Doors

I was walking up the train to the buffet carriage, through interminable sets of automatic doors.

One opened and then I had to wait for the next one as the previous one closed behind me with that compressed air whoosh.

And they kept on like that like it was never-ending. Door after door after door after door.

Would I ever get a cup of railway coffee?

* * * * * * *

Then I woke.

I was in a hospital bed, wired up to monitors, showing my heart rate and god knows what else.

"Ah, you're awake" A doctor and a nurse were checking and signing various bits of paper and forms.

Me: "Where am I? What happened?"

Medics: "You keep collapsing. This is the fifth time you have been in here. Your family have asked to perform a Life Restart on you. It is a new procedure in which we terminate your rife, and then revive you. We have done it successfully with many animals, but you are our first human, which is why we gave your family a fifty per cent discount on the procedure"

Me: "What? No Way. You are not going to kill me!"

Medics: "The procedure will be fine, you will come back fully functional with all your memories and abilities. We have had no problems with any animal from rats to advanced primates"

Me: "You are not doing this. When you kill me my soul will be gone. When my body wakes it will have all the memories and abilities, but it will not be me!!"

There was an injection, I hadn't realised, I was fading and fast ........

Medics: "We will make a fortune from this process, he will be back with us within the hour"

He woke, he looked the same, spoke the same, and his family were overjoyed.

They all went home......

* * * * * * *

Police Report

A family was brutally murdered when they picked up their father after a pioneering operation to prevent continual blackouts. After he had killed his family he cut his own throat and bled to death.

The process was deemed a resounding success by the company, and they have started treatment on a number of patients. They also have contracts with the Health Service which will be very lucrative going forward.

The company have said that the process was a complete success but they are not responsible for the behaviour of patients after the operation.

They suggested that the man had a violent personality but were unaware of this because he was sedated during the process.

The company washed their hands of the result, and no one took them to task, as the Government had awarded them contracts they would not show anything but total support, and there was no one left alive to push for an investigation.

This massacre might be the first of many.