From somewhere came a long high pitched beep and suddenly, I was awake.
It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing. I was in some room staring directly at a metal door probably 20 feet in front of me. All around, near the walls were cabinets and cabinets of what looked like computer servers, many of them pulsing with green and red lights. Both the door and the servers I saw the moment I woke up as I seemed to have woken up already in an upright position.
I looked down at my body and realized I was naked and I was on my feet. My feet, though— I wiggled them and realized I couldn't feel the floor. Was I floating? What was going on here? And where was here?
There was a light bluish-green tint to my entire field of vision. Moving my hands felt somehow off, sluggish. I lifted my right hand closer to give it a closer look when my elbow bumped into something that prevented me from extending my arm to the side. It was on the other side too. And in front of me. I jerked and hit the back of my head on something. I didn't bump my head that hard because something attached to my neck and mouth resisted movement.
I examined the thing attached to my neck and mouth by touch. Some sort of mask that partly extended down to my neck made out of a hard material, maybe plastic. or rubber. Behind my neck, Connected to the contraption was some sort of flexible tubing. I tried to pull the mask off my face and two things happened.
The first was pain. Pulling the mask away by at most a centimeter— maybe half a centimeter felt like a dozen razor blades nicking me in places up both nostrils, my mouth, my throat and all the way down to somewhere inside my chest. I quickly stopped pulling and the mask snapped back into place; the return movement also producing pain albeit a bit more muted this time. What the hell was all this? The mouthpiece was attached to me?
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The other thing that happened was something I only mentally replayed some moments later. A stream of air bubbles escaped from the upper edge of the mask, rising quickly before disappearing from view.
Bubbles. I was trapped in a tube of water and breathing only through the mask.
It all felt like some twisted science experiment. Trying to retrieve my memories and failing brought me closer to panic. I'd try to remember anything from the last day or week and instead remember unrelated things from my childhood or some book I read or a trip I once took to Vietnam. Nothing that gave me a clue as to why I was here.
And then, slowly, a set of images came. I was at the hospital along with my family. And then, I was prepped for the operation. An operation for what? I woke up to doctors taking out something from inside me. And then, hearing a woman say something was going wrong. And then... and then... nothing else.
HGHAGHHG
I tried to call for help but I couldn't move my jaw at all. Additionally, something was pressing down to my tongue. I managed to move my tongue a bit to both sides and tasted something metallic. I think I might be intubated.
I tapped at the clear tube surface directly in front of me but couldn't figure out if it was glass or plastic.
Then, before I could change my mind, I punched the part of the tube directly in front of me.
Nothing happened aside from producing a dull thud sound and pushing myself back a foot or so. The water resistance— or liquid resistance as it might not be water— was either too great or the tube material was too durable. I gave it a few more punches, then an attempt at a kick and a knee before I found myself trying to catch my breath. I noticed my arm and thigh muscles had atrophied. I'd never been too athletic at any point but I knew I wasn't that thin.
Then, I heard a beep, similar to the first one that woke me up. This one, though, was followed by the sound of an electronic crackle of a speaker that came from slightly above my head.
"Can somebody hear me? We need help! It’s after us! It’s going to kill us if you don’t let us in!" a woman's voice said.