froze as the small voice in the back of my head told me to run.
"Sunuva bitch...there you are."
"You know me?"
"Doc Well's is worried about you and called a few of his friends to help find you when you wandered off. He said you really shouldn't be walking around. That you're still sick."
The voice in the back of my head was giving me an 'I told you so...' attitude now.
"I'd like to talk to your shift supervisor," I said in a surprisingly calm tone of voice.
"Now why would need to bother the Sergeant? He's a busy guy and we just need to run you back to the Doc," his speech was light and overly friendly but part of my mind was telling me he had just moved his hand down to his gunbelt. "Now get in the back. I'm not going to have to cuff you am I? He climbed out of the cruiser and and swung the back door open. His right hand was gripping a black and yellow pistol and trying to keep it hidden behind his leg.
'Taser M26', the voice in the back of my head said. 'Range 4.2 to 10.6 meters. No orange visible on cartridge means that it has a 6.4 meter range at most.'
How did I know that? At least I knew what a taser was, I seemed to recall having seen people shot with them on TV and it didn't look fun. I nodded and moved slowly toward the back seat and squeezed myself inside. Once the door was shut, I saw the deputy holster his weapon and pull out a cellphone I watched his lips and was easily able to tell what he was saying, "Doc this is Truax, I got her...Yeah no problems and no damage...Damn straight...Sure I can run her up to you right now...She's really calm. No fight at all, I didn't even need to cuff her or use any restraints..."
'On the take, you should get the f*ck out now. Go through the window', a new voice in the back of my head said. "You can probably kick it out.'
I nodded. There were too many questions and this did not feel right. I dropped to my side and kicked the window when my legs raised above the back seat; it exploded outward in a shower of glass fragments. As Deputy Truax spun to look at the sudden noise, I surprisingly quickly and easily slid feet first through the opening and was now standing next to him. He drew the taser and shot me in the chest. I felt nothing except a slight pulsing. I punched him in the stomach and hit something hard. 'Trauma plate', the first voice filled in. Truax sailed away from me through the air and landed face first on the ground.
I turned to run and the second voice said, 'Roll him and take his ride'.
Running over to Truax, I took his wallet and gunbelt along with his cellphone and cuffed him to a street sign, before heading back to his car. 'Open the hood,' the first voice said. I did and watched as my hands moved on their own to rip out several wires before shutting it again.
I slid behind the wheel and headed south; out of Nye County and toward Las Vegas, forty miles away.
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