Chapter 13: Recovery

Drake stared out the window with a blank face. Outside, in the front yard, were a flock of birds, feeding on something on the ground, and chirping happily. It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was out in clear skies. A perfect time to forget one’s problems and go outside and relax.

“Drake!” Someone called. “Are you daydreaming again?” A woman stepped into the living room where Drake was, sitting on the couch and looking outside with his arms and head on the windowsill. It was his mother.

“Ah. Huh? What was I doing again?” Drake stepped back into reality. It felt like he’d been through a strange dream.

“You know, rather than wasting your weekend time like this, you should use it to go and study. Your grades are getting worse by the day! I can’t always watch over you. You need to learn to work hard and live. You’ll need it, especially for your job.”

“Ah. That’s right. I didn’t tell you. I have a job now, Mom!” Drake said excitedly. “I realized that I was wasting my time, but now, I’m working hard, just like you always wanted me to!”

“Are you, now? That’s great!” She walked towards the front door. “Come, let’s go outside as a treat. You deserve a small break for that work, but sitting around idly won’t do you any good.” Drake followed her outside the house.

“So, what is your job, then?” She asked, stepping down the patio.

“That… um… I’ve become a… soldier,” Drake said.

He suddenly had a headache trying to remember.

Emma stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “What? A soldier? That’s dangerous! Why’d you choose that job, of all things?”

“It was…” The harder Drake tried to remember, the more it hurt. “I think… it was to get revenge… or something.”

“Revenge? For what?”

Drake was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of sadness. Tears formed in his eyes and blurred his vision.

“Mom,” he said, half crying, “I’ve missed you so much…”

“Missed me? What do you mean? I’ve always been here, with you.” She looked around. “Beil is where all your friends and family have always been, here, with you.” She mumbled something in the end: “Apart from that irresponsible father or yours…”

Drake wiped his tears. “I know, but-”

“Watch out!” his mother suddenly yelled.

She pushed him aside. He fell to the ground. He turned back to see that his mother was caught in the beak of a giant black bird.

“Huh?”

What just happened? Where did this thing come from?

The giant bird bit into the body of his mother. She was bleeding heavily.

With her dying breaths, she yelled: “Run, Drake!”.

Drake didn’t understand what was going on, but his legs reacted with a mind of their own, and he found himself running away from the scene. He was running across the front yard, yelling for help, but there didn’t seem to be anyone outside. The bird followed him. Drake stopped; he couldn’t move forward. He looked down to see a hand grabbing and holding onto his ankle. The hand belonged to a rotting corpse. The birds he was watching earlier were eating the body. He recognized the body, with its small size, and also recognized the face. It was Billie.

The mutilated face looked up at him. It slowly croaked: “Save me. You said you would protect me…” It cried in pain as the birds ripped off and fed on its flesh with their beaks.

Drake wanted to throw up. “I’m sorry.” He turned around, closed his eyes, and kicked the hand off his ankle. He continued running. “I’m sorry! I can’t help you!”. He was too busy being chased by the mutated crow. He couldn’t stop and help the young girl.

Drake ran and ran through the empty streets of Beil. He could hear the sound of the Crow chasing behind him, but he didn’t want to turn back. In the distance, he saw people. It was an army, behind a barricade. With renewed hope, he continued sprinting.

“Hey!” he waved.

By the time he reached them, he was completely out of breath. There were faces he recognized; it was the Defense Militia.

Commander Rein handed him weapons. “Quickly, we have to stop it.”

Drake drew his sword with determination and thrill. They could take on the spiteful Mayhem now. He turned around to face his enemy, but it wasn’t a bird that was standing there. In its place was a massive Gorilla, towering above anything else in the area. Drake couldn’t even see its face because it was so far up. Drake realized that the footsteps he’d heard until now belonged to this gargantuan. It picked up its foot and moved it over above them. Drake suddenly felt fear, as he realized they were all going to be stepped on. The monster dropped its foot. He watched it coming down, and closed his eyes, expecting to die, and hoping it would be painless. And…

* * *

Drake woke up, covered in sweat and bandages. He instinctively moved his hand to his neck, feeling for the comfort of his necklace, but it wasn’t there. He panicked, looking around for it.

“Chillax, man! How many times should I tell ya not ta move aroun’ so suddenly afta wakin’ up?” a familiar voice told him. It belonged to Dr. Poll. “If you’re lookin’ for your necklace, ‘ts over there, on the table.”

Drake turned to see his necklace on a bedside table. He took it, relieved. It was a birthday gift from his father. Being one of the few ways he could remember him when he was away, it became precious to him. His father had told him to keep it safe when he gave it to him.

Drake looked around. He was in the Rencia hospital, in the same room he’d woken up in previously.

“We’ve gotta stop meetin’ like this, bro. After ya wake up from a coma, I mean.”

