Post by Daniel Tak on Mar 14, 2009 14:04:53 GMT -5
This short story of mine was completed on October 18, 2005. It's approximately 10,000 characters in length. As of now, I do not have any plans to revise the story. That may change, though. If you see any errors at all, even if they're just typos, please tell me.
This story is copright to me, Daniel Tak. You may not re-post this story anywhere unless I give you permission.
I remember the hiking trip like it was yesterday. I regretted that trip for a long time afterwards. Unfortunately, you can't change the past. Whatever you did, whatever happened, you can't change it. I wish this wasn't true. I've always wanted to go back into the past and change that dreadful trip, but I can't. It's a fact of life. It was the year 2019....
I woke up and saw the color white, everywhere. Slowly, with my eyes rapidly adjusting to their new surroundings, my vision cleared and I realized I was in a hospital room, lying on a bed. I feel terrible! I thought. I tried to lift my head, but I couldn't.
What was going on?
"He's awake!" someone cried out. Not a second later, my parents were in the room. They hugged and kissed me, with tears flowing from their eyes like bricks. (My parents later told me I had been unconscious for the two weeks from the time I had my accident.)
I tried to speak out to them but I couldn't. The doctors saw my lips and guessed correctly that I was trying to speak. "You won't be able to speak outright. Try starting with simple words and letters. Don't worry, this is natural for someone recovering from paralysis."
Paralysis?
Was I paralyzed? I tried to speak, but I remembered that I couldn't. What had happened to me?
Then I remembered - it was that hiking trip. I was in summer camp and took a hiking trip with my friends Darrel and Greg. We had been lagging behind, and I didn't hear warnings of a deep pit nearby. As luck would have it, we crossed an old bridge and the part I was standing on broke under my weight. I fell headfirst into the pit.
I tried curling my big toe to see what I could do. I was surprised when I did it instantly. I tried turning my head around, and I did it!
"I see the cure has worked," the doctor near me said with clear enthusiasm, "with new medical technologies, we have been able to cure paralysis!"
All the shock that had hit me soon abated in place of relief. I was overjoyed that I could even move myself. I slowly got out of the hospital bed and started to walk, with my parents encouraging me. I was a little wobbly at first, but I managed to walk across the entire room. Then, I turned around and walked again. The second time was a little better than the first. In fact, I exhibited such grace for someone recovering from paralysis that the doctors said I could leave the hospital today!
After I left the hospital, I felt light and free like a bird. I had survived an accident and I was free to move on!
"Are you sure it is safe to let him go?" a doctor said. He was with four other doctors, with all five huddled together. All the doctors were in a room without windows and only one door, which had been securely fastened.
"He was fine during the test," another doctor pointed out. "I didn't see any problems."
This didn't satisfy one of the doctors. "What if a problem occurs at home? What if the-" a third doctor began, but was interrupted abruptly by another doctor who looked extremely preoccupied.
"Quiet!" the fourth doctor hissed. "We have to keep this quiet. You know we didn't get federal permission to perform that operation! We could be jailed for performing an unlicensed operation!"
"Besides," the fifth doctor said. "His parents know what really happened. If they want to inform the boy, let them. I'm sure they won't tell the government about this, especially after all the negotiating we had to do with them."
There was some silence before another doctor spoke. "If a problem occurs outside of the hospital, he will be escorted here, obviously," the second doctor said with a hint of arrogance. "Keep quiet about this, everything work out fine in the end. Imagine the condition he would be in if we didn't do that operation!"
"I still don't feel..." the first doctor said. "No, we should leave. I don't feel like talking about this right now. Let's meet up later sometime." The five doctors went on doing other work.
My name is Daniel. I am a thirteen-year-old boy who lives in New York City, in an expensive house and a nice neighborhood. I do well in school, I love to have fun and play sports. I like challenges and rarely get frightened, but I would have been scared to death if I had known what was going to happen during the next week.
What first led to my horrible fate were Darrel and Greg coming over to my house the day after I left the hospital. They couldn't believe it when they saw me completely injury free and walking around normally. "You must be the luckiest kid in the world!" Greg exclaimed, with good reason. The three of us hung out until my mom said that there was going to be a party at her friend's house. Darrel, Greg, and I were all invited.
