Prologue (3)

"Cody?!" A voice shouted, accompanying by rough shaking. A young man in a fluorescent yellow vest and white hard hat was trying to rouse the unconscious man.

Cody's eyes suddenly sprung wide open. He gasped deeply as he shot upright, his hands clutching his throat in a panic. He jerked himself up so violently that his hard hat went clattering across the floor as if it were thrown.

"Cody, what happened?! Are you alright?!" The words shot out as the man clutched at Cody, trying to help him to his feet. He had thought the worst when he found Cody's body minutes before, and his shaking voice was indicative of that.

Cody looked at the man, his eyes showing recognition. It was one of the jobsite superintendents, Jason.

Cody noticed that some of the lights were back on.

{How long was I lying there}? Cody could see daylight streaming in through a hole in the corner of the basement. A few hours had passed by at the least.

"No, I'm… I'm okay. I just came down here this morning and the lights were off and I must have tripped or hit my head on something, but I'm good." Cody tried to convince the superintendent that he was fine by jumping up and grabbing his hard hat a few feet away. "It must have hit me just right to knock me down, but my hard hat took the hit, I'm fine." Cody laughed shakily while rapping on his hard hat with his knuckles, but Jason looked wholly unconvinced.

"I think we need to have you get checked out, take you to urgent care or something..." Jason was adamant about getting Cody some kind of evaluation and after several minutes of attempting to argue, Cody caved to the superintendent's urging.

Twenty minutes later, Cody was sitting alone in an uncomfortable chair in an urgent care clinic.

Thankfully the waiting room was relatively empty this early in the morning; Jason, who insisted on escorting Cody to the clinic, had stepped out to take a phone call.

Cody rubbed his neck with his hand. {Was that all just a hallucination? Did I dream that up? Maybe I'm just dehydrated or something.}

He felt fine, in fact he felt great, and his throat wasn't hoarse or sore in any way. If Jason hadn't found him, he probably would have just shrugged it off and continued working after he woke up.

A nurse called his name and ushered him into an exam room while asking him questions about why he was here and what had happened. He answered them all honestly, telling her that he had an intense bout of coughing, he wasn't able to breathe, and then eventually passed out. She took his blood pressure and monitored his heart rate, entering notes on a small tablet computer she had with her. After telling him that the doctor would be in shortly, Cody was again left alone.

After several long, silent minutes passed, a knocking on the door proceeded a tall, middle aged man in a white lab coat, he glanced down at the tablet he was carrying before extending his hand, "Mr.… Smith, I am Dr. Johnson."

The doctor proceeded to ask Cody to go back over the details of his morning in as much detail as he could remember. As Cody described the events for the third time, Dr. Johnson's fingers tapped more notes onto his tablet.

Then the questions started.

"Have you had anything to eat this morning? Anything to drink?"

"A few cold slices of pizza, and an energy drink," Cody felt a bit guilty admitting his dietary habits.

If the doctor had an opinion, he kept it to himself, and continued on, "Are you taking any medication, or have you consumed any drugs or alcohol prior to the event?"

"No, never. And I never drink, I've never enjoyed it."

Dr. Johnson seemed satisfied with the response, "What about the work environment? Are there any chemicals or hazardous materials present?"

Cody shook his head, "Uh-uh, I mean, I work for a company that is doing seismic upgrades to an old building, but all the demolition was done weeks ago, so it's all just new material going in now."

Dr. Johnson finished tapping on the screen, but didn't respond until he skimmed back through his notes once more, "I am not exactly sure what caused this, to be frank. You seem in perfect health. Your blood pressure and heart rate are good, and there's no swelling or rash to indicate an allergic reaction.

"I think the best next step would be to run some blood work and see if there is some underlying condition that may give us an idea what happened and keep it from happening again. I am going to have the nurse come back in and draw some blood, and you'll be good to go! It'll be a few days before we call you back with any results, but I'm going to advise that you take the rest of the day off, give it the weekend, even. If you haven't had any issues in the next few days, you are probably fine to return to work."

