• Scrubs Harder or Die Trying

    Burned:

    He walked towards his car, and his cell phone went off. The man on the other line said, “Watch your step, you’ve been burned.” McClain didn’t understand. He stood, fifteen feet away from his car. He picked his foot up as if he was going to start running towards the car.
    The Patient:
    The hospital was bright and filled with moving characters. Some were doctors, some were interns and some were patients. The janitor had just finished painting the hallways for the new navigation system. The red paint on the floor led to the ER. The green paint led to the west wing of the hospital. The orange paint led to the cafeteria. And the yellow paint led to the exit. A strange looking man with a white coat and brown curly hair walked in.
    “What happened?” the patient asked to the man looking over him.
    “You’ve been in a coma for five months. I’m surprised you don’t remember,” He said politely. “I’m Dr. Cox, Dr. Perry Cox.”
    “Remember what?”
    “Your car blew up! You had been knocked out too, probably from the explosion. What the heck were you doing? It took the firemen hours to put out the fire. You didn’t have a driver’s license or any other sort of ID, and no one called here to confirm who you are.”
    “I… I… Can’t remember.” The patient said.
    “Well that’s not good!” Dr Cox laughed. “Come on, seriously, who are you?”
    “I’m telling you, I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know where you live, who your family is or-”
    “I’m telling you Doc, out of respect, I don’t have a clue.”

    “Dr. Cox, we need you in the OR,” a young man in blue scrubs said.

