Chapter 86

Now I’m no genius, this I know, but I think I’m smart enough to know when someone is bull-shitting me.

During the last few days of physical therapy, they had been steadily building up the physical routine I was going through. I knew the drill because I had some experience coming out of medically induced comas. In my inactive state, I lose a great deal of muscle mass as my body cannibalises it. So, I found it odd that I came up with most of my muscle mass still present this time.

This is blatantly clear now as I was working through a set of weights that I should have been able to move by every known metric after six months in a coma—more than that, it was close to my previous standard training weight. I could already tell that I was going to be surpassing it and setting a new weight threshold for my training routine. How far I would go, I do not know. At this time, I could tell I was going up by at least 75 to 100 pounds.

My cardio fitness had also not degraded. This, too, was blatantly obvious with me on the treadmill and rowing machine. The physical therapist I was with was slowly increasing the machine’s settings every day to make them as difficult as possible. I think I have reached the limit of the rowing machines already. Now when it came to rowing machines, I always found them, even at their maximum, to be easy to use, but this was now just taking the piss. I was sitting on one working through a timed training session which was not difficult in any way—sure, I had built up a sweat from just repeating the motions repeatedly. The resistance machine that was given to me was non-existent in many ways. It was like I had turned down the machine from full to about a third of its maximum resistance.

My physical therapy sessions also attracted an audience of white-coated lab technicians and doctors who were studying their e-pads and taking samples of my blood and tissue almost every session. I’ve been hooked up with dozens of wireless monitoring devices that were transmitting the data to the pad as I worked out.

People wonder why I am so paranoid.

I am once again on the rowing machine watching the laptops across the room through the window as they gather data from the wireless monitoring devices. I have repeatedly asked and enquired about my physical condition but have been stonewalled at every turn. I have always liked rowing machines as the physical exercise on them allows me to think and thinking I have been doing.

I have steadfastly refused any notion of returning to full service. I have been focused on getting my physical condition back in the form as I have come over time to believe in the importance of keeping myself physically healthy due to my profession. This had the benefit of also being able to keep the powers that be off my back as it seems I am returning to operational physical requirements.

My revelations about what I have been experiencing in the zones had caused quite an adverse reaction from them than I had feared but strangely not unexpected. I was still getting pulled over the coals over my withholding of information and having extensive psychological tests done, but that had slowed noticeably over the last few days after I’d been to see Henry.

I knew that they were keeping something from me about my body from my time in the coma. So, after quite some thought, I decided today was the day I was going to push the issue. I knew the physical therapist I was working with would be no help here as she would know nothing. The other lab coats would retreat whenever I approached them, so I had to pick my target carefully.

Dr Helena was my best bet, but I had not seen her in many days. Dr Holland was around a lot, but I knew that he would be unhelpful, to say the least. Dr Misra would also obfuscate and deflect the conversation away from what I wanted to know. I could pin them in place and force the issue, but I was unsure if I could get what I needed to know out of them.

“Okay, we’re done for the day. You stop now.” My physical therapist said to me. “You’re doing well and should be back to full physical health soon.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” I wasn’t paying attention to her and was more focused on how I was going to get the information that I needed.

The room itself was designated as a physical therapy session area. It held many different types of equipment that we used the different injuries. It was only polite that you tidied up after you had finished using the equipment in it, which I respected. We made some additional small talk as we packed up the gear, which was part of the training routine.

By the time we had finished, the lab coats at the window had all vanished. Back to whatever labs they were based in to study the data they gathered on me. I found it odd that they were physically there watching me as I worked out collecting the data. The remote monitors would be able to do that without needing them to interact with me in any way. This only made me more curious about what they were hiding from me.

As I was returning to another part of the building where my room was located, I was still lamenting the fact that they had not released me. As fate would have it, the opportunity I was looking for presented itself in the lift I was in. It’s not that another floor and Dr Helena got in. She was reading something off her e-pad and had not realised I was in the lift.

Ambush time!

