Chapter Seventeen: Fusion

The sun was shining brightly that morning before Chris went in to work at the small corner diner. Now clouds had gathered menacingly overhead and seemed to reflect exactly how he felt. Brief flashes shot through the sky, followed by a threatening rumble several seconds later. Although thunder and lightning talked back and forth in the darkening sky, not a drop of rain fell. Noticing this, Chris briefly looked up curiously and then continued on.

No sooner had he stepped forward than his entire surroundings turned blindingly white. A deafening roar accompanied the light, but he didn't hear anything - he was already stretched out across the sidewalk with burns speckled across his body. On the unconscious body, rain began to fall.

* * * * *

It was only hours later that Chris woke up. There was no question about where he was - the smell, the hum of the machines, the drip of the I.V. were all too familiar to him. This time there was no one in the room to greet him. A nurse walked past the door, but didn't stop. The burns were noticeably painful, but the worst thing was the shooting pain that came from his arm - it was too familiar. Chris was just getting past the sensations that he continued to feel on occasion. The doctor explained that this often happened to people who had lost limbs, but it never felt right and he hated it. The sharp pain that he was feeling now just reminded him that he was a "cripple", as he was just reminded back at the diner.

Something was different, though. As he lay in the bed waiting for the nurse, doctor or whoever, he gripped the sheets tightly. It helped to alleviate the pain. Something different. He suddenly realized that he was gripping the sheets with both hands, including the hand that he didn't have. He swung his prosthetic arm in front of his face just as the doctor walked in, a man in a suit in tow.

"I suppose you'll want an explanation," the doctor said matter-of-factly. "Honestly, I don't know what to tell you. I was hoping you'd still be asleep. I'm Dr. Spencer and this is Dr. John Fansler. He's the director for the hospital – I was hoping he could help me out.” Dr. Fansler reached out politely to shake hands with Chris, who also reached out. They shook hands, the doctor with his hand and Chris with his prosthetic. They looked at each other with equal astonishment.

“Sorry, Dr. Spencer, but I'm not sure what to say.” He was very aware that the hand he shook was not flesh, which is why it troubled him so deeply. It gripped like a real hand, but felt cold and hard. “How do you feel, Chris?”

“To be honest, I'm a little tired of being asked that question,” Chris answered quite frankly. “When I first got hurt I was asked that same question a lot. It wasn't that long ago.”

“Fair enough. It seems that you were struck by lightning over on 6th Street. The odds are something like 1 in 700,000, so it looks like you just got lucky,“ Dr. Fansler said in sort of a wry attempt to joke. “but I have no idea what the odds are that a prosthetic arm would fuse to your body.”

“Well, unless you have some other ideas, I suggest we continue with our initial plan,” Dr. Spencer said to the other other doctor, mostly ignoring that Chris was right between them and aware of every word that was spoken. He then turned to Chris and began speaking to him as if he had just materialized suddenly. “Chris, there's a team of doctors at the University of Nevada, Reno that specialize in unusual accidents. I've already talked to them about this and they're very anxious to meet you. We've already made all the arrangements – we just need your permission to transport you. You've still got some burns that need treatment, but they can take care of that while you're there.”

“You're kidding, right?” Chris knew that something was going on – it's hard to ignore the fact that your fake arm suddenly started working as if it were your real arm. “I mean, is this a joke?”

“The only funny thing is that they said that they've heard from several people about weird things that have been happening. They couldn't say much due to some patient rights issues, but they said it's pretty big.”

“So what is this place, some kind of secret underground lab? I'm not going to be someone's science project.”

“It's not like that. These guys are respected doctors and they work out of a regular hospital. You can see your family and friends while you're there, just like any other hospital.”

Chris sat for a minute and thought about it. As much as he hated the time he had spent in the hospital, he wanted to know what caused his arm to come to life. It was impossible, and yet it seemed real.

“I'll go.”