012.7 | Discrepancy
2251 Words
CODE RED: ATTENTION! CODE RED: ATTENTION!
Adrian nonchalantly listened to the alarm as he leisurely ate his food under the tree. The surrounding people panicked as they wandered around anxiously searching for answers. The code red has never been used before since there are more or less no potential threat that could promptly end humanity. Confronting the newly found danger brought people fear.
Fortunately, despite the panic, most of the people were able to remain calm. The minimal order has been adequately maintained with the adults leading the younger generations to safety. They are, after all, aged more than a century. They had matured enough to handle perplexing situations.
It didn’t take long for the military to arrive on the scene.
The federation’s military is composed of renowned people that had traversed many light years and have conquered many burning stars. They have protected the world from many magnetic storms and unwanted alien pirate invasions while retaining peace and order. Many younger generations wanted to enter the military because of the honor and respect given to them by the masses.
The arrival of the camouflaged-clothed officers made the adults sigh in relief. The soldiers were from the third and fourth legion accompanied by their two marshals. Civil order has been put in place and people are being dispersed to their respective zones. Adrian surveyed the congested streets slowly get empty until the only remaining people were those involved in the incident and the uniformed officers.
The medical team and the presiding officers are talking about the incident. The overturned ice cream truck is lying on the side, muddied with blood and dirt. Three officers are investigating the tracks produced by the vehicle as if identifying the cause of its malfunction. Other specialist connected the black box to examine the records in real time.
“What did you see?” the officer asked. “Did someone manipulate the system’s setting?”
“Not really,” the specialist answered.
The specialist is a short, plump, tanned-skin woman named Rowena Goldberg. She is wearing the typical white laboratory coat with a pair of tight blue sweaters and ripped jeans underneath. Her hands were typing some codes into a portable computer connected to the black box.
He pushed her eyeglasses up. It is unusual for people in this generation to wear eyeglasses, since there are many machines that could correct eyesight. People that are wearing eyeglasses are those without prescription and using it for fashion, while most are those people utilizing it as their terminals.
The encrypted password was easily decoded, and the video feed has been opened.
It initially showed the ordinary lively environment. People of various ages are buying cones and cups of ice cream. The ice cream truck is automated by a robot that can only be activated by supplying it with money. It remained in this state until a remarkable figure appeared on the camera.
The hideous creature seems to look like a mutated gorilla, however; have six gaunt limbs with two other arms attached to its armpits. It is also heftier, about six feet when crouching. It flailed its arms around madly, attacking the by passers without discrimination. It caught sight of the truck and swayed it for a while before hurling it out like a banana peel.
As to what happened next, the street monitoring cameras had already provided them the answer. The wrecked truck flew erratically rolled around in a long distance, hitting people and infrastructures on the way. It ended up above Aries, who received the ultimate shock. The officers looked at each other and thought that the Aries was so lucky he merely sustained a pair of broken legs.
Rowena is examining the video closely and thought that something is unright. She observed that when the truck was about to crush Aries; it paused for a few seconds before totally stopping. The brief pause is impossible unless Aries is someone who is stronger than the overwhelming force given out by the truck.
However, she didn’t voice it out. Many unusual things appeared last week, and these events are uncontrollable. The military had been secretly investigating this case, but things just went overboard today. A student from the military school reported sightings of an enormous animal. Though it wasn’t sighted on the cameras, the number of people who witnessed it was more than a dozen.
It’s a virtue in their academy to not lie. Nobody will joke on such a thing.
She just looked over at the pair of students staying under the shade of the overhanging tree. One person is undergoing medication and is placed on a stretcher while someone wearing some hospital gown is eating beside him. She informed the officers about the findings and look over to the victims to regard their situation.
Aries’ lower torso has been crushed. If it is in the ancient Earth, such incident will cause a lifelong injury or worst is death. Nonetheless, it is impossible to recover, and Aries would had to spend his life as a half man if not dead. Fortunately, the medication in the interstellar only required a relative amount of life to restore the person.
As long as he is alive, he could still be saved.
The medication for restoring body parts takes at least three days to complete. However, it depends on the healing capabilities of each person. As of now, Aries had been restoring his body for an hour. All the torn skin had recovered causing the bones, tissues, and nerves under repair.
Adrian disposed of his food accordingly. He threw the garbage into the nearby trash, then proceeded on drinking water. His expression wasn’t the least worried about his situation that he even has the leisure to burp aloud. Getting stuffed after a week of being fed with sugar water, Adrian finally tasted actual food.
Rowena walked towards the two patients and introduced herself. Adrian is the only sane one, so most of her words are meant for him. She asked them the standard questions like who they are and their age. When Adrian stated that his family name was Foster, Rowena withheld a strange reaction.
“A Foster?” Rowena frowned. “What is a Foster doing here?”
“We’re on call when the accident happened. I hurried over to see his state,” Adrian simply replied.
“Why are you in hospital clothes? Are you perhaps came from the hospital?”
Adrian enthusiastically nodded. “That’s right. I just woke up from a coma.”
“...”
She exhaled sharply. It seems that she had heard some secret. She held back the curiosity of asking on why would Adrian risk on going out just to help a friend. While talking, Aries indicated some signs of movements. The pain is often lessened during restoration, but anyone could still feel the tingling sensation of the cells getting reconnected. Aries groaned in discomfort.
