The Shocking Truth Book 1
Copyright© 2025 by somethin fishy
Chapter 4
19 September
Stacy was headed to get Alex ready for testing. The staff was confused because the hospital’s internet had been acting strangely for the past few hours, but nobody knew why. The hospital IT couldn’t make heads or tails of it either. All they knew was that there was a sudden spike in data demand that was so large it overwhelmed everything. The spike seemed to have come from inside the hospital, but even if all the machines had been linked together, it wouldn’t have created a demand spike that large.
When Stacy entered Alex’s room, he smiled warmly at her. Something about his smile made her feel better, and Stacy couldn’t help but smile back. ‘Depending on how puberty does with him, I pity any female at his school. They’ll be dropping their panties as soon as they see that smile.’ She thought. The thought startled her when she realized she had also thought that if they had met in school, she would have done the same thing.
“Come on, Alex. Time to see what might have caused your memory loss.”
“Well, if my sister and mother are to be believed, there’s nothing up there so...”
Stacy tried to avoid laughing; she really did, but between Alex’s statement and his goofy smile, she couldn’t. The resulting laughter helped Stacy relax and forget the drama in her personal life. She smiled warmly at Alex, and he returned it with interest. Stacy caught herself just before bending down to kiss him. ‘GIRL! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!’ she screamed at herself. Alex wasn’t only a patient but was also a male and way underage.
“Boy, there should be a restraining order against you ordering you to stay a minimum of fifty feet away from any female past puberty. They won’t have a chance against you in a few years.” Alex snorted.
“I doubt any girl would date someone they can look down on.” Stacy’s smile didn’t diminish.
“Give it a year or two, and you’ll fill out. Trust me. By the time you hit sixteen, I bet you will have to hide to keep out of the girls’ hands. In the meantime, we need to prepare you for your testing. The CT scan is first, followed by the MRI.”
Alex watched as Stacy got him ready to move. She had given him some water, so he sipped it while she continued to work. Alex was excited to travel, as he was tired of always seeing the inside of the same room. It didn’t take long to discover the downside of traveling. Any jiggle sent shockwaves through the parts of his back that weren’t numb, reminding him of the damage done.
Despite the pain, Alex refused to say anything. That was because he had been conditioned to not show pain or happiness. Showing pain or crying was heavily ridiculed by Alex’s father and sister, while his mother refused to take any time to check on him. If Alex showed happiness, his family worked relentlessly to crush it.
By the time they reached their first destination, Alex had beads of sweat running down his forehead. Stacy had never noticed as she was again distracted by everything she had to do. Alex’s condition was first noticed by the tech, who gasped when she saw him.
“Oh my! What happened?” the tech named Samantha cried out. That was when Stacy noticed.
“Alex! Why didn’t you say anything? I could have gotten you some painkillers.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.” Stacy checked his heart and found it racing. A quick check of his blood pressure found it highly elevated. Stacy called the doctor and asked him about painkillers. Instead of approving them over the phone, the doctor came to see Alex.
“I understand you are in some pain,” said Doctor No when he entered the room.
“Like I told Stacy, I’m fine, doc.” Doctor No had no problem seeing that Alex was lying through his teeth.
“Alex,” the doctor began, sighing. “We can’t treat you if you don’t tell us when you are hurting.”
“Why? Nobody ever cares when I hurt?” Doctor No, Stacy, and Samantha looked at Alex with open mouths.
“Well, we care, so please tell us when you hurt,” stated Stacy before she had time to think. Alex only gave her a calculating look, calling her out. “We do,” she insisted.
Just then, Samantha accidentally hit one of Alex’s feet, and he screamed in pain before passing out. She was stunned by the reaction, but Dr. No moved swiftly to check him. With Alex passing out, the doctor had no idea how much pain he had been in, but went ahead and gave him a dose of painkillers. It was one of the times Dr. No wished Alex had been an adult because that would have expanded the types of painkillers available. Since Dr. No or Stacy didn’t see Samantha bump Alex’s foot, they didn’t put the pieces together that Alex was healing.
Once the painkillers had been administered, aides helped slide Alex off his bed and onto the table for the CT scan. This woke Alex up with a groan. Seeing he was awake, Samantha bent over next to his head.
“I’m really sorry about that.” Alex groaned again as he patted her nearby hand. Samantha was stunned that she had been forgiven so easily; she knew that if the roles had been reversed, she wouldn’t have been so forgiving.
As everyone retreated to the control room, Dr. No wished they were back in the old days so he wouldn’t have to wait a few days for the results. He remembered some of his instructors saying they used to get test results back in hours or minutes. Now, they were lucky to get results back in days. However, Dr. No stayed in the control room; a little voice in his head told him these wouldn’t be standard tests. The doctor had no idea how correct that voice would be.
As the techs retreated, so did Alex, only he retreated into his head. He was still trying to learn everything he could regarding his new abilities. As the radiation began hitting his body, Alex noticed something strange. He could absorb some of the energy and use it in his body.
As the energy flowed in, Alex used it to further boost his mental capacity after his attempts to heal his injuries had failed. He reasoned that he might not be absorbing enough energy, even though the radiation was sufficient to increase his mental capacity by a third. Alex didn’t realize what effect that would have during the next test.
