I woke up in a hospital bed, hooked up to all kinds of beeping machines which were doing who knew what to me. The haze of sedatives caused my mind to work like it was in a fog, and I had to fight to stay awake. Slowly, the sleepiness faded, and my mind started to clear. It was probably my toxin resistance kicking in again, helping to flush the drugs from my body. I suppose that could be a good or a bad thing depending on what medications my condition needed.
A quick check revealed that all my limbs were present and accounted for. My ribs were wrapped up like a mummy and it hurt to breathe. My right arm also had a cast though there was no pain there. All I could see of my room was a curtain that had been pulled around my bed. Normal background hospital noise was there, which comforted me a bit. It meant I probably wasn’t in some secret government facility being experimented on.
Near my hand was the bed control, with a big red “Call Nurse” button on it. I pressed the button a couple of times and laid back to wait. My entire body was now feeling sore, and whatever they had stuck up my nose was irritating and made me want to sneeze. I could hear someone approaching, and the curtain was pulled back, revealing a middle-aged woman in scrubs.
“Mr. Kline, welcome back to the land of the living,” she said. A nametag told me her name was Valerie. She began to check on all the machines I was hooked up to, writing down the readings and measurements on a tablet.
“Thanks, I’m a bit confused, where exactly am I?” I asked.
“You’re in a special ward of the UCI Medical Center. Just give me a moment to get your vitals and I’ll send for someone come in and debrief you,” Valerie said.
“Am I okay?” I asked, a bit concerned about my injuries and what was going to happen to me now.
“I can tell you that you’re going to be fine, and probably can be discharged today if we can get someone in here to sign for you. As far as your injuries are concerned, you have several cracked ribs, and a fractured right wrist. We thought you might have had some internal injuries, but everything checked out fine. There is one problem that might be best to show you rather than tell you,” Valerie explained before excusing herself to head back to the nurse’s station.
She returned to my room carrying a hand mirror that she gave to me. I looked into the mirror and almost didn’t recognize my face. It took me a moment to realize what was off. I’d always had short, brown hair, and now I was completely bald, not only that, my eyebrows and eyelashes were also gone.
“What’s going on with the hair?” I asked in a panic.
“I’m told that you were exposed to an acidic solution that burned away all your surface hair. When you came in, your skin was beet red as well, but it’s recovered just fine. The doctor says everything should grow back, and none of the follicles were permanently damaged, and it’ll just take some time for you to return to normal,” she assured me.
“Thanks for the explanation. I might look like a weirdo, but at least it’ll only be temporary,” I said as much to myself as to the nurse.
“Now that you have the rundown on your condition, do you need anything? Are you in any pain?” Valerie asked.
“I’m not too bad, just the sore ribs and some overall aches, like I’ve gone ten rounds with a pro boxer,” I said.
“You were banged up pretty badly, let me get you some Ibuprofen, I don’t think you’ll need anything stronger,” Valerie said before leaving.
She came back a few minutes later with an over-the-counter Advil that I’m sure the hospital charged $50 for, and to my delight, a cold can of Coke. It was just one of those little kids sized cans, but the sweet and bubbly soda cut through the bad taste in my mouth and felt heavenly as the cold beverage soothed my sore throat. Valerie mentioned that I’d been intubated when I arrived, and my throat might feel sore for another day or so.
Valeri had also apparently called someone to come fetch me but didn’t tell me who. I had been brought in without any of my personal possessions which meant I didn’t have my phone to call Marie with. It was a bit embarrassing, but I had no idea what anyone at Refuge’s phone numbers were. Everything was programmed into the phone, and all I ever did was look up their names in my contacts.
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About an hour after I’d woken up, none other than Maire and Julio walked into the room, with Agent Lopez in tow. Lopez closed the door after asking the nurse to see to it that we weren’t disturbed. He also mentioned that I’d be discharged now, and to get any of my personal effects and care instructions ready. I thought only doctors could discharge you from a hospital, but I guess government secret agents in a special wing of the hospital had more than a little bit of pull.
“Glad to have you back with us, Rico. How are you feeling?” Lopez asked.
