BROTHERS TOGETHER: US AGAINST DOOM

Waking Up To Doomsday

The nurse entered Constantine's room and pushed the trolley towards his bed. Looking at the prone figure lying silently on the bed, the nurse made her way to his side and looked down at him from above.

The nurse was admiring Constantine's handsome visage with misty eyes and there was an imperceptible glint of appreciation and pity in her eyes.

Looking at Constantine, who had a peaceful expression on his face as he lay quietly on the hospital bed, the nurse sighed at his misfortune.

Sigh!

"How tragic that this had to happen to you... you're so young, so handsome, you should be full of life and out there chasing your dreams and being the dreams of other girls. Instead, you're here alone with nothing but the cold hospital walls to keep you company."

"It is really such a pity."

The nurse looked at Constantine with pity for a moment before she got to work and started cleaning him up.

Getting her tools from the trolley, the nurse started undressing Constantine with well-practiced hands. This was not the first time she was doing this for him and like she always did, the nurse started talking to Constantine, knowing full well he could not hear her.

But still, she did it anyway, simply to pass the time and kill boredom.

"You know, eh, ever since the whole world went crazy, things are becoming even harder to cope with. The curfews are becoming longer and on every inch of the street, there would be armed soldiers patrolling the streets. Occasionally you can hear the sounds of the soldiers fighting on the streets with their guns shooting at night. It is said that at night is when the dooms are the most active and some of them will bypass the blockade set up by the government and attack residents in their homes."

"Just last night, I was woken up by the sound of gunfire and I heard the soldiers as they fought against the dooms. I could hear the terrifying howls of the dooms as they tried to kill the soldiers. Hearing it made me so terrified that I couldn't go back to sleep anymore. Then in the morning, the soldiers went from room to room to check upon us. I was not allowed to leave for work until later in the day, which is why I am late today."

"I say if the government cannot stop the dooms from entering, shouldn't they just evacuate the whole city and take us to a safer place? As for those extraordinary humans, I hear they call themselves meta-humans now. Nowadays when you turn on the television, you hear the government's propaganda about the awakened meta humans telling them they should report if they awakened any powers and that the government will take care of them."

"I hear the government has set up a benefits package where they reward every meta-human that takes the initiative to report themselves. From what I hear, you will be given $1000 for just doing that."

"Can you imagine that? With that amount of money, I can pay off some of my debts and still have enough for rent. And that's not all... I hear there will be a test to know what kind of power you have awakened and, depending on the test, the government will pay you some money every month. I hear the least amount paid to meta-humans after the test is $10000"

"Wow, that's a lot of money! If I made that much money every month, I wouldn't have to work anymore and can live my life leisurely."

"It is too bad I have yet to awaken any powers at all. if not I would have hurried and registered with the government. Even if I have to fight the dooms, I feel it will be worth it. But despite what the government is offering, some people still decide to hide and not report their powers."

"I do not understand why people would do something like this. Don't they know that they should be stepping up to fight the dooms that are invading our planet? Since they are able to awaken powers in this rapidly declining world, they should step up and take responsibility and protect the rest of us that are still normal. It's not as if the government is forcing them or anything. They will get paid handsomely for coming forward, so what's there to hide for?"

The nurse complained about the situation of the world as she clean Constantine's body going so far as to vent her frustrations on what was happening to the meta-humans who awakened powers but refused to help and fight the dooms.

According to what the nurse believed, the dooms were the greatest threat to humanity, much more than the mutations that were constantly going on in the world. She felt that those meta-humans who awakened powers should step forward to protect the rest of the ordinary humans, especially since they would be paid for it.

Apart from cleaning Constantine's body and complaining, the nurse did not pay attention to anything else. That was why she did not notice that a shadow was creeping into the hospital ward from the open window behind her. Nor did she notice that Constantine's fingers were twitching ever so inconspicuously.

Without noticing any of this, the nurse continued to talk.

