Chapter 4: Questions Require Answers
Jaden opens his eyes for a second and then he closes them. Jaden is on a hospital bed. His eyes open again and see a bright white light over him lighting up the room. The room is slowly spinning as if he just got off a fast ride. Sunlight is hitting the floor under the closed blinds. There are a dozen white roses on a black desk near him that his nose senses. He turns his eyes and focuses on someone entering the room he is in. A familiar looking doctor is walking towards his hospital bed with a chart in his hand. The Caucasian doctor is in his late 40’s and is clean-shaven. He is wearing green scrubs.
“Jaden how are you feeling today?” The doctor asks.
“I’m feeling okay, where am I? What’s going on?”
Jaden looks around and sees he is hooked up to a heart monitor machine. He looks at his hands and touches his head. Jaden feels bandages around his head.
‘Something big happened to me, but I can’t remember anything,’ Jaden says to himself.
“Where am I? What hospital am I at? How did I get here?” He asks the doctor.
The doctor pauses for a few seconds, “You’re at Stillwater Medical Center in New York. You were brought here by ambulance; you were in a car accident.”
“Why do I have bandages around my head?” He asks.
“You hit the windshield pretty hard son. You had a concussion, but you’re going to be okay.”
Jaden looks around.
“You’re my private family doctor, why are you working in the emergency room at this hospital?”
“Jaden you hurt your head pretty bad, maybe you should relax and take it easy. Your mother will be here soon,” the nervous eyed doctor says while walking away.
“Oh my God, I have such a headache. What the hell is going on here? I can’t remember any car accident,” Jaden says to himself quietly.
Jaden relaxes in the soft, white hospital bed. A nurse wearing an all white uniform comes into Jaden’s room. The nurse walks over to Jaden smiling. Jaden knows he has seen her somewhere before. She has red hair and a medium-sized figure.
“I’m Nurse Marge and I’m going to take your temperature young man,” the nurse says in a European accent. She pulls out a thermometer. “Now if you don’t mind, can you bend over so I can take your temperature?” She asks while putting lube on the thermometer.
Jaden looks at the nurse as if she is crazy.
“Bend over?” Jaden asks her in a shocked voice.
“I’m nineteen years old lady, you going to put a thermometer up my ass? You want to put your fingers up there too?” Jaden asks in a sarcastic voice.
The nurse pauses for a few seconds and says, “I apologize, can you open your mouth instead?”
She retrieves a new thermometer, Jaden opens his mouth and she places it under his tongue. He then mumbles looking directly at the nurse, “I’ll put something up your ass.”
The nurse gives an innocent smile and hands Jaden a small cup with a few pills. She takes the thermometer out of his mouth and says, “98.6 perfect.”
“What are these pills for?”
“They will help your pain go away in your head.”
“The pain only comes when I think about the past and what happened to me. Why is that nurse?” Jaden asks.
“You’ll have to ask your doctor that,” the nurse gets up and leaves a cup of water for Jaden.
She walks away and is interrupted by Jaden, “What day is today?”
“Today is February 16th”
“What year?”
She pauses for a second and looks Jaden in the eyes.
“Today is February 16th, 2003. Oops, I’m sorry, today is February 16th, 1996,” she says as she turns back around and goes through the door.
‘What is going on here? I can’t remember anything short-term. Every time I do, my head hurts more and more. Let me take these pills, maybe I’ll feel better.’
Jaden sees blue and red pills in his hand. Jaden takes both of them. He closes his eyes, and relaxes. He quickly falls asleep. An hour passes and the doctor returns.
“Jaden are you feeling better, how was your nap?” The doctor asks.
Jaden slowly opens his eyes. Everything is blurry; he tries to focus on what is around him. He sees the doctor sitting on the bed next to him.
“I’m a little better, my headache seems to be gone,” Jaden says while he rubs his head looking around. He notices Nurse Marge is standing behind the doctor smiling. She looks as if she lost a few pounds.
“Nurse, Marge, how was your Valentine’s Day yesterday?” Jaden asks.
She pauses for a few seconds, and says, “It was fine.”
