Refraction | Part 1 | Darwin's Steroids
5) Dark Side
So I wake up in what appears at first glance to be an ordinary hospital room. As my mind clears (I have obviously been sedated, although I have no idea how long), I look at my surroundings more closely, and I begin to notice things that I would normally consider very much out of place in an average hospital room. As an international action star who does all his own stunts, I have seen the inside of a few hospital rooms, but I have never been in one that has a wall made of solid rock. I infer from this that I am in an underground facility, and somewhere on the edge of it. This would most likely mean at some point far from any centrally located exit to the surface. Other things I notice: I am strapped to the bed, but still feel as though I could float up out of it. I attribute the light headed feelings to whatever drugs they have given me, who ever "they" might be. I am surrounded by machines I cannot identify, an IV line runs down toward my left arm, but I cannot see it's point of entry due to the restraints on my head. In addition I notice that the air lacks the normal antiseptic smell of a hospital, a smell so pervasive and ubiquitous in those facilities that its absence stood out to me immediately.
In an effort to well a sudden rising panic, I take stock of my self physically as best I can. I flex and relax my muscles in a series of isometric exercises I had learned while training for a particular agency that will remain unnamed at this point. The machines around me whirr into life, and a 60 cycle hum fills the room. Where is my partner in crime and number one fan Chuck? Where are the nurses and doctors? Where the fuck am I? Why the hell am I here? Questions buzz around my mind like wasps at a picnic, diving at me with frightening, vicious speed.
I feel a cold pressure on my hand and I realize something is being pumped into the IV line. Suddenly it is as if all of my bones break at once, my entire universe has become a singular overwhelming explosion of pain. I try to scream but I cannot breathe, my lungs are on fire, my guts an icy knot. I am certain I am being torn apart from the insides. Six hundred muscles contract at once and I spasm so hard I fear that my spine has snapped. My eyes feel as though they are bursting from my face, and a severe itching wraps me from head to toe. I am being rubbed against a giant cheese grater. My blood boils in my veins. After what I am sure is a thousand years of pain I at long last see blessed darkness filling the periphery of my vision, and I know I will soon pass out. As my mind spins down the swirling vortex into unconsciousness, I wonder if I will again wake up.
Next >
