Chapter
13
A Serialized Story of the
Not So Distant Future
April 2, 2005
Part Twelve
Sam switched to the Financial channel after dinner, but there was no news involving Google, and there were no ticker streams because it was the weekend. There were no newspapers in the house, so he would have to wait until Monday to find out anything. Sam switched back to CNN to catch up on his missing life.
"Traffic in downtown Manhattan was brought to a halt today by five simultaneous protests ranging from downtown to midtown. The first protest was in Times Square, and was intercepted quickly by authorites who had advance warning.
The TV switched to a street scene where cops were grabbing and shackling a group of brightly colored protestors, among them being pushed into a car was Dawn.
"So that's where you were going to Ms. Dawn," Sam mused. There wasn't any 42 in those numbers he saw. He supposed there was a code involved.
The TV switched again to show the other, far more succesful protests which managed to block the streets with protestors carrying anti-war signs. An on the scene camera was interviewing driver's stopped in traffic. They took turns blasting the protestors and suggesting various places they could be sent to.
One man in particular, was smoking a cigar and remarked: "They want peace? We got peace all over the world now. We've brought peace to all those Mid East countries! Its not our fault the Chinese and the Russians are starting up again!"
Sam hit the mute button and laughed to himself. "That first one was a decoy, that was pretty slick."
"What are you watching dear?" Martha asked.
"Just the news Mom."
"You hardly ever watched it before your accident."
"Yeah, I know, I'll probably get bored of it soon."
"Would you like to drive out to Long Island tomorrow?"
"Sure, that would be nice." Sam was actually reluctant to look at Gaby's grave, to really admit that she was gone. His heart still ached every time he saw her picture or some other reminder. He started flipping channels and turned the sound back on.
"Tonight on Fox, 'COPS in Lincoln Nebraska' followed by 'Terrorist Watch' on patrol along the Mexican border." Sam flipped away before the highlights came on. The next channel had some game show with scantily clad women wiggling through large vats of Jello, Sam chose the Nature channel, and watched as Penguins struggled to survive on the depleted Antarctic ice.
"Over the last fifteen years, Antarctica has seen an unprecedented 60% decrease in surface ice. Summer on the main continent, now includes insects and plant growth where none have grown in over 50,000 years. Scientests have been shocked to discover previously extinct plant species, sprouting in the once frozen land."
Sam started flipping around again, passing a psychic show, where a rather masculine looking woman by the name of Madam Zeba was telling a young woman that she would be going to college in Hawaii. She then told her that, it would be dangerous for her to stay in Calfornia, because someone would be stalking her.
Sam flipped again, and passed the 'Paris Hilton Show,' Paris was interviewing Sarah Michelle Gellar who was playing the part of Buffy's mother in the remake of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' He finally settled on an old monster movie, it was 'Destroy All Monsters' one of Sam's childhood favorites.
After the movie, Sam decided to go to bed. He was actually tired of being tired, but there wasn't very much he could do about that. Sam wondered if he would have another out of body experience as he lay down.
Sleep came quickly, and Sam found himself riding in the ambulance, a Paramedic was with him, checking his pulse.
"I'm not getting anything here, I think we're losing this guy. The Paramedic placed a breathing device in Sam's mouth, and blew into it. Sam's chest rose sharply, and the man turned on another piece of equipment. The whine of a defibrillator filled the back of the ambulance.
"I'm starting the defibrillator." The Paramedic touched the contacts to Sam's chest, but as far as Sam could tell, nothing happened. They pulled into the hospital and Sam's inert form was wheeled into the ER at high speed.
"At least you got some first class treatment." Gaby said. She hadn't been in the ambulance, but was waiting for Sam in the parking lot.
"Why am I here?"
"It's kind of important." Gaby said. "This will be the last time, I promise."
"What about you though, I'll still see you again right?"
"Duh! If you don't do what I want, I'll haunt the crap out of you." She smiled, and Sam found himself mometarily smiling back amid the hellish chaos around him.
They walked into the ER, where the doctors were using a defibrillator to restart his heart.
"How long?" The doctor asked.
"Six minutes, thirty seconds." The Paramedic said.
"Clear!" The doctor shocked Sam's chest again, and said under his breath. "Come on buddy, we can get you through this." A monitor next to Sam was showing a flatline.
"Pay attention," Gaby said, "this is the cool part."
One more shock and Sam's heart started beating again. There was a brief flash of light as a comet like form came through the ceiling and into Sam's chest. The doctor put the two contacts back on the defibrilator cart, he seemed unaware of what had just happened. He then took Sam's hand and said: "Way to go pal." He then paused for a moment, and stared at Sam's scalp. Sam walked around to get a closer look and saw that the roots of his hair had turned vivid white.
"We've got some swelling here, I want Xrays of this man's head stat."
"I thought he was looking at my hair." Sam said to Gaby.
"It is pretty freaky." She said, "but they were afraid you had a fractured skull."
"Did I?"
"No, just a really bad concussion, and some surface trauma, but that's not important."
"Why did I have to see this?" Sam asked.
"You were dead for exactly 7 minutes and 31 seconds. And just so you know, you
fought like crazy to stay with me. We practically had to throw you
back in your body."
"Who's we?" Sam asked.
"You'll see soon enough, get some rest now." Gaby kissed him and the world went dark.
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This installment of Chapter Thireen was brought to you by MMN the
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the 50's and 60's, and rated "the most intelligent thing on American
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