Run Lab Rat Run by Shawn C. Butler

Author:Shawn C. Butler [Butler, Shawn C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-08T22:00:00+00:00

Black Flags and Cheesecake

When they wheeled Berrick away, I told him not to freak out when they cut off his leg. He showed his appreciation for my joke in the usual way, but it wasn’t a joke. Bone and soft tissue repair was a slow process, even when accelerated with all the best modern technology. Damage to hands, arms, legs and feet was usually handled by cutting off the offending limb and replacing it with one grown in a lab from easily assembled tissues. It was a painless process that only took a few hours if you had the raw materials, but it could be disconcerting when they pulled away the MediTube and your limb was gone.

They wheeled Berrick past Coach, who stood in the doorway with multiple stacked trays from the diner. Stu was super happy to see him. I pretended not to be.

“Good to see your manners match your body odor,” he said, smirking as he unloaded trays onto the bedside table and the bed. There were a lot of trays.

“Which matches my nickname,” I noted bitterly, but my eyes were on the food.

“Serendipity.”

“Why’re you here?”

Dr. Rai appeared next to him and told me to stick my arms out. There were two arm-sized MediTubes on the rolling table behind her, dutifully pushed by a synthetic nurse. The nurse’s mark was a series of Pac Men chasing themselves around his neck in an endless, hungry circle.

“Wait, I have to eat first.” I tried to reach for a massive burrito on the table. I couldn’t even hold up the plate. Coach watched me fumble. The burrito slid out of my useless fingers again and again. I literally couldn’t feed myself. Media, the perfectly helpless child.

“Hold your arms up.” Dr. Rai held one of the MediTubes open, waiting for my forearm. I complied as best I could. She carefully adjusted my fingers before snapping the tube shut with chilling finality. A moment later, the other tube was on. Stu grumbled. I smiled helplessly.

Dr. Rai connected flexible hoses coming up from under each side of the bed to each tube, turned something on, and suddenly my arms and hands tingled. I waited for pain, because usually there was pain, but this time there was nothing. Just a low hum as the tubes went to work. It’s far easier to grow a new muscle than fix an existing one, but there wasn’t enough time for that. So they were in repair mode, which was designed for substantial equivalence rather than full functionality. Hopefully, it would get me through the next day.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” Dr. Rai said. “PA me if you need anything.”

She left. Coach pulled up a chair. Stu made more noises.

“You’re going to feed me?” I asked.

“You have a better idea?”

I did not.

“Open wide,” Coach said, jamming the end of the burrito in my mouth without waiting. Looking at this from the outside, you might think he was being indelicate but, honestly, I’d have shoved the whole thing in if it fit.

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