Vial 126

Chapter 2

I rubbed my eyes. I looked at my own body. I was wearing the same sweats as earlier. My face was pale. My hair was blonde. I wondered if it was a mirror. I moved my arm to see if the image would copy me. The lifeless, blankly staring figure stayed still .
I reached out and touched the soft skin on the figure in front of me. The soulless eyes... My soulless eyes stared back, the light blue color piercing me. I gently closed the eyelids to cover them.
"Am I dead?" I asked myself. Could I be dead. Could it have been this soon. Would I never see Mom or my sister again. I lifted my hand up to feel the hair of the body I was currently in. I grabbed a handful of hair and pulled it in front of my face. It was thick and black. I turned my head to look up at the ceiling. I lowered my glance and scanned down my new body. I flicked the sheets off of me to show that I was half naked. I was in gray underwear and a white tank top. My skin was pale. But the strangest thing was that I had legs. I wiggled my feet. They felt numb.
"You like it." A strange man said as he walked into the room."You ever seen Avatar, you know the one with the blue creatures?"
I grabbed my blanket over me and reached for a plate on a table on my left. I reached until I felt it in my fingertips. I pulled it closer.
The man walked closer.
I grabbed the plate and threw it at him as hard as I could. It shattered on the wall behind him.
List of strange things that have happened in the past couple of hours:

1. Getting shot.
2. Looking at my own dead body.
3. Having a new body.
4. Being welcomed by a stranger asking about what kinds of movies I watch.

Hey, this must be puberty. You know, when strange things happening to your body. Your body changing. Quite literally I might add. What's not to like? I had legs.
I screamed. Yep. Just screamed.
The man tried to interrupt. But I just kept on screaming. Finally, when my throat felt raw, he tried to speak to me.
"Look, so a poison gas was released into the air. And then it sent everyone into a death thing. So anyway, everyone in the world is in this long-sleep kind of thing. But they don't eat or breathe. So long story short, we needed your brain so we transferred your mind and spirit into this body. "
"What!?" I croaked. My throat was still raw.
At first I thought it was just a very strange dream, but I pinched myself and realized it was reality. "Yeah right." I challenged. "Is this some kind of simulation? You want me to play along? I can do that."
"No, I'm not kidding."
"How many people are still awake, or alive or whatever?" I said sarcastically.
"We have detected about five nearby." He mumbled. "By the way, what's your name?"
"My name!?" I exclaimed "Who are you? Where am I? Where's my family? What kind of joke is this?!" I demanded.
"I asked first." He shot back.
He walked up toward me and grabbed my arm. I started to struggle, but I felt a sudden warm comfort wash over me. I felt comfortable, like a little girl. Like I felt with my dad.
I pushed him off. "Let go! For all I know, you could be a drug dealer."
"You think this is a joke? You think I'm lying? You think your body is still the same? Well, why don't you take a look?" He walked over to a window. He opened the blinds. It was cloudy, cars had crashed, people were lying on the ground.
"That could be a picture or a virtual screen." I said.
He grab something out of his pocket and opened the window. He pushed the screen out and Chuck the item that he was holding. It landed a couple of clicks on the floor outside.
Could it really... Well, it's worth a shot.
"My name is Katherine." I said. "Your turn. "
"My name is Nigel." The man replied, "I am 39, how old are you, like 9, 10 - "
"Really?" I gave him a glance that certainly meant he was totally wrong.
"Oh, oh, don't tell me, you're an immortal sent through time and space to find love. Hate to break it to you but you're too mean." He made a sad face.
"I'm almost 15." I snarled. "Can I get some better clothes? I don't think a tank top and undies are the best crime-fighting attire."
"Sure, madam." He said bowing mockingly. "T-shirts are 3 doors to the left of here," He said gesturing with his hand. "Oh yeah mission suits are in there too," he paused. "So are the patented scientific watches." He bounced his eyebrows twice.
Why are the good guys always so weird, I mean what's this crazy man's deal?

* * *

I slipped the hoodie over my Mission suit, a slick, black, skintight outfit with a belt with pockets for weapons and such.
I put the hood up so my face wasn't completely covered, but shaded. Nigel knocked lightly on my dressing room door.
I opened the door. "Nice to see you found a way to hide that hideous face." Nigel said. "Let's get the limo to pick up the others."
Yeah, let's add it to that list of strange things:

6. Find out you're one of the last living or awake people in the world
7. Scientific watches
8. Nigel

In case you're wondering, it turns out that we had been in a regular apartment building before. We got outside and walked to the back to find the limo, it looked like a pistachio. The limo was painted like a pistachio. I mean not just the green color, but the cream shell paint too. We got in and Nigel acted completely normal as if the car was just a regular old car, not an oddly painted limo.
We took off down the road, it was filled with wreaks of when everyone went into the death sleep. We passed by buildings with cars crashed through them. Vans driven right through Sleepy More hotel. I am not going there again. We drove by my apartment, cars driven into fire escapes. I even saw some crashed planes.
Suddenly a horrible thought dawned on me. "Wait, can we check to see if my family is alright?"
"No."
"Why do we not have time to see if the last of my family is alright?"
"That's just the way it has to be."
"You-you heartless jerk. I wouldn't expect you to understand. I watched my father die. My mom and sister could be gone . They could've been run over, or hit during that death-sleep." I was choked up now. "You don't even care. You - "
"Look, I know what it's like. My mom died in childbirth of my younger brother. And my sister and I - we were best friends. One day, my dad was kidnapped. We tried to go after the kidnappers..." He was now also choked up. "We got help from my aunt, uncle and my grandma and some of the cops." He paused and choked down a sob. "We - we went into the building, we saw them, the kidnappers. They felt like they were threatened. They got a bomb. Everything blew up. I was the only to survive."
"I'm sorry." I said.
"Me too, with your parents." Nigel said, "You're an ugly crier."
I smiled. Sort of.
I couldn't see him very well because I was in the back and the mirror was poorly angled.
"Well, we're here." Nigel announced pulling into the parking lot.