An old-fashioned ringtone woke Emily up in the morning. Looking for the offending cell phone Emily fumbled around until she spotted an old landline phone attached to the wall. Getting out of bed Emily grumbled to herself and picked up the phone.
“Yea?”
“It's your wake up call. You have thirty minutes to get to the hospital for muster.” A male voice replied on the phone.
“Okay, thanks.” Emily muttered and hung up the phone. She was halfway back to her bed when last night came crashing in on her. She cursed to herself as she felt waves of disappointment come crashing down on her. She froze as the words “mostly human” popped into her mind over and over.
She dragged herself into the shower to get cleaned up. Grabbing a wrinkled uniform from her duffel bag and her second pair of old beat up boots that she got when she went to boot camp. The other pair she had bought when had arrived at Fort McCain had disappeared into the yellow trash bag may be gone for good. She wandered out of her room in a depressed hazed that only ended when she closed her door. She had no idea where her room key was or even if she had one. On top of that came the realization that she had no idea where she was in relation to the hospital or even if they ever told her where she was supposed to go for muster.
“I can always ask.” She thought to herself as she stared at her closed door. The door led to the outdoors and not a hallway like Emily, for some reason, expected. The barracks, Emily realized was like a motel with all the room facing outside. She had a nice view of some tree, a road, and the hospital. “Well, that was easy. Now where in the hospital am I supposed to muster at?” She asked herself. “If there was a wake-up call then there must be an office. Okay, Emily lets go find that office.”
Emily found the office at the far left of the barracks and inside was a corporal waiting on her. He handed her a key while saying “You were pretty zonked out last night. You're going to need this.”
“Oh hey, thanks.” Emily said looking down at her key.
“We’re too late for breakfast sorry and we’re running late so we are gonna have to hustle to get you to class on time.” The corporal said pointing to a golf cart.
“What's with you people and the golf carts,” Emily asked as she sat down in the passenger seat.
The corporal laughed. “I was told that it's because it's cheaper to replace than a Humvee. You know because you supers tend to break things until you get your strength under control. That’s why we were told not to shake hands with you guys.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” Emily told him thinking “There is nothing to worry about from me breaking things. I’m mostly human.”
The corporal drove Emily to the side of the hospital then took her down one floor to the weird gym. The Gym was mostly empty with except for a few people in workout clothes working on the machines. There was no sign of the lab coat guys but there were a few people walking around in purple scrubs.
“You sign in over here then wait for one of the Physical Therapist people to see you. Hey, it was nice meeting you. Well, meeting you again. We met last night.” The corporal said with a nervous laugh. He waved then spun around and quickly left not giving Emily any time to say anything.
“Hi, you must be Private Emerson our new super. I’m HM3 Mclaughlin and I’ll be your Physical therapist tech today. Well, it looks like no one told you to wear your workout clothes today. Its okay though you can work out in those today.” Said a way too much upbeat manner girl in purple scrubs. “Any questions before we begin?”
“Yea whats does HM3 stand for.” Emily said surprising herself at her own confidence in asking the question.
“Oh, it stands for Hospital Corpsman second class. I’m Navy. You would call someone like me in the Army a Sergeant.” Emily’s bubbly tech said.
“Opps.” Emily thought. “I just insulted a Specialist. Need to be nicer to people especially to people who I don’t know what their rank is.”
“Ok let's get this started.” The Bubbly tech said reading a pink file. “Your file says that you have normal human strength but above human endurance and healing. That is so cool. Okay Doc Evans wants you to mainly work on the physical aspect of your training today. He has you working on your core muscles for most of the day. That’s your back, stomach, and chest. Ok, right this way lets get you weighed in then we will start.”
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Emily spent the rest of the morning doing various exercises that worked on her core muscles. Like yesterday the machines started off easy then got progressively harder. The bubbly HM3 stood beside her the whole time with her pink folder encouraging Emily.
“This woman needs to learn how to count correctly.”Emily thought as she pulled a heavy cable down from a machine late in the morning.