Drake suddenly remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness. He was fighting a giant Gorilla and got eaten by it, and then blew himself up…?

Drake asked the most important question first: “The gorilla, did it…?”

“No need ta worry. It’s dead. Ya apparently killed it with your little explosion. Good show of heroism, by the way.”

Drake breathed a sigh of relief. He noticed Dr. Poll wasn’t wearing his headphones and listening to music like usual. They were just around his neck. When the doctor smiled, it looked genuine, too. Additionally, he felt… different, in a good way.

“What?” Poll asked, catching Drake’s gaze.

Drake shook his head. “Nothing. How long was I out?”

“Thirteen days. ‘Ts the seventeenth of July. Want me ta fill ya in on what happened?”

If he had been asked that a few months ago, Drake would have turned him down and asked his father instead. Poll was pretty weird, after all. But in that time, Drake had come to trust him. He found out that Poll was very frank in his conversations, and serious when he was not telling jokes. He knew when to use them. No matter how unprofessional he may seem, Drake could have faith in what he said.

“Yeah,” Drake affirmed.

“Great. Let’s see…” Poll pulled out a clipboard.

Did he actually write it all down? Drake thought. He must’ve prepared for this. What commitment.

“Us common folk found out ‘bout the Gorilla Mayhem a few hours afta the event happened, ta keep us calm.” Drake winced as he heard ‘common folk’. “They didn’t tell us durin’ it, but we were all pretty worried about the loud sounds coming from ova’ the Walls, y’know. Anyways, you and the others of the Defense Militia ‘pparently fought it bravely!”

If you call that fighting. It was mostly throwing bombs. I expected sword fighting to be cooler, Drake thought.

“You were unfortunately caught in the Mayhem’s hand, despite all of your efforts ta be vigilant an’ evade. However, ya came up with a brilliant plan: to drop a bomb inta’ the Mayhem’s mouth to blow up the soft insides, but unfortunately, your plan failed. Your jetpack experienced a malfunction, an’ ya fell right inta the monster’s mouth. You were able ta amazin’ly time it ta go into there whole, without gettin’ bit, but your comrades in da Militia thought you were a goner. They continued fighting rather than mournin’, but as the Mayhem neared the Walls, they still couldn’t do nothin’. As a surprise, ‘ts chest exploded from the inside! You blew up its heart and lungs, and killed it! Commanda… Rain, is it? He looked for ya body, hoping that his precious student was still alive, an’ found ya, still breathing, surprisingly!”.

Drake couldn’t comment. The story the government fed to the people seemed altered to make the Militia look good. He sounded like a hero, when in truth he had no idea what he was doing at the time, and just went with the flow. Still, it felt great that humanity won their first battle against their enemies, and Drake had been at the forefront of it.

“Uh, huh…”

Drake looked at his forearm, which was covered in bandages. So were his legs.

“Ah. As fa your diagnostic, ya got first an’ a few second-degree burns. Those’ll mostly heal, but a few’ll remain as scars. Also, you broke a few bones.

“You really did it this time. I’m personally surprised you’re still ‘live. You’ll be healed in ‘bout a month. ‘Till then, I recommend staying here an’ restin’. If ya really gotta move, I’ll give ya crutches. Don’t think ya need much traction though, maybe a few splints’ll be ‘nough…”

“I see.” He looked at the pitiful state of his body. He was glad he survived, but it was a really close call. He remembered the feeling of not wanting to die and wondered if risking his life fighting Mayhems was really worth it. He was physically and mentally fatigued now, and once again uncertain about what he wanted to do.

“Now that ‘at’s over, can I ask ya somethin’? Why’d ya blow yourself up? You coulda’ died, y’know.”

“Ah, well I would have died anyway if I fell into the Mayhem’s stomach. I probably thought I could take my enemy down with me.”

“You sure that’s it? No normal person thinks that way when he’s about to die like that.”

That was true. This wasn’t the train of thought Drake had back then. He would have given up and died after finding out there was no way for him to live, but it was his fear of what will happen afterward, that is, the destruction of Rencia, that forced him into finding the option of using the chemical reaction. Drake told this to Dr. Poll.

“Ah, that makes sense. If I can offer an opinion, I think you did whatcha did ‘cuz you were afraid of what’d happen to your friends ‘n family.”

This made sense to Drake. He remembered thinking about them when he gave up in the throat, but also in the hand of the Mayhem, and even beforehand (pun not intended). The reason he was caught by the Gorilla was that he was focused on killing it. And the reason he was so focused on killing it was because it posed a big threat to Rencia. Usually, he’d attack Mayhems because he hated them, but after Franz and Lilac died, and the Gorilla’s stare frightened him, he decided he’d be careful with killing it. But when it threatened his new home, he threw away caution. The concept of fighting for the sake of humanity rather than revenge was new to Drake, and he finally understood it. It was a fresh perspective.

“You know, Doctor Poll, I think you’re right.”