I thought a while.

Nothing.

Nobody to benefact me thus.

I'd gone over a cliff in my car, and into a lake, I suddenly remembered. And that was all I remembered.

I was...

I strained and began to sweat again.

I didn't know who I was.

But to occupy myself, I sat up and stripped away all my bandages. I seemed all right underneath them, and it seemed the right thing to do. I broke the cast on my right leg, using a metal strut I'd removed from the head of the bed. I had a sudden feeling that I had to get out in a hurry, that there was something I had to do.

I tested my right leg. It was okay.

I shattered the cast on my left leg, got up, went to the closet.

No clothes there.

Then I heard the footsteps. I returned to my bed and covered over the broken casts and the discarded bandages.

The door swung inward once again.

Then there was light all around me, and there was a beefy guy in a white jacket standing with his hand on the wall switch.

“What's this I hear about you giving the nurse a hard time?” he asked, and there was no more feigning sleep.

“I don't know,” I said. “What is it?”

That troubled him for a second or two, said the frown then, “It's time for your shot.”

“Are you an M. D. ?” I asked.

“No, but I'm authorized to give you a shot”

“And I refuse it'“ I said, “as I've a legal right to do. What's it to you?”

“You'll have your shot,” he said, and be moved around to the left side of the bed. He had a hypo in one hand which bad been out of sight till then.

It was a very foul blow, about four inches below the belt buckle, I'd say, and it left him on his knees.

“ !” he said, after a time.

“Come within spittng distance again,” I said, “and see what happens.”