“Did Homer Simpson get you something nice for Valentine’s?” Jaden asks, as the nurse rubs her red hair. The doctor turns around and looks at her.
“Yes it was fine; my boyfriend took me out somewhere.”
“Where did he take you to?” He asks in an inquisitive voice.
The doctor interrupts, “Jaden, you know your mother is outside and she will be here in a few minutes. Why don’t you leave Nurse Marge’s personal life alone,” the doctor says in a calm voice looking Jaden right in the eyes. He continues, “How was your rest? Has your head been feeling better?”
“I can’t remember much about the accident, but I feel something else happened to me, but I can’t remember. When I do start to think about it, that’s when my head starts pounding.”
“Try not to think about your past, concentrate on getting better and getting some rest. We have some more tests to run on you tomorrow.”
Just then, Jaden’s mother Stacey opens the hospital room door and walks straight towards Jaden with a nervous look on her face.
“Jaden are you okay?” She asks, as the doctor stands up from the bed and stands near the nurse. He whispers something into the nurse’s ears. Stacey holds Jaden’s hands and rubs his head as he lies in bed with scratches on his face and body.
“I’m fine mom,” Jaden says as he hugs her.
The doctor and nurse walk out of the room.
“Mom, there is something going on here. A few things don’t seem right. The doctor is our private doctor, but he is here working in a general hospital. I’m also in the same emergency room I was in when I sprained my ankle in karate school years ago. I’m also in a private room in the emergency room, I know this is expensive. Also, when I think back to what has happened to me, my head still hurts a lot,” Jaden says quickly as he tries to catch his breath.
“Jaden, baby, everything is going to be okay,” Stacey says.
“Where are dad and Amy?”
The mother pauses for a few seconds, then responds, “Your dad is at work and I left a voice mail for your girlfriend Amy.”
“What happened in the car accident I was in? How did I crash?”
She pauses again and puts her right hand on his shoulder, “Jaden, baby, umm, the police said you were drinking and driving…” she is interrupted.
“Drinking and driving! How can that be?”
“I know you drink and drive sometimes Jaden,” Stacey says.
“How would you know that mom?”
The mother is quiet, and then hesitates, “I’m your mom, and I know everything about you.”
“Mom, are you okay? You don’t sound right. You’re sweating and talking with a nervous voice.”
“I’m fine son; your daddy would be over to the hospital tomorrow.”
“I know he is upset, especially with the car insurance being in his name.”
“He isn’t upset, he is just happy you’re okay. He didn’t say anything about the car being wrecked.”
Just then, the phone rings. It rings again and Jaden answers it.
“Hey dad. We were just talking about you. I’m fine, I had a headache earlier. Now it’s gone.”
There is a thirty-second pause as Jaden’s father speaks to him.
“Love you too dad.” Jaden hangs up the phone.
“Now you get some sleep son; me, your dad, and Amy will be back tomorrow morning.”
Jaden’s mom kisses him on the side of the face. She walks out of the room.
‘I know something is wrong here. My father isn’t upset, my mom isn’t talking right. Amy didn’t come to the hospital first or call,’ he says to himself.
“Wait a second! Amy! I don’t remember what we did for Valentine’s together!” Jaden yells.
He grabs his head, as it starts to hurt again. Jaden begins to feel dizzy and the room begins to spin around. The phone rings. Jaden is feeling very dizzy and his head is hurting so much that he can’t answer it. The nurse and the doctor rush back into the room. The phone stops ringing. The doctor gives him a shot. The nurse and the doctor are talking to Jaden, but he can’t understand what they are saying. Jaden turns his head towards the window and he sees the sun setting. Jaden closes his eyes and opens them. The sun appears as if it is rising up from the horizon and moving at a fast speed. The sun and the view look blurry like a TV with bad reception. Jaden closes his eyes and falls to sleep.
It’s dark, a buzzing sound is heard, but there is no image of anything. A humming buzzing sound, that sounds familiar to him. Jaden sees quick images. He sees an image of him in the back seat of her SUV... Amy is crying next to him and he hears words.
“I don’t care about what you saw, where is my Valentine’s Day gift?”
