Awakening
Page 3
Chapter I: Rude Awakening
In which our sleeping prince meets his princess...
The cold rays of the sun alighted on the body lying prostrate on the ground several miles from the Station. The body would occasionally twitch, as if a malignant puppeteer had just discovered the joys of full-neural control and was savouring the experience. It was an unusual dance as the brain began to check the efficiency of limbs unused for decades.
The light coating of ice slowly formed a puddle around HUM-7728 or Barsch as he was known to friends and family alike. It is impossible to accurately describe in words what it feels like to be unfrozen, but one may liken it to the first gulp of air after surfacing from a freezing pool. It is said that every nerve in the body screams with pain as neural pathways are reformed and tested.
Pain, Pleasure, Heat, Cold, every sensation checked and double-checked as the brain desperately tries to reaffirm that its vessel has retained all its limbs and protuberances. The consciousness at this point is fragmented, like a mirror smashed into a thousand pieces. Once the body has been verified fit for duty, the consciousness coalesces and reforms into something resembling the norm. This is what actually happens, but to the man lying in the freezing pool of slush, only a slight tingling sensation and a feeling of disorientation is observed. After almost twenty minutes of inaction, Barsch La Tergan awoke to his new surroundings.
Confusion followed after nausea as the last remnants of Barsch booted up. Lying there, eyes still shut tight and body unresponsive, Barsch thought of what his first sight might be. The scientists, clad in white and grey, had spoken to the assembled masses, telling them of what was to come. No more pollution, no more painful breaths, no more sorrow, they had promised, as they had ushered the survivors into their pods. And he had believed every word, every honeyed promise.
And why shouldn’t he have? He was merely a boy, and they were Men, men who were going to change the world. And so, even without looking, he knew what he would see: green, verdant fields filled with life, and an endless, azure sky above, filled with birdsong. This image grew within him, giving him the strength he needed to force his body to awaken. Slowly, but unrelentingly, he forced his unwilling lids to open, to confirm with his own eyes the paradise around him.
And then, barely half an hour after waking up, Barsch’s world ended.