2073

Chapter Two

I woke up to a searing pain in my ear. Not like a pain really. More like a very long, high pitched beep. It slowly faded as I opened my eyes to see light fade and darkness fall. The room I was in was lit by very dim lights on the low hanging ceiling and a large window. But there was only the moon so it wasn't doing much.
I turned my head to see a rack type of thing on wheels. there were plastic packet bag things with tubes filing out of them. My eyes followed the tubes as they led into my right hand and my chest. I slowly tried to sit up. I maneuvered my hands to my sides and gently pushed against the soft and somewhat squishy mat underneath me. As I tried and tried again, I finally got up.
I saw the white walls and the curtains. There was a set of chairs in the far right corner of the room. Sitting in a row was Finch, Oak, and to my surprise, Keene. Oak was what looked like sleeping of Keene's shoulder and Keene was lying his head on Oak's. Finch was off by himself positioned a couple of feet away and with his head leaning against the wall. Keene saw me first.
"Loch." He said for some reason happily.
"Keene?" I said sleepily.
"Yeah buddy." He said slowly moving to get out of Oak's grasp as he stood and quickly ran to the side of me. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired."
"You've been asleep for days how can you be tired?"
"Days!" How the hell?
"Shhh! They haven't slept in a while. Be quiet."
"Days?"
"Yeah. You had a seizure and didn't wake up for hours. Me and Oak both thought you just weren't talking to us. Then Finch called and said you'd been skipping classes. We ran frantically across the whole school. Which believe me, it's not fun." I laughed at the out of breath look on his face. "Then when we got back to the dorm, we ransacked the whole place and Oak found you upstairs."
"I remember him yelling at me, but I felt like I was sitting there for maybe just five minutes."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But, what happened?"
"Well, after Mr. Larger left, I came in and apologized to Oak for running off in the elevator. Me and Oak both agreed to spend a little time off from each other-"
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault. We both needed it. However it only lasted for a day. Finch was bat shit crazy over you not making it to your classes."
"I had a Finnish test."
"Ah. Now I understand." It was universally known how Finch was with the governmental allies and enemies. Hell, if he could, he would switch places with Birch Barden in a heartbeat.
"Um. Where am I?"
"Really?"
"What?"
"In the hospital. Been here four days. Are you sure you're ok?" he sat down on the side of the bed thingy that I was sitting on.
"I don't remember any of it!"
"Shhh!"
"I don't remember it. So to answer your question, no. Not really."
"Well the doctor says you're going to be fine. He said you're most likely allowed to discharge when you woke up so. Here you are.... You know he gave us hell for staying in here." His voice changed, maybe to a personal setting. "Finch flipped Because he said we couldn't stay unless we were the Board Team."
"So then how come you're here?"
"Well I might have had a discussion with the guy." I gave him a face and he laughed. "Ok I had a very long and very loud discussion with him about him not supporting friends and family and how he was an idiot for leaving you alone when something could've happened." I still could tell he wasn telling me something.
"That's it. That's all you did. No, rebelling. No, revolution starting?"
"Ok I punched him in the face." I couldn't help but let out a squeal of surprise. Keene punched a doctor for me. A government worker. Like, damn. "Hey, shhh!"
I couldn't stop. I kept laughing and it got louder. After about two minutes of my uncontrollable laughing, Finch popped out of his sleeping trance.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Hilgard! I was only sleeping!" He yelled, obviously dreaming of his English class because Mrs. Hilgard was strict, which only made me and Keene laugh harder. "Oh my god, Loch you're awake!"
"Yeah." I somehow got out from all the laughing as he ran over to me, sat down, and shoved his body close to mine in what seemed like a very tight hug. "Finch!"
"I thought... I thought you were..." His voice began to crack.
"Finch. Finch I'm good. I'm fine." He stopped the hug for me only to see his face a rather bright shade of red. "Damn Finch, are you sure you're ok?"
