I don’t think about the afterlife often, but when I do, I tend to picture a lot of white. Don’t ask me why, but something about a pristine white with no other color in view feels paradisiacal to me. And shouldn’t the afterlife offer a sort of paradise for the fallen? A place of peace?
Well, the room Lucinda had brought me to was no such heavenly place, but it was white. Completely white. And what I mean by that is no sight of any other color… anywhere! It was somewhat disconcerting, actually.
I sat in a wide hard chair (yes, it was white) in the center of a narrow room that acted more like a box barely big enough to fit me and maybe two other people. The blinding white walls seemed to close in around me, and I could feel my breaths grow shallow and quick. The reflective white floors offered me a view of my sickly pale face, and I felt trapped. I’d never realized small enclosed spaces would bring me this sort of distress, but now I definitely knew.
“Hello, Rayden Grim,” a soft, masculine voice said to my left.
I craned my neck around the plush headrest of my seat and found an extremely tall and lanky man with a bald shiny head and a silver beard cropping atop the dark skin of his jaw.
“I will be the one implanting your neural implant today,” he said as he marched over to me with a glowing tablet nestled in the crook of his arm. “Have you been told what to expect?”
I gulped. “Not really.”
Though Dex had some vague information about the purpose of the neural implant for citizens and students of Solomon’s Realm Academy, I wanted to know as much as possible before they drilled a strip of metal into my skull. At least, the drilling into my skull was as far as I understood the procedure.
The man flashed me a broad smile, then walked past me toward a long-stemmed table with a white tray resting on the top. Many different tools I’d never seen before lay displayed on the tray. Dex informed me of their purposes; lots of needles for doctors (“doctors” is what this world called the people who took care of the sick and injured–I didn’t know if those with healing Skills leaned toward becoming one or not) to stick into people to take blood or inject various liquids. The larger needles, two of which glinted at me menacingly, were explicitly used for inserting neural implants into the heads of those in this city.
Dex’s scans could tell me all of that, but the one fatal flaw to Dex… He could never tell me what certain things would feel like. And as I watched the lanky doctor lift the biggest needle on the entire tray and hold it up to the light, my whole body ached from the queasy feeling that arose in my stomach.
“It’s a simple procedure, really,” the doctor said. “And you will only feel a little pinch followed by slight pressure. But we’ll be done before you know it!”
I found it hard to believe that the words “little” and “slight” could be associated with a thick needle the length of my entire hand.
The doctor continued, “The neural implant is so small, you can hardly see it. Once inserted, you will never even notice it’s there. Would you like to see a deactivated one?”
I nodded, but the man had already moved to a small transparent container on the table and scooped something out of it with his free hand. It must have been so small because I couldn’t catch sight of anything in his hand.
Something about how the man traipsed over to me with a glint in his brown eyes set alarms off in my head. He outstretched the hand without the needle and directed me to look at his palm.
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“See, very small. You won’t even notice it’s there.”
I had to squint to even see the neural implant at all. Once I found something on the doctor’s palm, I initially thought it a piece of minuscule dust.
“Is that…?” I pointed at the dark speck. “Is that the neural implant?”
“Yup! So, nothing to worry about. The neural implant is placed into the needle that I will quickly insert into your head. And once I press down on the plunge…” He mimicked pressing on the white applicator atop the needle with the hovering of his thumb. “The needle will deposit the neural implant into your brain.”
I apprehensively shrank away from the doctor’s gloved hands as he brought the disturbing gleam of the needle’s sharp point closer to me.
“Do I absolutely need to have one?” I squeaked out. I cleared my throat, embarrassed that I couldn’t keep my emotions in control.
“Of course! We’d have to kick you out of this city and send you to the surface.” The doctor narrowed his eyes at me. “And you are new here. I assume you know nothing about how to survive out there.”
My eyes widened. Was that a threat?
“Besides,” the doctor said with a toothy smile, “you will want to have one. You can’t get a job and earn credits without a neural implant. You’ll need credits to buy food and other necessities or wants. They also act as health monitors. They constantly check your vitals and other health factors so we can keep an eye on your well-being at all times. Now, are you ready?”
I pursed my lips and stared down the needle getting dangerously close to the side of my head. I didn’t like the idea of people monitoring me at all times.
“Codex, should I go through with this?”
“My scans detect no imminent danger from one of these neural implants. And I will most likely be able to hack it if any problems arise.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled heavily through my nose. “Alright, I’m ready.”
What started as a small prick turned into a mountain of pressure as the man shoved the needle in just above my right temple, and with more force than I felt was necessary.
“Please hold as still as possible,” the man commanded in a firm voice.
I bit down on my tongue to keep from crying out. It felt like someone had started digging into pieces of my brain and decided to hit every last nerve on the right side of my face. In fact, someone was digging into my brain! An uncomfortable tension spread through my skull then took root behind my eyes. “Little pinch” and “slight pressure” my butt!
And the pain only grew worse as the doctor pulled the needle out of my skull. But once the needle left me completely, all pressure and discomfort evaporated like mist impacting hot air.
“All done!” the man chirped happily, wiping off the needle with a cloth and then throwing it into a small bin behind him. “The neural implant is installed.”
It took me a second to blink away the spots in my eyes and allow my vision to return to normal. It was even more challenging, with the dull headache pounding right where the needle insertion had been. Once I started to feel like myself again, I sat up from my reclined position and tried a less-than-sincere smile in the doctor’s direction.
“Thank you,” I replied, not knowing what else to say. “Is there anything I need to do to… activate the neural implant?”
The doctor pulled off his rubber gloves and threw them in the same bin where he’d deposited the needle. “You don’t have to do anything. It will have started working exactly as it should almost instantaneously after insertion.”
I mindlessly tapped fingers against the small, pin-prick-sized hole above my temple. It was tender to the touch, but nothing I couldn’t handle. What I really had a difficult time absorbing and accepting was that a piece of–well, essentially, a piece of machinery had been burrowed into my brain.
“Is there a guidebook or anything that can help me learn how to use it?”
The doctor shook his head. “No need. The neural implant will automatically inform you of things to do when the time comes. Thanks for visiting!”
And with that, the man who hadn’t even told me his name slipped out of the narrow door and away from my sight.
“Wow. So helpful,” I muttered under my breath.
I slipped off the chair but immediately planted a hand back onto the seat to steady myself. A dizzying sensation overcame me, and I felt more pressure behind my eyes and where the needle had been inserted. I took shallow breaths and urged the feeling to go away. When it finally did, I cautiously stood upright and dared a couple careful steps.
Maybe I’d just gotten up too fast.