2933 [SHORT STORY]

Part 2

My surroundings have changed again by the time I wake up, coughing up water and gasping air into my lungs like it's the last air left on earth.

"Are you okay?" I hear a frantic voice to my left ask and I jump so high I almost fall off the couch I find myself lying on. I'm in an unfamiliar room, with no water on the ground just carpet, everything looks almost normal... Am I losing my mind? I stare at the guy to my left, he looks relatively normal, like everyone did before I got on that bus.

It takes a few seconds before something clicks, his clothes... they look completely normal, like mine or any other person's. I really am going crazy.

"Uh, hello..? Are you okay?" My eyes snap back to him, in my flurry of trying to figure out my surroundings I'd forgotten he'd asked me something earlier. I realise I'm still shivering and my teeth are still chattering so I can barely stutter out a response.

"W-wh-at ha-ha-hap-pened?" I can see my breath coming out in white puffs around me and watch as the mysterious man in front me furrows his eyebrows in what looks like concern.

"I found you lying in the street, I thought you were gone for a minute there." He gets up as he speaks, I notice his voice has a certain rasp to it and is rather deep but I pay little attention to it as I watch him walk into another room. "What were you doing?" He asks seeming rather curious as he walks back into the room with what looks like a spare change of clothes, women's clothes. I notice the odd skin tight suit mixed in there and my mind is immediately focused on that and his question is forgotten.

"Wh-what i-i-is th-at?" I stutter out pointing to the suit in the mixture of the clothes. His face soon morphs into one of confusion as he looks down and realises what I'm pointing at.

"What do you mean?" He breathes out slowly looking at me as if I've lost my mind, slowly he puts the clothes down and starts to approach where I'm now sitting up on, what I assume is, his couch.

"Wh-at i-is it?" I grit my teeth to try and prevent them from their continued chattering. My expression begins to match his in utter confusion. Was I supposed to know what that is?

"You really don't know?" he asks me bewildered; I slowly shake my head still not understanding what the big deal was. None of this makes sense; it's almost like I've transported into a completely different time. He slowly takes a seat across from me and almost studies me with his eyes, trying to find the truth. He's quick to get up and collect the pile of earlier discarded clothes. "Tell you what, so you don't freeze to death, take a shower and change into these and then we can talk, sound like a deal?" he asks, almost cautiously, as though something would happen if he were anything but.

I shakily stand to my feet and take the clothes from his hands. I make my way to the bathroom he leads me to, barely remaining on my feet. Even from outside these rooms I can see how far advanced the technology is. What's going on here? Where am I?