After I made it back to forestry road, a passing camper picked me up as I was staggering down the road. I don’t remember much after that. 

I woke up to the sound of a low insistent beeping breaking through the groggy haze that was holding me down. My eyes finally opened when the rhythmic sound was stopped by a staccato burst of beeps with a slightly different tone.  I was in a hospital bed with a nurse pushing buttons on the machine by my bed. 

“Oh, your awake. Good, I’ll let the doctor know and she will be in shortly.”-Nurse 

The nurse smiled once as she talked to me then moved briskly away from my bed. I tried to sit up but found that I was too weak and too groggy to get very far. The next thing I knew was being nudged awake by the nurse. 

“The Doctor is here to talk with you.”-Nurse 

I looked around to see a brunette wearing a white coat tapping away at a hard board in her hands. She finished whatever she was doing with a final tap and looked up at me. 

“Hello Mr. Callows. I am Doctor Casal. Your probable still groggy from the anastatic, can you follow what I’m saying?”-Dr. Casal 

I nodded. My voice sounded a bit horse when I spoke. 

“Yes, I’m still a bit out of it, but I can understand.”-Me 

“Good. You are in Royal Costal hospital where you spent 6 hours in surgery where we removed a bullet from your left scapula. There was some minor damage to the subscapular arteries and muscle tissue, but over all you were lucky and the bullet missed everything important. When you we brought in you were suffering from blood lose and a minor infection. We are currently treating you with course of fluid antibiotics which will have to continue for several days and re-access when done.”-Dr. Casal 

She paused to see if I was following along. I nodded and spoke again. 

“When I was feeling around, it felt like the bullet was lodged in the bone.”-Me 

Dr. Casal blinked behind her glasses, pausing then nodded. 

“Yes, the bullet had penetrated the scapula and became lodged. If it had carried through it would have pierced your lung. The surgical team was able to remove most of the resulting bone fragments, but scans show that you still have some in your left lung. They should not represent a danger to your health, but we will keep an eye on it.”-Dr. Casal 

Dr. Casal looked back down to the glowing board in here hand, this time running her fingers over it. 

“Your vitals look good. All in all, for someone that walked out of the woods with a gun shoot wound and medical history, you are in good shape. I’ll check on you later, and I think there is a Police officer waiting to talk with you.”-Dr. Casal 

The doctor pressed on the edge of the board, slide it into a large pocket on her coat and nodded before walking away from the bed. The nurse checked the clear coloured lines they had plugged into my arm and then the bandages on my shoulder. 

“These look good, we’ll be changing them later tonight. How's your pain level doing?”-Nurse 

I shrugged, which immediately sent the pain spiking. I grimaced as I waited for the wave of pain to pass before speaking. 

“It’s not the worst I've felt, but I'll take any-thing you have to make it go away.”-Me 

The nurse smiled her professional care smile. 

“I’ll see what I can do. Are you ok to talk if the police officer is still here?”-Nurse 

I repressed the erg to shrug, before opening my mouth again. 

“Sure. If not, I'm going to try to pass out again.”-Me 

I dropped my head back down onto the pillow and closed my eyes. I could hear the nurse move around a bit before she left.  

I’m not sure how long I had my eyes closed before a gentle nudge caused me to open them up. The Nurse smiled and nodded towards a uniformed officer standing by the curtain that cut the small space around my bed off form others. 

“The officer is here now.”-Nurse 

I nodded, then spoke up. 

“First let's see some ID.”-Me 

The officer stepped close. 

“I’m Officer Kidd. I’d here to talk to you about how you got shot.”-Officer Kidd 

-Kid? That’s got to be a tough name to live with. Hope he is not a “mad at the world type” because his name is ready made for a nickname. 

“Thats good, you can talk all you want. Just don’t expect me to answer till you show me your ID.”-Me 

Officer Kidd paused then reach up into his front pocket and pulled out a thin wallet and held it open so I could see it, then started to close it. I looked over at the nurse, who was probably still here so she could hear what happened. 

“Do you have a phone I can use, and the local detachments number?”-Me 

The Officer continued to put his ID away while he spoke up. 

“I don’t think that really necessary, I’m just here to ask questions. Unless you have some reason to think I’m going to arrest you.”-Officer Kidd 

His face went from neutral to annoyed. 

“Never mind about the local number, just the phone. I have to call my lawyer now.”-Me 

Officer Kidd held up his open hand in a stop motion. 

“That won’t be necessary, I really am just here to ask a few questions. You don’t have to worry.”-Officer Kidd 

“Are you from Special Investigations?”-Me 

The nurse looked even more interested now, while officer looked confused and if anything, more annoyed. 

“No, why would they be involved? Are you claiming an officer shot you?”-Officer Kidd 

-Supposedly the police here are not supposed to act like guardsmen, but I’m not seeing a lot to change my mind. 

