Chapter 10: CHAPTER 10: AWOKEN
David appeared in his architect office sitting at his desk.
"Oh, snap," David said as he sat up straight from leaning back in his chair. He was shocked that he was no longer in the never ending party.
"Why would I switch dreams all of a sudden?," David thought while staring at his turned off computer monitor.
"I have never had a nightmare about work before today," David thought while trying to figure out the dream situation.
Although this was a familiar place, David still had that lingering feeling that he was in a dream. He got up to investigate his office and to see if he could lookout over the workplace.
Looking out of his office window, the scene didn't appear to be out of the ordinary except no one else was around; however, a bright light was shining out the conference room door.
"Empty workplace at night, all alone. This similar to how zombie nightmares start," David said to himself preparing for a battle.
Picking up a letter opener from his desk as he walked, David exited his office to see what was going on down in the conference room.
Reaching the glass door of the conference room, he could see a woman sitting by herself at the conference table. She appeared to be crying. It didn't take David but a second to realize who this woman was. Karine.
David opened the conference room door and walked inside.
"Karine, are you alright?," David asked out of concern. He was kind of expecting her to turn around with a monster face.
Startled by David's question, Karine turned around in the chair. David was wrong with his guess. She looked perfect with puffy red eyes from crying. She was also wearing the dress from the party looking as pretty as ever. However, her entire side was covered in blood. Seeing the normal looking Karine with blood all over her, David lost some of the normal composure he had within dreams.
"Karine, are you bleeding?", David asked dropping the letter opener and jumping to her side to check her safety.
"Yes, I'm fine David," came a sniffling response. "But you are not. Atkins ripped your arm off and you were bleeding all over the place. I tried to stop the blood but you must have lost too much. The healers don't know if you will ever wake up."
"It's okay, Karine. I'll wake up. See I'm fine now. You don't need worry," David comforted as he squatted down to give her a hug.
Karine accepted the hug with out any resistance. This was the first time they had hugged each other and they both lingered in the embrace a bit.
"David, I'm so sorry that you got hurt because of me," Karine apologized while pulling away enough to look at David clearly.
"It's okay beautiful. Both you and me. We'll both be okay," David repeated a comfort while reaching for Karine's face to show some affection.
Karine grabbed ahold of David's hand to affectionately cuddle his touch. David was excited. This moment seemed to be working towards a kiss.
"Hell ya," David thought.
All of a sudden, David felt a tearing sensation at his shoulder as his arm was detached from his body falling into Karine's lap. Blood was squiring everywhere out of the frayed mess of an arm that David had remaining. The blood splattered all over Karine's face as she looked puzzled. Then she screamed.
"How the hell did I end up as the nightmare zombie?, was all that David had time to think before the world got fuzzy again and he popped out of the dream.
Sitting up in bed drenched in sweat, David heard a scream coming from next to him. Looking over, he realized that Karine was in a chair next to the bed with a book in her grasp. She looked like she had been startled awake. Two guards burst into the room to see David sitting up and Karine screaming.
Before he had a chance to figure out what was happening, David was hit by the most massive headache he had ever experienced. Falling back into his bed holding his head, David let out a horrendous yell that startled everyone in the room.
Karine had completely stopped with her scream and the two guards were paused in the doorway.
Two women dressed like nurses came busting into the room pushing the guards aside.
"Watch out, looks like he is having a seizure," one of them shouted.
Karine was now huddled by the door with the two guards while the two healers worked.
The healers were trying to restrain David so that he wouldn't hurt himself while tossing and turning in the bed.
"Quick, one of you guards, help hold him down," the lead healer ordered to the guards standing at the door, "this should be over in a minute or two."
Sure enough. David started to come out of the seizure about two minutes later. The healers had immediately asked Karine and the others to leave the room once he settled down a bit.
"Thank god for considerate nurses telling everyone to leave," David thought as he sat there with puke all over the front of him and a puddle of shit beneath him. He would have pissed himself too if he hadn't had a catheter jammed into his junk. From the weight pulling on the tube he assumed that his piss bag was completely full too. The pain in his head had been so intense when he woke up that he had a seizure and lost control of his body functions. He had made a complete mess of himself and that is not really the preferred condition you want a woman seeing you....especially the woman that you were just trying to kiss in a dream.
Before he could ask any questions, the two nurses told him to relax and proceeded to help remove the catheter, some special socks he was wearing, some monitor cables and a few IVs that were in his arm and hand.
"I was surely hooked up to a lot of stuff", David thought as the nurse removed the last needle from his arm.
He had told the nurses many thanks for taking care of him through the whole process. In response to his thanks, they had directly told him that he could go clean himself up in the bathroom off to the side. He understood...he smelled like shit.
The two nurses had also told him that they would set some clothes out for him to wear when he got out. The nurses had given him a full list of warnings too such as he needed to be careful moving around because he had been bed bound for over four months.
"Please push the call button when you are done getting ready and we will bring you somewhere to talk," the lead nurse said before leaving the room.
To David's surprise, he didn't feel extremely weak like expected. He felt slightly unbalanced and a little weak, but nothing too dramatic. He had always thought that people who laid up for too long would be extremely frail.
"Must be good doctors around here," David thought as he hobbled toward the bathroom.
Getting to the bathroom David proceeded to disrobe and throw his filthy hospital gown in the trash bin.
Standing naked in front of the bathroom mirror, David couldn't help but sigh at his appearance.
He had lost a good bit of weight. His muscles clearly showed and he looked like he had lost around 40 pounds. At about 6 feet in height, David had always been slightly on the heavy side. Dropping that much weight had made him look slim and trim.
To his surprise he didn't have a big beard from not shaving for months. "The nurses must of took care of me," David thought before letting his eyes roam over himself a bit more in inspection.
Other than the weight loss, the other unmistakable change was the massive scar that surrounded his arm right below his right shoulder.
"Guess that really happened," David said as he started moving his arm around to see what sort of movement he had left. After a few minutes of twisting and turning his arm, David realized that most of the function was still in his arm. His strength was completely trashed though. His right arm had probably about a tenth of the strength of his left and moved just a tad bit slower.
"At least I still have an arm," David thought as he got into the hot shower.
The shower took a bit longer than expected and when David was just stepping out to get a towel, the door opened.
"Just checking to see if you are o—," the nurse cut off as she spotted David nakedly reaching for a towel.
Startled, David paused mid stride and stood there like a deer in headlights. Coming to his senses, David reached for the shower curtain to cover himself.
Laughing and turning around at the same time, the unaffected nurse said, "Don't worry sweetie. Nothing I haven't seen before. I been giving you sponge baths for months." She sat down a pile of closes on a stool by the door before walking away. The door closed and David was back left by himself.
"Well," David said to himself, "these nurses seem a bit different. I could clearly see her checking out my junk when she came in."
David dried off and walked over to the stool full of clothes. The outfit was a plain grey t-shirt, a pair of black sweat pants and some nice slippers. David guessed that these must be standard comfort wear for people that are injured. Putting the clothes on, David psyched himself up for what he knew was coming next. Time to hear what I have missed out on for the time I was out. David hit the buzzer to call the nurses.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone