It had been a long day at work. One of those where you strain to make it to the end of the workday, looking forward to dinner, a little distraction from binging Netflix or playing a video game. Letting your brain go on autopilot. Jim navigated the slushy winter streets, deciding to grab some fast food, maybe a pizza. He'd earned it. While trying to decide what he was craving the light in front of him turned green. The cars in the left lane beside him were all stopped, but Jim was able to slide past them into the intersection, the right lane being devoid of cars.
After making it into the intersection, he noticed lights moving in the periphery of his vision to his left. By impulse, he sped up in an attempt to avoid being hit. He was too late. The car barreled into the left side of the old Buick, thankfully hitting the back door. The next seconds were a blur. There was a sudden jolt and the car flipped over, totally crumpling front passenger side of the car. Suspended by the seat-belt, Jim saw the pavement skid past the windshield.
Time seemed to slow as he noticed the time was 6:17 on the clock in the car. Marshmallow World by Bing Crosby was playing on the radio. He idly wondered if the lady singing with him was the same one that sang in some of those Fallout songs as the car slowly slid to a stop. Reaching over and unbuckling the seatbelt he fell to the roof, knees uncomfortable on the square pebble-like fragments of glass that had accumulated there.
He was freaking out a little bit because he needed his car to get to work and didn't have any savings to buy another. He only had this one because his aunt gave him a smoking deal on it. Turning to crawl out the shattered passenger window, he saw two headlights bearing down on him, which got brighter and brighter.
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The stretcher careened down the hallway of the hospital. The patient was rushed to the operating room that had been prepped. The bloody figure flopped limply as jostled by the maelstrom of people rushing to set up everything. One severe-looking doctor yelled, "Let's go, people, this one qualifies for the Omega Protocol! We don't get many of these, so let's make it count!" Most of the nurses had not worked with him, but all knew he was a major shot caller for the whole department. Nurses quickly swapped attachments made by first responders to IVs pushing blood and solutions of lactated ringers in the hopes of bringing blood pressure back to normal. The well-practiced team got to business and began the fight to stabilize their patient, assess internal injuries and give him his best chance at survival. They worked tirelessly for four hours and finally, he turned the corner. Luckily the patient was young, he had much more resilience than some patients would have, but his injuries were severe. After closing the patient eventually made his way to the ICU for monitoring. He did not wake up. This is what the attending doctors had been expecting, but they were prepared. A large syringe was connected to the IV port and an iridescent silver fluid was injected into the line then connected back to the IV stand.
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Jim began to buck and squirm for a minute but the orderlies knew the drill and forcefully held his arms and body in place so he wouldn’t yank out any IVs. Even with the sedatives mixed into the fluid, people often would react to this part of the process.
"Take him to the orange wing." the severe-looking doctor commanded and some orderlies pushed the movable bed, with accompanying equipment and IV stands to a large elevator.
They exited in an unconventional patient care center, with each patient confined to a solitary room that could be isolated with heavy curtains and a thick security door. Jim was connected to various leads and transferred from his bed to a large capsule filled with a shimmering gelatinous material. Tiny pulses of light could be seen and the syrup-like liquid would solidify around the area of the pulse, reverting to a liquid after the energy dissipated.
"How is the consistency? Is the standby routine keeping the gel from solidifying or drying out?" one orderly asked.
"Let me check," another one said, dipping in some sensors that looked like a meat thermometer connected to a handheld device into various areas of the capsule. "yeah, everything checks out. Let's get him fitted and slide him in."
They placed a device that looked like a hybrid CPAP and scuba mask over Jim's prone form. Once in place, they submerged him into the gel, which closed over his head.
"How's he breathing?"
"No changes in respiratory rate. Leakage alarms passed diagnostics. IVs are set and full. By the time they empty the gel should be calibrated to supply his other needs. "
"Good, I'm beat. Let's finish up and get out of here. These cases are exhausting!" the larger orderly said and the two flipped out the lights as the capsule began to close and a blue LED light clicked on, indicating the pod was in use.