“Afternoon, Dr Helena.” She had allowed me to use her first name for a while but decided to return to a more professional relationship.

He looks up, startled by my voice. I moved over slightly to block their ability to press the floor buttons as the doors closed.

“Oh…. good afternoon, John.”

“Nice day we are having.”

“Yes, it is.” The lift was requesting a floor be selected. I had planned to get off on this one, but the opportunity was here and I was taking it.

“Just had a physical therapy session.”

“That’s good. I’ve heard that you’re doing extremely well in them.”

“Yes, I am. The fact is undoing far too well in them.” The list started moving again as someone on another floor called for it.

“Well, you need to talk to your physical therapist about that.” She was clearly dodging the question that I was not really asking but only hinting at. In the past years, she had been one of the few people I knew would not mess me around and give you the facts.

“Okay, what’s going on?” I am not noted for my patients or ability to dance around in small talk and get straight to the point.

She looked like she was about to answer, but the lift suddenly stopped, the doors opened, and several people entered the lift, pushing us back deeper into it. They pressed the button for another floor and soon moved again, but the doctor and I did not speak. The doors opened, the passengers left, and Helena did not attempt to go with them. I found my hand on her shoulder.

She instantly tensed up when I put my hand on her shoulder. I just put it there. I used no physical force or pressure, just the warning that I would if she was going to move anymore. Now over the last 15 years, there was this whole thing about personal space and respecting people’s bodies, blah blah blah. Right here, right now, I was in no mood for any of that and wanted answers. The doors closed again and we were alone.

“Answer.” I removed my hand from the shoulder and my tongue told her I was not in the mood for any more stonewalling.

“Okay, let’s talk about it in your room.”

“Fine.” She seemed to come to some form of decision.

She reached over and pressed the button to get to the floor my room was located on and we were soon off. We exited the lift and soon walked down the corridor to the room I was in. None of the medical staff batted an eyelid as it was well-known. She was my doctor. I motioned for her to enter the room first when we reached it and closed the door behind us.

“Okay, John, I found out that you withheld information from us. Well, to be honest, we held some from you. This is what has been happening to your body over the last few years….”

## ## ## ## ##

Dr Helena had left some five minutes ago. I think the honest I could really tell you as I was too shocked by what she had told me. Talk about dropping some serious truth bombs.

What am I?

Am I even human anymore?

As I sat on the bed, these and many other questions were rolling around my mind. During her no-nonsense and brutal breakdown of my “mutations”, I had sat on the bed as my legs had given way. I had done so during her explanation of my now clearly altered body. Sure, you can see anything from the outside, but it was way different on the inside now, she explained to me.

I was in a state of shock to the point where I had even begun to understand the emotional storm that was brewing within me. Logically I can understand everything she told me and over the last few years, something had made sense to me finally.

The faster healing, improved strength and endurance were starting to make sense. Also, the fact that I could keep up with many of these things I have been fighting and combat got it turns out my reaction times had been improving. They had discovered that the mutations were not just one-and-done but ongoing. Extreme trauma had accelerated their effects, but it had been discovered that they were still happening even when I was outside of such events.

They were sure that something within the zone or within me had caused these mutations to happen. Most had me to the conclusion that it was a combination of the two that had led to the alterations.

But she had not stopped there. She calmly and clinically explained that my mind had also been altered in some ways that they were not sure of yet. This freaked me out the most, and I think this state of shock was the means my mind sought to protect itself.

Was this another example of the alterations and changes that she had told me about? It was not lost on me the fact that I was actually thinking logically while mostly most likely in a state of shock. It was like the rest of my mind had been separated and was in a holding pattern while the logical part was processing all of the information that had been given to me.

I was starting to freak out at the fact that I was not freaking out!

What do I do now?

That and a myriad of other questions were flooding my mind.

I’ve needed a change, a shower, and a few other things that need to be taken care of today, but all that at the moment was meaningless. I needed to take the time to understand what changes had happened to me and what I needed to do now going forward.