Awake

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. It shone, blinding with long pillars of light stabbing into the darkness.

Particles floating, iridescent and sharp. She reached for them, but they escaped her touch. Moving around and eluding her fingertips. She squinted and tried to see into the light that shone bright—beyond the window.

She looked back at the broken container. Liquid flooded the floor around her; shards of jagged, glimmering glass were sprinkled dangerously, some drifting, seemingly towards her. She had accidentally brushed her foot along its razor edge and it throbbed now as a painful reminder. Red oozing, dark from her flesh, then mixing lighter into the fluid like smoke—diluting itself into pink and then nothing. She carefully avoided the threatening sparkles and dragged herself closer to the window. Her arms were aching. Her thin body, naked and heavy.

Her lungs were burning. She had never breathed air before, so naturally, when she came crashing down out of the tank container, she thought she was suffocating when she was immediately immersed in the dry environment—air. The fluid splattered everywhere, the sound of crashing rang loudly in her ears—screaming through her brain and rattling her to the core. The thud of her wet, rubbery body hitting the floor shook her entire being as she lay gasping, sure she would die. She didn’t remember anything before now, asides from peace—and his face. This loud, painful, shocking space filled her lungs and she thought she would surely burst into darkness. But she did not. Instead she lay sputtering, coughing and expelling goo from her chest until air was all there was left inside her.

She looked around and saw a dull space with only the glow of another world shining in through a small rectangular window on the other side of the room. Instinctively, she was drawn to this opening. The light.

Upon reaching her destination she struggled to her feet. Pain shot up her leg from the foot that had been sliced. She waivered back and forth, unsteady, but held tightly to the windowsill. Quickly realizing this window was just another container. The light that shone in was behind another solid, more of this sharp and dangerous substance. But breakable, she now knew.

She tried to tap it, and then found something hard resting nearby. She lifted the object and swung it hard into the opening. Another blast of splintering sound as the barrier came crashing down. Shards sprayed toward her, some small pieces already stabbing in her hand and drawing blood. She screamed so loud it scared her. She continued screaming. It was all she could do.

Out of the light she heard voices—distant at first and then louder and clearer.

Rushing figures, of the same likeness as she, approached and reached through the window. They climbed inside, calling out to her, and covered her with warmth.

Inside, wrapped in soft blankets, resting by the window she stared up at the sun, freely, without the solid, dangerous, painful barrier. Light hit her eyes with such a force it caused her to wince…in the feeling of life. She was more alive than ever.

Her helpers wrapped her wounds, speaking to each other in quick bursts.

She recognized his face. He spoke, but she couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“This clone has some bad cuts, make sure to wrap them well. I don’t want to deal with another loss. What number is she again? 222? Let’s put her in the tank for 42 until we can get her re-assigned…how the hell did that container smash?”

He threw his hands in the air, and walked away. Never once meeting her gaze.

They don’t speak to her, but instead carry her away from the light—over the spillage of liquid, the glass and the goo. Over the landing where she was sure she would perish, and back to a new container.

There is a loud splash, and then nothing. No sound at all—only that horrifying feeling of suffocation. Her eyes are wide and searching as she gasps for air that is gone.

Her lungs fill with the heavy liquid and she coughs and sputters, choking on its heaviness; air squeezes out of her body in bubbles. They float away from her catching the light as she watches them disappear. They are gone. There is only darkness now. Her mind races, awake.