Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

at the manor. He walked into his bedroom, seeing the small twin bed there. His old computer was set up in the corner on a card table with a folding chair. How long did I live like this?

He flicked on the computer, thinking maybe he could check his emails. The sheer amount of junk there discouraged him from really searching. He was about to turn it off when Nick spoke up.

“I can sort that for you,” Nick grumbled. “What do you want?”

“Just if there’s anything from my friends; Dave, Chuck, or Jim.”

“Here you go.” Two messages were highlighted. Both from Dave.

“You can delete the rest,” Gus said as he opened the first one.

Gus,

How’s life on the station? Can you even get emails up there? Well, life sucks for the rest of the gang. That other job we got didn’t pan out so we’re back looking for gainful employment. It’s been a dry spell, work-wise.

Jim’s been in an accident and he’s still in the hospital. He’s in intensive care and they won’t let anyone in to see him that’s not family. Chuck has just disappeared, emails get returned and his phone comes back disconnected. It’s lonely out here bud. I hope you’re doing well. Anyways, if you get this drop me a line sometime.

Your bro,

Dave

Looking at the date he saw that was before he had called Dave from the island. Gus saw that the next email was fairly recent.

Gus,

Hey, where are you man? Well, I’ve got some bad news. My sentencing was today and I’m going away. It may not be that bad. Here’s to hoping, right? Anyways, I wanted to catch you before I had to go, but no such luck. I don’t know when I’ll be back, they haven’t really given me a lot of details about the process. My counsel said to plan on a year, maybe more, so I’m letting my place go. I hope to see you on the other side of this. Look me up in a year or so. I’ll keep this email around and check it when I get back. So, yeah. I’m glad you’re okay, man. And cool thing with the powers. I wish we could have met up, but it is what it is. Good luck with everything and don’t forget the little people!

Later brotha-man,

Dave

Gus flushed a bit. He was somewhere in Hinansho when Dave had sent this, doing his own thing. A stab of disappointment made his heart ache that he hadn’t been there for one of his few friends. Par for the course, Gus.

With nothing else to do, he decided to look up Jim and Chuck to see if he could touch base with either of them. Doing a quick search, he quickly found that Dave was right. Chuck wasn’t even listed. He looked up the address of the hospital and jotted it down. No time like the present.

A twenty-minute ride later, he stood in front of the hospital where Jim was supposed to be. A feeling of revulsion hit his stomach as he looked at the hospital.

Too soon.

He braced himself and walked inside.

Calm down, Gus, not every hospital has nefarious things going on behind the scenes.

He had to wait in a long line at the harried intake desk. They were obviously understaffed and overworked. Tensions were high from both sides. One who had to deal with brazen rudeness and the others who had to waste valuable time in an inefficient system. Gus observed everything from his new perspective.

How would anyone fix this? This was the kind of problem that the everyman has to deal with on a daily basis. While supers go about their business, he couldn’t recall anything done along these lines. He tried to think of possibilities, but came up with very few constructive ideas. Even with BoJack’s level of healing ability, one person would barely put a dent in helping the sheer amount of people here.

He wondered if hospitals were like this in districts controlled by the Green or Orange Factions. Were less resources allocated here because of Purple’s credo of Might Makes Right? Were the chronically sick viewed as non-contributors to society, so they merited less attention? He honestly didn’t know, and felt a little shame at being so oblivious to something that was clearly a big problem.

“May I help you?”

Gus realized the receptionist was talking to him.

“Oh, sorry. Yes. I have a good friend that was checked in here. I wanted to see if I could possibly visit him? I just got back from an extended tour of duty.” He had planned what he would say, and thought phrasing it as if he were a veteran would get him some more leniency to visit.

“Name and birthdate,” she asked in a bored voice.

“Jim Roark, July 24th, 2018.”

The woman tapped on some keys, then wrinkled her nose. She tapped more keys, hitting them harder, then turned to Gus.

“I’m showing that he was admitted a couple months ago, but I have no information on where he is located or his visitor status. Are you sure he didn’t get discharged?”

“I don’t think so? I mean, I have a squad mate who told me he was here before he got… deployed again, but I didn’t get to talk to him before he left.”

“Uh-huh…” she said distractedly as she hit the keys a bit more. “I don’t know what to tell you. This system was outdated ten years ago. It’s possible that someone didn’t process his paperwork correctly, or that he was moved somewhere and they didn’t enter that information correctly. As you can see, we are very busy today.” She grabbed a business card and slid it over to Gus. “I recommend you contact this number; they could possibly help you better. I’m very sorry I can’t do more, sir… next!” She waved at the next person in line and Gus distractedly looked at the card.

Patient Relations

Sarah Turner

He absently slid the card into his pocket. Walking out, the doors slid open silently and he left. He stood there