Once We Were Human (The Commander Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

me food.
    “Mrs. Hancock!” That was from the nurse, Callahan.  She must have caught an earful about my behavior last night.
    Dr. Zielinski raised his eyebrows high and turned to Dr. Peterson and the nurse.  “You had no way of knowing, but a Transform such as Mrs. Hancock needs a great deal more food than even a Focus.  Nurse Callahan, I want you to go down to the kitchen and have them send up three more ‘standard breakfasts’.  I want you to come back up here immediately with a full quart bottle of orange juice.” Callahan left without batting an eyelash.
    Three more standard breakfasts.  I was in love.  Tears leaked slowly out of the corners of my eyes.  I cried from the misery of the night before, from pain, fear, hunger and for those I had killed.  In a moment, it all came out in wrenching sobs.
    “What’s her juice reading?” Dr. Zielinski said, with a glare at Dr. Peterson.  My muzzy mind thought he meant orange juice again, before I realized he meant Transforms’ juice.
    “118, as of yesterday evening.”
    Dr. Zielinski and Agent Bates glanced at each other.  “Right,” Bates said.  “The healing.  This is going to change things.  I’ll get right on it.” Dr. Zielinski nodded to him and Bates hurried out.
    I let myself fall back onto the bed, curled up into a fetal position, and wept, face in my hands.  I needed Bill, needed him to say he loved me, that everything would be all right. 
    Dr. Zielinski quietly sent Dr. Peterson and the orderly out of the room.  He sat down by my bed and waited.  After a few minutes, my tears diminished into occasional sniffles.  Nurse Callahan slipped in, delivered the bottle of orange juice to Dr. Zielinski, and slipped out again.
    “Are you up to drinking some orange juice?” Dr. Zielinski said, his voice quiet.  This started up my tears again, but I sat up and took the bottle from him.  I choked on it more than once as I drank, but the orange juice was the best thing I had ever tasted.  After I finished I was still ravenous, but did feel better.  I felt foolish for drinking the orange juice from the bottle, though.  My mother would have said I acted like I was raised in a barn.
    I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and looked around for a box of Kleenex.  Dr. Zielinski reached over to the nightstand next to his chair and handed me the box.  He was the first person I’d met who was willing to come close to me.  I blew my nose, wiped my eyes, and tried to make myself presentable again. 
    “I’m sorry,” I said to Dr. Zielinski, my voice hoarse from the tears.  “I don’t usually look like this.  I don’t usually act like this either.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said.  “New Major Transforms are never at their best.  Are you still hungry?”
    I nodded.  My tears started to leak again.
    Dr. Zielinski nodded.  “We’ll do something about that.  You’re going to need more food than you’re used to and you’re extra hungry because of your wounds.”
    “This is because I’m a, a…” My voice choked on the word “Monster”. 
    “Because you’re an Arm?  Yes.  Your body is going to be capable doing of a lot more, but this requires more food intake.”
    I shrieked in shock and surprise.  “Arm?  I’m an Arm ?” My voice broke and I started to cry again.
    Arms were some sort of rare new form of Transform.  Story was, you became an Arm, you died.  Save for a woman named Keaton.  She escaped custody to become pretty much the top person on old J. Edger’s ten most wanted list.  I thought there was an Arm in Europe and one in Canada who had also lived through their transformations, but I wasn’t sure.  Keaton was the law enforcement disaster of the decade, the biggest one-woman crime spree ever, the person responsible for the terms ‘serial killer’ and ‘spree killer’.  A true spawn of the Devil, a woman my preacher termed ‘the Antichrist’, her example proved the evil of all Transforms.
    I