Name: Doug Ramsey What: Doug's Crazy Adventure: The Finale Where: New York City When: August 15th and the morning of the 16th Warnings: None, really, but let's go with a rating of PG-13, just because. Complete Narrative
He groaned. It was all done, he could relax, right? He could finish and be done. The energy slid through him one more time, and then poured out and away, fading and vanishing as quickly as it had come. It was done.
But he cried out as his body spasmed, as weeks of bad treatment caught up to him, and made him groan, and fall, almost overturning a chair on his way. He drug himself up with handholds along his equipment, out of the room, and out of his new home, out of this strange new place where he was now, out and up, to the streets, where people moved, even this late. Somehow, not knowing how, he made it there.
He staggered as he walked along those streets, not sure where he was going, but wanting rest, wanting... something. He was stumbling, tripping, and falling, again and again, and feeling his mind reel with each step...
He was not sure how long he staggered, how long he walked, how long he felt everything reel around him. All he knew was that his whole mind felt as if it was in a fog,. The strange inhuman clarity that had been his for so long was gone, and all he felt was confusion and pain.
He turned a corner and lights flashed in his eyes, and he staggered, again, and fell, but this time, he heard noise, and voices, and running feet This time there were sirens and lights... and hands, strong and sure, carried him into the light, even as he fell into the darkness...
***
He woke slowly, groaning, things like a dream to him, and yet... he remembered it all. As if another person had done it, but all of it. And he smiled, suddenly, realizing what he had done. He knew he had been asleep for some time, but not how long.
He was hurting, confused, and felt battered in mind and body, but right then, none of that mattered.
Across the world, in several places, buildings stood now, new houses built at impossible speed that were filled with technology years ahead of it's time, tech that allowed someone, located in a place where they had a proper connection, someone with the right codes, to watch the public world, and to communicate, everywhere there was modern life.
And somewhere, waiting to be distributed, waiting to be handed out, was new equipment, designed, some all ready in place, some waiting in specific spots, some just waiting.
And somewhere, at a place he could call home again, a room waited for him.
He marveled at it all. He knew the almost supernatural knowledge was gone. That force, that strangeness that had driven him for weeks, was gone utterly. He was left with just a little of that expanded awareness, and with a reason to go on, a reason to fight.
And he grinned as he let the pain draw him back down. Everything would work.