The Mandela Shift, Chapter 3

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Chapter 3
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"Bethany Carl," she whispers, motioning me to follow- quietly. She stealthily helps me towards the dumpster. Fortunately, we are not discovered. As we reach it, I see an almost invisible door on the side of one of the buildings slide open silently. She pulls me through quickly. As I glance backward, I see the opening fade. In its place is nothing but common brownstone, like everything else around the clinic. "We can talk freely now, Stacey," she says. "The walls are completely soundproof."

"The holo-projectors function beautifully, Chance," she calls out. "I don't think ANYONE will find our base now, especially those hoodlums outside. Unfortunately, we just lost Corey, though."

I could hear the wavering in her voice as her eyes filled with tears. "He was a good man, and a damn fine doctor," she whispered. "He didn't deserve to die so heinously."

"We'll have to retrieve the bodies soon," a voice boomed out, "before they're reported to the State. No one deserves what the Empire will do to them. At least WE can see them off in an HONORABLE way."

I knelt, the shock of what I witnessed was just too great. I had just lost a dear friend, just because he was doing his job- a job he loved. In such a short time frame, the world, as I knew it, had gone completely mad, bigotry had spread, consuming everyone. Not only that, but I was now a hunted fugitive, and EVERYONE was out for my blood.

"We MUST get you patched up and ready for transport to New Detroit soon, Stacey," the voice said, "If you are to survive the night. I'll do what I can here, but the rest will be up to the two of you- and the Underground. This base won't be here in 48 hours, and neither will we."

I don't know just how pleased I was at hearing that news. With my right ankle bent at a 90-degree angle, I knew I could not very well travel, especially the 2300+ miles the voice was indicating. I also didn't know if I could fully trust my rescuers. At least they haven't killed me- YET I thought.

I saw a fairly tall, dark-skinned man slowly approaching me from out of the shadows. He wore almost the same garb as Bethany, and had a stethoscope around his neck. He was smiling, but I was really too distraught to find that comforting at the moment.

"Dr. Chance Covington, at your service. Welcome to the Resistance, Stacey," he said.

I looked at my ankle. 2300 miles? I'll never be able to make it in my condition.

“Let’s have a look at that leg.” Dr. Covington’s face stern. He looks like a man that is used to triaging patients. Quick and cold. “Bethany, do we have a Grenal scalpel at the clinic? I’ll need a cortical fuser too if you got it. Her ankle is broken. I’ll need to set it and fuse it. A neuron disruptor if you got it. She’d pass out because of the pain if we don’t have one.”

“We don’t have a cortical fuser.” Bethany becomes more agitated.

“What about a micrograf? It would take an hour maybe two but at least she’ll be able to walk.”

Bethany shakes her head. “We’re only a class C clinic. We have nothing that can work on the bone.”

“Well, best I can do is a carbon-nano-tube-cast. It won’t fix anything. Just keeps everything immobile until we can get her to a real infirmary.”

"I'm right here," I reply. "And a CaNT? Really? As in can't do sh*t? I'd rather just leave it broken, if that's all you've got."

“We HAVE to do SOMETHING." Bethany replies. "We can't take you anywhere high profile, and we NEED to immobilize the break ASAP to prevent any further damage. The closest place with Class B equipment is 5o miles south.”

“Benson?” Dr. Covington clarifies.

“The Benson-Rhodes facility?” I add. “That’s 50 miles in the wrong direction. I’ve been there. If you think this place is hostile…”

Bethany and Dr. Covington share a look. “How would you know about the Benson-Rhodes facility?” Dr. Covington looks at me questioningly.

“Corey. Corey, must have told her. He must have shared it with her at some point.”

“Alright fine. Corey must have trusted her.”

“Back to our problem. It’s Benson or not nothing. If you can’t run. You’d be an even greater risk to us. We’d risk more exposure.” His olivine eyes bore into me. “Just think about it?” His expression softens. “Bethany, let’s have a look at what you do have. We’ll have to get Corey too.” He says sadly.

Dr. Covington and Bethany leave the room. I stare at my bum ankle. The pain is excruciating, and my ankle looks like someone tried to join two mismatched pieces of PVC together- badly. Bethany returns with a compression cast. Advanced first aid. It brings down the swelling and can immobilize the ankle so I don’t make it worse. “he’ll be able to at least see if the bone is displaced.” She places the neuron disrupter on my knee. This should help with the pain. Normally, we place it at the base of the spine or the back of your neck, but we need you to be ready to move at anytime. It takes an hour or so to wear off if we place it on your spine.” She slides the cast on my leg and it begins to compress it.

I thank her and she somberly makes her way out of the room. I look around the room. What’s going on? A resistance? They seem organized. That fast? But how? The news reports say the President just signed the act? How in the world could they have set this all up this quickly?

