Blogbuster - A comedy-laced blogger sci-fi thriller

11 - Hospital hell

Bam woke up and opened his eyes. 

Blackness made way for a room filled with white walls and metal beds. An antiseptic scent penetrated Bam’s nostrils. Tasted like medicine and alcohol mixed with sugar. Somehow yummy and yucky at the same time. He could get used to it. But he didn’t want to. 

Because, hospital hate.

Bam looked at his surrounding and discovered dozens of machines attached to his arms. They looked similar to those sci-fi thrillers where the government experimented with human test objects. Except this wasn’t a secret underground lab, this was the Social State Hospital. He’d been here before, too many times. Snippets of memories flashed back. 

Stunt — check.

Drone — check.

Crash on the ground and blood dripping from his abs ? Triple-check. And now ? Bam moved up his bed, stretched his back. He didn’t feel like a million credits, but he was alive. They patched him up. Ok. 

Knock, knock on the door, the doctor stepped in.

“Good afternoon.” 

Afternoon ? Bam turned towards the covered windows. They sealed off the sun, no light could come in or get out. What time was it ?

“How do you feel ?” doc said.

Bam inspected him. Chocolate cream skin and thick black hair, looked Indian, carried the voice of a fatherly storyteller. Made Bam want to lull back into lala land.

“Still breathing,” he said.

The doc pushed the silver glasses atop his hawk nose. 

“Indeed you are.”

He jotted something down on his datapad display and checked some stats. Wiped menus and zoomed into graphs.

“According to the paramedics, you crashed into a drone, is that correct ?”

Bam nodded. Unfortunately. The doc raised an eyebrow.

“In midair ?”

“It’s a long story, doc. The short version is I’m a popular vlogger, I do stunts for a living.”

“What’s a vlogger ?”

“A video blogger. You know, the ones who shoot share-worthy videos and attract massive online audiences ?”

The doc nodded, looked as if he heard about it for the first time. Bam sighed. Even in these times, people seemed clueless about web-created careers. But whatever, the doc wasn’t supposed to be a web geek, he was supposed help Bam get back on his feet, asap.

“So, what’s the verdict ?”

The doc looked up from his datapad.

“The bad thing is the splitters shred through your liver and damaged it beyond repair. The good thing is we bio-printed you a new one.”

“Bio-printed ?”

“We extracted cells from your body and replicated the human tissue. It’s as good as new. Actually, better.”

He smiled.

“So if you battered your liver with heavy amounts of alcohol in the past, you could start from scratch. Not that I’m encouraging you to.”

Doc told him about broken metal pieces in the stomach. Intricate details about which drone splitter pierced which part of his body. Bam covered his ears and said, blah blah. For someone used to crashing, he got a weak stomach for bloody specifics. 

“Drop the details, doc. Now what  ?”

“Well, I’d advise you to stay in the hospital for at least one more week. But then you should feel fine to go back home.”

“That’s it ?”

The doc smiled.

“What do you mean ?”

“You just told me how devastating my injuries were. Told me every gory detail and now I’m good to go ?”

“One word, son, bio-printing and nanomedicine.” 

Here was that word again. Bam should circle it and pray for it, twenty-four seven. Nano, the new love of his life. Nano, the savor from science. Doc went on.

“But I advice you to change the content of your videos. I know kids nowadays crave people doing dangerous and inherently stupid actions that can have deadly outcomes, but we’re talking about your health here.”

Pause.

“There’s only so much nanomedicine can do. You shouldn’t push your luck, and more importantly, you shouldn’t push your health. You only have this life for now.”

Bam nodded, let the statement enter his left ear and leave through the right. The doc was filled with good intentions, but he didn’t know how the web world worked. Didn’t know how far you had to venture to attract attention nowadays. Especially if your financial future depended on it. 

Toughy dee tough.

Bam leaned back into the hard pillow of his hospital bed. Looked up at the ceiling. Daydreamed about being back on the street for the fans. Bam lost himself in the daydream and forgot about the doc still standing in the room.

“Ah, one last thing.”

The doc turned around in the doorframe.

“How would you like to pay ?”

The dreaded question. It had to come up, sooner or later. But Bam saved up some credits. He moved back into the sitting position and watched the doc with his eyebrows raised.

“According to your online profile, you’re not insured. So, do you prefer to pay in cash, Bitcoins or CreditDirect ?”

“I go with CreditDirect. Just send me the invoice and the beneficiary’s address.”

The doc nodded, took out a physical letter and pushed it into Bam’s hand.

“I have printed it out just in case you preferred cash.”

Bam opened it up and slid the letter out the envelope. People still used those ? How quaint. He folded the letter open and scanned the text. Lots of courtesy blah blah and the number on the bottom. If Bam wasn’t hooked to the machines, he’d fall down. The bill hurt almost as much as the drone crash.

249,000 credits.