Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Twenty Two

The next time I wake up, I find myself in a room I don't know in a place that I don't know. I look around a little and realize that it's a hospital room. I immediately begin to panic, breathing hard and fast, wondering how I got here and who knows about my blood yet. I go to move but this ripping pain pulls at me and I stifle a scream, holding onto the sides of the bed as tightly as I can.
"Whoa, where's the fire, son?" I hear someone say.
My vision starts to get a little better and I find Dad sitting next to me, looking at me with a calm expression.
"Dad?" I croak, feeling like rocks are in my throat.
"How you feeling?"
"I'm still hurting. Why am I here? Won't they know about my blood?"
"Lexara is taking care of everything."
"I thought she wasn't a doctor anymore?"
Dad says nothing and I put my hand on my stomach. I know they took something out of me.
"What did they take from me?"
"They took the rest of your internal reproductive organs. Since this is close to when you would have had a swell, your body still detected the other organs in there. The medicine Lexara gave you would have helped alleviate the pain but you went and overdosed on it."
I look away. "I just didn't want to see Nalak in pain anymore."
"Because that justifies him having to watch you be in pain, right?"
"I didn't know!" I growl. "I just... I didn't know."
"Well now you do. Lexara said that the overdose caused significant damage to the remaining organs and they had to be removed. You're now officially 100% Empty."
"As if I wasn't before." I snarl.
"True, but you had the other parts so if you wanted or needed to, you could have carried a child to full term if they had implanted an embryo. Now though, the chemicals are too out of sync for you to even do that. You'll have to find someone who is Tradding or an Empty like yourself in order to have children and only she will be able to carry."
"Nothing new."
"Don't be sour with me."
"I'm not I'm just... in a lot of pain and you just keep telling me everything I've done wrong that I already know."
"Damn it, Ramey, you almost died again." He snarls.
I snap back to him as he gets up to look out the window.
"What do you mean?"
"The damage to the internal reproductive organs were increasing at an alarming rate. Lexara said that it was because they weren't supposed to be submitted to the amount of the serum you drank. The dosage she set out was for maximum help but minimal damage. When we got you here, you were screaming and nothing could help you. When they did the surgery, she said that all they pulled out was black and infection. You almost went toxic on the table because they couldn't get it out of you quick enough and clean everything out." He turns to me, his grey eyes looking at me sadly and full of fatigue. "They even told me that I may have to say my final goodbyes..."
I feel ashamed. I never knew that Dad was going through so much and how close I was with death. All because I was an idiot and didn't want to see Nalak in pain...
"I'm sorry, Dad." I whisper. "I didn't know."
He sighs but turns around and touches my face tenderly.
"That's the third time I thought I lost you. Luck isn't going to be so kind next time, R. She doesn't take kindly to those who put themselves in danger, heroic or not. Please try not to get yourself into so much danger all the time." I smile a little and he smiles back. "Get some sleep, son. I'm sure Nalak will be looking all over for you soon."
I nod and he leaves the room. I snuggle in the bed and sigh, wondering how long it will take Nalak to find me. Once I'm found, we're going to head to the Badlands. We're going to get this done and over with.

***************

Apelles
I go to the cafeteria and sit at the table with a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup. I run my fingers through my hair and sigh, trying to calm down. Now that R's awake, I can finally relax. That kid has done nothing more than rip me to shreds since he's been born. It's like life is trying to see how close to death it can push him and laughs as I struggle to keep a straight face.
"May I sit here?"
I look up to see Lexara as she sits down anyway.
"I wanted to thank you for trusting me to do the surgery on R. I'm really sorry about the other..."
"I didn't really have a choice. His regular doctor is too far away and you were the only other person who knew. You'd better thank your lucky stars that I have good connections in the RDC to pull strings the way I do."
"I'm going to assume it's a blessing and a curse to some." She says with a frown. "How is he?"
"Awake, finally... Are you going to present your serum to the RDC in regards to other Empties or was this just a favor for me?"
"Favor?" She scoffs. "I was practically forced to do it."
"Considering what you caused on my family, you're damn right, but I'm not going to keep you from distributing it if you wanted to. Unless you just don't want to be considered an Empty supporter?"
"I have nothing against Empties and you know it. Why do you think I accepted the job at the school? I wanted to help those who needed help. I wanted to help R but how the hell was I supposed to know that his blood type wasn't on there for a reason. If you'd have told me then I wouldn't have tried to do research."
"You should have just trusted the file. I don't have to answer to you."
"No, but giving me some heads up would have-"
"What? Helped? I know you enough to know that you wouldn't hurt my son in regards to him being an Empty but to know about his blood type before the matter? I don't know your morals, Dr. White. You could have ratted me out immediately. I can pull a lot of strings but I can't pull genetics when it's confirmed through the RDC. It's different if it's at a hospital or something but you went through the fucking RDC! You can't hide that!"
"I'm sorry, Dr. Fountain... I really am. I was just trying to do my job... Your secret is safe with me and I won't tell a soul."
"I know you won't because those strings I was telling you about? They go way out and far from the RDC CEO. They go underground and I don't think the world will miss you if you just simply disappear."
Lexara gasps and I stand up, grabbing my now cold cup of coffee.
"Just remember, Dr. White, we study a lot of things and do a lot of experiments."
I begin to whistle and walk out of the hospital.