Alive

Chapter 1: Data Unknown

I'm writing this down now as a means of preservation. I don't know why but things have seemed a little strange lately. I tried to call my friend and talk to him but the conversation was very vague and odd. He acted like he didn't know who I was. I know that things haven't been great lately for him. He would tell me that was an understatement. Doug had been in and out of the hospital the last week or so.

This apartment is cramped. Being stuck in an apartment for a long time will tend to make things weigh on your mind more often, I know. That's why I feel bad. I just haven't gotten outside in a while. I've been working on this project, something prompted by a silly writing contest. Anyway, I got distracted from that. So that's why I'm here now, typing away in this online journal rather than doing anything productive.

I feel a little bit like I'm wasting my time. I just don't know what to do about my friend. He got really drunk last night against the doctor's orders and he texted everyone he knew about scheduling his funeral. I called him asking what exactly he meant when he broke the news to me and everyone that the doctor had diagnosed him with lung cancer. His family was upset about it understandably, calling them at two in the morning just to share this news, and they started a big thing about it this morning on social media.

Doug, my friend, had always been a drama queen. I love him but he overreacts to so many things. I remember when we first met, one sunny afternoon in summer. I would never tell him this, but when this big kid came by and kicked his sandcastle and the sand got right in his eyes, I laughed. At the age of seven, he had the most ridiculous scream I had ever heard in my life. He said to stop laughing and I told him it wasn't me it was the bully because I felt bad about it, and he believed me because he couldn't see.

Now he feels bad because he has lung cancer. I know that it hurts but it's not that big of a deal. He'll be fine.

***

I exited out of the online journal and logged onto my typical platform. I scrolled through the comment threads of my account, glancing past my name, and other information that stood out on the dashboard. For a moment I stared back at my own face, the black and white picture artificially darkening my light brown hair and making my blue eyes a dull gray. It looked enough like me that my friends could find my account, anyway.

"We've received important news of the recent advancements in stem cell regeneration," the newscaster announced. It was her loud voice over the usual hum that was constant in the background that made me look from my screen toward the TV. "Over the last forty years we have seen enormous progress in what is commonly coveted as the greatest achievement in the medical field," she said.

She went on to say something about how we have come so far as a species, how amazing the scientists are at replication of organs and tissue, the usual slosh we had been inundated with over the last half-century or so. However, she said something that stood out in particular to me. Never has anyone been brought back once they were dead. It appeared that they had supposedly figured out how to replicate an entire person from scratch, from the victim of a house fire who had been burned down to the remains of their teeth.

There had been no further mention of the victim, as they had been a minor and so they were not allowed to disclose their identity to the public under any circumstances, they reported. One would think that they would be able to make an exception for such an outstanding achievement. I balked at the TV, then shut it off. It could never be done. There were at least dozens of false reports every year now of this supposed ability to resurrect the dead and their claims had been debunked every time.

It couldn't be real. A man who had held onto a lit firecracker last summer had his fingers blown off, and he went to the doctor to get them replicated right back onto his hand as if it had never happened. A woman who had been in a severe bus accident a few months back had gotten out of critical condition within an hour, her ruptured organs completely repaired. Doug had cancer, but everything would be okay, as all he needed was a fresh pair of lungs.