Matt lay motionless on his back in absolute terror as the doctor spoke.
He could see his mother crying, hear the words of the consultant. He tried frantically to move, to grab their attention.
"... I'm so sorry Mrs. Madsen. While your son's injuries are mostly superficial, I'm afraid the impact did some serious damage at the base of his skull. We have no easy way of assessing the extent of the damage to his brain, but it's clear that at the very least he's lost all motor-function and I'm afraid there's no prospect of that situation improving..."
How could this be? The car hadn't hit him hard! It hadn't even hurt.
He tried to get up. Couldn't waste time sitting around here! He had a date. A date with Bethany! He couldn't be late, after all the time it'd taken him to pluck up the courage to ask her out!
"... There's no way for us to tell if he's completely gone, or if he can see and hear us perfectly. I'm afraid there's very little we can do for him at this point..."
Must... Get... Up... ! But nothing moved. Not even a single finger by a single fraction of an inch.
Okay, thought Matt to himself. Stay calm. It'll pass. You're 22, you're healthy. Bethany will understand. You can explain all about the accident next week.
What happened first was that the machine next to the bed began beeping manically, then as Matt's awareness faded into nothingness, he had only one thought: "I'm dead!"