The voice and images fade away. He sees an image of him flying in the air at a fast speed. That quickly fades away and it goes dark again. There is a sound of wind blowing by his ear. Jaden hears many voices at once. Everyone is talking together, while it is completely dark. A distinctive female voice is heard clearly through all the other voices, “We will come soon. We will come for you soon.” The voice fades into the many other voices being heard.
“Listen you little shit… Wish you were never born. Never born, never born.” Then they all fade away.
Jaden wakes up and lifts up from the bed in a cold sweat. The sun is shining bright into the room. He rips the heart monitors from his chest, turns to the right, and swings his legs off the bed. The linoleum floor is icy as he takes his first steps. Jaden looks around the quiet room. He stands up and walks over to the wall in front of the bed.
“What kind of hospital room doesn’t have a TV inside of it?”
Jaden looks at the solid wall. He touches it.
‘Why does it feel like I’m being watched?’
Jaden walks over to the window and feels the breeze on his body. He sees people walking around downstairs. There are many trees outside the window. Jaden is very confused as he remembers images from his dream.
‘Something big happened in the last week or a few days ago. I can’t remember anything that has happened. A lot of things aren’t making sense.’
His headache returns and he ignores it. Jaden walks over to the door and tries to open it. However, it is locked. Jaden pulls on the door harder as he panics.
“I have to get out of here. I have to get out of this hospital.”
The knob on the door is being fumbled with. Someone is trying to open it from the outside. Jaden steps back from the door. It opens and the doctor walks in with the nurse behind him.
“Jaden, what are you doing out of bed? You need to rest. I know you’re not used to being in the hospital, but you need to follow the rules here.”
The doctor puts his arm around Jaden and walks him back to his bed. Jaden, with a confused and angry look on his face, pushes away from the doctor. Jaden takes a few steps back.
“Something is going on here. I want some answers.”
Jaden stands on the other side of the bed, looking at the doctor on the other side of it.
“Why is it I can’t remember anything from the accident? Why does my headache come back when I think about what has happened to me?”
The doctor clears his throat a few times. “Jaden you had a mild concussion and you have slight amnesia. Your memory should come back soon,” the doctor says while taking a step closer to him.
Jaden continues in a confused voice. “Why did that nurse agree that her boyfriend is Homer Simpson? Why did she try to put a thermometer up my ass like I was 1-year-old? Why do I feel like I was only sleeping for an hour and the sun is back up?”
The doctor and nurse just stand there and look at Jaden. The phone rings and Jaden hops over the bed. He answers the phone.
“Hello?”
“Jaden, Are you okay? I miss you,” Amy says over the phone.
“Amy, what did I get you for Valentine’s Day?”
“You didn’t get me anything, it’s okay.”
‘Something is wrong here, she always takes Valentine’s Day serious,’ Jaden thinks to himself.
“What happened in the back seat of your SUV on Valentine’s Day that you were crying?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Jaden. I didn’t see you Valentine’s Day. I was busy studying for my test in college.”
‘This girl would find time for Valentine’s Day. I know I saw her two days ago.’
The doctor and nurse are still standing there just looking at Jaden. Jaden holds his head while still talking to Amy on the phone. His head starts to hurt a lot. He ignores it.
“You don’t remember having sex with me on Valentine’s Day in the back seat of your SUV?”
“Jaden, I told you what I was doing. Now baby, I’m coming to see you in the hospital later this afternoon and…..”
Jaden hangs up the phone.
“That’s not my girlfriend,” Jaden says while standing up.
“Doctor, I’m still waiting for the answers to my questions.”
“Jaden you need to calm down, sit back down and relax in the bed,” the doctor calmly replies.
“I’ll relax when I get some answers that make sense!” He shouts.
Jaden picks up the phone and tries to call his best friend James.
“The number you have reached has been disconnected,” the phone says.
Jaden tries to dial the number again and it’s the same issue. Jaden starts to take deep breaths.
“My friend James’ phone number has worked for the past fifteen years, now it’s disconnected two days later?”
The nurse leaves the room.
“I have to get out of this hospital. I feel like I’m being watched. This place doesn’t feel real.”
