The Lost Planet

Helpless

I came to several hours later, and found that the pain in my legs had left me. I felt around, trying to move my legs, do anything with my lower body. My legs remained still. Fear overtook me, I might have become paralyzed, and the thought terrified me. I tried to move, my body remaining useless. I tried to move, anything, to open my eyes, but all my attempts failed. Nothing was working at all, I began to panic. I heard someone say something off to the side of myself. I heard footsteps on metal toward me. Someone spoke in my ear.

"Calm down, you're okay." I wanted to turn to open my eyes find something out, but nothing would work.

"You were struggling in your sleep, so we gave you a drug that reduces your ability to move, you should be able to talk in a few days."

The female voice paused.

"Your legs suffered major damage, you have a bad concussion, your hand in close to gone and you have extensive internal damage. Ribs broken, punctured lung, internal bleeding. The blood you lost alone should have killed you, it's a miracle you're still alive." The voice stopped and I heard the footsteps leave.

The amount of information the lady had just dropped on my head was hard to handle. The medical treatments now could repair limbs and tissue, but I knew others were injured, and I was probably on the bottom of the list for repairs. I was so far gone it was almost pointless in trying to save me. I tried not to let my fear sink in. They could patch me up, they could.

I heard shuffling and quiet whispers in the space around me. I became aware of the constant humming, letting me know we were still on a Cruiser. There were occasional screams, and often sobs, from bodiless voices.

The smell was of rubbing alcohol, dirt, dust, chemicals. The air was hard to breath because of the cleaning agents. The powerful stench tried to force its way up my nostrils, making my eyes water.

I was slowly assaulted by the whispers, and shuffling, the smells and sounds. The people around me were every where. They seemed to swarm around me, taunting me. They could see, talk, express emotion. All I could do was hear and smell.

The same feeling held for a seemingly endless amount. I did not know if i lied there for weeks or seconds, days or minutes, time was so hard to handle, it seemed to slip away from my ability to reason with. I let sleep consume me whenever I felt so. Sleep became a friend it let me stop thinking and worrying. I could escape life.

But at the other end of the sleep tunnel was life, waiting to smack me in the face.

I recoiled in shock as the overflow of light made me gasp for air.