Chapter 17

Friday, November 5, 1976

I remember bits and pieces. Like little flashes. They were not real, or I was insane. I wasn’t sure which. I died, I died and died and died. Each death was more horrible and painful than the last. Each made less sense. I was unable to recall how many times my death occurred. Suffice to say I was dead. I took it as a fact; I was dead, I wasn’t in Heaven, nor with The Guardians.

Where were they anyway? Weren’t they supposed to protect me? They gave me a mission. I can’t complete it if I’m dead. I’m in Hell. I have to be. There’s so much pain. I could not begin to describe the pain. I remember being asked to describe the level of pain I was in when I visited an ER back in my old life. I was told to give them a number between 1 and 10, with 10 being the most pain I have ever suffered. And a 1 meant there was no pain at all. I always thought this was a stupid question. I would not be in the ER if I were well. I would not be here if I didn’t require immediate medical attention. Who cares about pain levels? I need my thumb reattached. (No, not reattached. I just required stitches. It took eight stitches, if I remember correctly.) I could remember stuff, but it’s not like it’s being broadcast like before. It’s in my head. Am I dead?

I woke up sometime later; I knew not when or where. My first instinct was to move my arms. They were restrained and attached to the bed rail of the bed. There were all kinds of tubes and wires as well. There seemed to be multiple I.V.s hanging, and they were attached to both arms. I tried to move my legs. They, likewise, were restrained to the bed. I was spread eagle, and I looked around the room. It was dark, and there were no windows. I looked for a call button. There was no button to be found.

What kind of hospital room has no window and no call button? I finally was able to let my eyes adjust to the low light. I saw a door. It appeared to be made from steel; it had a small window, but there was darkness on the other side of the door.

I decided that since I could not physically leave my body, I would meditate and try to reach the Guardians. I remember they said I could visit if it were a dire emergency. I think this counts as an emergency. I could not get into position, but I lowered my head and quieted my brain. I stopped thinking about anything else and concentrated on the Guardians. I did this for as long as I could focus. Then I would rest and try it again. I finally got through after countless attempts.

“Hello, Michael. I am glad you have come to see me.” A voice stated.

“Hi. What’s happening to me? The last thing I remember is being in jail for a crime I did not commit. Now I seem to be bound to a bed. What’s going on?” I asked with a slightly shrill voice.

“You are in a prison hospital. You have had an extremely rough time of it. Your body is frail, and you’ve died nearly twenty times over the last three months.”

“Three months!” I exclaimed. “How could I have been in this place for three months? Football season is over and done. Did we win the Championship?” I asked before thinking about what a stupid question that was.

“Michael, there’s not much time, and I have a lot to explain to you. Please listen for now, and I’ll cover as much as I can. Okay? Good.

First, I am sorry, but even with your enhanced healing, and enhanced metabolism, your body has been severely weakened and damaged. You genuinely have died nearly twenty times. It’s only due to your lawyer and a concern about a malpractice lawsuit that your doctor has even tried to keep you alive. He hopes they give you the maximum sentence come your trial. It took your lawyer demanding outside medical experts to save your life.

I must apologize, Michael. It appears the Ghost was able to attack you. He was the one who attacked you in the holding cell. It was he who set up the fake, stolen car report, and he also planted the drugs in your car. It was all done to get you to a place where you wouldn’t be able to escape from him.

We haven’t been able to identify every compound, but everyone that we have identified, which is many, is a poison. Each of them is considered extraordinarily fast-acting and extremely lethal. You have been through the worst known poisoning ever known to your planet. In fact, your non-prison medical team wants to study how you have managed to survive such incredibly dangerous toxins.

“Of course, the prison doctors don’t care and wouldn’t have allowed the civilian doctors to treat you if not for Mr. Sawyer and his associate criminal defense attorney, Mr. Keller. I think you have a very dedicated friend in Mr. Sawyer, and I think you have what I believe is termed a bulldog in the form of Mr. Keller. The small silver lining in all of this is that we’ve been able to give you immunity to every poison that we have identified. So, this type of attack is less likely to work ever again.”

It was like having déjà vu. Once again, I was dead, and the Guardians rescued me. My body lay in a hospital bed. Finally, I asked the question that was tumbling through my mind. “Why? Why didn’t you guys step in and protect me?” I asked.

“Michael, we are not omnipotent, nor are we omniscient. We are not omnipresent. We have had our agents guarding you and protecting you, but they can’t reveal themselves to you or anyone else. When you were arrested, they notified us. We looked at the situation and made ‘a best’ guess determination that you’d be out before sunset. You would have been, if not for the Ghost. We could not know he would be in the cell.

“We wrongly believed you would be separated from the general population due to your age. We made errors in that respect. We are convinced that the Ghost may have bribed many of those handling your case. It’s a logical conclusion. You can be assured that he thinks you are dead now.”

“Won’t that opinion change now that I am, in fact, alive? Won’t he just try again, over, and over, until he succeeds in his quest? I am not sure I want to continue with this mission if I am always going to be looking over my shoulder for the bogeyman. Maybe you should get someone else because I have reached my limit.”

I no more than said these words, and I awoke in the hospital bed. I was still chained to the bed. I heard noises like shoes hitting a tile floor. I heard voices, muffled, and distorted, but definitely voices. The sounds were getting louder, so that meant they were getting closer.

The door opened, and, for a brief moment, the room was lit up. It was short-lived. The door closed; the darkness returned. I decided to take some measure of control, to the extent I could.

“Hello there. How are you? Where am I, do you have my breakfast?”

That seemed to create chaos. All at once, a voice talked into a portable radio, informing someone I was awake and alert. Someone took my vitals, and then the radio operator spoke.