The party was a blast. There was a pool there, a huge backyard, everything! The barbeque food was fantastic. I was about to eat my third hamburger of the day when I got a headache. It was slight at first, but then it grew stronger. I also felt sharp pains in my stomach. I dropped my hamburger and went in and out of consciousness.
"Mom!" I screamed. She immediately came over, and my head felt even worse, like someone was screaming in my ear. Mom drove me back home, and dad called the hospital.
"We can't do this!" Mom screamed. "Did you just see what happened to Daniel?"
"Honey, the doctors said that the 'spell' Dan had was expected," Dad replied. "This means that the doctors know exactly what was going on!"
"Those severe headaches are not 'okay,' they are harming him! Mom replied. "We have to get that thing out of him!"
"Don't!" Dad roared. The two looked at each other with angry and sad faces. "This is what helped him come back to normal life! Doing that would take away the normal life and possibly cripple him! Just give it a chance!"
"I still don't like it," Mom said sternly. However, she soon dropped the argument.
I felt better after some rest and in a few minutes I was playing on the computer at 2 A.M. (I often play when my parents are asleep.) For a few hours, I was in a great mood, until a thought came to me - school!
I forgot all about it! My parents had told me that I would have to start school just like anyone else. Today was the day school started. I hadn't done any shopping yet, where were all my supplies (As is the case with many teenagees, I hate shopping)! Then my mom woke up.
"Don't worry," she said reassuringly. "I bought all of your supplies while you were in the hospital. I had a feeling you would be back in time for school, but I'll understand if you don't want to go, just for this one day."
"No," I replied. "There's no way I am going to miss the first day of school."
The first day of school wasn't bad. Only a handful of my classmates actually knew about the accident that I had over the summer, and they had the good sense to keep quiet. Physical education was my last class of the day, and we played football - one of my favorite sports.
Halfway through the class I noticed something odd. Everyone around me was panting like a dog and sweating. But I didn't feel tired at all and there was only the tiniest bit of sweat on me. Guys that looked like they were in better shape than me were pooped out. I couldn't figure out why this was the case, but perhaps everyone else gained weight over the summer. It was pretty much the only explanation I could think of, as there was no way I could be so much stronger than I was before, especially after I had been hospitalized for days! I didn't give this phenomenon any more thought, for a while.
I was in a good mood after gym class, and when I got back home from school I went straight up to my computer and decided to go online to a role-playing game. I opened the browser, and something caught my eye. There was a pop-up ad that said "CYBORGS GO WILD!" I knew that cyborgs were people that are half-human and half-robot.
I clicked on the link to find out more about this. The article said that scientists had designed a new way to rejuvenate paralyzed limbs by robotic means. The scientists performing that operation would insert a computer chip inside a paralyzed test animal, and the chip would stimulate the body to move again. "This is all so cool!" I murmured. The last part of the article quoted: "This advanced technology will be implemented in human beings in the near future."
Amazing! I thought.
If I hadn't been so excited and immersed on my computer screen, I would have noticed my mother behind me, staring at me silently. She saw me reading the article, and then went downstairs quietly, with an intensely worried look on her face.
That night, while I was in bed with a nearby lamp on, I was still wondering about that article on the internet. It sounded cool, being half human, and half robot. I was also thinking about how I had just about owned everyone else in my class in football class. Maybe I did gain some muscle mass over the summer. Just for fun, and to test out my theory, I squeezed my left forearm. It was normal...wait! I stopped. I had hit something hard. I squeezed my arm again, and I was sure that mysterious hard object I felt was not my bone. It felt like a thin, rectangular box! I moved my arm in a position that my lamp would be able to focus most of its light on. Upon doing so, I also noticed a thin long scar on my forearm, directly above the box! It was hardly visible, which explained why I hadn't noticed it before, but it was there nonetheless.
Suddenly, I became frightened. I started testing the rest of my body. My hopes went crashing down in the pit of the earth after I found more signs of strange objects lodged within me.
What does that mean? I thought. Am I a robot?
