Emergency Alert

A sharp pain seared through Theo's body, as if something inside him was twisting, changing. His mind barely clung to consciousness.

"Theo, are you awake?"

He heard his sister's voice, frail and desperate. "Please, big brother, wake up!"

Theo slowly opened his eyes and groaned, "You're too loud."

"I'm sorry!" Aries sobbed. "I'm just glad you're finally awake! I'll call the doctor right now!" She rushed out of the room that instant.

Theo winced but managed to sit up. "That girl... she could have just pushed the button here," he murmured with a faint smile, glancing around as he scanned the room.

He gulped. 'A private hospital room?'

They couldn't afford this kind of care, so why was he here?

Born into poverty, he had a drunkard for a father and a mother who worked herself to the bone to give him and his sister a chance at a better life. She fought tirelessly, juggling multiple jobs just to keep them in school. 

In the end, the stress and exhaustion caught up with her. She was diagnosed with leukaemia, a disease that drained whatever little money they had and kept her in and out of the hospital.

Theo worked hard, studying while taking on jobs to keep his family afloat. Fortunately, he was gifted and a genius, though, to his classmates, he was just a pushover nerd. He earned scholarships despite the relentless bullying, managing to graduate from college against all odds.

He felt revitalized for someone who had just been beaten to death and hit by a meteorite. "I thought I really died," he murmured, frowning as he checked his body. "How long was I unconscious to heal this fast?" 

The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was the strange sensation, the pain, the voice.

"Pioneer? Mutation Abyss? Apocalypse?" he murmured.

His body stiffened as that voice, disturbingly familiar, echoed again in his head.

[Mutation Abyss initialized...]

Theo's heart raced. His eyes shot wide open, scanning the empty room in panic. 

[Welcome to the Mutation Abyss.]

"What the hell?! Who's there?!" 

"Show yourself?!"

Theo's hands trembled as he stared at the flashing screens that had suddenly appeared in front of him. "Shit, what's going on?" he muttered under his breath, blinking rapidly.

For a moment, the transparent monitors remained. He rubbed his eyes, trying to dismiss them, but they didn't go away.

His breathing quickened.

He focused, willing them to disappear like a thought-controlled command and they did. Theo froze, his face draining of color. What the hell was happening to him?

Just then, the door swung open, and Aries entered with the doctor and two nurses.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Luther?" 

The doctor's voice snapped him back to reality. Right, there was something more important he should worry about now, like how he was going to cover the hospital bills. What if the money he had left wasn't even enough to pay for this?

"Better," Theo replied quickly, his words rushing out. "I can be discharged now, doctor. No pain, nothing at all. Please, just let me go home."

He gulped, already dreading the thought of who he might have to ask for financial help. He glanced at his sister, hoping she hadn't noticed his anxiety.

But his sister, Aries, seemed to sense his unease. As the doctors began their check-up, she reassured him softly, "Brother, you don't have to worry. The government will cover the hospital bills for those hit by the meteorites."

"Yes, that's right," the doctor chimed in, offering him some relief. "You're one of the lucky ones who survived. It's a miracle. Many didn't make it. Some were dead on arrival, and others suffered serious burns, organ damage, and failure. But you..." He paused, eyeing Theo from head to toe. "Do you remember what happened to you last night?"

Theo tensed as he recalled where it all started. He had attended Beatrice's celebration party. For years, she had been the only person to show him kindness. Childhood friends, their bond had been shaped by the fact that his mother worked as a maid in Beatrice's family mansion.

People often mocked him, calling him a pathetic loser who did everything for Beatrice, her assignments, her projects, even her thesis. But he didn't care. Watching her smile was all the reward he needed.

Then, at the party, Beatrice hugged him, thanking him for the flowers and everything he'd done for her. That was when Rey and his friends, those bullies, grabbed him, dragging him away and starting to beat him up.

Somehow, he managed to escape from them. He even managed to buy a beer before heading straight to the rooftop of the hospital where his mother was confined.

He glanced at his sister and thought, 'It would be embarrassing for Aries to hear how badly I got beaten up.'

So instead, he simply told the doctor about the meteorite and how it had hit him after he accidentally fell from the parapet wall.

The doctor then grabbed his records from the nurse and continued, "When you first arrived, you had multiple bruises and some fractured bones. But somehow everything has healed. There's no sign of serious internal damage."

Theo blinked in disbelief. He had never believed in miracles, but what had just happened to him, his injuries vanishing just like that seemed like one.

'Could it be the meteorite? Or that damn Mutation Abyss in my head?' he wondered.

At that instant, that transparent screen flickered again to life before his eyes.

Startled, he pointed at them. "Do you see those?" he asked, his voice rising. "Those screens in front of me!"

Aries took a step closer, concern flashing across her face. "What are you talking about? There's nothing!"

She turned to the doctor. "Are you sure my brother is okay? What about his head CT scan?"

"Everything is normal," the doctor reassured her. "His vitals, neurological functions, even his CT scan, there's no sign of trauma or abnormalities."

Still, the doctor exchanged a look with the nurse and added, "I'll call for a psychologist. It could be a stress-induced hallucination from the traumatic experience."

Then he turned to the nurse and instructed, "Update this in the report and notify the president's office at the White House."

Theo frowned. "The president? Why would my condition need to be reported to the president?"

The doctor gave him a measured look before explaining, "All meteor survivors are being monitored. The government wants updates on their recovery progress. It's now standard procedure in every hospital where survivors were admitted."

Theo's mind raced. The… Suddenly, the thought of being locked up and experimented on struck him like a bolt of lightning.

He quickly forced a laugh and waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, I must have imagined it. I just woke up, and I'm not even wearing my eyeglasses. My vision's terrible without them."

Aries immediately jumped in to back him up. "Right! My brother's eyesight is awful without his eyeglasses. He probably just saw shadows or lights wrong."

The doctor hesitated but then nodded. "I'll have an ophthalmologist check his vision so we can get a new prescription for him."

Theo exhaled slowly, masking his relief. 'I need to be careful. If they find out something's different about me... I might not get out of here at all.'

Just as the doctor was about to continue to speak, a blaring alarm echoed through the hospital, followed by a chilling announcement:

"Emergency Alert! All personnel to high alert! Code Black in the lower levels! I repeat, Code Black in the morgue! Immediate lockdown procedures initiated!"