A Cold Heart

Initiation 3 - Broken.

present time....

The Syndicate officers bring Jake and Sam to a med bay close to The Terminal. The officer selected two stretchers on the manual and two mechanical stretchers came out of the stretcher dock. They lined themselves up next to the officer. Jake and Sam were placed on them. They were allocated a med station and immediately the stretchers rolled on their own. Both of them lay unconscious unable to move. A station alert goes off and the doctors wake up from their nap. "Why can't we get at least fifteen minutes of goddamn sleep!", days one of the doctors grumpily. "We've got a job to do. Deal with it!", interrupts another. The doctors arrived with their surgical instruments and began operating.

doctor 1: Poor guys, I wonder what happened.
doctor 2: That's not important at the moment. Let's wash out their wounds.
doctor 3: That's a lot of debris stuck in this leg. Need to pull them out.
doctor 4: His hand is decaying. Let's finish this quick and get them up and running quick.

Water is sprayed over their wounds. All the blood is collected in a sterilized bowl for further examining. The surgeon puts on a mask and gives them both anesthetics. He begins operating on Sam first as he has lost a lot of blood. He begins pulling out the wood and glass stuck in Sam's leg. The rubbing sound of flesh and the blood oozing out makes it more stressful. "Slow and steady..." He successfully pulls them out and begins cutting off the decayed flesh. Sam feels a slight pain while he cuts of the flesh. The surgeon asks the assistant to give him blood supply. After the procedure is done, he wraps the leg and moves over to Jake. Jake left hand was cut off completed up to his bicep muscle. The muscle had to be removed to install the prosthetic. The surgeon slowly cut through the muscle and removed it. He cut away the decayed flesh and dressed up the wound. They were still unconscious, unaware of their current state. Metal prosthetics were attached to their limbs.

Jake was seeing nightmares again. He was stuck in a loop with that Night Crawler. He was running away to escape it, but the same scene was repeating. Again and again and again and again. He was tired. He came across a cliff and stopped. "Woahh!", and he thought he heard something. "JAKE! IN HERE!! JUMP QUICK!" Jake jumped off the cliff and kept falling down. An hour. A day. He was just falling through. He heard Sam screaming from pain. The Night Crawler tearing through Sam. He kept seeing visions while he fell. People dying. Getting eaten. Consumed by those monsters. He heard another voice. "Wake up, Jake. It's been three days. Jake! Jake! "

Jake woke up in a flash. "Hmph hmph tsk ah". He was gasping for air. His sister was there by his side. His only family. He blinked as he thought he was still in a loop. "Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?" Jake spoke out. Everyone was staring at him in confusion. "You're alive, silly. It's me, Yuna!" Jake couldn't believe it. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. The doctor was seated to his right checking his heartbeat monitor.

Doctor: He'll be alright. His left arm is calibrated to match the usage of his organic arm but much faster. Rest up son. You'll need it.
Jake: S-am. SAM! Where is he? Is he alright?
Doctor: He is alright. He is just practicing walking over there.
Jake: Oh, thank God. I thought he was going to...
Doctor: He is strong. He won't go down that easily. I'll give you that.
Jake: Thank you, Doctor.
Yuna: Where were you? You were missing for 2 days when we were informed you were in the hospital! Why didn't you tell me?!
Jake: It was an accident which was not supposed to happen. What's more important is, I'm alive.
Yuna: I was so scared. begins to cry.
Jake: Hey now, stop it.... It's alright. I'm here. It's alright.

As Jake consoled his sister and talks to her about her university, Sam who was learning how to walk trips over. "Ahh" Jake begins to laugh. He sits himself up and tried to get down. The doctor asks him to rest some more but he declines. He gets down slowly and starts walking. "Oi mate! That was a good one! Oh shii..." Jake trips and falls down to the ground. It was dark again. Jake opened his eyes to realize he is falling again. But now he finally falls to the end. Oww. "What? I stopped?" Jake wakes up. He looks to at the floor, there was water. But it was dark everywhere. He tried to reach for his flashlight, but he did not have anything. He looked in all directions and only saw darkness. "Where is the hospital? What is this place?" He looked down to see water, but he had no reflection. He was standing on top of it. He tries to touch it but the water pulls him through, and he begins falling again. "Ahhhhhh. Help!!"

He finally wakes up, but time hasn't passed at all. It was the same moment where he fell. Sam was there on the ground trying to get back. "What is going on?" Sam manages to get back up and so does Jake. Jake begins walking towards Sam and stops in front of him. They get discharged from the hospital. Jake kisses Yuna on her forehead before she leaves as she has to work on her university projects. Jake and Sam Walk out of the hospital and sit down inside a Bus Terminal. Sam picks up the newspaper and looks at the headlines about the house in Gracium being completely destroyed.

Jake: We made it out alive.
Sam: And then there were two. hahahahaha.
Jake: hahahaha.
Sam: Now what? We still haven't delivery that package yet.
beep beep beep beep be...
Jake: Hello?
Unknown 1: Hello, Mr. Nightingale. Nice to know that you have recovered that quickly. I must say you did a very good job.
Jake: You son of a bit...

Unknown 1: Now, now, there is no need for such language. I hope you have the package. You are going to have to deliver them soon.
Jake: We were almost dead because of you! We are not your lap dogs! You didn't even tell us who you are!!
Unknown 1: Calm down, Mr. Nightingale. Deliver the package at the location I'm about to tell you now. It is an abandoned Superium Mining facility about 75 clicks North of your position. Walk into Mining Shed 342 and deliver the package. Your payment shall be transferred once it is done.
Jake: Wait!? Tell us who yo...
Unknown 1: Goodbye. beep.

The calls end with a notification which displays a hologram of the location. Jake looks at Sam. "This man needs to die.", he says in anger. The scene changes to the mining facility where a man in a business suit steps out of a car and looks at the mining facility. He adjusts his glasses and begins walking towards it along with a briefcase in his hand and machine behind him.

END OF THE CHAPTER