Chapter 3: Piece Me Together...

I was exhausted after my little performance in that hospital ward. Hope I got my point across. Hope Mom will go with it. We hadn’t always seen eye-to-eye on things. Things I had wanted to do and such. I guess she was right, in the end. My choices did lead me here after all. Broken and trapped in my own head.

Whatta fucked up “I told you so”, huh?

In this case though, I guess I’m glad that time is more of a suggestion while I'm in my head. I’ll get my answer on whether Mom will agree to blondy von pencil neck’s proposal sooner rather than later. Even if I didn’t really know what the Doc’s proposal really was (I may have lied a little when he asked if I heard exactly what he was offering, but semantics), all I know is that it was a chance. It was more than I had yester(Day?) (Month?) (Year?). Yester-whatever.

Point is, I wanted in on whatever the Doc wanted to do. Its better than constant floaty hellish bullcrap nothing, with short commercial breaks of seeing my family grow old before my own fucking eyes. I don’t know if i’d want to live only to wake up for a short moment only to find that my parents are just… gone. I’d just…

...Nevermind.

A sudden as a lightning strike straight out of a clear blue sky a jolt slammed through my head, as if it had plugged my head into a live-wire and cranked the voltage. I felt my very being seize and sag, leaving my body and nerves twitching.

It startled the hell outta me, and scared me a bit less.

For a while from my perspective, nothing happened.

Then I swinted, and though I felt light burn against my eyes, even though I saw nothing. My skin flared in heat, then cold, then heat again. The odd sensation of sweat pouring down my body in rivets of salt that stung my nose. My bones spoke up next, a deep seated throbbing pain that knocked at every joint in my body, and several I didn’t know existed. I took a breath, a deep bellowing breath, and my chest expanded, my blood roared on the exhale.

The pain spiked and sang, breaking into a delightful chorus.

I felt… I was… I became Alive.

Then I opened my eyes. And I saw. The room was plain and rustic, made of smoothed gray rock with a doorway in front of me with windows cut into the two adorning walls. I saw a field of rolling hills and vibrant grass lay beyond the open portal to my humble abode. The soft swish of wind playing over the endless grassy field called to me. The shadows of clouds rolling playfully across the deep blue sky cast over the hills, teasing a cool momentary respite from the sun’s warming rays.

It was like heaven, I guessed. So unearthly in its earthly appearance. Unlike any wonder of the world I had ever dared imagine or wonder.

The stone was cold under my one remaining foot. Cloth, soft fabric cushioned my legs and a stone wall supported my back. My gnarled arms, as gaunt as I remembered, rested in my lap. My pinky finger on my right hand and the first knuckle of my left ring finger still missing, taken in the same devastating incident that took my leg and left the rest of my body shattered.

I blinked. Carefully. Intently. I turned my head. Slowly. Cautiously. Both worked. And though my muscles felt tired, neither failed me. My vision turned watery, silent tears set an adventurous trail down my cheeks. I didn’t stop them. I sucked in a breath. A deep one. My lungs expanded, my chest welled in cooling fire and a thousand expressions of emotion I failed to put into words. I exhaled, my lungs holding strong.

My skeletal fingers fiddled with the colorful woven fabrics beneath me. They were thick and uneven. Like something Dad had experimented with when trying to knit a carpet for our old dog Margo.

Margo. I had forgotten my childhood puppers. I had forgotten that silly carpet with the uneven edges and tacky pink and blue stripes.

I forgot.

But now I… I remember.

The tears came faster. thicker.

Fuck.

I remember. I remember!

A strained chuckle slipped my lips and rattled my bones as my fingers played at the cloth.

This is amazing. This is wonderful. I-I can’t take it.

I had a bit of a breakdown after this, promptly melting into a puddle of happy disbelief. The sensations were overwhelming. The sunlight on my skin, the whisper of a breeze that snuck a kiss against my wet cheeks, the feeling of a strong heart beating powerful and lungs that don’t fail me. Of muscles that can hold me up. A body that I control. That I once again can call my own.

Though I am still broken, and I still have pieces missing, I am whole.

Thank God.