"Let me tell you this, the government has also taken measures to force those meta-humans that refuse to come forward to do so. Now the government had put up a reward for anybody that can report the identity of a meta-human who is not registered with the meta-human association and who doesn't have their insignia tattooed on their arm. This way, even if you are not a meta-human, you can still make some money for reporting a hidden meta-human."

"I hear the money is $1000, the same as what will be given to those that take the initiative to report themselves. That means that if I report a hidden meta-human, I will be taking their reward money for myself. How great is that? Let me tell you, my creepy neighbor, that perv, has been acting suspiciously lately and his door is always locked. I know he is always peeking at me when I enter and leave my apartment from the peephole on the door. I can feel his disgusting gaze roaming all over my body whenever I pass his door. I don't know if he has awakened any powers or not, but I don't care. I am going to report him to the government as a suspected meta-human. it would be better if he has awakened any powers and is hiding the fact since I can earn some money from him. But even if he hasn't, it's still the same to me. At least I can cause him some trouble and pay him back for always peeking at me."

"Wouldn't that be great?"

The nurse laughed uproariously, unaware that her shadow was elongated unnaturally. At this moment, Constantine's body started to tremble slightly, drawing the nurse's attention.

The machine connected to Constantine also started giving off beeping sounds.

The nurse quickly ran to the machine to check what was going on and if Constantine was alright. This sudden movement caused the nurse's shadow that had elongated unnaturally to go back to normal.

At this moment, the nurse seemed to notice something wrong and so she turned around to see if there was anything behind her. But after turning around, she did not notice anything.

At this point, Constantine's body had stopped trembling and the machine no longer beeped in a warning.

All of this was very confusing for the nurse and she wondered what it was all about. That was when she suddenly remembered in Constantine's report that he would suddenly go into a brief episode where his body would tremble occasionally.

According to the report, this episode was suspected to be a result of the lingering side effect of Constantine being struck by lightning. The doctors believed that Constantine's subconscious was reliving the moment when he was struck by lightning which in turn would be reflected on his body.

Since there was no real harm being done to Constantine's body, the doctors only suggested that he should be watched in case something happened, otherwise there was nothing else that could be done and the episode would pass, eventually.

Since the nurse had just started attending to Constantine recently and she had not experienced this episode before, she had not known what had happened and thought something bad had happened to Constantine. it was only now when she recalled it that the nurse sighed in relief.

"Damn, you gave me a terrible fright just now. I thought something had happened to you and I would be blamed for it. Thankfully, it was nothing serious. But don't go doing that anymore, okay?"

Constantine did not reply to the nurse, but she did not expect a reply, so she simply went back to cleaning Constantine's body.

The nurse continued talking to Constantine as she worked, and before long she was done. After she was finished cleaning Constantine's body, she packed up her things and then gave Constantine a deep look with a hungry expression in her eyes.

It couldn't be helped since Constantine's body was very attractive. When the nurse had been cleaning him up, she had personally felt how strong and firm Constantine's body was. His muscles were very firm and prominent and he didn't look like the body of a person that had been in a coma for a year. In fact, apart from the fact that Constantine could not wake up, he was as healthy as a stallion and his vitality was as vigorous as a bear.

It was a surprise why somebody as healthy as him was still lying on the bed unconscious.

The nurse was young, and she was naturally attracted to Constantine's strong body. But after giving him a hungry look filled with desire, the nurse turned away in pity before moving to leave the room.

When the nurse was about to leave, she turned around to take one last look at Constantine before leaving. As she did, her eyes suddenly caught something by the window, causing her gaze to pause there for a moment.

There was nothing by the window apart from the vase of flowers and there was only a slight breeze that blew in from the open window.

The nurse hesitated for a moment, thinking that perhaps she was just seeing things.

She also considered closing the window, thinking that maybe a sudden draft has caused the flowers to sway, causing her to think she saw something. But after giving it a thought, the nurse decided to just leave things as they were. Then she turned around and finally left Constantine's ward.

As soon as the door closed behind the nurse, a shadow suddenly came into existence by the open window and started making its way towards the bed where Constantine was sleeping.

At the same time, Constantine's body started trembling even more fiercely and faint sparks of electricity could be seen shooting out of his body.