“Inmate Johnson, I am amazed you are awake. I am not your doctor. I am just one of the guards assigned to escorting your nurse. I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you that you are in the Wayne County Prison Hospital.

That is the reason you have been confined with the chains and cuffs. I am unable to remove them, so please don’t ask. I have informed the duty station of your condition. I am sure your doctor and his team will be here soon. Meanwhile, I am unable to give you anything to eat without authorization from your doc. I’m sorry, I can’t give you any more information. Mostly because I don’t have any to provide you.”

He said this like it was something I should already know like I was somehow trying to get state secrets from him. I thanked him for the information, and I decided not to get upset. I waited for my doctor and his team.

It was a while before he and his team arrived at my door. There must have been a guard outside the door now, or I just didn’t notice it the first time I looked around. I heard the key turn in the lock, something I know I didn’t hear before. I was now being locked in a hospital room, while simultaneously being chained to the bed. I was unsure why this was. Yes, I am a prisoner, but I am in a prison hospital. Indeed, I didn’t pose any considerable risk to society. I am sixteen. I was charged with grand theft auto and possession of a controlled substance. Not really the kind of thing that should require chains and locked doors. Oh, I understand the locked door. It is a prison hospital. But still, this seems like overkill.

When the door opened, a large number of people came through it, many in blue uniforms with guns at their sides. I assumed they were guards because the doctors wore scrubs and conservative clothing. The room was filled to capacity almost immediately. The man in the middle of the assembled people began to speak.

“Calvin...”

“I prefer Michael. Please call me, Michael? It’s my middle name.” I said, interrupting him before he could go on too long.

“Okay, Michael, it is. If that’s okay with you, I would like to describe what we have discovered with your case briefly.”

“Please, by all means, be my guest. Might I ask one question? Have my legal guardians, or my attorney been notified that I am awake and alert? I won’t be making any statements, nor should any statements be made to me without their presence. I believe that the guards, police officers, and prison administrators know this, and are using you to get around proper legal procedures. Please withhold any sensitive information and present it when they are here with me. Meanwhile, can I eat? I’m starving.”

“I would like to observe you for a few days before introducing a solid foods diet. I can arrange for some other form of nutrition to be delivered to you. I hope that it will meet with your satisfaction.”

“Just put him on bread and water like the rest of the maximum-security prisoners. I don’t know why he gets it so cozy in here anyway. He deserves the chair. He killed three guards in his escape attempt. Why you allowed him to live is beyond me. Should’ve just let him bleed out. It would have been cheaper for the taxpayers,” replied one of the guards.

I was confused. I hadn’t made any attempt to escape, evade or elude anybody at any time. I was assaulted by a professional assassin in a prison cell where I should have been safe from attack. Some protocols were not followed. I am sure I could sue. But what good would it do?

I was also not a maximum-security prisoner, although it appeared I was now. I needed my attorney ASAP. What if the Ghost knew where I was? What if He knew I wasn’t dead? He’ll come for me, and nothing will prevent him from succeeding this time. I am not prepared to be killed in this prison hospital. Especially since I am a sitting duck of a target, unable to fend off even the smallest of attacks, I can’t defend myself like this, and It scares me. I am not ready to die.

The voice in my head said, “Good, and now you can move forward. Now, you will fight to live. Now, you will be ready to protect your life. Because now you value it. Now, you are prepared to do what it takes to succeed. We had to be sure you were going to fight. You said you were giving up. We couldn’t take the chance that you would just quit.

“So, please excuse this little departure from reality. We will send you back to your universe. One where you are merely in prison for a crime you haven’t committed. Not one where you’re imprisoned for five counts of capital murder. For killing a police officer during the commission of an armed robbery of a bank. Then a target of a multi-state manhunt for escaping a supermax security prison and killing three guards in the process. A reality where you were shot multiple times during capture, nearly dying in the process.

“Don’t worry. You are in no danger of going down that dark path. The man who did that was completely different from you. His life was a hellish existence, and he could not break away from the way he chose. We needed an extreme case to show you what was at stake. We really cannot do this without your cooperation. If you give up, it’s all been for nothing. Don’t worry. Your attorney has a brilliant strategy to free you from jail.”

I was at a loss. I had no problems carrying out the mission they’ve given me. I chose to accept that mission. I didn’t think that doing so permitted them to alter my reality on a whim. I am nearly sure I would continue with it even after this invasion of trust. I do know that now the mission is going to change. It’s not going to be their mission. It’s going to be mine, with my goals and dreams. I am still going to take on space and colonization of it. But I will be going to do it with and for humanity. I wouldn’t be doing it with some noble ideal of humanity taking his place among the others, so much as humanity demanding his rights as an equal among peers. I could see how this had been going. Man would achieve these things, but it was because of benevolence from the Guardians who we would be forever indebted to. Now I would have to

question every future encounter with these people. They wanted something else. I was sure of it. I would have to keep my thoughts and plans guarded and not disclose too much information to anyone. I would also need to deal with The Ghost. I had to end this threat for good. I wasn’t sure how that would come about. But I would work on it.

I came to consciousness in the prison hospital. I was restrained to the bed, but with Velcro cuffs and nylon straps. I had multiple I.V.s hook up into my arms. My legs were secured as well, but again, they were nylon and Velcro. The room was the same: there was no light or outside windows. The steel door had a small window in it, but it was dark on the other side. I tried to examine the room in as much detail as I could. I am in a standard hospital room for this day and age. Except there is a combination sink-toilet in the corner of the room. There is my bed and a small bedside table. I am unable to move too much, as my head could only turn so far. I’m unable to get a complete overview of the room because of that.