Wraith

Chapter 01: Experimentation

Cold. The room is of average temperature, but the table where I wake is made of metal and feels icy where it touches my skin. As I return to full awareness, my senses detect something else, pain.

Raising my head, I look around. The room is empty and blinding white. The air has the dry and metallic taste of having been processed through a hospital sterilizer. As my eyes cross my body, I see the needles. Clad only in a pair of shorts, needles and IV tubes are plugged into my arms, legs, and chest.

The leather restraints holding my wrist are a primary target, and I thrash against them, pulling up hard in deliberate motions to judge their durability. Whoever had put me here obviously never intended for me to wake up. The restraints are old, and a few well placed tugs rip them loose from the metal table.

I claw at the bindings around my ankles, quickly undoing them. I leave the table and remove the metal piercing my flesh. Blood flows from the numerous holes, but I ignore it. I must escape.

It was only when I turned to find an exit that I realized the futility of my efforts. The room spun around me as the drugs already pumped into my system began taking effect. My rapid heartbeat had only dispersed the chemicals faster.

I take a single step, but my legs collapse under me. Darkness consumes my vision, and I lose consciousness again.

***

Daylight greeted me as I slowly returned to the waking world. I push myself up from the ground onto all fours, my fingers closing around the soft sand under my hands. An ocean wave washes across my hands and wrists.

I brace for the pain I know is coming when the saltwater touched the needle holes in my skin, but none comes. The warm tropical liquid flows away from me as quickly as it had arrived, and I check my arms. I had completely healed, and it let me realize some time had passed since last I woke.

Sitting back on the sand, I scan the surrounding area. Tall palm trees, encompassed by ferns and vines at the base of their trunks, covered the majority of the terrain. A few large boulders protruded through the sand here or there, but the entire place appeared uninhabited, except for me.

I started to stand up fully, but I caught the briefest glimpse of a man across the surface of a small pool of ocean water trapped in a depression of beach sand. Jumping to my feet, fists held ready to face a potential threat, I found myself still alone.

Looking back at the small pool, I stared into a reflection of a stranger. My hair was a lustrous white and speckled with grains of sand. My pale blue eyes were almost too pale, appearing ghostly. My ghoulish looks weren't altered by my rail thin facial features.

It struck me as odd, not recognizing my own face, but I soon realized I couldn't remember my name. I tried thinking of everything I could to jog my memory. I was combat trained, but I didn't know where, or on whose side.

My hands pressed against my temples as I tried desperately to contain the life experiences vanishing from my mind, but once again, my efforts proved useless.

Whatever had happened to me, I realized I had to keep moving. Standing in the open on the beach was stupid. Heading off into the jungle, I intended to make a search for food, shelter, and any weapons I could find or make. This would keep me going for the time being.

Kneeling in the soft sand just inside the border of the jungle, I examined an impression of a boot print. I checked the density of the sand, and the depth of the impression. Judging by the depth and estimated speed of the one who had left the track, I made a guess as to the size of the person who had passed here before me. The person was clearly better off than me as the print was made by a boot while I was still barefoot.

A realization came to my mind that I hadn't lost any of my skills or abilities, only the knowledge of where they had come from and when. The answers only needed to be found, and someone else was clearly on the island with me.

Setting my jaw in determination, I stealthy followed the direction of the boot prints.