El Doctore took his time flicking through his paperwork, asking the occasional question about how I felt. What he quizzed me on was how my body was feeling, not how I felt emotionally, which right about now was irate. He didn't really tell me anything, just bits and pieces really. He said that the commander - better known to me as Abi, my damn wife - would tell me the important stuff. Honestly, I was getting sick of it. I can't count the times I was close to bailing, pushing through the pain and running off. Why did they insist on 'the commander' telling me, and what did they mean by the 'important stuff'? My blood was beginning to boil over.
Right after Dr. Simons introduced himself, a nurse accompanied him. At least I assumed she was a nurse. They were both donning typical bleach white overcoats and uniforms you'd expect to see from medical staff. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more this entire place looked like a medical facility. The nurse had a wheelchair which I was promptly ushered into, the Doc told me me I was being taken elsewhere to have some tests done. Apparently, I had no need to worry, they were just running some physical response tests and getting me some medication to ease the ache from my muscles.
Suppressing the argumentative attitude that had become my default setting since I awoke, I begrudgingly agreed with little protest. If I was being moved, at least I'd get to see more of whatever this place was.
One hallway after another, we moved in silence, not a single word spoke. Ignoring me was probably the Doc's best option anyway. He wanted to avoid telling me too much and if I wasn't talking, I wasn't asking questions.
Piecing together a mental map of where we'd traveled so far, I could tell this place was pretty big. Each corridor was about 25 meters long, with at least 4 rooms spread out along the way. What was in the room still alluded me, but every so often, I'd see someone entering or exiting them. Aside from the dear doctor and his assumed assistant, everyone I saw had similar uniforms. The same utility jacket, tough and coarse, the type you'd expect to see soldiers in. Most of them were black, unlike the green ones donned by Jana and Forman. Every one of them wore the same black cargo pants, tucked close to the ankle by high-top boots. This place felt like a maze.
There were no windows, every corridor looked exactly the same and for some unknown reason, there were no signs eithers. The lack of sound is what struck me most though. Footsteps and doors were about all you could hear. No voices echoed, no muffled back and forth rhythm from conversations being held between friends, colleagues. It was ominous. But despite this, I didn't feel fear. As far as my impression of the place could go, it wasn't a threatening one.
Turning into another corridor, I noticed this one was different as I saw a set of double doors at the end. Unlike everywhere else, these doors were signposted. On the wall above the doors, a sign read 'Zone 2'.
'Wasn't that where Abi went?'
Before we got halfway down though, the Doc turned into a room adjacent room. It was still glum and grey like the rest of this place, but at least the room looked like it had purpose. On the walls there were half a dozen shelves filled with books, cabinets stood beside them against the back wall. To the left, a desk, where files sat in trays and a computer displayed its screen saver. Parallel to the desk there were two beds, some machines hooked onto the wall, and a see-through cabinet full of pill bottles and colourful glass beakers.
The woman who'd pushed me here helped me up onto the bed and left almost immediately. Dr. Simons sat down at his desk, placing the files he had in a tray and turning his attention to the computer. It was funny how much he looked like a stereotypical doctor. He dressed neatly, his tie and shirt tucked in and straight, the classic doctor's coat he wore had pens clipped into its breast pocket. His hairline was slightly receded, his medium-length hair grey and brushed backward. There was no hint of stubble on his face, but he had a few hairs sticking out of the nostrils of his long pointy nose.
I couldn't cope with the silence any longer, I had questions begging to come out my mouth. "I know you seem so dead set on refusing to answer my questions," I said. "But could you at least tell me what that Forman guy did when he zapped me in the chest?"
Swiveling his chair around, he lifted his glasses from his nose, resting them on top of his head. "Ah yes, that must mean when you awoke, you couldn't move properly, no?" I nodded. "Well that was actually on my recommendation, see, I figured your brain and your body might need a little help reconnecting after the sleep. So, I instructed Forman to send a bolt of electricity into your solar plexus, jump-starting your nervous system. And by the looks of it, it worked" He said proudly, the corner of his mouth lifting into a lop-sided grin.
Honestly, he gave of a slightly sadistic impression after that prideful boast.