The CT scan went smoothly from the techs’ perspective, and they unloaded Alex normally before handing him back to Stacy and Dr. No for transport to the MRI machine. Alex was happy that the painkillers were beginning to take effect, as they made the trip only very painful rather than excruciating.
Again, Alex was slid onto a table, and he wondered when he would start feeling like a side of meat, constantly going from one table to the next. The techs, Dr. No, and Stacy withdrew to the control room to observe. Stacy was catching up on her girlfriend’s latest attempts to embarrass her, so she wasn’t paying attention to the testing. Dr. No was paying attention and would soon be very glad for that.
As the magnets began spinning, Alex again found he could absorb some of the energy. However, this time, the amount of energy he could absorb was significantly higher. Alex loved the feeling of power and quickly used it to heal his broken legs and spine. Once he knew how to do it, healing the bone wasn’t tricky. Healing the nerves was far more difficult, as each broken end had to be matched to its corresponding nerve.
Alex felt he had been working for hours, even though it had only been thirty seconds in real time. Instinct told him that if he didn’t get this done now, he would never be able to accomplish it. Sending an impulse of energy down each nerve, Alex had to watch carefully to see which nerve twitched. Once he had matching ends, they had to be rejoined and tested before going on to the next one. The work was slow going, but Alex was making headway. As his nerves rejoined, the feeling returned to Alex’s legs, and he twisted his feet to loosen his ankles. When Alex moved his ankles, he felt them pop, and at that moment, that was the most beautiful thing Alex had ever experienced.
Dr. No was just taking a drink of horrible hospital coffee, trying to stay awake after 34 hours into a 48-hour shift, when he swore his eyes were playing tricks on him. They had to be because he swore he saw Alex’s feet move like someone would if they were working kinks out of their joints. Dr. No looked at his coffee and wondered if someone had played a practical joke and slipped him something that would make him hallucinate.
“Did anyone else see the patient’s feet move?” the doctor asked the room. Stacy looked up from her phone to see what was happening, while the techs did the same. However, Alex’s feet didn’t move again. After not seeing anything again, Tech 1 turned to the doctor.
“How long has it been since you have slept?”
“What’s that?” Dr. No responded; however, nobody laughed. It was well known that the hospital was dangerously short of doctors, leaving the doctors they had dreadfully overworked. It wasn’t unusual for doctors to work 48 hours straight, with perhaps only an hour of sleep.
The doctor wondered if this was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life when the alarms began blaring as the MRI scanner began to dangerously speed up. In his haze, Dr. No could only freeze and stare at the alarm. The technicians were startled by the alarm but began rushing to determine what had happened. Stacy could only stare out the window at Alex and wonder if the machine would be turned off before it killed him.
Finally, Tech 1 screamed:
“HIT THE E-STOP!” Tech 2 hit the E-stop button to her right, but nothing happened. She pulled the button out and hit it again.
“IT’S NOT RESPONDING! THE E-STOP IS NOT RESPONDING!” she screamed, panicked as she tried to hit it repeatedly. Seeing what was happening, Tech 1 screamed back.
“FORGET THE E-STOP, WE HAVE TO SHUT OFF THE MAIN POWER!” As if to emphasize his point, the lights began flickering. By this time, Dr. No had forgotten about his fatigue as he stared out the window at Alex. He just knew he now had a dead patient, as there was no way anyone could survive the energy input that Alex was now undergoing. Knowing the amount of energy being unleashed also prevented anyone from rushing into the room to pull Alex out.
Suddenly, the flickering stopped, but only because the lights went out, leaving only the emergency lights on. However, the MRI machine was still spinning dangerously fast and getting faster. Tech 1 finally reached the utility room, where the main disconnect was located, only to find the door locked. Looking around, he saw a fire axe. Without thinking, he smashed the glass, setting off the fire alarm. With the axe in hand, he swung it as hard as he could at the door.
It took thirteen hits for him to break the door open. Inside, it was dark because the room’s emergency lighting had failed. The hospital was aware of the failed emergency lights in the utility room, but there was insufficient funding to replace them, as they were deemed non-essential. Thankfully, the tech happened to have his phone in his pocket and used its light to find the MRI disconnect.
Finding the disconnect, he realized he could have used his sense of smell and touch to locate it, as it was very hot and smelled of burned wires. Again, without thinking, the tech flipped the disconnect, and the lights came back on instantly. The tech stumbled backward as he tried to understand what had happened. Suddenly remembering the patient in the scanner, he rushed back to the room. During his rush, he knocked over several people who were trying to evacuate.
Alex had fixed his back and legs, so he didn’t think things could get any better. That thought went out the window once they began scanning his head. Knowing he could absorb power, Alex gathered all he could to see what would happen. He didn’t know that it started a feedback loop when he began gathering power while the scanner was looking at his brain. The more power Alex pulled from his surroundings, the more was available. Alone, it wouldn’t have done much, but when combined with Alex’s endless reservoir of anger, it had some unexpected results.
Suddenly, Alex saw a flash of light in his head. Once he recovered, a door appeared where none had been before, and he could hear voices. He had always been warned about voices in his head, and now there were voices in his head. In this case, however, the voices belonged to three boys who looked almost exactly like Alex, except for their attire and hairstyles.
“Who the fuck are you, and what are you doing in my head?!?!” demanded Alex.
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