This choice: your best friend, Randall. • Go Back...Chapter #3your best friend, Randall. by: Wassel Hearing your best friend, Randall's name being said instantly made you gasp, drawing the attention of the two doctors who quickly appeared around your bed; one a smaller, balding fellow with dark black mustache and glasses, and the other a slightly older, taller looking man with gray hair.
"Timothy, can you hear me?" the balding doctor asked as you looked up at him through half closed eyes, his voice instantly recognizable as the one who'd been defending whatever procedure they had just performed, "My name is Doctor Kerry and you're in hospital..."
Stopping him short there, already fully aware of where you were and why, you told him, "I know where I am. I remember what happened. What have you done to Randall?", trying to sit up as you did.
Grabbing an arm each to help you up, both doctors paused momentarily and glanced towards one other, as if neither of them quite knew how to answer you, before continuing on as if you hadn't said anything and sitting you in a more comfortable position on the bed. "There, that's better now," Kerry smiled once you were upright, smoothing down the bed sheets around you and looking a little nervous as he did, while the other doctor just stood there fiddling with a clipboard, "It's good to have you back with us."
It was pretty obvious, even in your drugged state that neither one of them wanted to come clean, which made you all the more panicked over what was going on. "Where is he?" you pressed, "What was that brain transplant thing you were just talking about?"
Hearing you ask this certainly got both their attention, as standing back up and looking over at his older, gray haired colleague, Kerry mumbled, "Um, Doctor Saunders..."
Giving Kerry an angry little glare, the older doctor let out a long, reluctant sigh and finally addressed you. "Timothy, now this may come as somewhat of a shock," he said, moving forward and placing a reassuring hand on your shoulder, "But you see, after your accident in the car, there was a few...well, complications. Your friend, Randall was very badly injured in the accident, and quite frankly, even with the best efforts of our medical team, he simply wasn't going to make it." Saunders paused for a second after saying this, glancing back over at Kerry and continuing through almost gritted teeth, "That is why, we were forced to use a rather new and...untested procedure to save his life."
"So, he's alive? He's okay?" you yelped, feeling a great deal of relief that he wasn't dead.
"Yes. He's perfectly fine, and recovering well from the operation. He's just...no longer quite how you remember him..."
"What do you mean? You didn't seriously put his brain in someone else's body did you?! That's...that's impossible!"
"It's actually not," Kerry suddenly interjected, wiping at his glasses with a cloth and placing them back on his head, "The procedure is very real. It's just never been done on a human being before. Until today...until your friend's condition left us with no other option. It may sound a little far fetched and 'out there', but scientists and doctors have being experimenting with brain transplantation for years, for situations just like this one. And so far, as far as we can tell, the procedure has been a resounding success." Even though he was trying to be as professional as he could, as he said this he couldn't stop a little smirk from appearing on his face, clearly being quite proud of himself over what he had achieved. "There is no sign of brain injury or nerve damage, and all of Randall's synapses appear to be firing correctly. As soon as he wakes up he should have 100% feeling and full motor control in his new body."
To you however, all of this still just seemed like some bad plot from a comic book and made practically no sense to you at all as you tried desperately to wrap your head round it. "This is insane!"
"I know it's a difficult concept to grasp, Timothy, so perhaps seeing your friend, as he is now, might help make things more real."
You could only nod at this, not really knowing what else to say, just knowing that whatever they'd done to him, you really needed to see Randall and make sure he was okay.
Indicating towards Doctor Saunders, who had since being interrupted, just been standing there shaking his head disapprovingly to himself, the two of them then helped you out of the bed and placed your still half unconscious body onto a wheelchair, before wheeling you towards the door. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Kerry?" you heard Saunders whispering behind you as you passed through the door and out into the hospital corridor, to which Kerry replied, "Yes, yes. It'll be fine. It'll be good for the boy. Besides, Randall will be waking up soon and he might need some help coming to terms with all this himself." Overhearing this didn't help you with the apprehension you were feeling, being truly scared and worried after all this talk of operations and brain transplants of what your friend would actually look like now, half expecting to find some sort of deformed monster or something instead of the friend you knew...the friend you'd both known and grown up with over the last 13 years.
"In here, Timothy," Kerry informed you as you came to a stop in front of another door, feeling your a sense of apprehensive dread over what you were going to find in there as you watched Saunders pushed it open and were then wheeled on in, spotting first a bed, sitting there in the middle of the room, and a figure lying there asleep...
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