“Enjoying yourself?”

I swallowed and let out a watery chuckle at the soothing masculine voice’s question.

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“Yes.” I admitted. And I was. Being able to exist, breath, and think without help wasn’t something I was ever going to take for granted again.

Feeling extraordinarily daring I reached up, my hand burning and trembling from the effort, and clumsily wiped the tears from my eyes. I blinked and looked up at my sudden visitor.

The stranger’s voice certainly fit his form. He looked middle-eastern with a bit of african mixed in or perhaps mediterranean? The man stood at an imposing 6 foot-something with sculpted arms and legs poking out of a white robe of sturdy cloth and a leather belt. His chocolate skin was shaved and his head equally bald with a shined wax finish that reflected the sunlight pouring in through the doorway he stood in.

The man’s smooth face brightened into a smirk. “Aren’t you going to ask where you are?”

“Does it matter?”

The man blinked then let out a short bark of laughter. “For the moment, no. I suppose not.” He flowed into the room, his gaunt unnaturally smooth as he settled into a simple wooden chair that I swear wasn’t there a second ago. “How do you feel, Sergeant Daniel Morgan?”

How do I feel? What a simple, and loaded question. I dimly remember being a lot more sarcastic before I was indisposed. Somehow, either because I found such witticisms beyond me for the moment or unnecessary, I found myself answering honestly.

“I can’t… possibly describe what I’m feeling right now. So please rein in any delusions of getting a coherent and straightforward answer.”

Huh. Didn’t mean to add that last part. Guess my witty comebacks aren’t as far gone as I had thought.

The stranger looked taken aback, surprised like the first time, and let out a belt of deep rolling laughter. “I will endeavor to temper my expectations, Sergeant Daniel Morgan.”

I returned his smile, chuckling (well, more wheezing good-naturedly. My mind still wasn’t caught up with the rest of me). “You seem to have me at a disadvantage, sir. I don’t know your name.”

The stranger jumped from his seat, the chair simply ceasing when he came to his feet. “Of course!” He leaned in and stuck out a muscular hand stating, “Edris, Therapeutic Artificial Intelligence extraordinaire. At your service!”

An A.I.?

“A pleasure to meet you in the digital flesh.” With a grunt of effort I reached up with my emaciated arm and shook his hand as firmly (read:feebly) as I could.

Once we released our handshake I settled back against the cool stone wall. “Alright Edris, I’ll bite. Where am I?”

The bald man’s grin turned practically cheshire as he beckoned me with one hand. “Let me show you.”

The world didn’t so much as shift or shudder, but one blink I was in my idyllic stone room in endless meadows, the next Edris and I were seated in plush synthetic seats anchored in the center of a yawning void. I looked down and felt queasy at the nothing below my foot.

Edris, naturally, was completely at ease in his seat next to me. He reclined back further and tapped my arm to get my attention. “Look there.” He said, pointing to the nothing in front of us. “And try not to panic.” He added, his voice firm and serious.

I’m glad he warned me, because when the space in front of us flickered into a large screen it showed the skeletal remains of a living parapligic corpse with countless wires, sensors, tubes, and cables taking up residence over near every square inch of its withered flesh and suspended in a bed-pod filled with clear viscous gel.

I blinked numbly at the display and looked down at the same bony fingers on the screen gripping the armrest with every fiber of their digital flesh. Talk about an out-of-body experience.

Fuck.

“Fuck.” I vocalized. I couldn’t look anymore. “Turn it off.”

I had turned away, and felt some measure of uneasy, guilty relief once the sight of my own mangled body flickered out. Edris watched me, concern on his clean-shaven (do A.I. even know what shaving is? Question for later) face.

“I felt it better in the long term you understand your situation.” He said, some measure of remorse in his tone.

I blinked rapidly, trying to purge the images from my mind. I mean fuck it would make anyone uncomfortable seeing a bag of bones in some incubator type shit, but seeing yourself floating around like a pickled people-sicle? That… not gonna lie. That shook me.

I liked the meadow and rock house better, thank you.

“Explain.” I bit out harshly.

Edris did. The blessed man. (A.I.-person-thing. Whatever.)

