He could feel the weight of his body. He contorted his neck and back to try to relieve the stiffness that ailed them. His vision returned slowly and he rubbed his eyes to try to bring them into focus. He saw bright lights and what looked like a small figure hurrying quickly away from him.

Pftt! A soft pulse of air brushed across his face and he felt a cold shiver run through him. He could now see what was in front of him. He stumbled forward and tumbled to the floor. It was cold. He could roughly see his reflection in its surface and as he struggled to lift his weight he saw his own hand. It was now the color of slate! He checked the other and the same was true.

He stood up and tried to look at himself in the reflection of the glass tube that he had crawled from. He was definitely darker than before. A orange phantom appeared within the glass and he spun around to see a little square creature.

It spoke, “Greetings and welcome to the New New Orleans Museum of Pharmacy!” there was a soft purring noise as it spoke. He had never seen anything quite like it before. It looked like a small human, but more like a garbage can. He started to feel light-headed. “Let’s begin the tour,” the creature moved without legs and he felt obliged to follow it, no matter how strange the whole situation was.

“This is the Cryonic wing of the museum,” it gestured to the walls. “Cryonics is the practice of freezing organisms for future reanimation. This process was experimented with in the early nineteenth century and was brought to the public at large in the mid 1920’s.” It whirled passed photographs and old jars and metal devices, “and this is the first known human specimen.” it stopped in front of the glass cylinder that he had left, “while the exact identity of this young boy is unknown, we do know that it was thanks to the experiments of Dr. William Ettinger. This boy is dated to the early 1910’s.” it passed by and continued speaking.

The boy paused and stared at his reflection in the glass once more. This was me? What had happened to my family- what had happened to Cora? He struggled to remember that night. He hurried to the metallic creature that was still talking.

“...cryonic freezing continued to be a popular method of preserving loved-ones well into the early 2050’s, when the need for cryonic freezing was no longer necessary. It reached its peak in the 1970’s, which was also the rise of bootleg and backyard cryonics that lead most specimens of this era to be severely delayed upon reanimation…” it continued. He thought to himself- had his family been frozen as well? Would they be here in this museum?

As the small creature went to round a corner, a man dressed in all black stepped around the corner with the small man that he had seen running away from him earlier. “Ah, I see you’re awake.” he grinned a toothy grin and the small man rushed to him and poked and prodded at him. “I have to admit,” he touched the young boy’s shoulder, “I didn’t think there would be anything left in there,” he knocked on his skull.

“Who are you?” the boy blurted out. He was turning red.

“I’m the museum curator. You are the earliest specimen that we had in our exhibit. Unfortunately the Senate had decided that it was time to thaw out all of historical specimens. Luckily there are plenty of interesting features of the museum for people to see.” he gestured for the boy to follow him. They rounded the corner and entered a long hallway with windows on both sides. “You see my boy, the world as you know has drastically changed.” He looked out the window and saw massive white structures on the horizon. They soared into the clouds and disappeared. Bright lights filled the empty space between the buildings. He could barely make out people walking on the streets below. “Breathtaking isn’t it?” he grinned once more. “We live in a new age- one without war, without poverty, without suffering.” they continued down the hallway until they reached a large entryway. “beyond here is the history of New New Orleans and-”

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“What do you mean New New Orleans? What happened to the Old New Orleans?” he interrupted.

“Old New Orleans is still around,” he pointed at a scale model of the city, “in 2060 the ocean decided to swallow the city whole. We had to rebuild it, and this time we built it upon its remains” His eyes met the eyes of the boy’s. His eyes welled up with tears. “listen Boy, I know that you didn’t want to hear that part, but it’s the truth. It’s a good truth too,” he knelt down to the boy’s level, “things are so much better now. You’ll see.”

“And what about my family? Where are they?” he wiped his nose on his arm. He had forgotten that he was nearly naked and felt slightly embarrassed.

“Not here, but you know, they may be downstairs. Would you like to go take a look?” he motioned towards an elevator. Standing next to the elevator were several other grey and blue men and women. Standing next to the elevators were two armed guards. The guards separated as the man approached and three elevators opened up. The other people filed into the different elevators. The elevators were made of wire and he could see the others has they descended. Most of them were drooling.

The elevator came to a halt. “This is your stop, Boy. When you find Mom and Dad, please come and tell me, won't you?” The guards exhaled deeply as the elevator opened. He was shoved out of the elevator.

He was falling into an abyss. He could faintly see a few soft lights below. He could hear the wailing of the other people that had been pushed as well. The breeze as he fell was warm and musty and just as quickly as he had been thrown from the elevator he hit the water. He flailed his arms, remembering large, terrified horse eyes.

A large blue arm scooped him out of the water and placed him upright on a dock. His stomach did a flip and he felt a stinging on his cheeks. He had been set up in a line. There was a woman walking down the line and yelling something. He couldn’t hear her until she met his face. “Meat Farm!” she barked as two large men came to grab him.

“Wait! What? Where are you taking me?!” he struggled against them. The woman had already continued on to the next in line as she seemed to stand up straighter at his protests. She spun around to meet him again. She had a reflective helmet on, so he could only see his own reflection.

“My quarters now!” she grabbed him by the back of the neck and pushed him along the dock. At the end of the dock was a wooden shack and she shoved him into the shack. “Seriously, I did not expect his today.” she flipped a switch as they entered the hut and it illuminated the entire room. There was an ornate rug on the ground, similar to the one that was in Father’s study. Mixed in with the luxurious items were miscellaneous items of trash. It was an odd space.

“I wondered if it would be you,” she laughed as she removed her helmet. She looked vaguely familiar. “Dr. Ettinger had talked to your father as well, I presume?” she pursed her lips together and placed her hands on her hips. He still did not recognize her. “You know, I’ve been waiting for you to return my book. It’s been about 260 years you know…” she smiled and he instantly knew- Gwendolin.