“Jaden, you can’t leave the hospital until you are properly checked out. You have to be checked out by a doctor. You’re going to have to stay here for another two days, until I see you’re fit to leave. You’re getting very delusional; we might have to find you a psychologist. You might have to stay here longer than that then,” the doctor orders
“You are an outpatient doctor. You work full time at a private practice. My family has been going to you for years. This is not how you normally act. You have answers for everything. Now I’m here asking you questions, that you obviously are ignoring. You do know that questions require answers right? Now stop playing stupid with me!”
The doctor puts his hand on Jaden’s shoulder again. Jaden brushes it off. He hops behind the bed again.
“I’m remembering now. I was being chased by men in white suits…”
“Jaden, why don’t you take your pills, so you can relax? You really are not well,” he doctor says while handing them across the bed.
Jaden knocks them out of the doctor’s hand while yelling, “I don’t want any more of your pills! I’m getting out of this B.S. hospital now.”
The door opens quickly as two men in security uniform walk inside with the nurse behind them. They stand by the door.
“Oh man, this is getting funnier by the minute. You two work for this hospital also? You two used be security guards in my high school. Now you work here?” Jaden asks.
“Come on, where is the America’s Funniest Home Video cameras at?” Jaden asks.
The security guards don’t say anything, but look at Jaden with a straight face.
“You see Jaden, we don’t want to have to use any force against you,” the doctor says.
“I can take those two guards without a problem, then I can take you out also you fake Russian KGB doctor,” Jaden says in a confident voice.
“Then you would be charged with assault, Jaden. Do you want a criminal record to follow you the rest of your life?”
Jaden stands up and gets into a karate stance.
Just then, Jaden’s mother opens the door. She runs between the big hospital security guards and past the doctor.
“Mom, how did you get here so fast? You said you were coming late in the morning with dad. Don’t you have to work today?” Jaden asks.
“Are you okay son? Don’t cause any problems in the hospital,” Jaden’s mother pleads.
“Mom, how are we paying for this hospital visit?”
“Son, what are you talking about?”
Jaden reaches out and grabs his mother’s purse.
“Jaden what are you doing?”
Jaden is looking through his mother’s bag. Everything looks blurry inside. He finds her wallet. Stacey looks shocked to what her son is doing. She tries to grab her wallet back, while Jaden pushes her away. He finds her insurance card. Jaden turns it around and it is completely blank. Jaden stands there surprised and drops the wallet on the bed, while still looking at the blank card.
“Mom, you have a blank insurance card?”
“Son, we have universal health care now. We don’t need insurance cards anymore.”
“Universal health care in America?” Jaden asks while starting to laugh. He continues, “Do you actually expect me to believe that? You never showed me your insurance card in the past. I know this place is a fake.”
Jaden walks over to the closet and says, “Where are my clothes?”
“Jaden your clothes are in a safe place,” the doctor replies.
“Jaden what are you doing? You’re breaking your mother’s heart,” Stacey says while beginning to cry.
“You’re not my mother, that isn’t my doctor, and this can’t be a hospital.”
Stacey begins to cry. The doctor pulls out a syringe and squirts it into the air. He looks at Jaden while folding his arms. Jaden walks towards the door and the big 6’3” and 6’5” guards stand in the way. The guard on the left is Caucasian and bald and the guard on the right is African American with a full head of hair.
“I have a black belt in karate and a yellow belt in jujitsu. I would suggest if you don’t want to get hurt and end up being in one of these hospital beds, get out of my way.”
“Sorry, we can’t do,” the guard on the left says while pulling out a straitjacket.