“You’re body is currently in-”

“Don’t say ‘my body’ please.” I interjected. “It makes it sound like I’m shelved in a bloody morgue.”

Edris chuckled ruefully at my dark shot of humor. “Apologies. I meant to say, you are currently in Thanatos Research Ward 13.”

Well if that’s not an ominous hook for a knock-off Umbrella Corporation then I don’t know what is. “Thanatos Research?”

“The company responsible for my creation.” Edris explained, flicking a hand. More screens came to life in the void. “Thanatos Research is very well known in certain circles, but best keeps themselves directly out of the public eye.”

He pointed to a vaguely familiar company emblem of a white rose surrounded by ice spinning slowly on a screen floating next to his head. “You are most likely acquainted with our child company, Permafrost Entertainment?”

Ah, I remember now. “Yeah, I think. They’re the ones that pioneered that full dive VR headset, or whatever ya call it, right?”

“Digital Immersive Reality and the Gateway Pod. Yes.” Edris affirmed. “Permafrost Entertainment is both the goal and source of income for Thanatos Research.”

“Your company’s goal?” I pressed, finding myself genuinely curious and more than eager to distract myself from the horrible image of my own condition.

Edris was more than happy to comply. “The integration of the Digital world with the Material World, for the betterment of Humanity.”

“While squirreling away a little profit in the meantime?”

Edris laughed. “Why yes, I suppose that is a happy byproduct of our journey.”

“Don’t get me wrong.” I said with a sympathetic chuckle. Ouch, it kinda hurt to laugh. (If my lungs and body were all 1’s and 0’s here in this digital world, why do I still feel pain? Another question to add to my rapidly growing list.)

I pressed on, “A bunch of people I have the unfortunate displeasure of existing with think that a successful business that makes good money is naturally evil and should just give their hard work for free, because capitalism is evil. Or whatever.”

I sighed, experimentally rocking my amputated leg back and forth. I never could do that before. Heh, it’s kinda funny to watch the stump flick up and down like that. Kinda like a short wagging dog tail.

“Money ain’t bad by itself.” I added. “Everyone likes to beat down and demonize the rich while wishing they had a few million bucks, then they get rich and are somehow all surprised when everyone now hates them.” I shrug. “It’s a vicious cycle of stupid.”

Edris cocked a perfectly rendered eyebrow at my little rant, his expression somewhere between confused and amused. “I see you are passionate about this. That wasn’t reflected on your record.”

I shrugged and mumbled, “Mom is a politician. She is just as passionate, though with her admittedly incredible poker face and cold demeanor you couldn’t normally tell. She and I used to argue a lot. I love her and I know she loves me, but we didn’t really see eye-to-eye on a lot of things.” I reminisced, throwing a nostalgic grin in Edris’s direction. “Economics was one of the biggest topics we butted heads on. That and my choice of career.”

“Curious.” Edris hummed.

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. It took an embarrassing amount of effort. “What is curious?”

“Based on what you have mentioned,” He beckoned a screen closer, and I saw Mom, dressed in her pinstripe business suit and skirt, frowning daintily down at the circle of media hounds attending one of her press conferences. “Your view and hers seem to line up quite nicely.”

Now I was curious too. Curiously bloody confused. “What?”

I blinked. Trying to puzzle out what exactly the A.I. was insinuating. Mom and I were polar opposites in nearly every sense! Our goals were the same ultimately, sure. We wanted the best for people. We just had different ways of wanting to get there.

Taking a shot in the dark I ask, “Edris, how old are you?”

The bald man grinned. “I turn three active years old in five months and four days. Why?”

I pressed on. “And… How long have I been… Um, Inactive?”

Edris tilted his head, like a human would do while thinking. More likely he was just consulting the database that contained my file. “About the same length of time, it seems.”

“Well then.” I… didn’t know how to feel about that.

“You came to a conclusion, Sergeant Daniel Morgan?”

“Of a sorts.” I nod. “I can’t decide on being flattered that Mom would change her stance on some things because I was injured or sad that it took me basically being one with the living dead for us to finally agree on anything.”

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