Stop that! Another voice in my mind argued. You're not a robot and you know that!
Then how do you explain all these things in your body? Another voice said in my mind.
No! You are normal! Don't think like you're a cyborg!
Stoooop! The voices raged. I started to get a headache from the conflicts. This continued for most of the night. I don't know how I could have slept.
I woke up at dawn after getting only a handful of hours of sleep, and the first thing I heard was my parents arguing. This is unusual, I thought. They're not the fighting type....I went downstairs. "What's going-"
"Sit down and eat breakfast!" Mom roared.
I was stunned. "Why are-"
"Eat!" Dad told me. "Then we're going to the hospital for your surgery!"
"Is there something I don't know that...." Once again I couldn't finish my sentence. My parents had suddenly froze in front of me, with their shocked expressions signaling someonthing ominous. I gathered the courage to speak. "Look, if you won't tell me what you know I won't go to the hospital!"
Then I bolted up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, my head started to spin. A pain shot through my head. I screamed and clutched my head. I stumbled backwards, and fell over the railing and went straight to the floor below!
"Why on earth did we do this?" the doctor said, who happened to be one of those doctors who opposed the surgery in the first place. "Why why why?"
"I can't believe it," another doctor glumly mumbled. He went on, remembering the situation as it happened. "I thought for sure the operation would succeed. We should never have attempted this daring feat. It was too dangerous and unpredictable. When that kid was here after his accident, he was undeniably paralyzed. Our medical team inserted computer chips all over his body and linked them together wirelessly with powerful software. With this setup, the kid could move at will, and we were sure that these amazing new computer chips combined with artificial intelligence would cure him. He only controlled part of his body, and the computer chips controlled the rest, like a robot, or a cyborg so to speak. There were sure to be side effects, like severe headaches and little sweating, that resulted from a lack of body cells where there were computer chips. I just can't believe we did this, we were so STUPID to do this! I - no, we've learned our lesson. Unfortunately, the only thing we can do now is wait."
That horrible hiking accident changed my life. The computer chips were taken out of me. Then I was paralyzed for life. It was hard to grasp at first, but eventually I got used to the situation. I am reciting these words in the year 2027. My doctors are saying that I only have a few days left to live.
This story is copright to me, Daniel Tak. You may not re-post this story anywhere unless I give you permission.
I, CYBORG
I remember the hiking trip like it was yesterday. I regretted that trip for a long time afterwards. Unfortunately, you can't change the past. Whatever you did, whatever happened, you can't change it. I wish this wasn't true. I've always wanted to go back into the past and change that dreadful trip, but I can't. It's a fact of life. It was the year 2019....
***
I woke up and saw the color white, everywhere. Slowly, with my eyes rapidly adjusting to their new surroundings, my vision cleared and I realized I was in a hospital room, lying on a bed. I feel terrible! I thought. I tried to lift my head, but I couldn't.
What was going on?
"He's awake!" someone cried out. Not a second later, my parents were in the room. They hugged and kissed me, with tears flowing from their eyes like bricks. (My parents later told me I had been unconscious for the two weeks from the time I had my accident.)
I tried to speak out to them but I couldn't. The doctors saw my lips and guessed correctly that I was trying to speak. "You won't be able to speak outright. Try starting with simple words and letters. Don't worry, this is natural for someone recovering from paralysis."
Paralysis?
Was I paralyzed? I tried to speak, but I remembered that I couldn't. What had happened to me?
Then I remembered - it was that hiking trip. I was in summer camp and took a hiking trip with my friends Darrel and Greg. We had been lagging behind, and I didn't hear warnings of a deep pit nearby. As luck would have it, we crossed an old bridge and the part I was standing on broke under my weight. I fell headfirst into the pit.
I tried curling my big toe to see what I could do. I was surprised when I did it instantly. I tried turning my head around, and I did it!
"I see the cure has worked," the doctor near me said with clear enthusiasm, "with new medical technologies, we have been able to cure paralysis!"
All the shock that had hit me soon abated in place of relief. I was overjoyed that I could even move myself. I slowly got out of the hospital bed and started to walk, with my parents encouraging me. I was a little wobbly at first, but I managed to walk across the entire room. Then, I turned around and walked again. The second time was a little better than the first. In fact, I exhibited such grace for someone recovering from paralysis that the doctors said I could leave the hospital today!
