XFear ~ The New Generation ~

Chapter 1 ~ Not Ready ~

The dim florescent lighting in the filthy room of white walls mirrored on the tears that formed in my lower eye lids. As the leaver above me was lowered down to my chest to restrain me, I felt fear like I had never felt before. The thought of being drowned by the cold people that surrounded me did not fit the description I had been given. It wasn't supposed to be this terrifying.

"This will help..." the nurse said to me in an icy cold, fake chipper tone, as she pierced my skin and vane with a dull needle, making me cringe and attempt to pull my bound arm away. Before I could say anything, I felt the tingle of the Tingline ejection trudging painfully through my veins, working it's way up my arm, and to my heart. I started to shake.

"I'm not ready!" I screamed at the nurse. My screaming words as blood curdling as the cries of a small animal starting to be ripped apart by a pack of coyotes.

"Wait!" I pleaded.

The Doctor along side of me sighed and gave me a chilling facial expressions. Pretend sympathy riddled his face before unleashing the words, "I'm afraid it's too late for that..."

Jake's face instantly morphed to one of tragedy from merely concerned. Tears started to stream down his face. My words broke his heart. I screamed, and he ran to me, shoving two nurses aside to hold my hand. I clenched his hand with everything I had and said, "I won't leave you!"

He nodded and forced a smile onto his face, that was quickly drawn away when I started convulsing. The poison had painfully reached my heart, which sent it coursing through my every vane. My body stiffened and felt miserably cold. I groaned in agony. I felt Jake's hand grip my hand tighter, but I was fading fast.

"She'll be dead for good if we don't put her under!" the doctor shouted at Jake. A couple of men grabbed his arms and yanked him from me. Now my heart was broken. I wondered if I'd still look at him the same when I woke up. If that would be the last touch I would receive, knowing all the meaning within it. Everything we had was on the break of extinction. Tears plunged into the water beneath me as I forced myself to focus on every detail of him. Placing fond memories to everything I collected in hopes I would remember. Some people remembered affection, but most didn't... I wondered if I had the strength to remember... I knew he painfully wondered too, being the man who forget everything he loved after his Restart, 5 years prior.

"I love you Kim! Don't forget!" was the last thing I heard clearly before being plunged into the water. His cries echoed in my mind as I thrashed. Even the people who wanted nothing but to drown panicked when they were put under. I now understood why... The metal bars held me 4 feet under water, at the bottom of the rectangular, steel tub, pressing firmly against my skin. My body lied restrained by the contraption, and powerless by the poisonous venom within me. The cool water now burned me with frost, my body temperature, a broiling 120 degrees. My eye lids plastered open, peering through the now, blood colored water as I felt the oxygen in my chest quickly running out, and being replaced with water. Like rushing water instantly fills a dry creek bed after a dam was opened, I felt the water pour into my lungs, making me gag and gasp for air, worsening my position. I thrashed in pain and horror, knowing this was it... I was about to die. The question of doubt entered my mind, wondering how many people didn't wake up from this "restart"... Would the next injection bring me back to life like it was supposed to? Or take my life forever?

Suddenly I felt relief. The water instantly became my new oxygen, and I was able to breathe it in and out freely. I no longer felt pain, or suffering. "This is odd..." I thought to myself, suddenly relaxing at the feeling of consistent breath. I could still feel my heart beating rapidly from panic, but within seconds it slowed to a normal pace. I stopped thrashing, and now laid perfectly still to concentrate on what I was feeling. I took in breath after breath of water effortlessly, and the feeling of it going through my throat and nose soothed me. My heart beat started to beat even slower as I relaxed, striking me as odd, because it was much slower than my usual heart rate... Then it took another rhythm dive... I started to be concerned again. "Now what's happening?" I wondered. My whole body did one big gulp, causing me to take in one very large breath of water. Then there was nothing... My heart had stopped and I knew it for sure. "No! No! No! No!!" I attempted to say in panic, feeling I was drifting into unconsciousness. I miss understood everything that had just happened... From the second I entered the water.......I was dying........