some more of the random dead guy... ^_^;;
I posted the prologue to a story sometime last week. ^_^; (See here for that post...) Here is some more...the first part (but not all) of chapter 1 to be specific. Beware the random Hitchhiker's Guide reference. ^_^; And oh yeah...the narrator has a name now! ^_^
And apologies to anyone who lives in or is familiar with Kokomo, Indiana... the opinion that my character has heard comes from my father, who spent part of his youth there and hated it. ^_^;;; For all I know, it might just be my father who thinks that. ^_^
chapter 1
I woke up to a hell of a headache. And really, I mean the worst headache you could ever imagine...except maybe a migraine. I hear those really, really suck. But anyway, the worst non-migraine headache ever, like Disaster Area (you know, the rock band from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...?) was holding concert inside of my skull and focusing all of the sound at one specific point to the right side of my forehead. In other words, my head really, really hurt.
Besides being in pain, I was pretty disoriented when I woke up. I remembered... waking up in Brian's arms, getting an extra long good morning kiss 'cause it was my birthday, getting dressed, and going to school (no breakfast - I was never hungry first thing in the morning)... I kinda remembered my AP chemistry class, not that it was much different from usual. Then there was the third hour class... That was where things started to go fuzzy, and my head hurt the more I tried to think about third hour.
I pushed through the pain, trying to remember more. Finally it came, though it still hurt like hell.
Third hour. Regular junior chemistry. We were talking about acids and bases that day. I was drawing a diagram on the board. Someone got up...the chair scraped too much against the floor to just be a restless student. "Kate, you bitch... I'll show you what it means to dump me... Just watch your new "love" suffer!" How lame, but still, not acceptable behavior in class. I turned around.
BANG.
Pain. Screaming.
I collapsed.
Everything went black.
And now, a headache, and blackness that wasn't really black beyond my eyelids. Whatever was going on, my surroundings were lit. I could hear a low hum in the background...machinery? Then, a voice.
"Are you there?"
Where else would I be? Timbuktu? Kokomo? (Though I hear the actual place is a dump of a town in the middle of Indiana.) How about home in bed with my boyfriend? I liked that one...
Well, it seemed like someone was there with me and the machinery in brightly-lit surroundings. Either that or I was hallucinating, or whatever you call it when you imagine hearing things. Or maybe it was the machinery "talking" to me. Whatever. Something or someone was talking to me, and my head hurt too much to even think about talking back to it.
I felt something at my wrist. A slight pressure. Kinda like fingers, taking a pulse. That was probably it. Someone was there, asking me if I was there and taking my pulse. Why? - I had no clue...
"He's definitely alive," the same voice said. "Or at least, his heart is beating. But no signs yet of whether his personality is still intact or not... or any higher brain functions whatsoever for that matter."
That honestly didn't sound like it was directed at me. Actually, it sounded more like it was about me, considering someone had just checked my pulse. But did that mean that the other person was talking to himself, or that there were two people in the room with me?
"Hey..." This time the voice was closer, right in my ear. "I think you really are in there, and I hope I'm right. Anyway, if you don't start showing some signs of being an actual person soon, we're going to have to consider the experiment a failure and cut the support. Your body might be able to handle that at this point, but I'm not completely sure of that, and I doubt you would really want to bet on that."
This took a little bit of time to make its way through my head. I blame the headache, which was making any sort of thinking at all extremely painful. But yeah... once the meaning of those words sunk in, I realized that I was going to have to do something, and soon. After all, it didn't matter what was going on once someone started threatening to let me die, or something similar.
With that in mind, I tried to force my eyes open. It worked - eventually - but the stabbing pain in the back of my head caused by the blinding light ended up forcing my eyes back shut again almost immediately. Because of that light I hadn't even been able to see who or what had been talking to me, but I'm sure whatever the voice belonged to... he had seen that.
Still. not wanting to take any changes, I decided to attempt a slightly more audio method of indicating my awareness. At least, I tried to... When I opened my mouth to say something, all that came out was a groan reminiscent of every bad zombie movie ever made, and then some. But, despite the fact that I sounded like the walking (or rather, immobile on a bed-or-something-like-that) undead, I think the voice got the idea.
"Let me guess," the voice said. "The light hurts... a lot, and you can't move your mouth right to talk right now? But I take it you are in there somewhere?"
I groaned again and tried to nod. I barely got my head moving before I realized that that was just as bad an idea as opening my eyes had been. Disaster Area had all of a sudden turned the volume knobs up past what was previously thought the limit of physical possibility - that was what it felt like in my head. I groaned again and fantasized about being able to curl up into a fetal position clutching at my throbbing head.
