Chapter 13 Hospital Drama and Woes

Four days.

Four days of misery and pain as I woke up on the fifth day feeling groggy and broken. I woke up in the medical wing and began to rub my body in an attempt to alleviate the pain. As usual it didn't help too much, though I did feel better than a couple of days ago.

When I finally came out of shock of how violently Ben attacked me I limped my way back to my cot in the fighter's quarter and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up to murmurs and blurry faces around me, each of them saying something about blood. I tried to moan something in response but it must have come out bad because one woman shrieked.

I immediately felt hands grab me and pull me out of my cot. It wasn't until I was in the air that I began to cough and I felt something run out of my mouth. I held my hand up to my mouth and felt the liquid, thinking it saliva, only to find it was thick and red. I was bleeding out of my mouth.

I began to panic but the other fighters restrained me and rushed me to Dr. Glass, who immediately began working on me and told somebody to call Mr. Mason.

"No!" I shouted, grabbing Dr. Glass's hand weakly. "Don't… don't do that please!"

"He needs to see this Michael." Dr. Glass said sharply, "There will be no debate here. Now hold still." She ripped off my shirt and I felt myself go red in the face as her hands traced themselves over my torso, which I was terrified to find was bruised severely. Dr. Glass pushed down on the side of my chest and I screamed a little bit.

"You have two broken ribs Michael. I need to bandage them and inject fluid into the area to reduce the swelling." Dr. Glass said, turning around and motioning for her aid to bring her supplies. I think Lourdes is her name.

Dr. Glass spent the next few minutes cleaning me up when I saw Mr. Mason and Hal walk in. Dr. Glass didn't turn away from me as she finished her last injection into my chest. I sighed as I could breath normally again, though I tensed up again when I realized that Ben's older brother and father were here for answers.

"How bad is he?" Mr. Mason said, looking over my bruised chest.

"Not good, he has two broken ribs and a lot of bruising. Luckily it doesn't look like there's any internal bleeding because if there was you'd be in serious trouble." Dr. Glass said, taking off her latex gloves and throwing them in a garbage bin before turning back to me with a questioning. "Ribs are some of the strongest bones in your body since they have to protect your lungs, heart, and spine. How did you manage to break two of them?"

"Was it your uncle?" Mr. Mason said, not even bothering to be discreet about my abuse problem.

"It couldn't be a person." Dr. Glass said, "If it was they'd have to have a pro wrestler's strength."

'Your damn right it wasn't a person.' I thought to myself, remembering Ben's pained and hurt face. That jackass had broken two of my ribs and I should feel sorry for him? I tried to apologize and he threw it back in my face like I was nothing. Well screw him and the rest of the Mason family.

"Then how did this happen?" Mr. Mason persisted, looking directly at me. I tried to stay strong and appear fine but all of them looking at me eager for answers caused me to shrink away. I hated Ben, but I didn't want to rat him out and appear weak. I wouldn't be the bad friend, or former friend I guess.

"I… I don't remember." I said, attempting to pull off an amnesia act. Mr. Mason and everybody else there looked skeptical.

"You don't remember?" Hal asked.

"There are no signs of head trauma." Dr. Glass said, "Your memory should be fine."

"Well… I…. I don't know what to tell you guys." I said nervously, "I just can't… can't remember. I'm sorry."

"Michael, if you're getting abused you need to tell us and we can do something about it." Mr. Mason said, lowering himself to my level, holding my shoulder to show his caring side. "I won't let your uncle hurt you anymore, you're like family now."

'Like family.' Those words killed me inside and I turned away from Mr. Mason's kind gaze towards nothing in particular. Part of me wanted to tell them, to tell them that their own family member was a freak just like everybody thinks. But part of me didn't want that, which was the side of me that prevailed.

"It wasn't my uncle. And I'm serious; I don't remember who did this to me." I said.

"You said 'who', so you do remember something." Mr. Mason said, "Tell us Michael and we'll make sure that he doesn't get away with this."

"I don't remember!" I shouted to Mr. Mason's face. Mr. Mason's face remained stoic but thankfully Dr. Glass had enough of this questioning.

"I think that's enough for now Tom." She said, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps he should rest some and then you can come back and talk to him." Mr. Mason looked reluctant, his eyes almost pleading for me to tell him who did this to me. Finally he sighed and stood at his full height.

"I'll send Ben by to check on you. I'm sure you'd like some company for now." I nodded my head and didn't protest because I just wanted him to leave. He nodded to Hal and they both walked out of the ward while Dr. Glass checked my pressure and gave me some Advil to ease the pain more. She didn't bother me with anymore questions about how I got hurt and only said that I would be in the hospital for a few days on bed rest.

The next couple of days were the most boring of my life. There was absolutely nothing to do except lay there and feel useless as people came in go into the infirmary, all of them interested in what happened to me. Some were more discreet in their ability to hide their interest but other just stared at me openly, curious about the boy who always seemed to be injured. Surprisingly I didn't really care that much about the looks they gave me since I was use to them when I was with Ben.

Mr. Mason didn't show up though, or maybe he did when I was sleeping. Apparently the different Mass regiments were planning an assault on the alien structure in the center of Boston and everybody was scrambling to prepare for the assault. Unfortunately my ward mate had plenty to say on that matter.

"Bunch of idiots." Pope said, eating some food he was given. "If they think that this assault is going to work then they've in for a big surprise."

"Why are you worrying about it?" I said annoyed, "You won't be doing anything except laying here like I am while other people die for us."

Pope apparently found that funny. "Well as a matter of fact it does matter to me cause I'm going to be helping in the assault."

Now it was my turn to laugh, "Why the hell would they ask for your help?"

"Cause I'm good with explosives." Pope smiled, setting his food aside. "And that fat general asked nicely."