They rush to grab him and the nurse stands back towards the door. Jaden gets into a karate stance. A wind blows the blinds behind Jaden. Jaden throws two straight punches into the one guard’s chest. He falls backwards and has the wind knocked out of him. He loses balance and hits his head on the wall. The black guard on the right grabs Jaden’s arm. Jaden quickly grabs his arm also, gets closer to him, and elbows him in the face. Jaden then pulls him around and flips him over his back. The guard flips over and bounces on the bed and then onto the floor. Jaden is feeling energetic and stronger than he normally feels. The guard on the floor behind the bed holds his face and grunts in pain. The white guard gets up from the wall breathing heavily. He pulls out a baton and comes towards Jaden. The nurse flings the door wide and runs out. His mother is hiding under the bed crying. He jumps towards the wall and kicks off it. He forms a kick in midair, while kicking the guard directly in the face with the bottom of his bare feet. The guard falls back into the wall very hard, making the entire room shake and causing a loud thumping sound. Jaden reaches out and grabs the door before it closes. He swings the door open and walks outside. The doctor lunges from behind and tries to stab Jaden with the syringe. Jaden grabs his arm and pulls it hard forward. The doctor loses balance and hits the hallway wall headfirst.
“Does anyone else want some of the jujitsu/Tae Kwon Do experience? I’m giving out free universal ass whippings,” he says as the doctor lies on the floor holding his head moaning.
“Hey doc, take those pills for that headache you’re going to have.”
Jaden walks away from the doctor lying on the floor. He turns around and walks back towards the doctor on the floor. Jaden grabs him by the shirt collar.
“What is going on here? Why are you people messing with me? Why can’t you answer any of my questions?”
The doctor just laughs while blood is pouring from his head. His voice changes and it sounds much deeper.
“You don’t know what you’re in for. Ha ha ha. I don’t know where you think you’re going.”
Jaden walks down the hall and says to himself, ‘That dude sounds like the Hellraiser dude.’
“You can’t leave!!” The doctor yells, while continuing to laugh.
Jaden walks quickly down the hallway. Nurses and patients look surprised as Jaden begins jogging down the hallway. Jaden is looking at their faces and they all look very familiar to him. He knows he has seen these people before. He remembers some as being in his college and two people were his neighbors that moved away. Jaden is puzzled that everyone in the hospital looks familiar to him. He looks up at a loud ear piercing voice coming from a loud speaker.
“We have a code red, on the third floor. All units please assist situation on third floor, room 305,” the overhead loud speaker says.
Jaden turns around a corner. He sees an emergency staircase. He looks down the stairs and it’s dark, but then it brightens up. A cold wind hits his body and face. The continuous wind brings shivers around his body. The stairs stop at the second floor. Jaden opens the door and walks slowly down the hallway. He looks all the way down the hallway on his right and sees how dark and fuzzy looking everything is in that direction. The walls look alive as if they are adjusting around his vision. There looks as if dark images are forming and then disappearing when his eyes focus. On the left, it is dark, but there is a room with light coming from it.
“This doesn’t even look like a hospital now. There are no people around here.”
Jaden jogs over to the bright door and opens it. He sees another door inside. He stands on his tippy toes and is amazed at what he sees. Jaden sees six doctors standing around two beds in a large room with dingy grey walls. Jaden stares as if he is seeing a ghost. His body is frozen and he can’t move. Feelings of shock move around his nervous system like an S.O.S. signal.
Jaden sees two copies of himself lying naked, surrounded by doctors in the middle of the room. One is strapped onto a portable hospital bed. The other is on an operating table strapped in. He can’t believe he sees exact images of himself. Feelings of disbelief and cold chills go up and down his spine. Jaden needs his eyes to prove he isn’t seeing what he thinks he sees. He opens the door and looks around the room and his eyes open very wide. The bright fluorescent lights shine down from the ceiling. The room is moving in slow motion around him. He sees more of his lifeless bodies on the wall hung up like coats. The strong smell of being at a morgue with dead bodies attacks Jaden’s nose. He covers his nose with disgust, but his mind is too determined to find out what is going on. The doctors look at Jaden surprised as if they are caught in the act. He is determined to find out what is going on and stares at their eyes behind the masks.
They have blood on their gloves and bloody tools in their hands. Jaden counts about eight clones of himself all around the room. The three on the wall are missing limbs. They are still breathing, but don’t look like they are in pain. Jaden notices that the clones on the wall to the right have dark patches around where the arms and legs are cut off. There is a small room with windows towards the rear left. There are two Jaden clones walking around like zombies. There is another closed off room with a huge window to the right with another cloned Jaden with his head on the glass and hands on the side of his face watching Jaden. Jaden quickly walks over to the operating table and pushes a doctor out of the way. A feeling of shock goes from his eyes to his brain and around his body.
