Ghosts Don't Die Twice

03|| Year 2030

-_-

Chapter 3 || Year 2030

Test Subject 81, now responsive.

My head's spinning, spinning so hard it rings. My insides feel worn, my heart is going slow almost like it'd been numb for awhile. I'm breathing but it's like I can't get enough, my eyes feel heavy and I'd rather keep them closed, but the more darkness I see the more my head spins and makes that unending ring.

I pry my eyes open, my eyes adjusts to the dim blue lights surrounding me.

Where am I?

Test Subject 81, now responsive.

My memory fails me, I try to recollect who I was, where I was, or how I got here. My mouth feels clogged and I can't move my tongue, this drives me mad with fear and anxiety. I reach for my mouth, doubting if it's still there. I feel something metal like, it formed an irregular pyramid shape, it covers my lips and spreads to my jaw. Instinctively I pull, first with one hand but it wouldn't budge, then I use both hands. It comes off my mouth with a little bit more force, but not entirely, appended was a rubbery tube, with what I can only describe as some kind of gelatin coating it.

Where did that connect to?

My hands now visibly shaking with fear and goosebumps forming on my skin from the eerily sterile cold. I tug on the tube, gently, and after a what looked like half a metre, I look down and I can still see the tube connected to my mouth, my tongue can wriggle a bit now.

Is this keeping me alive?

Should I continue pulling?

A flash of my thoughts course through my brain, along with a sharp headache. Two cars, some strangers, shooting at me. My brain rings louder and I groan.
I don't recollect who they were, or why they were shooting at me, but one thing was apparent, I was in danger then, and I still am. My breath heavy and my thoughts incoherent, I decide to pull, afterall that's the only way I was going to get out of here.

As I remove the tube from my mouth, I hear a faint but recurring beeping sound, and a voice fills the room, "Test Subject 81, please remain calm. You've just undergone a resuscitation procedure."

Test Subject? Resuscitation procedure?
What was that supposed to mean?

Never mind that, escape this sterile version of hell first, ask questions later.
My eyes scan the room, and for the first time I really take in my environment. I see little sealed off cubes just like mine, with strung up naked bodies just like me, all with the gruesome appendage to the mouth. I try to get up but the restraints around my ankles fastens and prevent me from doing so. I tug at them, repeatedly, but it's no use.

The beep finally cuts off and the voice fills the room again, "Please remain calm. The sterilization process is about to begin."

I feel my cube shake, the joints and couplings squeaking as a little engine revved nearby. A conveyor-belt like machine moves my cube through the thousands of other cubes, passing through a black room with different spectrum of colors occasionally flashing through and then to a room where hot and then cold air whooshed at my skin over and again and then finally to a completely white empty room.

I hear footsteps approaching, and the door opens. A woman in a lab coat walks in, holding a clipboard.
"Ah, you're awake. Can you hear me?" It's the voice on the intercom, she sounded more friendly and less computerlike in person.

I nod weakly, my voice hoarse from disuse.

"Good, good. We were worried about you for a while there," she says. "You've been in stasis for quite some time. Do you remember anything about what happened to you?"

I try to think back, but my mind is a jumbled mess.
"I...I don't remember," I manage to say.

The woman nods sympathetically.
"That's to be expected. But don't worry, we'll help you regain your memories soon enough. In the meantime, we need to run some tests on you to make sure everything is functioning properly."

She'd mentioned something about me being resuscitated back in the blue room over the intercom, but she didn't bother mentioning it again. I should probably bring it up, but she's already headed out the door.

As the woman walks out, I feel a sinking feeling in my gut. What was going on? And why did I feel like I was in danger? She seemed harmless but I still felt worried. I needed to find a way out of here, to get some answers. But first, I needed to break free from these restraints.

My thoughts comes rushing in again, and this time I remember clearly a little part of my memories. I could see myself laying on the floor, bullet wounds had pierced into my skin, I wasn't moving, I was dead. I feel blood rushing to the veins in my head, suddenly it all started to make sense, somehow these people had found a way to wake me from the dead.

As I lay there, I couldn't help but think about where I was, nothing felt familiar or as it should seem. The room was sterile and cold, with strange machines and devices all around me, beeping and humming. I felt like I was in some sort of sci-fi movie, but I knew that this was all too real. I had been brought back to a world that was unfamiliar and unsettling, and I didn't know how to feel about it.

How long was I dead for?
What day is it?

Suddenly, the door opens and a group of what I presume to be doctors walk in, draped in their spotless white coats. I jerk instinctively at my restraints again, still in doubt if I should be hostile towards these people or thank them for bringing me back to life.

"Test Subject 81," said one of the lab coats,
"We authenticate your consent to proceed with tests."

I never gave any consent!

I try to speak, but my mouth still feels dry and my voice comes out as a hoarse whisper.
"Where am I? What's going on?"

They ignore my questions, and when they place an oxygen mask over my head and I start to feel dizzy. I hear them faintly, confirming my pulse readings, blood pressure, and something I couldn't place about my brain activity. I felt like a lab rat, trapped, confused and helpless.

As my consciousness wore thin, I tried to piece together who I was and what had happened to me. I remember more, I remember being in a car chase, I don't know why I'm running or who I'm running from, there's someone sitting besides me but I can't remember who she is, I see her face one last time, her bright blue eyes stung with tears as I fall deep into a deep sleep that I doubt I'd wake from.