The Salvatore Saga. Volume one

17.

I woke up in a strange place. I remembered the ship and the men. I didn't see any men, so I hoped they had escaped. I was weak and cold. I was so damn tired, but somehow I just hung on. I opened my eyes and realized I was in a large room. It reminded me of the X-ray rooms in a hospital, and I guess that's what I remembered as I was tied to some kind of metal table, almost naked. It was like a giant X-ray machine.

I tried to wrench my arms free, to get them out of the tight restraints, the ropes, but no, they were too efficiently tied around my wrists and my arms so that I didn't have so much room to move to get my hands free.

Dr. Morrisey came into the room. Fucking chubby. Somehow, just seeing this guy made my rage flare up.

"Ah, you're awake. And apparently, you're not in a good mood, but you can't get out of it; just keep your rage out; you'll need it. Good, then you'll get to experience your radiotherapy."

Then he left. The machine started up, and I didn't feel anything at first, but after probably several minutes, I felt a burning, tingling sensation all over my body. The machine stopped for a moment. Then it started up again. And it was on for quite a long time, so the burning tingling started to be painful all over. It felt like my skin was covered in burns. The machine must have beamed at me about twenty times.

It moved through my whole body, starting with my toes and ending up in my head, and then I got a terrible and very nasty headache. Then, finally, as the stretcher came to the table and I was lifted onto it, I was already in pain and tired. I was carried down a long white corridor to another room where my veins were cannulated, and IV tubes were attached to both my arms.

These were, again, nurses who had no feelings other than mere obedience, and they treated me like a piece of meat.

My hands were tied to the bed now with metal restraints. The drip stands had some kind of counters, so the drip rate was adjusted. The nurses adjusted the drips, and the drips were of different colors. I suspected it was chemotherapy, and for some reason, my immune defenses were being destroyed as best they could.

There were four bags in each of the racks. So I had eight bags dripping at the same time. I was completely restrained, and whatever poisons they were dropping on me, I couldn't do anything about it. One of the bags was a sedative because my head was pretty fucked up, and I had no sense of time at all. But I couldn't see the men and knew they had escaped.

I don't know how long this went on. If I wasn't attached to the table at the time of the drip, I was always almost in the radiation. My strength diminished, I was sampled, and time and time again, the protective gear over the nurses increased, telling me that my immune system was weakening, and eventually, I was sealed in a plastic bubble. So, I was obviously without immune defense. The chemotherapy caused nausea and muscle and nerve pain, which was exacerbated by the radiotherapy. I had a vague, disgusting feeling of powerlessness; I hated this feeling. I hated the drips, I hated the injections, and I let my rage come out, and that helped me hate even a little bit more all the medical procedures that were done to me.

I lay in bed, powerless, unable to move, and occasionally vomited helplessly into a container on the floor. I was dizzy, light-headed, aching all over, and in pain. The bed felt hard, I was skinny as hell, and no posture was good, but I was too powerless to do anything about it.

Oh, how I hated that feeling of powerlessness and helplessness, and I swore to myself that when I get better, I won't be so fucking powerless and helpless all the time; I will be stronger and more resilient, and even if I try to escape from here, by myself. Time didn't matter.

I was drugged and weak in aches and pains. I smelled things, and my vision went from blurry to almost normal. After an eternity, two men in spacesuits entered the bubble. It wasn't anything new. They'd been wearing spacesuits for a while now when they'd been taking samples from me in the bubble.