Blink {Featured}

Chapter Fifteen

Surrounded by darkness, John strained to hear everything going on in the room: bleeps, metal clanging and scraping, something like rustling plastic, and shuffling feet. There was nothing to see but black, but he heard voices too and tried to imagine what was going on.

'Okay,' said a doctor, a male voice, 'that should nullify the relaxant. You can restart the tests.' So they were doing tests on him?

The glass reverberated against John's fist where he banged it over and over. Maybe if he banged enough the barrier would break. Oh god, he felt sick as a dog.

'Do you have to strap him down Doctor Ryan?' It was a woman's voice, and it sounded a bit familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Wait, they were strapping him down!

'No!' John screamed into the darkness. What were they doing to him? Why were they tying him down?

'It's so hard to stretch and massage the muscle when he is like this,' the woman's voice said again.

'I'm afraid so,' Doctor Ryan said. 'If he has a seizure he may damage himself. God forbid he hits his head, who knows what would happen then. Another coma?'

What the fuck, was he epileptic now? Great, this was just bloody great. John let out a massive scream and banged on the glass again.

'It will only be the usual, the straps over his limbs, forehead, and chin. Oh, and the gum shield, we don't want him biting his tongue off if he happens to wriggle out of the chin strap.'

John heard a snapping sound.

'Okay,' said Doctor Ryan, 'that's everything.'

If only he could see what they were doing.

A silence ensued, and John imagined the doctor moving things over his body, maybe jabbing him with instruments, testing him with lights and gadgets from the future he couldn't yet imagine, and he shuddered with horror. Why was it so quiet? There were more doctors in the room, John could feel it, but everyone was quiet. Maybe it was an important test he was doing.

'Cortex synthesiser now online,' Doctor Ryan. Shit, what was that? With all his might, John threw himself against the glass barrier. He had to break through!

'Okay Miss Grimes, you can carry on now. What treatment is it today?'

Samantha was here? John pounded the glass. 'Hey Samantha! Someone fucking answer me!'

'Electrical muscle stimulation,' she replied, 'then a bit of massage on the legs.'

Before a leg massage from Samantha would've been the fulfilment of John's dreams, but he didn't like the sound of 'electric shock.'

'Well,' said the Doctor, 'he's all yours.' Thank god, Samantha was better than this guy he didn't even know. She would not hurt him, he was sure.

'Can I cover him up or does he need to stay naked on the bed?'

John groaned, frowned, snarled, and banged his head against the invisible barrier holding him back. 'For fuck sakes cover me up, oh god I feel sick.' He kicked and pounded on the glass but it didn't budge. 'Please God. Help me out here.'

'Your choice,' Doctor Ryan said, and John imagined him shrugging--his tone was kind of misgiving in that way. 'The climate control will ensure optimum heat levels.'

'Thanks,' she said, 'I'll cover him for modesty's sake.'

John sighed. 'Thanks Sam.'

Shuffles and a door creaking open and shut gave John the suspicion that the other doctors had left, and that Samantha now carried out her work on him alone. The silence made John nervous, not being able to see what was going on, but at the same time hearing human voices and everyday sounds like metal clinking on metal was like the sun bursting through the clouds after a storm, and he waited with more hope than he'd had in forever to hear more of those sounds and to feel closer to normal again.