“If you're not Special Investigations then I can’t tell you why. And before you go any further. I haven't claimed anything. Flashing a badge from the across the room is not a sufficient introduction when your asked to prove you’re an Officer. And lastly, if you intimate that you can, or are going to, arrest me again, you will be meeting Special Investigations sooner than you want too.”-Me 

Officer Kidd looked like he was about to step forward and say something, but his eyes caught the nurse looking shocked and stepping back. 

“I think we have got off on the wrong foot here. I can come back later when your less agitated.”-Officer Kidd 

His words were clipped as he stepped back, the sour look and the last comment showing how he really felt about the situation. 

“No, you're going back to your detachment to tell your Staff Sargent that I’m a being uncooperative so you can get justification to detain me for questioning. Of course, that’s only if you actually are an Officer, which you still haven't proven.”-Me 

I looked to the nurse again. 

“Could you get that phone, please. I now have to call my lawyer before he comes back with a flimsy excuse to put shackles back on me.”-Me 

The nurse’s eyes were getting wider with each word and she looked towards the retreating back of Officer Kidd. You could see the hitch in his step as I spoke, but he kept walking. 

The nurse turned back to me. 

“He is an Officer. I’ve seen him here before.”-Nurse 

I closed my eyes, suddenly very tired. 

“He probably is, but I’m tired of being treated like I’m the problem just because of the way I look.”-Me 

I opened my eyes after a moment. 

“And if you could get a phone for me. I really do need to call my lawyer before they get the idea that the guy that got shot in the back is at fault instead of the guy who pulled the trigger.”-Me 

I closed my eyes again. 

“Guardsmen always blame the guy they can see, instead of the guy they can’t.”-Me 

….. 

Later, when I woke back up, I called my lawyer. Once Mrs. Flints had heard that I was shot and the trouble that I was having with the Officer here she asked me a question. 

“Did you burn a church down, or do something to anger a deity? If I can figure out how to get my card attached to any other divine wrath targets, I'll be able to pay off my student loan in no time.”-Mrs. Flints 

I told her that I didn’t know anything about divine wrath, she would have to be happy over charging me, and yes it would have cost me a lot less if I had handled talking to the officer like I was an honest citizen, not a guilty criminal. 

I decided not to tell anyone about Timmons, instead sticking to the story that I was in the forest and had no idea who shot me. I was running the risk that someone would find my camp, and Timmons’ corpse, before I could clean it up. If that happened, I would look guilty, and would probably end up in jail till I could prove that I had only defended myself, assuming that I even could there at that point. 

But with my “probably shot accidentally by a hunter that ran away” story, no one would be led back to my gold mine. Without Timmons around, no one else should even know there was any gold involved. I should be able to get back to digging up money. 

Mrs. Flints traveled down to the hospital to take my statement and submitted it to the police, along with the threat of further legal action if yet another badge approached me without her present. 

I thankfully didn’t see Officer Kidd again. Unfortunately, I did get a lecture from Mrs. Flints about antagonizing police officers. She only charged me an extra hour for “Legal consultation on the dangers of smart talking an officer of the law”. 

I was in the hospital for two more weeks as the hole in my shoulder started to heal up and the Physiotherapy department showed me the exercises that would help. 

On the afternoon I was released it was pouring down rain, so I ended up just sitting in the large multi floor lobby of the hospital and contemplating what to do next. 

-Once again, I’m back to having just what I’m wearing, and I’m couple of days travel from where I want to be. 

I sighed. 

-Not entirely true. I have enough money in the bank to live comfortably for maybe a decade. I’m just depressed. 

I leaned back in the seat and looked up at the rain hitting the glass roof that covered the lobby several levels up.  

-How many lives have I started over with just the cloths on my back? Hells, I’ve started several with no cloths at all. Maybe I’m just soul weary or lacking a sufficiently grand goal to motivate me. 

I paused for a moment then clapped my hands together three time to attract the god's attention. 

-And I don’t need a sufficiently grand goal, so don’t go thinking one up. An uninteresting life is all I need right now. 

I shook my fist at the sky in mock anger, before dropping my arm down to massage my injured shoulder. 

-What would I do if I just stopped. Rent a place. Watch TV? I’d definitely have to get a computer. I wonder how expensive they are? Do they even use modems anymore? 

I chuckled at the fact the I still remembered the sound a modem makes even if I hadn’t heard it when the library computers connected. 

-The Librarians probably connect to the internet when they start in the morning. I'll have to look it up when I go to a library next. Look up rental prices, maybe a small town with less people. If I get a car, I won't have to walk everywhere. 

I smiled thinking of all the times that I had wished for the convenience and freedom of a modern vehicle. 

-Come to think of it, why did I never build one in any of my lives? 

I frowned and considered that thought. 

-It’s not like I had never lamented the loss of the speed of travel a vehicle afforded. Was it the simple fact that by the time I could have built one, I had other means to speed up travel? 

I rubbed my shoulder as I contemplated if it was just a simple mundane reason that I had never tried to build a car or even a plane, or if the gods had deliberately repressed the idea. 

I watched the rain fall while thinking about the past.