"You probably don't want to try that again." The voice sounded amused. "Especially not when it has to do with your head. For now, why don't you stick to groaning?" I groaned at him, and he chuckled softly. "Okay then, why don't we attempt to prove that there's actually someone there... rather than just random response to my voice? This might be a little tedious if there is someone in there...but bear with me, okay?"
He started giving me simple orders, all involving groaning. Groan once. Groan five times. Groan, then pause for a while, then groan two more times. What is 3 + 4? Groan that many times. Groan once for yes, twice for no... Are you in pain?
I did what he said and answered all of the questions. I saw what he was getting at, but still... And then, he said he was done, a satisfied note coloring his voice. He started talking again right after that, but I realized as he started that this was going to be more than just simple testing to see if I was thinking. This would be more like him looking for information about me.
"Okay, let's stick with one groan for yes and two for no, okay? Now I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions about your situation and about yourself. There are a bunch of things that we don't know about you, so I really need you to answer truthfully if you can. Otherwise things are going to get sticky. Got it?"
Groan.
"Good. First off, the plate on your capsule said that your name is Scott Masters. Is this correct?"
Groan.
"Twenty-three years old?"
Groan.
"Do you remember what happened to you?"
Groan... then pause... then two hesitant groans. I remembered, but not really, and definitely not clearly.
"Yes, then no... Does that mean you aren't sure?"
Groan.
"Do you remember anything about what happened?"
Groan.
"But not everything?"
Groan.
"As to be expected, given the trauma that your brain suffered. Okay, just one last question for now, maybe two depending on what you answer. Then I'll be sedating you so you can get some rest and heal up a little more. Your condition is a little too precarious for you to be awake for long at the moment.
"Are you familiar with the Pure Humanity act?"
I paused, confused. Then, figuring that I couldn't be familiar with something I had never heard of, I groaned twice.
"I figured as much, but by law I had to ask. I guess I can't actually ask you the next question until you know what you're answering, then. It can wait until you're feeling better. Sweet dreams for now, and I'll see you when you wake up again."
I felt a hand on my arm and then the prick of a needle. Whatever he had injected, it was quick to take effect. Before I knew it, the pain was receding - not going away or lessening, but getting more distant. And then, my mind went with it, and the world went completely black again.
And apologies to anyone who lives in or is familiar with Kokomo, Indiana... the opinion that my character has heard comes from my father, who spent part of his youth there and hated it. ^_^;;; For all I know, it might just be my father who thinks that. ^_^
chapter 1
I woke up to a hell of a headache. And really, I mean the worst headache you could ever imagine...except maybe a migraine. I hear those really, really suck. But anyway, the worst non-migraine headache ever, like Disaster Area (you know, the rock band from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...?) was holding concert inside of my skull and focusing all of the sound at one specific point to the right side of my forehead. In other words, my head really, really hurt.
Besides being in pain, I was pretty disoriented when I woke up. I remembered... waking up in Brian's arms, getting an extra long good morning kiss 'cause it was my birthday, getting dressed, and going to school (no breakfast - I was never hungry first thing in the morning)... I kinda remembered my AP chemistry class, not that it was much different from usual. Then there was the third hour class... That was where things started to go fuzzy, and my head hurt the more I tried to think about third hour.
I pushed through the pain, trying to remember more. Finally it came, though it still hurt like hell.
Third hour. Regular junior chemistry. We were talking about acids and bases that day. I was drawing a diagram on the board. Someone got up...the chair scraped too much against the floor to just be a restless student. "Kate, you bitch... I'll show you what it means to dump me... Just watch your new "love" suffer!" How lame, but still, not acceptable behavior in class. I turned around.
BANG.
Pain. Screaming.
I collapsed.
Everything went black.
And now, a headache, and blackness that wasn't really black beyond my eyelids. Whatever was going on, my surroundings were lit. I could hear a low hum in the background...machinery? Then, a voice.
"Are you there?"
Where else would I be? Timbuktu? Kokomo? (Though I hear the actual place is a dump of a town in the middle of Indiana.) How about home in bed with my boyfriend? I liked that one...
Well, it seemed like someone was there with me and the machinery in brightly-lit surroundings. Either that or I was hallucinating, or whatever you call it when you imagine hearing things. Or maybe it was the machinery "talking" to me. Whatever. Something or someone was talking to me, and my head hurt too much to even think about talking back to it.