“Not too bad, a little sore, and it’ll probably take a while for my ribs and wrist to heal. The main thing is that I’m not exactly sure what happened. The last thing I remember is being swallowed by that anaconda, then someone cutting me free,” I replied.
“That was Eliza,” Marie replied. “She was able to cut you out before you suffocated. As you can see, since we’re both still alive, the dungeon core was defeated. By killing off the last of the tiki monsters, we destroyed the stone idol which was the dungeon boss. Once that happened, we were all booted from the dungeon and dropped back at the entrance. You were out cold, and covered in anaconda digestive juices, so we got you to the hospital as quickly as we could.”
“Is everyone else okay?” I asked.
“Yes, everyone made it out fine, due in no small part to your efforts. Between the mech, and your friend Fitzfazzle, things went as smoothly as we could have hoped for,” Marie said.
“What about the other dungeons?” I asked.
“Let me answer that,” Lopez started. “The final total was 33 dungeons, and all have been dealt with. We have assets watching for any additional signs of the energy signature that the dungeons give off, but it appears clear for now. The immediate threat is over, but we must work on ways to better deal with such situations in the future.”
“What exactly does that mean for us in Refuge?” I asked.
“Things will proceed as normal, though you will be safe from any interference from other groups. The government will provide support for anything weird like the cultists you and the Grimslade Group dealt with. In return, your people agree to help us in situations like we just had. Marie can give you the details later. For now, you’re free to go, and I wish you a quick recovery,” Lopez said.
“We’ll talk more when we get home,” Marie added. I got the hint she wanted our next discussion to be in private. The government might be playing nice now, but I got the feeling that she wasn’t completely trusting them either. Julio excused himself to go pull the car round for us.
“Thank you for your help, Rico. You saved many lives today and the government will see that you’re rewarded appropriately,” Lopez said, shaking my hand before making his exit.
“I’ve brought some of your things, so get dressed and we’ll get out of here,” Marie said, handing me a grocery bag full of some of my clothes. Valerie returned and unhooked me from all the monitors. I think the sticky pads for the EKG wires hurt more being peeled away than the pair of IV lines.
Once I was free from all the machines and dressed, I found Marie outside the room. This wing of the hospital didn’t look any different from the rest of the place, but there was a large, locked door with a keypad to get in and out of it. A pair of armed guards scrutinized everyone’s ID that passed through.
We left without any trouble and made our way through the non-secret section of the hospital to the front door. Julio had his old Buick pulled up and ready for us. Marie waited to say anything until we were back on the road.
“So, I should probably let you know the deal the government gave us. It’s one they are apparently offering to all summoned beings and the organizations they belong to. It’s pretty much as Agent Lopez said, we agree to help them, and they keep a hands-off policy on us. We’ve given them access to most of our database, and in return, we have access to theirs. I suggest you poke around in their database when you get a chance.
“Now for the bad news. The government team were working with is a small one that coordinates for the various intel agencies. Other than this one small group, and their support team, very few people in the government know about us. We must do everything we can to keep our existence a secret from the general public, or there will be consequences,” Marie warned.
“Let me guess, they’re afraid of widespread panic if people find out our world is eventually going to change into some kind of game system,” I said.
“Bingo, they’re afraid of society breaking down if this comes out, and I don’t blame them. Agent Lopez claims they’re working on a plan to slowly acclimate the public to what is going to happen, but I have my doubts on how effective they’ll be. For now, we’ll look after our own, and offer to help where we can,” Marie said.
“What about the dungeons, has anyone figured that out? Our world’s mana shouldn’t have been able to support that,” I asked.
“We’re not sure how or why it happened, and the system has been silent on the subject. There were some rather disturbing dungeon encounters as well,” Marie said.
“Worse than a giant stone idol turning people’s bodies into tiki monsters?” I asked, giving Marie a skeptical look.
“Yes, it was possibly worse than that. We found a similar thread in 4 of the 33 dungeons. Each of those four had intelligent dungeon mobs that all swore allegiance to someone called Bhalkur,” Marie said.
“Wait, that’s who the cultists were worshipping,” I said, my mind jolted with the memories of my desperate escape from their warehouse, and the loss of Celeste.
“Exactly, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them, or the trouble they’re going to cause us,” Marie warned.