“Hey bro, are you awake?”
Aries: When did you become my brother?
His sight is a bit hazy from sleep and squinted to see things much better. He inspected to his half mangled-body then to the person standing beside him. Seeing the familiar jet-black hair and black irises, Aries need not to guess to recognize this person. He lift up his one unscathed arm and concealed his face.
He winced lightly at the pain of exerting force in his muscles. Adrian looked at him with a smirk.
“You know it is painful, but you still dared to move. What part of this medication did you not understand?”Adrian taunted.
The medication for restoration is known by all. It is demonstrated in health sciences in their lower year grades. Though it is unnecessary to not move, the patient is recommended to remain motionless for the first ten hours of medication. This is to not strain the muscles and prevent the new cells from breaking.
It also hurts a lot.
“Don’t move anymore. It will hurt a lot,” Adrian advised.
Aries incoherently mumbled something. Adrian could not hear it clearly, so he leaned his ear closer and have Aries reiterate it.
“Say it again...” Adrian requested.
“I...” Aries felt a sudden shyness. “I don’t want you to... to see me in this state...”
Adrian lagged after discerning the reason, then laughed out aloud. The people around were surprised to see the young man laughing despite the dreading situation. Aries is thankful he took the courage of covering his face or else Adrian will see his blushing face. Adrian let out a few more laughs until he started coughing.
For this person who can feel his senses in the minutest sensation will experience genuine happiness even in a moment. This is the reason most of his actions are exaggerated. It is his body’s response to concentrated emotions.
If ever this scene will be seen by Frass and Xavier, they will surely cry. It has been a long time since Adrian laughed crazily like this. He consistently has the monotonous reaction in most of the stuff because of his disposition. It is exceptionally rare for him to be happy like this.
“Don’t you think it is cool, ah. Help me imagine,”Adrian continued his teasing as he crouched beside Aries’ head while gesturing his hand in circles. The hospital gown he’s wearing gave him a sickly look, added by his delicate features and innocent smile. He looks incredibly fragile and pure.
“We will tell them in detail that you and I met in a b****y way. Just imagine the expression of people as they try to make out scenes in their heads thinking about how ‘b****y’ a scene could be.
“You think it is fun?” Aries could not shrug, so he merely commented in a mocking tone.
“Why not? This kind of encounter is one in a million chances. Don’t you think it is quite romantic?”
“Romantic?” Aries wanted to cry. “It hurts terribly much.”
Adrian wasn’t affected by Aries’ mocking and even joked about how they will introduce themselves in many scenarios. They are happily chatting by themselves until a familiar hover car arrived. Adrian immediately stopped talking as he watched someone walking over with a gloomy face.
Frass was walking at his constant pace, looking calm and friendly, but Adrian could feel the seething anger in his every step. The corner of Frass’ eyes reddened as he glared at his nephew. If not from Adrian’s complication, he must have thrashed him up with their grandfather’s walking stick.
This kid only knows trouble!
“Why would you always try seeking death?” Frass went directly to the point.
“I wasn’t,” Adrian denied.“Can’t you see I’m safe?”
“Safe? You call this safe?”Frass snorted.“You just woke up. You’re still unsafe!”
Aries wasn’t able to see Adrian’s clothing earlier, since he was busy hiding himself. It’s only now that he noticed Adrian is wearing hospital clothes. There is even still a tag attached on his leg showing his room number and name. He wasn’t able to contact Adrian for a week. Did something happen to him?
There is nothing else for them to do. Aries and Adrian both needed to attend the hospital, so they just went together in the same ambulance. Frass followed, abandoning his car to the subordinates. The families of the victims has been contacted so the moment Aries came out, he was rallied with his mother and a few siblings crying. His father was there to soothe his mother down.
The two people separated at the door. Adrian performed a concise introduction in front of Aries’ parents, then reassured them he will be alright. His noble demeanor and delicate appearance captured the attention of Aries’ mother, that were too distracted to cry. After the scant comfort, Adrian said his farewell.
The Sagan family remained silent until the nurses wheeled the bed to a room. It did not last long, however, as they started bombarding Aries with questions the moment the nurses closed the door. His mother repeatedly queried him about Adrian and their relationship.
“He already introduced himself,” Aries replied, he sounded uninterested.
“I know. But who is he? What is he to you?" She followed up.
“Didn’t he say we are friends?” Aries replied, as a matter of fact.
“Your friend? It is the first time I heard of you acquiring friends!”
Aries looked at his mom with a shocked expression. He has many friends, okay? In fact, many people wanted to be friends with him. Why does his mother sound like he had been living alone in his whole life?
She must have been stimulated by his sibling’s words this morning.
“Ma, just calm down. We are really friends,” Aries emphasized.
His siblings sincerely believed him. One of them asked, “Does it not hurt when you say it like that?”
Aries perused them. They’re lucky he could not move or he has chased these kids out. Everyone in the game knows how much he wanted to go beyond that friendship zone. But what else he could do? Isn’t respect and consent the most attractive thing on Earth?
Thus, the two patients stayed in the hospital for three days - just enough for the world to force a substantial shift and change.
- Writer
