Healer

3

     Sound, after an eternity of silence. He heard voices speaking somewhere nearby. Matt strained to make it out.

     "...coming around now."

     "I still can't believe we finally found the Lost Cache!"

     "We probably don't want to know the price we paid to find it."

     "No doubt. What condition is he in?"

     "We won't know until we get him out, and. For now, I'm just grateful he's alive."

     Light. Matt strained toward it, feeling himself rising after spending so long in the darkness. He moaned.

     "There he is. Ok, let's get him out of the coffin. We'll need that hyperalimentation started."

     "Here it is, doctor."

     "Good, hook him up. He's going to need the glucose. Ready? Lift on three, one, two, three."

     Sensation, hands lifting him, his body moving through space, rising from the hard surface where he'd been lying to rest on a soft mattress. He felt something jostle against his face as he was moved. The oxygen mask. Cool air was pumping through it. He breathed deeply, feeling more of the residual dizziness fade. He wanted to speak, but couldn't. His tongue seemed stuck to the roof of his mouth. The mask was jostled again, lifted up. Something wet pressed between his lips. He welcomed it, eagerly sucking on the moistened bit of sponge before it was removed and the mask replaced.

     "Damn, he's pretty, isn't he? What's his age?"

     "Subjective or chronological?"

     "Subjective, wise-ass."

     "He's twenty now, obtained at eighteen."

     "Wow, we were using them at that age?"

     "Ours is not to wonder why, doctor." A cool cloth was wiping at Matt's eyes, cleaning off the crust that glued his lashes together.

     "Well, if he's as powerful as the file suggests, then at least they knew enough to bury him with the other Artifacts. God only knows what might have happened if they'd all been taken. The bulk of these Artifacts have the potential to end most or all of human life. Gotta hand it to the Hunters back in the day. They really laid it all on the line, didn't they?"

     "It would have been nice if anyone had managed to get out the information about where they hid their Artifacts. I honestly thought the Lost Cache was a myth."

     "Eh, better late than never. The point is that these Artifacts were never taken, and the one we wanted most is alive. Score another one for the Foundation."

     Matt carefully opened his eyes, blinking in the bright light. He saw a group of people in medical gear, hard at work. The voice referred to as "doctor" had sounded oddly feminine, while the other had been far too deep to be a woman. Sure enough, a man was at his side, setting up an IV while a middle-aged woman was frowning at a clipboard. "Since when did we have a dame for a doctor?" Matt croaked out.

     "Boy, are you in for some surprises," the dame responded sharply. "Let me start you out early. The current date is February 19th, 2020. You've been in Containment for about eighty years, putting your chronological age at around 95. Congratulations, you're simultaneously the youngest and the oldest person in this room."

     "What?" Matt shook his head, trying to process this.

     Meanwhile, the dame doctor had gone right back to her clipboard. "I get that it's going to take you some time to get used to things, but right now, I've got a job to do." She looked at Matt, her stern look softening. "Welcome to the future, kid. Now, let's get you checked out and back on your feet again, shall we? If you're as powerful an Artifact as your file says you are plus trained for field surgery? Then we need to get you straight to work."