Chapter 23 - The Finch Flies(1) - Disintegrating Mortality

“Heyoo? Anyone there?”

The soft breeze blew over my face. As my eyes fluttered open I could vaguely feel something squishing my face.

“Haha! Look at that.”

“Huh?”

Laughter erupted from around me as I sat up, “What?”

“How you doin Gaius?”

“Huh?”

A largely built tall man walked over to me and pulled me up to my feet, “You took a ball to the face. You good?”

A splitting headache suddenly hit me as a ringing noise became louder. I stumbled, “Ugh, do I look fine coach? Hah.”

The man laughed, “Probably a small concussion. We’ll let you sit it out for a few weeks. Tell me if you need anything.”

I suddenly remembered, “What about the homecoming game?”

The coach smiled, “Don’t worry about it. You need some time to rest either way.”

“Really?”

The coach started helping me walk off the field, “Sometimes life is just like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sometimes you get a shitty hand and sometimes you win the jackpot.”

“So, what’s this?”

The coach chuckled, “Seems like a pretty shitty hand to me.”

He continued speaking but I couldn’t hear him anymore through the ringing in my ears. The splitting headache along with the feeling of nausea welling up inside my head did not help.

Ugh. Why do hospitals always have to place a blinding light right above your eyes. Like come on. I know they really want to get that good look at you but care for my vision at least a little bit. Oh shit. I gotta sneeze.

Ahhhh CHOOO!

“Ah. The big man is awake.”

I pointed up to the light, “Bright.”

A voice that I presumed to be a nurse laughed, “Sorry! We didn’t expect you to wake up so soon.”

“Soon?”

“You got here almost a minute ago.”

I felt my head as a high-pitched ringing sound reverberated in my ear. I looked around, “Ah, hospital.”

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“Your mother is coming to pick you up. It’s just a minor concussion.”

“How long am I out?”

“Out of football?”

“Yeah.”

The nurse stuck her head out the door and a tall doctor walked into the room, “What was the question?”

“When can I get back to the game?”

“Is that the only thing on your mind?”

“Yeah?”

The doctor took a seat on the rolling chair that was in front of a monitor, “Don’t you have anything else to do? You’re in middle school.”

“I gotta win.”

“Is it about winning?”

I sat there for a minute. Did I really want to win? Why did I want to win. I smirked, “I guess it’s not about winning. I just want to be better than dad.”

The doctor laughed, “You have some high goals there. At the rate you’re going, it would be possible. Did your father return home?”

I tried to recollect the last time I had seen him, “I think he said that he’d return a month ago.”

“Really? Where’d he go to this time?”

“He went to the American base on the Moon.”

The doctor smiled, “Remember me when you go up there alright? Hang in there big guy.”

Suddenly a high-pitched noise shot through my ears almost like a scream. I looked over to the small window above the monitor and saw a floating blob of white light. Floating white mass. Something was burning in the back of my eyes.

*whoosh*

Something passed me. I looked over at where the doctor was standing. A human sized black outline was projected onto the suddenly bright white room. I stared at it confused and then looked down. I’m floating. What? Wait. Where am I?

I reached down into my pocket. Wood. I pulled it out of my pocket. It’s dad’s pistol. I looked behind me and saw my black shadow on the white wall behind me. Ack. Splitting headache.

GAHHHHHHHHH

Dr. Fritz sat at a monitor typing in some notes. He sighed and leaned back in his seat, “Memory alteration to initiate the connection worked. Now we gotta undo it in time. We don’t need a fourth inquisition.”

He chuckled to himself as he plugged a few wires into the control panel. He looked up at the screen, “Hm. Should be coming to by about now? Ah.”

Gaius looked around. He blinked? No, he had no eyes. It was as if he was floating in something. He heard a voice from behind him.

“Commencing initial status checks.”

Gaius shifted his gaze sideways, “What?”

“All checks passed. The test is a success. Injecting usage information.”

Gaius felt a sharp pain in where his head would be before he passed out again.

Onboard the Cruiser class Lightning-X ‘Shadow of Zeus’

“Warning. Pressure in five external chambers have been breached. Warning. Pressure in five external chambers have been breached. Sealing breaches. No Casualties.”

The commando in black fabric armor cursed, “They got two fucking battleships on us. Computer! Thermal scan!”

“On screens. Potential fires are marked.”

The man turned around, “Send out teams to contain it now! Vent atmo if you can’t clean it up.”

He turned to look up at the screen, “How the hell did Prophesy not pick up on this?”

“These battleships are not logged in recent scans. They entered from outside the system at a fraction the speed of light.”

The ship rocked as a second bombardment hit the cruiser. The commando looked over at the screen, “Destroy all data! We’re initiating Protocol Two. Uphold the mission.”

“Yes sir!”

Red floodlights switched on as energy was cut in every sector of the ship. The reactors in the reactor room started spinning out of control as the control rods were removed and ether was forcefully pumped into them.

A loud voice rang through the ship, “For the Emperor!”

A rumbling noise shook the cruiser as the vibrations from the reactors went critical.

Zero stood at the sink as he brushed his teeth. He’d been at this house for almost a week. He’d done nothing but he didn’t really care. There were plenty of toys to play with in the basement and the food was certainly much tastier than the ones the old man used to give him.

In fact, Zero had almost completely forgotten his teacher until the night before when he quickly stopped by to say hello. Apparently, he was supposed to give lessons on something.

Zero was content with his life. The woman said she was “mommy”, but Zero didn’t have any idea what that was supposed to mean. She did give him a small little fluffy yellow stuffed animal with two black dots for eyes and an orange triangle for a beak.

“What is it?”

The woman smiled sadly, “It’s a baby monster named Chippy”

“Chippy?”