With that last sentiment, Dr. Johnson stood, shook Cody's hand, and left the room.

Cody checked his phone and saw that Jason had sent him a text, letting him know that he was waiting in the parking lot. Cody replied with a quick thumbs up emoji as the nurse reentered the room. She laid a tray down on the counter top beside them, and began tearing open the small, sterile-sealed tools that had been arranged on it.

She worked efficiently, quickly tying a rubber band around his bicep and using an alcohol wipe to swab the inside of his elbow. When she went to insert the syringe, she wasn't able to puncture his skin. As she gradually applied more pressure to try to force the needle into his arm, the needle suddenly bent over at a severe angle.

"Woah!" The nurse exclaimed. She examined the syringe with a puzzled expression and tested the tip of the needle on a small red rubber ball that was laying on a tray beside them. The needle easily pierced the ball.

She seemed to pause for a second, "I'll be right back, just... wait here." She quickly got up and rushed out of the room, knocking the tray slightly askew in her hurry.

As soon as she left the room, Cody grabbed the bent syringe from the table and felt the tip with his finger. It didn't pierce the skin. He pushed harder and harder, but it just bent farther.

"What is happening to me?" Cody spoke aloud.

Cody started prodding at himself with the bent syringe. Gently at first, on his forearm, and then on his thigh. The needle could easily put a hole in his clothing, but as soon as it touched his skin: full stop.

Somewhat wanting to test the limits of his new invulnerability, he steeled himself, and brought the needle down on his thigh with a lot of force. The needle bent and broke off. With all those attempts, the most he was able to do was give himself some superficial scratches. None of them were deep enough to bleed.

The realization of what this might mean hit Cody like a freight train. {If they find out that I am invincible, I'm going to become some kind of government lab rat. I need to get out of here!}

Every type of conspiracy theory, superhero backstory, and X-files plot flash through his head as he made the decision to run.

Cody grabbed the sweatshirt that he had tossed on a chair by the door, and, after peeking quickly into the hallway to make sure the coast was clear, he left the exam room and headed to the lobby.

He tried to remain calm as he half walked/half jogged towards the exit, the nice thing about small clinics was there wasn't too many people to avoid. He tried to nonchalantly smile at the receptionist as he crossed the lobby towards the glass exit doors. She called after him, but he didn't hear what was said because was already outside.

He jogged to Jason's truck and hopped in.

"You look like you're doing better!" Jason seemed ecstatic. His job would be so much easier if Cody turned out to be fine.

Jason shifted the truck into drive as soon as Cody reached for his seat belt. Barely keeping it together, Cody was trying to mask his repeated glancing towards the clinic door.

{Can't this guy go faster!}

In an attempt to keep the small talk going, Cody tried to make his voice sound as calm and positive has he could, "Yeah, the doctor said I could go back to work, no problem."

"Awesome! That's great news! Well, let's head back to the job site and we can get some paperwork filled out. Get this whole thing put behind us." Jason felt like he was the clear winner today. He got a great story that he could tell at job site orientations and safety meetings for years to come, and now that Cody was uninjured, it wouldn't even be a lost time incident!

As they turned out of the parking lot, Cody could see the nurse burst through the clinic door, her head swiveling back and forth as she looked for any sign of her fugitive patient.

From the relative safety of the truck, Cody's mind raced. {What is happening to me? Where can I go? Who can I even ask about this?} But for all his questions, he couldn't come up with a single answer.

It was only a short drive back to the job site from the clinic, but as they neared the building, he felt like he was being pulled back to the building. As he tried to reconcile his feelings, he realized it wasn't just in his head, he actually felt a sort of magnetism gently tugging his body back towards the building.

Jason parked his pickup on the street right beside the job, {perks of being a superintendent}, Cody guessed, and they both climbed out of the truck.

Standing on the curb, Cody felt he could point directly at the source of the magnetic sensation.

Something was waiting for him down in that basement.