Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System novel Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Awakening.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

Rayne woke up to the subtle rhythmic sounds coming from machines near her. A sharp antiseptic smell assaulted her nose, making her scrunch it like a rabbit's. She tried opening her eyes but found it difficult; it felt like her eyes were glued shut.

Suddenly, she heard a door open followed by fast-paced footsteps.

"Oh my goodness! Ms. Weston, you're awake!" exclaimed a female voice. "I'm Nurse Judy, and you're at St. Mary's Hospital. How do you feel? Are you thirsty? Oh! Let me go call the doctor to come and take a look!"

Before Rayne could reply, she heard the door closing. What am I doing in a hospital? She tried opening her eyes again, this time successfully. Her eyes squinted, and all her blurry vision could make out was bright light. It was painfully bright, so she shut her eyes again and opened them ever so slowly to give them time to adjust.

After what felt like an eternity, her eyes finally adjusted enough to check out her surroundings. Rayne looked around and saw her standard-sized hospital room. It was all white, with a window on her right side, and filled with different kinds of hospital equipment. Aside from a small chair by the window, there were some generic paintings hung up on the wall. The room felt empty, but at least it was quiet and peaceful.

Rayne tried lifting her hand to rub her eyes but found that moving even just her fingers was difficult. "What happened to me?" she groaned. She suddenly remembered walking home from her boyfriend's apartment and getting pushed by someone behind her onto the street at a busy intersection. It seemed she must've gotten hit by a car.

She looked down to see if she had any broken bones or deep wounds from the car accident, but surprisingly, she didn't see anything.

She even managed to pull the thin blanket that was draped over her legs aside to check. Shocked again, she didn't see anything wrong—no bruise or scratch.

Surely if someone got hit by a vehicle, they would at least get a bruise or a scrape, she thought.

The door clicked open, and she watched an older man in a white coat enter, being closely followed by an excited-looking young female in pink scrubs. Most likely the doctor and Nurse Judy.

"Doctor Henson, I told you she woke up!" Judy enthusiastically motioned toward Rayne. She was practically jumping up and down.

"Now, now, Judy, Ms. Weston just woke up. We don't want to scare her." Dr. Henson slowly came over to Rayne and smiled at her. Judy nodded and started recording various readings from the different medical equipment while smiling brightly at Rayne.

Dr. Henson took out a small flashlight and was about to shine the light into her eyes as he asked, "Ms. Weston, can you hear me? If you can, please blink once."

Rayne opened her mouth and asked for water. Her throat was extremely dry, and when the words left her mouth, they were hoarse and very quiet.

Dr. Henson stiffened, clearly surprised that Rayne could talk.

Judy practically jumped up. "Doctor, did you hear that? She can talk already!"

"Judy, please get Ms. Weston some water." _{freёweɓnovel.com}

Dr. Henson came over and performed a few basic examinations. To his surprise, everything was normal and showed only signs of weakness and lack of physical activity, which wasn't surprising.

"Ms. Weston, I don't mean to alarm you, but seeing that you are in full control of your cognitive abilities, I feel it's okay to inform you that you've just woken up from a year-long coma."

Rayne nearly choked on the water she was now drinking. A one-year coma? No wonder she did not see any bruises or scratches! They all would've already healed over the course of a year! She trembled slightly, holding the cup of water with both hands.

She looked up and asked the doctor, "How is that possible, Doctor? How bad was my accident that it put me into a coma?"

Dr. Henson shook his head slowly. "Honestly, yours is a strange case. I've been dealing with coma patients for the last ten years and have seen and studied injuries that lead to comas. Your case doesn't fit into any of the categories. You did indeed have a car accident; however, the car was not moving at a very fast speed. Physically, your injuries only extended to a rib fracture and a few superficial wounds, such as bruises and scrapes."

He adjusted his glasses and continued, "Honestly, looking at everything, including the brain scans, you should not have been close to getting put in a coma, especially one for so long. In my eyes, it's a medical mystery, but of course, I'm glad you're awake."

Rayne sat up, trying to process everything she had just heard. Something didn't feel right about this situation. Something was telling her that there was more to this than just a "medical mystery." The last time she had this feeling was when her parents died due to a "mechanical failure" in the car they were driving.

Thankfully, she was resilient and able to digest the information better than the average person. Whatever the cause, she was going to get to the bottom of it, including finding the person who pushed her.

Dr. Henson finished his examination and said, "Okay, looks like everything is recovering well. I will keep you here in observation for a little bit and see if we can get you started on rehab soon."