I wasn't really surprised to find myself at the house on Emerald Street that following Saturday. I'd debated about it all week but in the end - all other factors not withstanding - I was curious. Micah was brilliant, top 1% of his class, several published papers; what if he was right? What if he did see something? People have near death experiences everyday and came back with stories. Micah was going deeper into death than anyone ever had ever come back from before and he was doing it in a controlled environment using an experiment that could be easily duplicated. I mean, who knows?
Micah greeted me at the door with a smile that said he knew I'd come and walked me to the large, barren living room. It sported tan walls, hardwood floors, lots of hospital equipment and 3 cheap looking twin beds.
Sean and Holly were already laying on two of the beds with nervous smiles on their faces and IVs in their arms. Irina was bustling around checking equipment and looking incredibly stressed.
Micah handed me an expensive looking, heavy camera. "The cameras at the end of our beds are already recording - they're our static cameras. I need you to walk around and record with this one as well. Irina is going to stagger our injections so that she can handle all three of us. You are simply a witness, nothing more."
"Okay... Micah, are sure you want to do this?"
"Bridget, we've been testing this and as long as Romeo is injected in under a minute, which it will be, there is no risk."
"There's definitely risk, Micah. And near death experiences-"
"This isn't a near death experience, it's a death experiment. Look, I know you're worried, and that's why I wanted you here, to make sure nothing goes wrong. And even if it does, I have stacks and stacks of notes and narratives proving that this was my experiment."
"Yeah, but..."
I couldn't think of anything else to say. Any objection I had, Micah would have an answer for. That's just the way he was. There was no stopping him now; I could either be here to see it or be somewhere else to hear about it. I chose to stay.
Micah walked over to stand in front of my camera.
"It's 12:51PM on Saturday, January 14th. I am Micah York and this is the first attempt of the afterlife experiment."
Micah walked over to his bed and sat down, letting Irina expertly thread a needle into his vein. He lay back on the pillow and turned to Sean and Holly.
"Remember, guys, as soon as you regain consciousness speak directly to your cameras about what you saw."
"Yep."
"Got it."
"Okay guys," Irina said with a shaky voice. "Everything is ready."
"Alright," Micah said, excitedly, "30 seconds, that's all. Irina, as soon as the last of the Juliet leaves the tube, hit this timer." Micah pointed to the digital clocks that were set to 00:30 at the head of each bed. Irina nodded.
"Bridget, you film." I swallowed loudly and nodded too.
"See you on the other side," Micah smiled and gave a thumbs up to Holly and Sean who returned it and then settled back on their beds. I hit record. Irina picked up three red tubes of thick, clear liquid from a nearby table. Steadying her hands, she slowly injected the first tube into Micah's IV, and then hit the timer above him. At the exact moment she did, Micah's heart-rate monitor flat-lined. I jumped at the high-pitched squeal and tried to steady the camera.
Irina hurriedly moved over to Sean and did the same for him and then Holly. Now all three EKG machines were loudly flat-lining. Irina put her hands over her ears for a minute and then pointed to a different monitor. "Get this! Bridget, record this!" It was Micah's EEG and there were zero active brain waves. "Get Holly and Sean's too!"
I could suddenly taste a bitter metal in my mouth and I knew I was beginning to panic. This had been a bad idea, a very bad idea. By the time I looked back over to Micah's timer there was 8 seconds left on it. Irina had already loaded up a green tube, the Romeo biologic, to Micah's IV and was just waiting to push it in.
The chorus of all three EKG machines wildly sounding their alarms was deafening. It was screaming at us: "Do something! DO something! Why are you just standing there? Save them!"
Just when I couldn't stand it anymore, a different alarm buzzed and Irina injected the Romeo into Micah's arm. I didn't breathe at all as I waited for Micah's vital monitors to show life. It took less than 5 seconds for the EKG machine to register a spike. And then another. Micah's EEG machine suddenly flared to life as well. I exhaled.