    “Not now Newbie, do you see what’s going on here Sally?” Dr. Cox joked.
    “Oh my god, you’re awake! My name is John Dorian, everyone calls me J.D. though and-”
    “No one likes a lookie Lou, not now not ever. You have three seconds to leave before I kick your butt!” Dr. Cox yelled.
    J.D. looked furious and very frustrated with Dr. Cox. He looked at the patient and said, “Don’t let him get to your head. Listen…” J.D. took the patients chart from Perry’s hands. “Oh? That’s odd. Why isn’t there a name on this chart? In fact, why isn’t anything filled out on here? No age, any allergies, a social security number, not even insurance. Perry, don’t you know how to fill a chart out?”
    “Now Newbie… He doesn’t remember anything, not even who he is. If you had been in here taking care of him like you were supposed to, you would’ve known about this. But no, your friend Barbie had to come yell at me to take over this guy. Now leave!” Dr. Cox agonized.
    As J.D. was on his way out the room, he paused and turned around. “Wait a second, I recognize you. Your name is John McClain. I swear. I’m such a big fan of the troops…” Newbie said confidently.
    “What do you mean?” McClain asked.
    “I watch the news everyday and at the end, they show a list of soldiers who died and their pictures. I’m absolutely sure you were one of them.”
    “John McClain,” the patient said.
    “The question is, why does someone think that you’re dead?” Dr. Cox cocked his head to the side, raising his eyebrows just a bit.
    The Machine
    “It’s been a few days since you woke up. Are you sure none of your memory has comeback?” Dr Dorian asked.
    “In my dreams. Last night I saw a giant machine that had a bunch of hard drives. I also saw a woman in my dreams. I don’t know who she is. I think she might be my wife. I don’t remember the military though, like you said. I don’t remember anything else,” the patient explained.
    “But at least you remember something.” Again, Dr. Cox’s eyebrows were up and forward. He gave the patient a kind of look that of which he was saying; we are fed up with you, remember your darn past and leave.
    The cell phone beside the patient’s bed, on the table, began to ring loudly. Its timing was so sudden, that it was scary. The patient jumped out his skin when it went off. He picked up the phone. To his amazement, the screen said thirty two missed unknown calls. John looked at Dr. Cox, who gave him a slight nod. McClain answered the phone with a simple hello. The person on the other line said, “John, when are you coming home? Where are you? I miss you.” John couldn’t believe it. For some reason, like a habit, he responded without hesitation. “I’m in the hospital; can you come and see me?” The woman hung up. Within twenty minutes a woman walked into the room with the saddest look. She had beautiful blue eyes and short brown curly hair. It was the same woman that was in the patients dream. He noticed she had a ring on; he instantly looked at his left hand. He too wore a similar ring to the woman’s.
    “I’m sorry; I’ve suffered a very bad accident. Who are you? I know you are my wife judging by the wedding ring. But I can’t seem to remember anything, who I am, and why people want me dead,” questioned as if in a very bad mood.
    “You are right about being married to me. I am Robin McClain. I noticed this morning when I tried to buy a gallon of milk, I couldn’t. I couldn’t use any of my credit cards. I thought you cancelled all the credit cards and stole all the money because you haven’t been home in a long time. Lambert, your boss said you were dead. I realized at that moment that you had been burned. Burned is when all your credit cards are canceled, and also when Lambert said you were dead, people try to kill you when you are burned. You can get burned for many reasons. Like if you had important information that someone wants you to keep quiet about. Do you see what I am saying?”
    The patient nodded.
    Robin McClain went on, “You used to work on a machine. The machine could tell the future to an individual or society. The last thing you told me that you had seen in it was that it showed a nuclear bomb being dropped right here in Chicago. You must have thought that was horrible, left the warehouse and your car blew up. Therefore, leaving you unconscious here. I thought you left me. I’m so glad to see you!” Mrs. McClain said with a jolt of energy in her voice.
    “The machine, of course,” J.D. said.
    “Did I create this machine?” Mr. McClain questioned.
    Robin gulped. Her face turned blank as she said, “…Yeah.”
    “Where is it? I must destroy it. If the military know how to use it… They’ll have the power to destroy much more than just Chicago. The future can be avoided. Can’t it?” His voice scratched.
    “I can take you to it, if you are well enough. It’s going to be risky. I think Lambert is going to be suspecting us. The thing is, you saw this (as in the car exploding, being in the hospital) through the machine.” Robin stated.
    The Warehouse:
    The outside air, warm and humid. The streets so cold and deserted. And yet, it was mid-evening and no one was outside. The building that both John and Robin were about to enter held the most advanced piece of technology. It was a machine that composed of several hard drives put together. Destroying the machine would be dangerous and definitely no easy task.
    “This is too easy. There should be soldiers outside. Where is everyone?” Robin screamed.
    John looked around. “Your right. Listen, I need to do this myself. If I’m going to remember anything. I can’t lose you.”
    “I’ll guard the door.”
    “Good.”
    The warehouse was a large building. The security was tight as is in a Las Vegas Casino. The door keypad codes changed every 45 minutes. A camera came online. Someone was watching John’s every move. John got to the room with the machine’s hard drives. He had to place a bug in it. He pulled out of his pocket a small object like a flash drive. He had no idea where it had come from. He plugged it into on of the hard drives and put the drive back in its place. There were no cameras in this room. He noticed containers that looked like fire extinguishers.
    “Hey, what’s taking so long? And what are you doing?” asked Robin.
    “You’re supposed to be outside. But I guess since you’re already here, I could tell you what I’m doing. Do you see these six containers? They are containers filled with liquid hydrogen. It’s like an air conditioner for the machine. Do you see how the first container went off? It shoots the heat out of it and lets the liquid hydrogen in to cool it fast.” said John.
    There was a silenced PP7 on the floor. John picked the gun up and took out the clip. There was one bullet in it. John thought this was fantastic.
    “You also see this bullet? If I attach this to the firing mechanism on the containers, it will, well use your imagination. We will have to leave immediately or we will die from the explosion. Colonel Lambert and the others who worked on this project will surely die… The hard part now is getting out.”
    Afterward:
    The McClains escaped in the nick of time. The explosion destroyed the building completely. Again, John was in the hospital. They hadn’t quite gotten far enough from the building before it exploded. When John woke up, he was able to remember everything. Also he remembered the things he wasn’t able to before the last hospital visit. John and Robin went on to live a happy life with three healthy children. They were given the meddle of honor for their bravery. And also for their efforts, they got a paycheck for 500,000 dollars from the governor of Illinois. The nuclear bomb that that the machine predicted was never made. Chicago and other societies were safe, at least for now.