Rick Barber is a rather normal guy.. or at least, he used to be. Discounting of course the fact he was in one of the special operation teams of the military, used in undercover sabotage, assassinations, and so on. Everything was going smoothly, they were on a rather dull mission, to infiltrate a chemical plant and render it inoperable through whatever means necesarry. The team was moving out, having completed what they set out to do, explosives planted around the facility grounds; Rick was bringing up the rear. He was passing one of the last tanks, numerous explosive charges had been placed, set with timed detonators, adjusted to give the team enough time to escape, but hopefully to limit the time to diffuse them, should they be discovered prior to detonation. However, one of the timers had been set improperly, and detonated prematurely, sending the tank up in a column of flame, a jet erupting off to the side where the charge went off. The flames quickly engulfed Rick's body, searing over his uniform and flesh alike, a loud scream quickly drawing the attention of his squadmates, who rushed towards him, pulling him out and beating him down with their outer uniforms, putting out the fire as quickly as possible. When the smoke cleared they saw that Rick was quite badly burned, most of his uniform in tatters, bits of flesh bonded against plastic and metal alike, most of his skin totally raw and starting to ooze.
"We have to get out of here, now!" shouted one of the soldiers, hearing an alarm sound over the complex.
*Unnngnh...aaa......ahhh...* Rick could only barely make out sounds of his suffering and pain, held up by two members of the squad.
"Not without Rick. You know the rules, no one gets left behind. Besides, we can carry him and still move on foot quickly enough, the chopper's not far."
The others looked solemn for a moment and nodded, the two supporting the burned man hefting him up a bit, hurrying out the entrace they cut to enter in the beginning of the mission, followed by the rest of the squad. Hurrying through the forest, they came to a clearing, where a helicopter was waiting for them, rotors still turning. They loaded Rick's burned body on first, then the two carriers, then the rest of the squad loaded onto the helicopter, lifting off unopposed. It wasn't terribly surprising, it wasn't a military target they had hit, technically speaking, just an industrial complex; no soldiers on hand to speak of, aside from perhaps security guards.
The team made it back to base, Rick was transferred into the infirmary, the remainder of the squad was debriefed. It was simply an honest mistake, the charge had its timer set incorrectly. Rick was going to be in for a while, recovering from his injuries..
Rick awoke groggily, oepning his eyes, vision blurred, slowly coming into focus. He tried to squirm, to move at all, but found himself unable to. He felt something was wrong, he felt.. something moving on him. All over him.. it was.. crawling. "W..where am I.. what's wrong, why can't I move, what's happening to me?"
A nurse hurried over, looking over him, peering into his eyes.. "Doctor, doctor, he's awake!"
A doctor stepped in through a doorway, though Rick couldn't see, unable to move his head. "Ah, I see you're awake, Mister.. Barber. You're in a hospital, there's nothng to worry about. You were burned quite badly, we had to operate just to seperate you from your uniform, a good bit of it was melted and welded into your flesh. Since then you've been under sedation for some time.. we put you inside a cast, to keep you restrained to prevent further injury and also to try to keep infection to a minimum. And as for what you feel inside, that's.. ahem... Maggots.
"MAGGOTS?!" Rick seized up, rocking the cast noticeably. "What the hell, get this thing off of me, get them off, get them off!"
"Relax, Mr. Barber. Relax, they're perfectly clean I assure you. They also only feed on dead flesh and infection, to keep you clean and healthy. I can promise you, nothing will happen contrary to your health, and even if it did, we'd be prepared to treat you."
Rick's breathing could be heard, slightly labored inside, still rocking the cast a bit. "Unngh.. let me out, let me out!" The doctor nodded to the nurse, who injected a syringe into the IV leading into the arm of Rick's cast. As his vision began to fade once more, the world going black around him, he could barely make out the doctor's voice.
"..Prepare the treatment schedule."