After I left the hospital, I felt light and free like a bird. I had survived an accident and I was free to move on!
***
"Are you sure it is safe to let him go?" a doctor said. He was with four other doctors, with all five huddled together. All the doctors were in a room without windows and only one door, which had been securely fastened.
"He was fine during the test," another doctor pointed out. "I didn't see any problems."
This didn't satisfy one of the doctors. "What if a problem occurs at home? What if the-" a third doctor began, but was interrupted abruptly by another doctor who looked extremely preoccupied.
"Quiet!" the fourth doctor hissed. "We have to keep this quiet. You know we didn't get federal permission to perform that operation! We could be jailed for performing an unlicensed operation!"
"Besides," the fifth doctor said. "His parents know what really happened. If they want to inform the boy, let them. I'm sure they won't tell the government about this, especially after all the negotiating we had to do with them."
There was some silence before another doctor spoke. "If a problem occurs outside of the hospital, he will be escorted here, obviously," the second doctor said with a hint of arrogance. "Keep quiet about this, everything work out fine in the end. Imagine the condition he would be in if we didn't do that operation!"
"I still don't feel..." the first doctor said. "No, we should leave. I don't feel like talking about this right now. Let's meet up later sometime." The five doctors went on doing other work.
***
My name is Daniel. I am a thirteen-year-old boy who lives in New York City, in an expensive house and a nice neighborhood. I do well in school, I love to have fun and play sports. I like challenges and rarely get frightened, but I would have been scared to death if I had known what was going to happen during the next week.
What first led to my horrible fate were Darrel and Greg coming over to my house the day after I left the hospital. They couldn't believe it when they saw me completely injury free and walking around normally. "You must be the luckiest kid in the world!" Greg exclaimed, with good reason. The three of us hung out until my mom said that there was going to be a party at her friend's house. Darrel, Greg, and I were all invited.
The party was a blast. There was a pool there, a huge backyard, everything! The barbeque food was fantastic. I was about to eat my third hamburger of the day when I got a headache. It was slight at first, but then it grew stronger. I also felt sharp pains in my stomach. I dropped my hamburger and went in and out of consciousness.
"Mom!" I screamed. She immediately came over, and my head felt even worse, like someone was screaming in my ear. Mom drove me back home, and dad called the hospital.
***
"We can't do this!" Mom screamed. "Did you just see what happened to Daniel?"
"Honey, the doctors said that the 'spell' Dan had was expected," Dad replied. "This means that the doctors know exactly what was going on!"
"Those severe headaches are not 'okay,' they are harming him! Mom replied. "We have to get that thing out of him!"
"Don't!" Dad roared. The two looked at each other with angry and sad faces. "This is what helped him come back to normal life! Doing that would take away the normal life and possibly cripple him! Just give it a chance!"
"I still don't like it," Mom said sternly. However, she soon dropped the argument.
***
I felt better after some rest and in a few minutes I was playing on the computer at 2 A.M. (I often play when my parents are asleep.) For a few hours, I was in a great mood, until a thought came to me - school!
I forgot all about it! My parents had told me that I would have to start school just like anyone else. Today was the day school started. I hadn't done any shopping yet, where were all my supplies (As is the case with many teenagees, I hate shopping)! Then my mom woke up.
"Don't worry," she said reassuringly. "I bought all of your supplies while you were in the hospital. I had a feeling you would be back in time for school, but I'll understand if you don't want to go, just for this one day."
"No," I replied. "There's no way I am going to miss the first day of school."
The first day of school wasn't bad. Only a handful of my classmates actually knew about the accident that I had over the summer, and they had the good sense to keep quiet. Physical education was my last class of the day, and we played football - one of my favorite sports.
Halfway through the class I noticed something odd. Everyone around me was panting like a dog and sweating. But I didn't feel tired at all and there was only the tiniest bit of sweat on me. Guys that looked like they were in better shape than me were pooped out. I couldn't figure out why this was the case, but perhaps everyone else gained weight over the summer. It was pretty much the only explanation I could think of, as there was no way I could be so much stronger than I was before, especially after I had been hospitalized for days! I didn't give this phenomenon any more thought, for a while.