My thoughts turn to Corey. He didn’t deserve that fate. Was he part of this ‘resistance’? Why did he not say anything to me? Tears run down my cheeks as I recall his assassination, bringing me roughly back to reality.

"Mother! Does this damn thing hurt like hell!" I could feel the intensity of the pain as a raging fire consumes my leg. Morphine or Dilaudid would sure feel good right about now! Sh*t! It hurts! I scream in agony as I lift my ankle. “GODDAMNIT!”

The pair rush back into the room.

“What’s the matter?” Bethany rushes over towards me.

“Don’t you have some pain killers? Or ANYTHING?”

Bethany gives me a puzzled look. “Let me turn up the neuron disrupter.” She pulls out a tool and appears to be adjusting the small device resting atop my knee. “Do you feel any better?”

“That NOT DOING A DAMN THING!" I scream. "For chrissakes, just give me some damn morphine!" I hiss, tears streaming down my face.

She gives me a worried look. “I’ll check with Chance to see if we can give you anything.” Bethany hurries out of the room.

I can hear bits of the conversation between the two.

“I’ve got it at 8 already. The pain can’t be that bad.” Bethany implores Chance

“Maybe it’s defective. We don’t have much here we can use anyway. Let’s get the cast compressed on her, get her ankle immobilized, and get out of here. I don’t want to attract any more ‘e-ttention’ than I we have too.” They’re voices are growing louder as they approach the room.

E-ttention?

“I’ve got the compression cast on her already. It should have reduced the swelling by now.”

“Stacey, how are you feeling.”

“How the blazes do you THINK?” I snap, then quickly regret my harsh words. "Sorry," I say meekly. "It just hurts so damn much!"

“Let’s have a look, shall we?” He moves over towards my ankle. “Looks like the compression cast is working fine.” I take a look at my ankle. The swelling has subsided.

“I’ve got another neuron disrupter.” Bethany offers.

“Swap it out.” Chance orders Bethany. “This may hurt a bit when she turns it off. You’ll feel a burst of pain, but she’ll get it the other one back on as soon as she can.”

Bethany does something with her tool on the device on the neuron disrupter What the heck is a neuron disrupter anyway? Painkillers would be easier that fiddling with technology, that quite OBVIOUSLY, doesn't work at all.

Bethany looks at me with concern. “Alright, I’ll make this quick okay. On three… One, two, THREE!” She turns off the device. I and tries to swap out the other device in its place as fast as she can. I don’t feel a difference. She puts the other one on. “Whew! That was a lot of pressure. They teach us that in med school. But, I’ve never had to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Swap a neuron disrupter. God, you didn’t even twitch! That other one must be defective. How’s the leg?”

“Same… Whatever that ‘neuron disrupter’ is supposed to do… I’d rather have some good old fashion painkillers.”

Bethany looks over at Chance. He walks to my knee and the disrupter. Bethany hands him the tool. “Can you feel this?”

“Yes, two taps on my shin.”

“We’ll have to do this the hard way.”

“What?”

“Hold her down while I re-set the ankle.”

“Wait. What?”

“I’m sorry. but we do need to set the ankle for it to heal properly.”

“What about the…”

I feel a sharp pain as he grasps my foot and roll the bones into place. I pass out from the pain.

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Comments

Let me get out the secret decoder ring

To see this chapter's instruction set in order to prepare for the uprising. As If!...

It seems like Stacy is immune to neural disrupter emissions, or may be able to control them after training. That sounds like a good power to have and might be useful in the future of the story. Just speculating, I have no inside information, or I could be spreading fake news to throw the feds off the track. Bwa Ha Ha Ha.

Forgive me, it's late, I'm silly.

Sounds Quite Likely

joannebarbarella's picture

When President Pence takes control.

Perchance she could be on of

Perchance she could be on of those people that pain meds simply do not take on them? That does happen more frequently than most people realize.

The Revolution's On

Daphne Xu's picture

The Cultural Revolution, that is. That's where youth rebellion is co-opted into savagely enforcing the charismatic leader's dictates -- and perhaps goes beyond, due to the mindlessness of the mobs. It's definitely break-down of law and order, but a perverse, illogical version: we have the youth rebellion and the police forces on the same side, attacking the so-called criminals and supposedly enforcing the law -- but in reality with mob rule, ignoring the very violent lawlessness.

Invariably, factions will form and fight each other, for various reasons. Best case, it ends with hope for democratic renewal. Alternatively, it ends with destruction of democracy.

Hopefully, "New Detroit" will be a sanctuary for many fleeing the savagery. Is "New Detroit" a city, or a larger region, such as state or province? I suppose that by the time Retah was colonized, Detroit had either restored its old greatness, or had gone on to a new and different form of greatness and prosperity, and "New Detroit" on the planet was named in honor of Detroit. I can't imagine naming a city after Detroit in this day and age.

-- Daphne Xu

-- Try saying freefloating three times rapidly.