Jaden sees his clone in a zombie state of mind with his arms down to the bone and muscle, deteriorating. Red muscles are all around the body and the eyes are missing. Blood is coming out of its arms. The hands are just bones and veins. Jaden gets very upset at what he sees. The doctors stand there not knowing what to say or do.
“What the hell is going on in here? You people cloned me and you are doing experiments on me! You have me walking around naked with a half-sized penis!”
Jaden grabs the closest doctor near him. He rips off his mask and instantly recognizes the face. The adrenaline rushes to his muscles. He grabs the collar of the white overcoat and lifts the doctor up in the air while chocking his neck. Jaden feels puffy fur protruding from around the doctor’s neck area. But he doesn’t see any fur there. There is nothing but anger in Jaden’s face as he tries to get to the bottom of this.
“You’re no doctor; you’re my fourth grade teacher! I want some answers, or I’m going to beat it out of you, Mr. Stevens. Then I’m going to beat some answers out of my clones!” Jaden yells while accidently spitting in the fake doctor’s face. Mr. Stevens is speechless while gagging to breathe.
Suddenly the door swings open and something quickly enters. Jaden tries to turn around and a security guard hits Jaden over the back of the head with a baton. Jaden falls over and lands on top of the doctor. The doctor pushes Jaden off him.
They begin communicating in a high-speed alien language.
“Why is he down here?” The doctor’s voice changes into a deeper voice.
“We don’t need him anymore. We just need his brain, body parts and more blood. These human brains are difficult to copy while they are still in the host,” the doctor that looks like Jaden’s fourth grade teacher says.
Jaden lays on the floor unconscious. The five guards are standing over him. Two of them lift his lifeless body and put his arms over their shoulders. They carry him outside the room. Then they carry him down a long hallway. Jaden briefly opens his eyes and sees the hallway lighting up as he is carried down it. Looking further down past the light it is completely dark. Jaden feels like he is in a scary movie and it’s moving in slow motion. He is semi-conscious and his speech is slurring.
“Where are you taking me? What is going on?”
They ignore him and Jaden continues, “Why? Why do you feel so. . . so hairy, when you have a uniform over your body?” Jaden mumbles in an incoherent voice to the guards carrying him. They ignore him.
“I don’t see any hair there.” Jaden smiles at the guards, while he begins to feel the pain from the blow to his head.
“Why- Why do your hands feel like . . . like claws, Mr. Security Guard? Also. . .Your breath smells like. . . like… like a dog that eats human food. Ha ha.”
Something catches Jaden’s attention above him; he looks up towards his right on the ceiling. Two bright eyes without a body light up near the ceiling.
Jaden still out of it and half-awake thinks he is seeing things. He hears several footsteps behind him.
Jaden turns his head to get a good look at the guards carrying him down a hallway without any doors.
“You two aren’t security guards. You two are the officers that came to my house to tell my family my brother died a couple of years ago. Who are you guys trying to fool?”
They reach a poorly lit room at the end of the hallway. Jaden is coming too, but can barely move his body. He notices the room looks like an operating room. They lay him down on an operating table in the middle of the room. A doctor with a smile on his face walks up and injects Jaden’s arm with a needle.
“You bastard, what did you inject me with?”
The doctor leaves from in front of Jaden.
The room looks like an all white hospital operating room, with dimmed lights.
‘I can’t be on Earth, where the hell am I? What is going on? I can’t move my body. I can’t move anything,’ Jaden thinks to himself.
Four security guards stand by the door and watch. They lick their lips as if Jaden is food to them. Jaden is only able to move his eyes and mouth.
Jaden taunts the guards, “When I get out of here I’m going to break your arms and then feed you your fake badges.”
More of Jaden’s memory starts to come back to him. He remembers being in the UFO and flying through space.
Suddenly the doctor comes out with an object looking like a circular saw in his hand.
“So you couldn’t stay in your room and go along with the program huh?” The doctor asks while ripping open Jaden’s grey hospital shirt.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Jaden asks in a frightening v