“I can see why you hooked up with this one,” Karla joked as she approached with two blood pressure arm bands and a reflex hammer. “Her innocent ignorance is adorable.”
“That’s just one of the reasons.” I winked at the woman beside me.
“I’m going to put these on you,” Karla said as she attached the arm bands to Natalie.
“What is it?” the blonde asked.
“It measures your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing,” Karla explained. “It hooks up to the computer screen over there so I can get your readouts.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Natalie said as she looked at me for confirmation.
“It will be okay.” I smiled at her, and then I held my arm out for Karla to attach the device to my arm. It actually did look way more high-tech than the ones I normally saw in the hospital, but I figured Karla and her dad had the best equipment they could find.
“Okay, you know how this goes… ” Karla announced as soon as she set my monitor, and then she placed her hand just above my knee as she grabbed the hammer.
The brunette tapped the narrow end of the hammer against my knee, and it instantly jerked forward in response. Karla raised an eyebrow as her mouth curled into a frown. She tapped my knee again, watched my leg leap forward, and then moved over to Natalie. Karla repeated the actions on the blonde Scavenger, whose appendages had the exact same reaction.
Our faux physician then put the stethoscope’s earpieces into her ears, raised the bell up to Natalie’s heart, and listened closely. Then she asked the Scavenger to take two deep breaths and concentrated on her lungs.
“Huh,” Karla mused as she removed the stethoscope from her ears.
Then she walked over to the video monitor, pressed a button to focus on Natalie’s stats, studied it for half a minute, and then tapped on her chin.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Natalie’s lungs sound great, and her heart seems to be stronger than any human I’ve ever inspected before.”
“Why, thank you.” Natalie blushed. “I guess years of running from Rubberfaces put me at peak physical condition.”
“You’re beyond peak.” The brunette nodded as she turned to the blonde woman. “That’s what’s so strange… The humans of Dimension Nine-Fifty-One are supposed to be just like the ones here, but I suppose there could be residual effects from the nuclear blast we haven’t discovered yet. Either way, keep up the good work. Oh, and I love your tattoo, by the way. It’s like you were meant to be here.”
“Tattoo?” Natalie questioned as her brow furrowed. “I don’t have any tattoos. I wasn’t old enough for any of the Scavenger tattoos… ”
“Uhhh, on your arm here?” Karla questioned as she pointed to Natalie’s shoulder.
The Scavenger turned her torso so she could inspect her arm and, sure enough, there was a small number one tattooed on her shoulder. It was a fairly simple design, similar to something you’d see in a sci-fi movie, with its curved top and minimalistic edges.
“What the fuck?” Natalie demanded. “That wasn’t there before. You didn’t put it there, did you?”
“Of course not.” Karla shook her head and frowned. “I will need to ask my father about this. Tattoos suddenly appearing on Wayfarers when they dimension hop? That is certainly a new phenomenon. But first, we need to finish the exam.”
Karla came back over to me, lifted up my shirt, and gasped.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded. “Is my body all bruised up? I took a bunch of hits during this mission.”
“Not at all.” Karla tried to keep her cool, but I noticed a small blush was now on her cheeks. “It’s just your muscles are much more defined than they were the last time I saw you.”
The brunette placed the cold bell of the stethoscope against my chest, and then she walked over to the screen, clicked on my vitals and stared at it again.
Then she looked at me with her mouth open and her eyes wide.
“Uh… Did I get mutated by the virus or something while I was there?” I chuckled. “You’re looking at me like I have three eyes.”
“How many push-ups can you do?” Karla asked as her green eyes narrowed.
“Push-ups?” I laughed. “I haven’t done any of those since high school.”
“Guess,” she huffed.
“I dunno,” I said, “maybe twenty?”
Karla pointed to a clear space on the floor. “Let’s find out, shall we?”
It was a strange suggestion, for sure, but I supposed there was a reason behind it.
I slid off the exam bed, waltzed over to the space on the floor, and then got down on my hands and knees. As I stretched out and placed my palms on the cold concrete, I looked back over at the two women behind me.
“This is going to be embarrassing,” I warned, “I’m probably not going to get past ten.”
I did a quick push-up and then held myself in the plank position.
Much to my surprise, it felt completely effortless. My arms weren’t trembling or burning whatsoever, and I didn’t feel winded at all.
“Huh,” I said.
“Keep going,” Karla requested.
I moved down and did five more in rapid succession. Still nothing.
As I continued to test my physical limits, those six push-ups became twenty, and then fifty, and then finally one hundred. Once I reached the magic number, I popped up back to my feet, turned around, and marveled at the women in disbelief.
I wasn’t even breathing heavy and my arms felt just as fresh as before I did the push ups.
“Just as I suspected.” Karla smiled. “Somehow, your physical capabilities have increased. Another question for my father—”
“Karla?” Dr. Nash’s voice came over the speaker in the room, and Natalie twisted her head around as her eyes opened wide.
“Yes?” Karla replied.
“Bring them both back in the lab, and leave the monitors on their arms. You are right, there is something strange going on, but I have a hypothesis.”
The three of us walked back out into the main room, and the AI gestured for Natalie and I to sit in two chairs.
“My systems can run all sorts of algorithms to predict the future,” he began, “but it lacks any sort of function that can analyze unknown events in the past. I do have a few hypotheses, though… I believe it’s all tied to the fact Natalie and Hunter are connected and they have consummated their relationship.”
“You think we’re stronger now because we banged?” I chuckled.
“Perhaps, yes,” the mustached face on the screen mused. “The DNA of the Wayfarers are already interconnected, based on the double arrow theory. If you have created an offspring, then that would mean your genes will be even further interconnected. That could possibly be why you have both seen improvements in regards to your physical abilities.”
“And what about the tattoo?” Natalie questioned. “Are we going to have a new one every time we jump through time?”
“Doubtful,” Dr. Nash admitted. “You have a number one for a reason, my dear. My theory is it either stands for the fact you are Hunter’s first Wayfarer companion, or that it is symbolic of your new bond to him.”
“Bond?” both Natalie and Karla asked in unison.
“It’s just a theory,” the AI doctor said as he nodded his head. “It could be the pregnancy—”
“Wait.” Natalie raised her hand. “Hunter and I only had sex yesterday, how are—”
“We are confident you carry his child,” Dr. Nash continued, and then Natalie turned to give me a wide-eyed look of surprise.
“What if it’s just them coming back with each other?” Karla asked her AI father. “And what do you mean by ‘bond?’”
“Look at this,” Dr. Nash said, and then the screen flickered over to show two heart rates and a pair of lungs. “This is their heart rates and lungs.”