Crimson Metal

Chapter 1 - Never be the Same

It was all a blur, a buzz, a boom. Everything was fuzzy and dark, all except those two bright lights. Like a hypnotized deer in the road, he was frozen in the middle of the slick ground. The shrill cries of his friends were faint rings in his ears, for he merely had a split second to comprehend the danger he was in.

And that was it. It was dark, silent, and cold after that. He couldn't move, he couldn't see, and more importantly—he couldn't feel anything. His entire being felt paralyzed and nonexistent, but he somehow sensed that it wasn't over. Not yet.

Muffled yet frantic speech eventually pooled into his ears, and lights crept through the cracks of his lidded eyes—well, at least his good eye, barely being able to see with his left eye anymore. And although he couldn't move, he knew he was moving at high speeds.

It wasn't until he heard a loud crash and a jolt through his entire body that he realized what was happening. Strapped down to a gurney, with multiple doctors and nurses pushing it from the sides, he lay completely limp and broken in countless places.

"We're losing him! He's suffering from major internal bleeding and lacerations! Nurse, get me an I.V. and some morphine, now!"

"Yes, Doctor!"

There were new voices. Voices he didn't recognize. But considering how they referred to each other, he trusted them enough to quickly figure out that they were going to help him.

"Sir, can you hear me?! No matter what happens, we need you to stay awake! Sir…Sir!"

"It's no good! Get the defibrillator!"

The rushing feeling stopped. There was nothing but white, as far as his limited and bloodied vision could see, at least. There was an irritating static, a building high-pitched whirr, and then a stone cold feeling on his abdomen.

"Clear!"

Pulse after pulse of pain and electricity coursed through his veins, sending his entire body into a mess of violent jerks and twitches. This repeated two more times, and the doctor cleared for another attempt when he suddenly sucked in a lungful of air with a raspy gasp.

The world around him was suddenly much more alive yet terrifying, and the overwhelming pain of his broken body was unbearable. Tears instantly poured from his eyes, and cries of agony were ripped from his punctured lungs.

"He's going into shock! Secure him!"

The straps on his limbs were tightened, so much so that his skin was stretched in unnatural ways; the skin underneath his restraints began to turn purple from the loss of blood flow, but the strap over his neck was loosened to prevent him from choking to death. But despite their efforts, the results of his struggling caused blood to flood into his esophagus, blocking his oxygen flow and threatening to drown him.

"He won't last much longer! We need to prepare for open surgery! Apply the barbiturates!"

An eternity of numbness seemed to go by for him, and he still lay awake through the whole ordeal. They kept him awake for the entire operation, due to the risk of his heart going into cardiac arrest in his sleep. He easily noticed that something was wrong, though, that something was missing. He still couldn't feel anything, but he just felt—lighter.

"The amputations were successful. He should make it through the night."

"Good. Did you contact the prosthetics department?"

"Yes, Doctor. They should arrive with the necessary parts at o'nine-hundred hours."

"And the Federal Robotics Agency?"

"They should be here shortly. They wish to perform a health scan of the patient in order to fit him with the correct prosthetics."

"What about the emergency contact?"

"They…have yet to be informed."

"I see—wait until tomorrow morning. They're most likely asleep by now."

"When can his emergency contact visit?"

"It will be safer to wait until he has made a full recovery. And with the advanced technology he will be given, that shouldn't take more than forty-eight hours."

With the information he was gathering, something deadly churned within his mind; a dreadful feeling that told him one thing: You will never be the same.

Another short chapter...yay...damnit. I hate when I do this-_-

Anyway, can you guess who was in the accident? And how will this impact everyone else at Foster's?

Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!