Extensis Vitae

Chapter 5



Reznik woke up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after eight months in a coma. The doctors told him they thought the only reason he survived was that he had fallen from the chopper an instant before it had crashed and exploded into the mountainside. ‘Survived’ was about all they could say about his condition. He was paralyzed from the waist down due to the shrapnel that had severed his spinal cord. It had been necessary to amputate his left arm just above the elbow, since it had nearly been torn off and had been hanging from a shred of flesh. He had been blinded in his right eye; an ugly scar stretched from his eye socket back to where his right ear had been sheared off. Severe burns covered about sixty percent of his body. He later found out that all his comrades were dead and buried.

Amanda eventually showed up to visit him after he was awake. He could see the pity in her eyes as they spoke awkwardly for a short time. After about a half hour or so, she told him that she had moved on with her life since she hadn’t known how long it would take or if he would ever come out of the coma. He knew that it was more than her uncertainty about the coma. It was more about him being just a ruined shell of the man he had once been. At least she had the decency to not mention that part of it.

“I’m so sorry, Michael,” she had said before fleeing the hospital room, her blue eyes filled with tears. That was the last time he ever saw her.

They fitted him with a prosthetic arm, but it was fairly crude and awkward. He had been placed on the waiting list for one of the more advanced models.

During the tough months of recovery and physical therapy that followed, he tried to find a reason to stay positive. More often than not though, he found himself wishing he had died with his comrades in the crash. Why should I be spared? he wondered. What kind of life is this? This is more of a curse than anything.

Besides the fresh pain from the breakup with Amanda, he was always haunted by memory of the face of his longtime friend Nash as he pitched out the door of the Black Hawk, his eyes wide and his hand reaching out. He knew that it wouldn’t have made a difference if he had been able to haul his friend back in the chopper —they had all been doomed, anyway. But that truth never prevented the recurring nightmares of that fatal day, along with the horrible, powerless feeling that he had let his friend die.

His serious injuries combined with the loss of his friend and his breakup with Amanda all propelled him into a deep depression. He was put on Prozac to help with the depression, but the cocktail of drugs he was on made him physically ill most of the time. On a good day, he would simply feel numb to the world.

After several months of rehab, Reznik was waiting to go down to lunch on one of his good days, when a knock sounded at his door. He turned his wheelchair and called out for the visitor to enter.

The door opened and a well-dressed man in an expensive suit entered. He was clean-shaven with his hair combed back. A pair of wire-rimmed glasses was perched on his nose. The face, however, was familiar to Reznik.

“Mr. Reznik! I was so sorry to hear the news about you and your team. Such brave young men—what a tragedy. Truly our nation’s finest. I will never forget the day that you saved my life in Afghanistan.”

“Mr. Black, was it?” Reznik asked.

“Ah, yes…it was Black, but I’m Mr. White now.” He grinned. “Reassigned to a new project, you see.”

Reznik couldn’t help but smile at the man’s infectious charm. Whoever this mysterious man with the powerful connections really was, Reznik appreciated his visit. “What can I do for you, sir? As you can see, I can barely even help myself anymore, let alone anyone else.”

He saw genuine sadness in White’s eyes. “Well, my friend, I once vowed that if I could ever repay you for saving my life, then I would do whatever was in my power to make it happen. A life for a life. I’m just sorry I can’t offer the same to the rest of your team.”

“Sir, I’m not sure what it is that you think you can do for me. Unless maybe get my discharge paperwork pushed through. I’m just waiting for the Army to get around to finishing up my paperwork so I can go rot somewhere when I’m released.”

“What if I offered you the chance to continue serving your country?” White’s eyes sparkled mischievously behind his glasses. “You might be thinking ‘I’ve given enough for my country already,’ and you wouldn’t be wrong. This nation owes you a debt as much as I do—one that can never truly be repaid. If you will just hear me out, you might be interested, though. You see, we’ve been making some truly incredible breakthroughs in my new program, and the world will soon see that the true worth of a nation’s fighting men and women lies in the warriors’ hearts and minds more than anything else. This will be a total game changer in the field of biomedicine! Not to mention the history of warfare. Come, join my team, and you’ll find out for yourself.”



***



When Reznik awoke, the room was silent except for the ubiquitous hum of the distant machinery. He realized it was dawn from the faint light coming in from the window projection in the other room.

In the dim light, he looked down at his strong, unblemished body, and wondered for the hundredth time what the hell had happened to him.

Amanda, he thought. Where are you now? But then the truth from his flashback began to settle in. She’s gone…she left you broken and alone in that hospital, another voice said in his mind. Even if she hadn’t left you, she’s been dead for well over twenty years now.

He lay there in the dark, trying to face the new reality of his life. What do I do now? My whole life is gone. As he thought of things left undone, he slowly came to realize that virtually everything of meaning in his life had died in that helicopter crash. His fiancée, friends, career, goals in life—everything. All of it was just a memory now.

Just think: this is a chance for a fresh start. Remember, your future is a blank slate—it has yet to be written. You can leave all of this in the past and make of your future what you will. Think how many people get a chance like this. The voice was something he remembered from his past, but any details of the memory eluded him.

He tried to recall Amanda’s face, but it was hazy now. The only thing that came to mind was another face—a kind one, with deep green eyes framed by chestnut hair.

And with that thought fresh in his mind, he knew what he had to do. He called for the light, and in the soft illumination, went to the intercom panel and called Myrna Kane.

She answered quickly, voice heavy with sleep. “Yes—is everything all right?”

“There’s nothing left for me up there on the surface any longer,” he replied. “I’ll do it.”