Eternal Awakening [LitRPG] [EtA Book 1]

Chapter 4 - A Visit to the Hospital

A fresh smell of cinnamon wafted through the open window, and birds chirped to their heart's content. Due to the tower's hierarchical structure, the rich could buy houses near the higher end of the tower, and the poor would be stuck on the lower end.

Sadly, Obi and his sister got the short end of the stick with their lawyer. He gave them a run of the mill, block apartment, with barely any furnishings. Obi was forced to build his way up from scratch, only depending on his gaming to support his sister and sometimes Dern, though Dern got a monthly stipend from the care organization.

With all the love he had for his sister, he knew he couldn't stay in that house forever, yet Maglen wouldn't allow them to move out due to holding all of Obi's assets with him. That was soon going to change, and the pressure would finally ease off Obi's shoulders.

***

It was a Saturday morning and a holiday for all schools in Tower 9. Sara had begun to complain about pain in her arm, so Obi needed to take her to the hospital to get the prosthetics checked.

They both got ready very early in the morning and had a breakfast of Cere-O's with chocolate milk.

At the table, Sara seemed very uncomfortable. She kept shifting her arm around while eating, and the spoon was noticeably shaking violently. The spoon clattered to the floor, dropping cereal all over it. When her arm began to twitch, Obi had seen enough.

"Oh, Sara! Don't worry, it'll be fine once we come back! Here, let me clean it up."

He grabbed a napkin and cleaned up the mess. Picking up the spoon, he tossed it into the sink and took out a new one.

Obi rolled back over to the table and pressed a few hidden switches to turn off the out-of-control hand. Since she couldn't eat with her other hand, Obi fed her.

He grabbed a spoon of the cereal and waved it in front of her.

"Here comes the hovercraft! Open your mouth, Sara! Vroooooom!"

Sara giggled after chewing.

"I'm thoo old for thath bwother!"

Obi smiled and brought up another spoon. As he fed Sara, he wondered about what Doc would say about the arm. She would definitely tell him to get a new one, but what could he do? He didn't have the credits nor the influence to get a new one. The one that Sara had right now had been repaired nearly 25 times already.

They both finished breakfast and were getting ready to head out. Obi wrote out a note for Dern to read when he came back from the stores. Obi called out for Sara, and he heard a muted reply from her room.

Seconds later, she bounded out of the room with a teddy bear tucked underneath her left arm and come up to Obi.

He just shook his head and smiled.

"Are you ready now? Let's go!"

They both made their way out of their block complex and took a stroll to the landing port. Along the way, Sara told Obi all about her school, and how she loved it there. He could admit that she was kind of hard to follow, but he listened attentively nonetheless.

They reached the port after nearly 10 minutes. Obi was still amazed at the immense size of the tower, and yet they said that this was one of the smaller towers.

They went into the port and waited for a hovercraft to come up. It was usually only 3 minutes between the crafts, so Obi remained patient.

Sara had found a friend to play with, a small kid who was clutching an action figure, and the two were roleplaying, Sara with her teddy bear and the boy with his figure.

The hovercraft landed and Sara rushed back over to Obi. They moved over to the craft and got in with 3 other people. One was a man who looked bedraggled. He had an arched back and only a cane to support him up. The other two were mother and child, the child being the boy who was playing with Sara. They continued playing while the mother and Obi both watched over them.

Obi reached over to press the button for the medical floor when he saw it was already pressed. The man must also be going to the medical floor.

The woman and the boy both got off at the stores and only Obi, Sara and the man were left in the elevator.

They got off and headed straight for the main block, where Obi had set an appointment with his doctor, Mary Thimbles, or Doc, as he called her.

The doors slid open to reveal a white, clinical wall with a receptionist's desk in front of it. They were told to wait a bit, and so Obi pulled up a newspaper while Sara talked to her teddy bear.

Obi finally saw Doc walking hurriedly towards Obi with her aides. She was a very good friend of Obi's parents, and for some reason, she was very fond of the two.

She led them to another medical block, this one being only half the size of the main block. She took them to a viewing room in the block. Taking a look at Sara's am, Doc smiled.

"Oh, it's nothing to worry dear, I just have to replace the readers in the arm. My assistant here will take you into that beautiful room there, and she'll fix it! If you behave, I'll even give you a candy. How does that sound, sweetheart?"

Sara only nodded her head and stared at the assistant. They both went to the room and Doc had a staredown with Obi.

"You said you would let me take a look at your legs the next time you would come up here. Now lift them up."

Doc inspected the frail, thin legs and looked back up at Obi.

"You're gonna have to get out of that wheelchair soon, or you'll never be able to get back out of it."

"But Doc, you know I've not got enough money and Sara is just—"

"No Obi, don't give me that crap. I know how much Sara means to you, but you can't just live like this forever. I'll see what I can do about the cost, but as a doctor in the United Front, there's not much I can legally do."

Obi just looked at her with blank eyes.

"Alright, I'll try my best, but I'd only give you an appraisal of around 3 months before you're permanently in that wheelchair."

Sara came back out of the room with a fixed arm. She moved it just to be sure and beamed a huge smile.

"Thank you, Doc!"

"It's no problem Sara, were you well-behaved?"

"Yea!"

"Alright baby, here's a chocolate. Remember, save it for later."

Doc knelt and pulled out a sticker roll.

"Doc's even gonna give you a sticker! Which one do you want?"

"Ooh! The heart!"

"The heart it is then!"

She stuck the heart sticker to the prosthetic and stood back up.

Obi turned back to Doc and asked, "How much, Doc?"

"I'll waive it this time, go have fun!"

They both went out of the block and towards the port. Sara kept chatting about how nice everyone was to her, and how it was fixed.

It took them around a half-hour to get back home, mostly due to Sara just being overexcited about her fixed arm.

Obi was exhausted after all that movement, but he wanted to check if he got any messages from F'n'F. He loaded up his gear and went into the Weld. Emma popped up into the space.

"Connection successfully acquired. Ready to proceed with—"

Everything blacked out and a message popped up in front of him.

Announcement: The Weld is shutting down for a small 45-minute maintenance break, please try logging in later.

Obi took the headset off and regrettably flopped himself onto his bed. He would have to log back in the next day.