Whole Again

John woke up the next morning feeling groggy and sore. Doctor Newman sat at the foot of his bed, reviewing paperwork. The overhead lights were far brighter than John remembered, and they thrummed with an audible buzz.

"How do you feel?" Newman smiled at John.

"By using the nerves in my skin. Shouldn't you be telling me? You're the doctor." John's words slurred together and his voice was nasal.

The doctor smiled, "For what it's worth, I'm glad your terrible sense of humor has survived the surgery. How's the new leg feeling."

John lifted the sheets covering his legs and stared at them, "I can't remember even losing them."

Sarah chuckled, "You only lost the right one."

John's eyes went wide, "What happened to the 'wrong' one? Is it still there?"

"Those sedatives must be stronger than I thought." Sarah scribbled a note in her pad.

"No worries doc, my brain is fine. I just thought it was the perfect opportunity to mess with you. My brain is fine, I just can't enunciate properly."

John did indeed sound like a drunk man, meshing his words together and slurring even more.

"Okay, if your mind still works can you answer some simple math questions for me?" Sarah asked.

John rubbed his hands together, "I can certainly try."

"Three plus three?"

"Six."

"Three times three?"

"Nine."

"Three hundred and twelve minus fifty?"

"Two hundred sixty-two."

"Fifty-four thousand six hundred and seventy-seven divided by six hundred and eight?"

"Forty-two!" John shouted, throwing up his hands triumphantly.

"A coding joke, hilarious." Sarah remarked.

"Can I see my test results?"

The doctor flipped her notepad to show John, even though he couldn't make out her handwriting, "I'm marking you as prepared for physical therapy. You will also be seeing a psychiatrist before and during your debriefing tomorrow."

"But I don't want to see a shrink!" John exclaimed.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter." Doctor Newman started releasing the restraints the kept John in his bed, "Do you need anything?"

"Chewing gum!" John answered immediately.

"What flavor?" The doctor sighed.

"I don't care, anything but watermelon."

"How about blueberry?" Sarah teased.

"An ancient movie reference, nice." John approved. Even though he hadn't seen any movies, his squad mates talked about them a lot.

Sarah turned to go out the door but John stopped her before she left, "Oh doctor, before I forget, the answer is eighty-nine point nine two nine two."

Sarah slowly turned back to look at him, "How did you figure that out?"

John shrugged, "I can do math while I run my mouth, it helped me a lot in sniper class." He mimicked holding a gun up to his shoulder and firing.

Sarah smiled one last time and headed to her office. Their tests were going better than they expected in a first trial, but perhaps it was still too soon to see how it would all play out in the end.

John slid off the bed and tested his new leg. Every step sent a tingling sensation through his lower body, like it had fallen asleep.

"Talk about quick recovery time." John mumbled.

The entrance door was left slightly ajar, enticing John to sneak through and take a look around. He slinked over silently and peaked outside.

A guard stood leaning against the left wall lazily. John figured he could distract him and sneak out, where to he wasn't sure yet but anywhere was better than sitting around.

John looked around his room for something to toss and the broken lamp caught his eye. He selected a suitable fragment and went to the door. One shard was gripped loosely in his fingers and he slid the door open a little farther. John reered back and launched the piece like a throwing knife. It shattered on the floor about thirty feet down the corridor.

The guard snapped to attention and looked around to see what the noise was. Once his head was turned, John slipped out and tiptoed behind him and around a bend.

John wandered aimlessly, hiding behind corners and boxes every time he heard footsteps. The thrill of being somewhere he shouldn't kept his heart racing and made him feel alive.

In one room John came across a lab coat and he threw it on as a disguise. He decided to test it out by walking passed a couple of guards watching a checkpoint.

Every area was set apart by checkpoints, if he wanted out of the quarantine section he would need to go through two, but that required an ID. Rather than cause a ruckus or steal someone's badge, he decided to blend in with another group. After milling about for a minute he saw his opportunity.

Three doctors were approaching the checkpoint carrying sanitation equipment. John stumbled out and bumped into one of the doctors, causing him to drop his bag.

"I'm so sorry doctor, let me help you." John bet over to help pick up the spilled contents.

"Don't worry about it. Happens all the time, just keep your head up in the future." The doctor responded reaching out to take his bag.

"Oh no sir, let me carry it for you. It's the least I can do." John tried to keep his head low and avoid eye contact while adjusting the bag to not look suspicious.

One of the other doctors waiting at the checkpoint called back to them, "Is everything okay Mitchell?"

"Everything is fine, we were just about to catch up." The doctor put a hand in John's shoulder and ushered him to the checkpoint.

John's heart began to pound wildly, each step closer to the guards building up anticipation.

"What's your name?" The doctor escorting John asked.

"I'm Stephens, sir." John lied.

"Relax Stephens, I'm not military, you don't have to call me sir."

"But I'm just a lab assistant." John did his best to sound innocent and recover from his habitual use of the word.

An alarm buzzed over the checkpoint communicator and one of the guards opened a channel, "What's the situation."

"John Doe has escaped quarantine. I'm afraid he'll try to sneak passed your checkpoint so be on your guard."

The man looked up at John, smiled, and gave a hearty laugh, "I thought you looked familiar. Alright John, the gig is up, turn yourself in."

John handed doctor Mitchell back his bag and put his hands in the air, "You got me."

The guard waved John's hands down, "No need for that, I'll just escort you back to your room, I understand quarantine can get boring." He leaned down to whisper in John's ear, "I may have tried to sneak out once or twice myself." He clapped John on the back and led him back to his suite.

Doctor Sarah Newman was waiting patiently by the door for their arrival, "Fun's over, I need to talk to you for a moment."

Her voice showed no hint of emotion, so John couldn't guess if she was upset or not. He calmly walked inside and sat down in a recliner, "What's up doc?"

Newman waited for the guard to leave and the door to seal shut, "We need to talk about Charrack."

John grinned mischievously, "You want me to put in a good word for you? That can be arranged, but it'll cost you a pack of chewing gum."

Sarah tossed him a pack of mint chewing gum silently and waited for his reaction.

"This will do nicely." John said, tossing a piece into his mouth.

"Did you know that their going to torture him for information?"

John stopped chewing and leaned back, "So you don't need me to put in a good word for you? I'm getting mixed signals here, what is this conversation really about?"

Doctor Newman looked around the room, as if fearing they were being watched and whispered, "I'm getting you two out of here."...