I felt something at my wrist. A slight pressure. Kinda like fingers, taking a pulse. That was probably it. Someone was there, asking me if I was there and taking my pulse. Why? - I had no clue...
"He's definitely alive," the same voice said. "Or at least, his heart is beating. But no signs yet of whether his personality is still intact or not... or any higher brain functions whatsoever for that matter."
That honestly didn't sound like it was directed at me. Actually, it sounded more like it was about me, considering someone had just checked my pulse. But did that mean that the other person was talking to himself, or that there were two people in the room with me?
"Hey..." This time the voice was closer, right in my ear. "I think you really are in there, and I hope I'm right. Anyway, if you don't start showing some signs of being an actual person soon, we're going to have to consider the experiment a failure and cut the support. Your body might be able to handle that at this point, but I'm not completely sure of that, and I doubt you would really want to bet on that."
This took a little bit of time to make its way through my head. I blame the headache, which was making any sort of thinking at all extremely painful. But yeah... once the meaning of those words sunk in, I realized that I was going to have to do something, and soon. After all, it didn't matter what was going on once someone started threatening to let me die, or something similar.
With that in mind, I tried to force my eyes open. It worked - eventually - but the stabbing pain in the back of my head caused by the blinding light ended up forcing my eyes back shut again almost immediately. Because of that light I hadn't even been able to see who or what had been talking to me, but I'm sure whatever the voice belonged to... he had seen that.
Still. not wanting to take any changes, I decided to attempt a slightly more audio method of indicating my awareness. At least, I tried to... When I opened my mouth to say something, all that came out was a groan reminiscent of every bad zombie movie ever made, and then some. But, despite the fact that I sounded like the walking (or rather, immobile on a bed-or-something-like-that) undead, I think the voice got the idea.
"Let me guess," the voice said. "The light hurts... a lot, and you can't move your mouth right to talk right now? But I take it you are in there somewhere?"
I groaned again and tried to nod. I barely got my head moving before I realized that that was just as bad an idea as opening my eyes had been. Disaster Area had all of a sudden turned the volume knobs up past what was previously thought the limit of physical possibility - that was what it felt like in my head. I groaned again and fantasized about being able to curl up into a fetal position clutching at my throbbing head.
"You probably don't want to try that again." The voice sounded amused. "Especially not when it has to do with your head. For now, why don't you stick to groaning?" I groaned at him, and he chuckled softly. "Okay then, why don't we attempt to prove that there's actually someone there... rather than just random response to my voice? This might be a little tedious if there is someone in there...but bear with me, okay?"
He started giving me simple orders, all involving groaning. Groan once. Groan five times. Groan, then pause for a while, then groan two more times. What is 3 + 4? Groan that many times. Groan once for yes, twice for no... Are you in pain?
I did what he said and answered all of the questions. I saw what he was getting at, but still... And then, he said he was done, a satisfied note coloring his voice. He started talking again right after that, but I realized as he started that this was going to be more than just simple testing to see if I was thinking. This would be more like him looking for information about me.
"Okay, let's stick with one groan for yes and two for no, okay? Now I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions about your situation and about yourself. There are a bunch of things that we don't know about you, so I really need you to answer truthfully if you can. Otherwise things are going to get sticky. Got it?"
Groan.
"Good. First off, the plate on your capsule said that your name is Scott Masters. Is this correct?"
Groan.
"Twenty-three years old?"
Groan.
"Do you remember what happened to you?"
Groan... then pause... then two hesitant groans. I remembered, but not really, and definitely not clearly.
"Yes, then no... Does that mean you aren't sure?"
Groan.
"Do you remember anything about what happened?"
Groan.
"But not everything?"
Groan.
"As to be expected, given the trauma that your brain suffered. Okay, just one last question for now, maybe two depending on what you answer. Then I'll be sedating you so you can get some rest and heal up a little more. Your condition is a little too precarious for you to be awake for long at the moment.
"Are you familiar with the Pure Humanity act?"
I paused, confused. Then, figuring that I couldn't be familiar with something I had never heard of, I groaned twice.
"I figured as much, but by law I had to ask. I guess I can't actually ask you the next question until you know what you're answering, then. It can wait until you're feeling better. Sweet dreams for now, and I'll see you when you wake up again."
I felt a hand on my arm and then the prick of a needle. Whatever he had injected, it was quick to take effect. Before I knew it, the pain was receding - not going away or lessening, but getting more distant. And then, my mind went with it, and the world went completely black again.