I was in a good mood after gym class, and when I got back home from school I went straight up to my computer and decided to go online to a role-playing game. I opened the browser, and something caught my eye. There was a pop-up ad that said "CYBORGS GO WILD!" I knew that cyborgs were people that are half-human and half-robot.
I clicked on the link to find out more about this. The article said that scientists had designed a new way to rejuvenate paralyzed limbs by robotic means. The scientists performing that operation would insert a computer chip inside a paralyzed test animal, and the chip would stimulate the body to move again. "This is all so cool!" I murmured. The last part of the article quoted: "This advanced technology will be implemented in human beings in the near future."
Amazing! I thought.
If I hadn't been so excited and immersed on my computer screen, I would have noticed my mother behind me, staring at me silently. She saw me reading the article, and then went downstairs quietly, with an intensely worried look on her face.
***
That night, while I was in bed with a nearby lamp on, I was still wondering about that article on the internet. It sounded cool, being half human, and half robot. I was also thinking about how I had just about owned everyone else in my class in football class. Maybe I did gain some muscle mass over the summer. Just for fun, and to test out my theory, I squeezed my left forearm. It was normal...wait! I stopped. I had hit something hard. I squeezed my arm again, and I was sure that mysterious hard object I felt was not my bone. It felt like a thin, rectangular box! I moved my arm in a position that my lamp would be able to focus most of its light on. Upon doing so, I also noticed a thin long scar on my forearm, directly above the box! It was hardly visible, which explained why I hadn't noticed it before, but it was there nonetheless.
Suddenly, I became frightened. I started testing the rest of my body. My hopes went crashing down in the pit of the earth after I found more signs of strange objects lodged within me.
What does that mean? I thought. Am I a robot?
Stop that! Another voice in my mind argued. You're not a robot and you know that!
Then how do you explain all these things in your body? Another voice said in my mind.
No! You are normal! Don't think like you're a cyborg!
Stoooop! The voices raged. I started to get a headache from the conflicts. This continued for most of the night. I don't know how I could have slept.
I woke up at dawn after getting only a handful of hours of sleep, and the first thing I heard was my parents arguing. This is unusual, I thought. They're not the fighting type....I went downstairs. "What's going-"
"Sit down and eat breakfast!" Mom roared.
I was stunned. "Why are-"
"Eat!" Dad told me. "Then we're going to the hospital for your surgery!"
"Is there something I don't know that...." Once again I couldn't finish my sentence. My parents had suddenly froze in front of me, with their shocked expressions signaling someonthing ominous. I gathered the courage to speak. "Look, if you won't tell me what you know I won't go to the hospital!"
Then I bolted up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, my head started to spin. A pain shot through my head. I screamed and clutched my head. I stumbled backwards, and fell over the railing and went straight to the floor below!
***
"Why on earth did we do this?" the doctor said, who happened to be one of those doctors who opposed the surgery in the first place. "Why why why?"
"I can't believe it," another doctor glumly mumbled. He went on, remembering the situation as it happened. "I thought for sure the operation would succeed. We should never have attempted this daring feat. It was too dangerous and unpredictable. When that kid was here after his accident, he was undeniably paralyzed. Our medical team inserted computer chips all over his body and linked them together wirelessly with powerful software. With this setup, the kid could move at will, and we were sure that these amazing new computer chips combined with artificial intelligence would cure him. He only controlled part of his body, and the computer chips controlled the rest, like a robot, or a cyborg so to speak. There were sure to be side effects, like severe headaches and little sweating, that resulted from a lack of body cells where there were computer chips. I just can't believe we did this, we were so STUPID to do this! I - no, we've learned our lesson. Unfortunately, the only thing we can do now is wait."
***
That horrible hiking accident changed my life. The computer chips were taken out of me. Then I was paralyzed for life. It was hard to grasp at first, but eventually I got used to the situation. I am reciting these words in the year 2027. My doctors are saying that I only have a few days left to live.
THE END