Chapter 2 - A New Life
"Your son has no pulse again. He is dead. I am wholeheartedly sorry for your loss." A physician in the room said with unhappiness in his tone.
The boy's father was quiet for sometime before he spoke in a tone that radiated sorrow. "Thank you, physician. You have done your best. I can only say it's his fate."
The physician nodded his head. Then he went ahead to spread a large cloth over the boy to cover his lifeless body.
Once he did so, he packed his instruments into a pouch that he came with and prepared to leave the room filled with sadness.
Abruptly, the boy's mom who was held by some people, rushed in with a few others with these other people being the boy's older sisters, Nailah and Lylla Splintstone.
"Physician, please tell me. Would my son be okay?" The boy's mom asked with tears uncontrollably streaming down her eyes.
The physician looked at the boy's father who immediately understood what the gaze meant. He then went to meet his wife and tried to hold her in his arms.
But before he could so, she pushed him away and rushed to where her son was covered with a large spread. Flinging the spread aside, she saw the cold lifeless body of her son.
Her mind shook, then she collapsed to the ground. Her husband, Taryell and two girls who were the boy's sisters, immediately rushed over to her. Then they helped her up and made her sit on the bed.
"Why would this happen to me?" The boy's mother named Lenna, broke into tears that streamed down her cheeks and wetted her cloth.
Her husband, Taryell quickly came over and tried to console her as she was the one who was impacted the most by their son's death. Only he understood that if it were possible to exchange a live for a life through any mystical mean, she would undoubtedly exchange her life for that of her son to give him that chance to live again.
She had always believed her five-year old son would scale through his illness but this was reality in front of her. She cried so much that her tears seemed to be never ending.
She drew closer to the boy and touched his face which she began to rub affectionately. She recalled those smiles of his and the cute way he called her mom. But this made her heart grieve the more and caused more tear beads to rapidly form in her glistening eyes before rolling down her reddened cheeks.
Her husband who held the other girls back, left Lenna to cry and didn't try to approach her to give her a comforting shoulder. He understood that letting her cry, was the only way that the pain in her heart would lessen. So, it was best to let her cry all the grief away, he thought.
But all of a sudden, the air in the room became turbulent for a couple seconds before an extremely blinding flash of resplendent light appeared. The harsh brightness of the light that suddenly manifested, was akin to standing right before an exploding miniature sun. Everyone in the room had to close their eyes or the brilliant colorful light that abruptly appeared would irreversibly ruin their eyes.
When their eyes opened some moments later, however with subsiding burning sensations and aches that they all felt within their eyes, they couldn't help but look around with faces that had expressions of strangeness written over them.
There was no thunderstorm that could have caused that exceedingly blinding flash of light. Besides, it didn't reflect from outside. It manifested right inside the room they were in.
While wondering where the light had come from, they suddenly heard a loud sneeze.
Atchu!
Everyone quickly looked towards the source of that sneeze and their minds were sent reeling in great shock.
They all saw as color slowly returned to the face of the boy that was declared dead. Lenna was the most impacted. With great unbounded joy instantly blooming in her heart, she carried him off from the bed and began to laughingly spin around with him.
Tears still streamed down her reddened face. But this time, they were not tears of sorrow but tears of joy.
Taryell too felt a surging emotion of happiness within him. He was tremendously glad and joyful. Nailah and Lylla were also not left out. Their eyes glowed with both amazement and elation. The world had heard their prayers. It had mysteriously brought their sweet little brother back to life.
While the mother of the boy happily spun around with her little kid and sang songs that brought goodness to her heart, the boy who they were happy had revived and had recovered from his illness since his previously sheet-white body had regained both color and warmth, couldn't help but look around in shock, bedazzlement and alarm.
Where the hell was he?
Who were these people?
And what was he doing in the body of a kid?
They were questions that he asked himself as he scanned the room with the eyes of his new body.
As he looked around, trying to make sense of what was really happening, he suddenly recalled the earth-trembling blast that occurred, and then the blinding blue light that surfaced and phased everything from their individual states to gaseous states.
"I guess the government made them drop an atomic bomb that will wipe out everything in the city, including the zombies. Ugh! What wicked people. Is that a responsible course of action? Damn you all!" Maxmillan said and cursed in his heart.
The father was approached by the physician who heartily congratulated him. But mystification shone in his eyes and radiated off the way he spoke, as he couldn't understand how a boy declared dead by him, suddenly came back to life.
He was supposed to be dead, since there was no longer a pulse or anything at all to indicate that he still had a bit of life or vitality in him.
In the end, he concluded that what he witnessed wasn't a normal event, but a paranormal event. And he was absolutely glad that he got to to witness such a spectacular supernatural scene.
After expressing his congratulatory words to the father of the boy, he made his way for the door and left the place. There was no point being there anymore. He had done his part and was time for him to leave.
After sometime of spinning around and singing songs that brought marvelous feelings to her heart, Lenna carefully dropped Maxmillan and asked, "Maxie, are you okay? Do you still feel any pain? Tell me if you still feel anything."
Maxmillan who looked at Lenna as she spoke, couldn't help but wonder how he still bore his name from earth in this world. It was a new world and should therefore be called a new name.
He was however glad it happened that way, as he wasn't ready for a name change. Besides, it would present a lot of issues to him. If they called him and he didn't answer, where he had forgotten the name given to him in this world, he could cause curious eyes to cast glances at him. And that was the last thing he would want happening.
Still looking at Lenna, Maxmillan finally nodded his head and said. "I am fine. I don't feel anything anymore."
Maxmillan only managed to say that since calling Lenna his mom, felt really odd to him. But he just had to ride with the flow, or they would begin to sense that something was wrong with him.
Lenna and her two daughters were shocked at the way he spoke. It was like he was a stranger to them. But they accepted it with the reasoning that he just recovered.
Lenna nodded her head to what Maxmillan said, knelt on one knee and sweetly kissed him on the forehead. Then she left him with his sisters and went to prepare what they would eat.
The atmosphere which had been gloomy for sometime, quickly returned to normal since Maxmillan had awaken and had fully recovered from his chonic illness.