He stood up, sauntered across the room to the medicine cabinet, fingering the pill bottles until he found the one he was looking for. "Ah, here it is," he said, handing me a couple of pills. "Take that and you'll be feeling less achy. Hopefully, it'll make you more mobile too."
I tossed the pills into my mouth, flinging my head back as I swallowed. 'Hopefully? Doesn't exactly sound convincing.'
"Okay, next question, and please, stop me if I sound crazy. The pills might be getting to my head. So, Forman jolted me with some electricity to get me moving, right?" I said. Dr. Simons brows furled and he gently nodded. I continued, "Okay, good, that helped me move, yeah." The Doctor lent forward, his neck dipping forward with curiosity as his eyes narrowed. That was when I snapped.
"BUT HOW THE FUCK DID HE DO THAT THING WITH THE ELECTRICITY?" Not my most graceful moment, but to be fair, who would be in my situation? The semblance of restraint that was tying me down had torn apart. "Was it some sort of power?! Did he use some sort of technology?! What happened with the lurkers?! does it have something to do with them?!"
As the Doctor sat there, somehow shocked, but not really surprised by my outburst, two armed men in that same black uniform swept through the door - hands on holsters. Dr. Simons held out a hand, halting the two men from drawing their guns. Dr. Simons may have halted the security - if that's what they were - but they halted me. Why would they be rushing into an infirmary guns blazing? Was it because of me?
Before I could work through the array of implications their response had, the person accompanying the ensuing security to stroll through the door finally put me at ease. It was Abi. Don't get me wrong I was happy to see her. Really happy. Considering the last thing I tried to do was make sure she and the kids were okay, my heart felt like it could finally untense. But I was angry as well. Angry that she was being dismissive, angry that when I needed her, she didn't seem to care. Any sense of loneliness overcoming me was just being added to the queue of things I was scared of right now.
"Abi, honey, please! What is all this, why are they calling you commander, what happened to me?" I begged.
Her face was like steel, cold and immovable. "Look, Peran, I want to ease into this, I really do. But we simply do not have the time." she stated. "You're been in some form of stasis for 20 years. No, we don't know why, or how. What we do know is that whatever was holding you in stasis was repairing your body, and evidently didn't finish until yesterday when the stasis field around you dissipated."
'oh my god. 20 years... 20 goddamn years. No wonder she looks older.'
I can't even begin to describe what I was hearing. It simply didn't feel real. Had they all gone mad, did they hear what she was saying? I didn't want to belive it. But reluctantly, against my better judgement, I had to. Deep down in the depths of heart, I felt it was the truth. I don't know why, but that sense of awareness I had while I was asleep felt like it lasted forever.
I pressed further, "so what kept me alive for 20 years? Does it have something to do with what the Doc called my 'power'?"
"Yes, precisely. What's the last thing you remember?" She asked.
"All the debris falling from the sky, I was on my way home from work and that blue shockwave thing, what was that?" I replied.
She huffed a nasaly sigh, "we still don't know for certain. But we belive it was from some unknown energy source from the lurkers ship that exploded above our atmosphere." Stepoung forward, she grabbed a seat, dragging bedside. "Do you remember all those news reports about the UN building some sort of spacecraft? Well they did. They tried to make contact and it failed, the lurkers blew the damn thing up on approach. A second one had started being made to keep an eye on other lurker ships around earth, they called it Icarus. This one they loaded with nukes though."
I sat there transfixed. It made a lot of sense but it was still a lot to take in.
Abi lent forward, her elbows resting on her knees and her head dropping slightly. "When they sent the second ship toward the bigger lurker vessel by the moon, it moved toward earth. From the intel we've gathered, reports state that the Icarus was captured by the lurkers, and they were ordered to take a diplomatic approach. Orders were confirmed but the last transmission from the Icarus was of the captain informing command that a group of the astronauts were panicking and attempted to activate the nukes." Abi's voice choked a moment as she cleared her throat. "Guess they manged to activate it. The lurker ship blew up and that strange shockwave rolled right over the earth. After that tonnes of debris fell from space, exploding, killing millions of people. The lurkers decided not to lurk anymore either. They dropped to the surface, destroying cities, civilisation as we know it. We call that day 'the descent' and that blue shockwave is what we belive gave people powers. And Peran, the energy keeping you in stasis gave off the same traces."