#1 - Nick Webster

1. The Awakening

            Boom! Bang! There was a loud crash outside. Outside... whatever I'm inside or wherever I'm at. I've just woken up from... my sleep, I think. I try to open my eyes but can't for some reason.

Bang! I heard several screams before I heard silence. What is going on? I try to move my arms or legs or any part of my body. For some reason, I can't move anything. Several moments went by and I started hearing smaller noises. There's someone out there. I think... but I think there are people in trouble judging by the noise. I think I can hear several voices out there.

I managed to slightly open my eyes. It hurt to open them. Everything seems blurry. I... I think I'm under water right now. I... I'm breathing through a tube. I can't really feel anything else, and I still can't move any parts of my body. After a few moments, my line of sight becomes clearer. There's a figure in front of me. Holy crap! She is staring right at me. Our eyes meet, and we stare at each other for a few moments. Suddenly, she put her hand on the glass while still looking at me.

We finally break eye contact when I start to look around at my surroundings. I'm underwater in a giant glass tube. This person outside my tube tilted her head slightly while just staring at me. I'm not sure what she's doing or what she wants. Finally, she moved over to a computer near my tube. She started operating the computer by pressing buttons. I'm not sure if she knows exactly what she's doing... it kind of looks like she doesn't. But she looks back at me and then leaves. The girl grabs a laboratory coat on her way out of the room we've been in. Well, what exactly did she do?

My tube starts to make some noise, and I can feel the water in my tube start to move around. Wait... my vision is starting to get a little blurry. My head starts spinning, and... and... I can't see. I'm starting to drift away.... then everything goes dark.

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Oh my god. My head hurts so bad. It's throbbing like nothing I've ever felt before. Honestly, I don't remember anything from the last time I woke up.

I don't remember anything at all, and it scared me a little bit. What was my life like before I was in this tube? Did I have a life before being here? I had so many questions about what was going on, but I stopped thinking because my head now hurts even more to worry about that right now.

It took me a few minutes to gather my composure. I hacked and coughed for air several times. Wait a minute... I'm not underwater anymore, but I'm still in my glass cage. I must have dropped the breathing device because I didn't feel it in my mouth or on my face. I slowly but finally got my eyesight back. I look around. I'm still locked in this glass cage, there are a couple of people on the ground, there are red lights flashing, and oh my god – those lights are blinding!

The girl who was staring at me through my cage appeared to have disappeared, and there were no other people standing or walking around. Just two people laying on the ground. Well, two people that I can see anyway. There could be more around here somewhere, but my vision still wasn't great plus there were several tables, computers, and other objects that kept me from seeing everything in this room.

I still can't feel much of my body. I hadn't yet picked up my head, but I was leaning against the glass wall. My head felt so heavy that if I lifted it up, I felt like it would fall off my shoulders.

An eternity seems to pass, but I finally start to feel my hands and legs and the rest of my body. I can feel the inside of my body moving and unsettled. I start to move my arm in the air. My hand feels so weak and hurts to move. I must do something, though. I don't know what's going to happen next. Will that girl come back? Did she really kill these people on the floor? Why didn't she kill me? Would she kill me if she could have? Did she mean to kill me instead of just draining my container?