"Commander Porter?" I said shocked.

"The one and only." Pope said, giving a sarcastic salute. "Lucky for the fighters of this rag/tag band of a military they have somebody who realizes that you can't bring down a structure by just shooting bullets at it or even that they don't have enough bullets to pump into their enemy. Bombs will be their advantage, and Porter came before me in all his majesty and asked me to build him an arsenal of bombs."

I was stunned, "When did this happen?"

"When you were sleeping. Came in and asked, though it was mainly the professor and Porker. Weaver was off in his own world chilling with that tranquil kid."

"Tranquil kid?" I asked. Pope rolled his eyes at me.

"You know, the black kid? Former razorback."

"Oh, Rick." I said. Those cold and emotionless eyes came into my mind as I remembered how he barely reacted when he saw his father buried. I think I was more emotional than him, which is saying something.

"Aren't you friend with one of them? Mason's kid right?" Pope asked, giving me a knowing smile.

"We were friends." I said, though I shot awake when I realized what I just told the most untrustworthy person in this entire encampment.

"Oh not anymore are you? Lovers quarrel?" Pope said in full mockery.

"Shut up." I said, turning my head away from Pope and just praying that he would go away.

My wish came true as Pope was escorted out of the wing on his new assignment the next day. I was relieved to not have to listen to his constant chatter for the rest of the day. Dr. Glass was out and the entire medical wing was quiet when I heard the doors open. When I saw it was Ben I shut my eyes and pretended I was asleep. Ben came up to my bed and I could tell that Ben was standing at the edge of my bed. It was really quiet as Ben probably just stared at me.

"Hal and my dad went out on a scouting trip along with Weaver. They wanted to check out the structure to find its weak points and which path would be best to take for the assault." Ben said softly, "Matt's off helping Uncle Scott work with his machines, making himself useful. Everybody is useful around here except for me."

I heard footsteps and could tell that Ben had come closer to me as he sat down on the side of bed near my legs. "I tried talking with some of the other kids here, non razorbacks first. It didn't go to well and I got hit again. Actually several times. I then went to my brothers and sisters in suffering and found they didn't want anything to do with me. Weird right? Not even accepted by those who suffer just like you. Nobody can tolerate me anymore."

I tried to keep my face as passive as possible, which wasn't too hard since I wasn't feeling to sympathetic. "Maybe they don't like me because I'm still different than them. What, with me still having these razors in my back and them losing theirs. I hear they're actually making new friends. Not me though, because I'm different."

"This morning I went outside and wanted to test my endurance by doing some jump rope. I stopped counting after I got to 300 and just continued to jump rope, over and over again. It was so… so systematic, like an out of body experience. I stopped when Hal found me and looked at the time I had on my stop watch. I was out there for two hours. Two hours and I didn't even feel tired. Isn't that something?"

'I knew it, he is a freak!' I thought to myself. Ben shifted his position, I think so he could turn towards me. "You were right Michael. I… I am different. I am a razorback, not even human. No human should be able to do what I can do, and sooner or later I'm going to end up just like Rick. Mindless and lost without my skitter masters."

"Ben?" I heard a voice call. Ben jumped off my bed and turned to the voice, which I recognized to belong to Dr. Glass.

"Oh… hi. I was just saying hi to Michael, though he's asleep." Ben said shyly.

"Ya, he's been doing a lot of that recently." Dr. Glass said. "Ben have you met Alyssa?"

"Oh ya, I have. Hi, I'm ah Ben." Ben said nervously.

"I remember." Alyssa said.

"Oh right, plus she just said it." Ben said laughing weakly. "I think I'm just going to go then." I heard shuffling as Ben moved out of the room and then the opening and closing of doors as he left.

"Alright Alyssa," I heard Dr. Glass say, "Why don't you get up here and take off your shirt." I heard the shuffling of feet and some movement of objects as I assumed Alyssa got up on Dr. Glass's makeshift examination table. There was some zipping and I figured that Alyssa was taking off her shirt.

"I'll be right back, I just want to get some stuff." Dr. Glass said. I heard her move away and figured that maybe I could sneak a peek at a naked girl.

I opened my eyes slowly and saw that Alyssa's back was to me, or what could be considered her back. My eyes shot open as I saw scars running across her back and arms, some going all the way down to her pelvis. I gasped at her back, which caught her attention as she gasped as well, spinning around to look at me.

Her front was no better with marks running across her stomach and scratches on her wrists. Before I could stare longer she jumped down off the table and put her shirt back on and then rushed over to me.

"You didn't see anything! Got it?" She said in an extremely threatening tone. I was too stupefied to say anything so she grabbed my shirt and shook it violently. "Do you get it?"

"Yes! Yes!" I said, winching at the pain she was causing my chest. I heard another door open and Alyssa let go of my shirt, running out of the medical wing.

"Alyssa! Alyssa where are you going?" She shouted, running after her. She stopped when she reached the door, figuring that Alyssa was long gone by now. She turned around towards me but I shut my eyes to appear like I was asleep again, though I was probably breathing heavier than a sleeping guy should.

I heard Dr. Glass curse under her breath and throw some stuff down on a table. I kept my eyes shut as I processed what I just saw. Ben liked a girl who had scars that not even some of our most battle hardened fighters had. How did she have those, where did she get those? And why didn't anybody know about this?

All I knew was that I was getting sick of all this drama at the 2nd Mass.


I hope that you guys are not.

Thanks to all my reviewers, though you guys are few...

I have the rest of the story planned out and I've decided that there are going to be three more chapters for this story! I'll go over the events of the last two episodes with of course other stuff as well that will make this story unique. So expect to have this story finished by Christmas, maybe I'll even post the last chapter on Christmas day as a treat!

So as always... REVIEW!