“Only five more.” The bubbly HM3 said not counting a few cable pulls. “And that’s five.” She said as Emily finished. “Awesome okay its time for lunch. We will pick back up at one”
“Idiot that was fifteen. It’s isn’t like I didn’t graduate from kindergarten.” Emily thought to Hospital Corpsman giving the woman a fake smile.
Lunch in the hospital was a lot better than dinner. Emily found a table outside with a nice breeze. She really missed her phone which she have left at home before she left for the Army. All the people around her had their heads buried in their phones. She sat back in her chair and enjoyed the sun. It was the first time in a long time where Emily could just sit and relax. It didn’t last. She got bored and made her way back to the gym.
The gym was empty so Emily found a machine that worked out her legs. It was one of the few machines that she recognized in the gym. She figured out the computer setting it low and programmed it to add weight each time she completed a cycle. Sitting down she started in on the machine lifting her legs straight. Twenty minutes in she had to stop because her muscle in her leg started to twitch. She was rubbing her leg where the muscle was twitching when the same muscle on the other leg started to twitch.
“Dammit.” She cursed rubbing both legs. “What's the use of having super healing if you can’t get rid of stupid muscle twitches.”
“You ok?” Asked a man in purple scrubs. He had just walked into the gym carrying a fast food lunch bag that smelled gloriously like greasy fried something and fries.
“Yea just got some muscle twitches.” Emily said rubbing both her thighs.
“In both legs?” he asked sounding like he didn’t believe her.
“Be nice you don’t know what his rank is.” Emily thought to herself. “Yes, sir.” She responded with a smile. Apparently, her body didn’t like her smile because a muscle in her cheek started to twitch as well. She stopped rubbing her legs to rub her cheek.
“You head now too?” The man asked putting down his lunch and walking towards her. “Why don’t you sit down.”
“It’s ok its just some muscle twitches. I just need to drink more water. I’m just a little dehydrated.” Emily said trying to reassure both the guy and herself at the same time. As she rubbed her cheek her arm started twitching. She looked at her arm confused when her body just collapsed.
It felt like she got shot by a dart from a monitor’s gun. She was paralyzed but unlike getting shot by a dart there was no pain. Her body dropped to her knees first then her head hit the floor with a loud thunk. Her head hitting the floor hurt. Muscle after muscle in Emily’s body started to twitch until all the muscle in her body felt alive and completely out of control.
“I need help here.” Emily heard the guy yell. Soon after a pinging alarm sounded.
Emily felt all her muscles from her scalp to her toes wiggle all over the place under her skin. It didn’t hurt but it felt weirdly uncomfortable. She didn’t feel any pain but it was an odd sensation.
“Did something go wrong with my awakening? She wondered.
The guy with the fast food lunch turned her over onto her back “Are you ok.”
“She's having a seizure. Make sure she doesn’t hurt herself and don’t put anything into her mouth. We're going to need a Healer here. I’ll make the call.” A male voice said from behind her.
“You're going to be fine. Were getting a healer. Hey, I don’t think she breathing.” The fast food lunch guy said looking above Emily’s head to whoever was behind her. It was hard to see because her eyes were twitching.
“I’m not breathing?” Emily thought to herself. She didn’t feel the urge to breathe. She could feel her chest muscles going crazy so she thought the fast food guy was right. “Am I dying?”
“Here, put this on her.” The male voice said from behind her. The fast food guy put some kind of green plastic mask on her and she felt air rushing from inside it into her mouth. It made a weird burping noise.
“Back up. Everyone back up now.” A voice that Emily recognized said from somewhere by her feet. “Someone tell what happened.”
“I found her standing by the abductor machine. She said both her legs felt like they were twitching. Then she grabbed her head and fell. When I rolled her over she was having a seizure.” Fast food guy said.
The Major from Super School appeared in her field of vision. Strangely enough, she wasn't blurry. The Major leaned down and put her hands on Emily’s shoulders. “Whoa.” She said leaning back suddenly looking surprised then she leaned forward towards Emily again. “It’s going to be okay. Your power is a hell of a lot more progressive than the boys thought. This is going to take a while why don’t you take a nap.”
The Major smiled down at Emily and tapped her forehead. “Sleep.”