"No. I'm not. you didn't come to class and I thought there was something wrong. I ran every Section but couldn't find you-"
"I'm here now."
"Yeah, in a hospital room with IV's and other shit attached to you."
"But I'm fine." He was holding onto my arms and I could feel his pulse racing as his face began to look almost angry. "Finch. I'm ok, I swear."
"Oh my god." He reached out and hugged me again, this time I could feel his heavy breathing in my neck. "Never do that again."
"I'm sorry. It's ok Finch. I swear."
I've never really thought much into our friendship. But I guess it's because I've never really had to. I've never had to question his loyalty or his devotion to me. He's just always been there. He's always standing right next to me, making sure I'm ok. It's always been that way and vise versa, I do the same for him. I always have. But now I see the extent of his loyalty.
Usually we never fight with loud voices, but with silence. His silence in the elevator on Friday. Yet he tried so hard to say something. We were fighting and he still worried for me. He still sat in a hospital room for four days waiting, and hoping for me to wake up.
We sat there for Maybe five minutes as I felt his chest spasm every time he inhaled. His warm body pushed against me as he slowly weakened his grip and make the whole hospital thing melt away. He made it all feel better than I knew it already was.
There was click at the door and Finch finally let me go. A tall, skittish man walked in wearing a blue scrub and a blinding white lab coat. He was very skinny, almost like if you touched him you'd get a paper cut. His hair was a bright red all tightly placed atop his head in a bun. His eyes were plain blue, matching his scrubs. He seemed to be in a good mood, almost skipping into the room.
"I see you've woken up." he started to flip through his clipboard.
"I thought you said you punched him." I whispered to Keene, not seeing the bruise.
"I did. He quit your case the next day. The other doctor still has the bruise on his nose." he said chuckling.
"Are you talking about Dr. Ince?" None of us answered. "He's basically afraid of you. You really shook him up. How's that bandage holding up by the way?" He asked.
"Good, I guess." he held up his hand, and I could now see the wrapping on his fist. "And I'm sorry. About the whole, punching thing." he apologized so sweetly.
"No, no. Don't be. I hate the guy anyway. I would've done the same damn thing." He said chuckling. "So, Loch. How are you feeling so far?"
"Good, I guess." I answered sighing.
"Good. So did your friends explain what happened?"
"Not really. Although I am curious." I added.
"Well, basically, you had a prolonged seizure which left you unconscious for multiple hours."
"So what does that mean?"
"You have a disease. I'm surprised this didn't show earlier."
"What didn't show earlier?" I was becoming more afraid at how he was explaining this to me.
"Your records say that you were hospitalized about 11 months after you were born. You had trouble walking and talking. You had malnutrition, your were underweight. Around the age of two you started to have multiple seizures per week. You were in the hospital for weeks. Quite the case." He chuckled and smiled. "But I see you've grown into an above average health. That is, minus the recent issues."
"So what's happening?"
"You have what's called Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy."
"I have want now?"
"INAD." He said chuckling again. "It's rare and usually only inherited. But I've looked into your family's records and I've seen nothing."
"If it's Infantile, then why do I have it now. Isn't it supposed to be in infants?"
"Ah. You caught that. Your malnutrition and underdevelopment have been long gone. However, you've begun to develop epilepsy. Constant seizures, spasms in your upper body which include random head and arm movements. Have you been feeling pains in your legs, mainly knees lately?"
"I take painkillers for my leg pain, but it's because I swim. Everyday actually."
"I don't know how. You reek of chlorine all the time. And you could drown at any moment-" Keene commented.
"Shut up." I said punching him in the arm. "you could hit in the head with a lacrosse stick or ball at any moment too."
"Well that's just normal. We also wear helmets."
"You're just afraid of water. And I don't smell like chlorine."
"That's what I smell. I've been wondering for days." The doctor said. "Point of information, it's not the swimming. You're in perfect shape, you shouldn't be having pains at all."
"So what is it from?"
"Your INAD. It never completely leaves. Have the painkillers helped at all?"