Only Hope
He gasped softly as he woke up in a hospital bed, not remembering a single thing from his entire life. He didn’t even remember his name, but his eye caught something when his hand, which had rubbed against the sheets so that he could sit up, had something black on it, as it had stained the sheet a little. However, his blood went cold when he saw what was written there. “Trust no one. Don’t eat the pills.” Just as he read this, a nurse walked in and smiled at him.
“Oh good, you’re awake! I’ll go get your pills.” He was worried by this and looked around the room after she left. The room was mostly white, metal being one of the only other things he saw. Then he saw the clipboard on the wall and took it down to take a closer look at what it said.
“Patient number: I-15
Symptoms: Memory loss, language retention, significant memory gain from unknown variable, visual and auditory hallucinations, emergence of materialized objects
Mission: Success
Medication: 22-B, 15-A, 167-Y, 420-Z
Next Step: 84–1A
Potential Side Effects: Sense of independence, significant memory loss, ability to transfer matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them."
His eyes widened in surprise as a sense of deja vu overcame him. He had read this before, he knew he did. He just wasn’t sure where or when. The nurse came in and smiled a little as she handed him 2 small red pills. He hesitated, then smiled back and looked like he took them, instead making them fall over his shoulder into his hair, which felt greasy and disgusting against his pale skin. He’d have to take a shower when he got out of this place. Markus, as he decided to call himself, swung his legs over the side of the bed and looked in the mirror opposite of the bed. He had short, curly brown hair that would look really cool if he had it washed. His eyes were a bright, shining blue that seemed to glow slightly in the soft light from the window. He had pale skin and slight freckles that made him smile a little. However, he was surprised when he saw the metal in his mouth. Then a word came to his mind as he stared at them. Braces Yes… That must be what they’re called. However, he found that he could not speak the word. He couldn’t speak at all. It hurt his throat anytime he tried. He must’ve been mute or something. Anyway, he looked around again and his mouth watered when he saw a plate of food by the door. So he went over and took a bite of one, bread, if the memory that came to his mind was to be believed. It was strange however how it didn’t change how full he felt, or at least it was strange to him. Once he finished the bread, he looked up and peaked through the door out into the hallway.
Everything was very white, mostly tiles on the ground and there were doctors and nurses everywhere. One noticed him and smiled a little as he came over, but his smile seemed a bit malicious. Markus backed up a little and scanned the man for any threats. He had black hair and dark brown, almost black eyes, pale skin and he was dressed in a suit and tie under his labcoat. “Hello there I-15, I see you’re up.” He nodded a little in response and rubbed his arm.
“Yeah… Hey doc. What’s I-15 mean?” He asked and the doctor, Dr. Adler as he’d read on the man’s name tag, thought for a moment.
“Well that’s simple. I is for the age. We went up a year each time. So you were… 10 when we started. 15 is for the number of test subjects we went through before we got to you that were your age.”
He continues explaining, but Markus wasn’t even listening. I’m… An experiment…? How many children have they kidnapped…? I need to get out of here…
“A-Ah yes, very interesting… Now I w-would like to go explore…” Dr. Adler nodded and stepped out of the way, letting him move through into the hallway. A lot of the hall was much like the room, very white, clean and mostly tiled. He hid inside of a janitor’s closet to try and calm down, sitting against the wall to hide. However, he was surprised when part of the wall gave way and he started tumbling into the darkness. Markus stayed silent, not wanting to alert the doctors to his location. After a few moments of him covering his face and just tumbling in the darkness, he stopped when his back hit a hard surface. It hurt, sure, but he preferred it hurting a little than to just drop him back into the room he had originally been in. He slowly sat up and looked around as he sniffled, rubbing his back a little to try and numb, or at least dull, the pain.
The room was dark, much like the rest of the tunnel he had fallen through, but there was a soft orange light, almost candle light. He couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from though, but he decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth and just explore. The room seemed to be made of a kind of stone with metal every once in a while. The few things that stood out were 1, a bed with white sheets, blankets, and pillows; 2, a wooden table that stood close to the bed with a small white plate on it; and metal rungs that lead up, however Markus couldn’t tell how far up they lead. He heard soft whispers around him and turned to look, but there was no one there. He could still hear them though. “Up… Get out… Be free…” He was a little freaked out by this, but decided to listen to them and slowly started climbing the ladder. It took him a long time, so long that the light slowly faded and he had to feel around for the next rung to climb onto.
