Cold

Damn, it’s cold in here! I’ve never felt this cold in all my life. I did come close once when walking across a lake and the ice gave way. The freezing water soaking through every stich of clothing causing me to gasp as all the air rushed from my lungs. Ironically, it was those same saturated clothes coupled with the frigid air that saved my life. I placed my jacket arms and mittens with my hands in them on the ice and they quickly froze to the lake surface. Now I had the leverage needed to pull myself out of the water. Ice crystals immediately formed over my entire body. Fortunately, another ice fisherman saw the whole event and helped me back to a warm campfire.

I never thought I could feel that cold again until today. This place reignited the throbbing in my temples that I remembered feeling back then. My fingers and toes ached every time I tried to move them and the tears that wanted to roll down my cheeks remained frozen in place. The intense cold in this room felt the same as all those years ago, but that was the only similarity.

Instead of struggling for my life, I lay perfectly still on a metal tray that rolled back and forth like a kitchen drawer. The lights are dim and there were no people in full-time attendance. Others are here, but they lay stretched out on trays exactly like mine. The only way I can see them is by peering through the slits of my barely open eyes. What I can make out are blurry reflections in the plate glass windows. None of us speak to each other or to the attendants who occasionally pop in and out. I got the impression from their facial expressions that the workers don’t want to be here either. At least they get to wear clothes. The rest of us are as naked as the day we were born. With the air conditioning blasting directly down on my skin, it’s no wonder I’m cold.

My mind swirls violently as I desperately attempt to understand what’s happening to me and how did I end up in this strange place. Think, damn it, think! Prison transfer— yes, I was told the remainder of my sentence had been commuted and I was being transferred for to a special release facility. Instead of being let go, I was injected and that’s all I can remember with one exception. People in surgical masks were standing over me. I heard one of them say,” This one’s waking up, hit him again.” I blacked back out until a few minutes ago.

My body was rapidly returning to me, but it didn’t feel right. The attendants left the room, and I decided it was time for me to leave as well. Sitting up caused my head to spin, and I almost toppled to the floor. There was a faint whirring sound, and the dizziness disappeared. I jumped to the floor and immediately felt my head. Implanted in my skull was the same apparatus I’d seen robots wearing.

The attendants returned and immediately opened massive steel doors at the opposite end of the room. Heat and flames burst out warming the room. Immediately the workers grabbed the dormant bodies with machinery grafted on them and tossed them into the fire. Now I understood what this place was. This is where the government performs experiments on humans to create the perfect cyborg soldier. The ones that failed went into the furnace. What they didn’t understand is the one experiment that did work me, will be more than they will ever be able to manage.