It felt like it was still part of
the dream. But eventually all the buzz words caught up and began to lace into
reality.
Walter Wallace...Citadel Inc...Officer Steve Coulter...a youth who is
affectionately known by his fans as Hippy Flip was the only conscious survivor
pulled from the wreckage and his first action was to go back and help the
emergency teams search the room. He delivered an expletive-laden rant before
being taken to hospital with severe injuries. He has not been available for
comment since. The contents of the rant could not...
His mind ventured back into the
void. The black space that existed between the Towers and the present. Was
everyone OK? Was he OK? He forced himself to wake again but now the television
was off and behind the curtains the dark night sky showed no sympathy. He felt
a strong urge to get up for the bathroom but found little response from his
body and before he knew it he was urinating. He could not fight it. An
emptiness swept over him and he fell back to the ever expanding void.
But you probably can’t even hear me. Some of the doctors say my
problems won’t go away if I keep telling them to all the patients. I wonder
what a psychiatrist would say about this. Is talking to a coma patient the same
as talking to yourself? Does this make me crazy?
“Actually I am a psychiatrist,”
Stevie croaked.
He could barely see as his eyes
adjusted to the light but the grey outline of the nurse jumped with fright. “Oh
wow, you sure did scare me!” she laughed. “Umm, let me go get the doctor.”
Stevie stared up at the light at the
top of the room, squinting as his eyes adjusted. His mouth was dry and his neck
felt like a rusty hinge as he tried to move it.
A doctor came into the room. “Mr
Coulter, my name is Dr Tank.”
Stevie’s heart leaped a few beats.
“Wh- What?” he managed to mutter looking up at the tall figure in the white
jacket.
“Dr Tanner.” The doctor replied,
noticing Stevie’s increased heart rate on the monitor. “Don’t worry you are
perfectly fine. You have been in a coma, Mr Coulter, and the good news is
you’ve woken up.”
Stevie tried to look around,
taking in whatever details he could but hospital rooms looked notoriously
generic. “How long?”
“Three months just last Thursday –
today is Sunday by the way, 11 in the morning.”
The doctor shone a bright light in
Stevie’s eyes. He checked other less intrusive indicators as Stevie tried to
piece together what had happened. He remembered the Towers, the agents, Walter
and his machine. They were fresh in his mind like it happened yesterday but
they felt intangible and improbable. It felt like yesterday’s dream. It would
be forgotten by midday before he has a chance to retell it.
“Mr Coulter?” the doctor was at
Stevie’s feet, looking up expectantly, “can you feel this, Mr Coulter?” He had
a sharp pencil-like object and was pushing it into Stevie’s big toe. Stevie
could not feel a thing. He tried the other foot and different parts of his leg
but still no response. The doctor remained quiet a moment. “The damage to your
lung is substantial, compounding on a recent injury but you should return to
close to full capacity – no smoking though. As for your legs, we’ll have to get
some scans done but it does appear like you have lost function.”
Stevie still felt like this was
all a dream. “For good?”
“We can’t say just yet. You will
be in a wheelchair for the immediate future if not indefinitely. We will wait
for the scans and work out a plan from there.”
Stevie looked up at the ceiling
with a comforting sense of helplessness. He imagined letting go, putting a gun
to his head just as Mark had done. Who would care? What would be lost?
“It is advised that you perform
some sort of activity immediately after waking from a coma. As you cannot walk
we will have some food brought in and you can sit up and eat it. I do
understand this is a lot to take in Mr Coulter. We can arrange visits with the
hospital psychiatrist if you wish.”
“I am a psychiatrist.” Stevie said
bluntly, still staring at the ceiling.
The doctor sighed. “I will have
the nurse bring in the food and we can let your friends know when you are ready
to have visitors.”