Gnotret (The Accidental Heroes Chronicles Book 1)

by S. E. Cyborski

  with several tentacles. I screamed and it echoed off the room, the sound getting louder and louder instead of dying away. It turned into a shrill, insistent beeping and I opened my eyes to a

  dark room and someone calling my name.

  “George! George, wake up!” Jane’s voice called loudly. She sounded as if she was

  emanating from every wall in an effort to get me to wake up.

  “What? I’m awake,” I finally muttered, sitting up in bed swiftly and panting hard. The

  dream, well nightmare really, had terrified me and sweat soaked my clothes and sheets.

  “Are you all right, George?” Jane asked me, concern evident in her tone. I scrubbed a

  hand over my face and just breathed deeply for several moments, trying to calm my racing

  heart. When I felt calmer and my pulse slowed, I threw back the blankets and got up, pulling out

  another pair of pajamas.

  “I’m fine, just a nightmare,” I replied. “It was really vivid, though. I think my fears about

  this trial were twisting in my head with my fear of being chased. Just a nightmare.”

  I repeated that last sentence quietly to myself, trying to shake the sense that something

  horrible was going to happen with this trial. I kept it up as I headed into the bathroom to splash

  some cold water on my face. Starting the shower, I stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were

  red-rimmed and I was very pale. When the shower was warm, I got in and sluiced all the sweat

  off quickly. I got out, dried off, and dressed in my clean clothes, already feeling much better.

  When I lay back down, another thought came to me.

  “Jane, how did you know to wake me up?” I asked.

  “Your heart rate was up and you were yelling in your sleep,” Jane replied. “I deemed it

  prudent to wake you before you woke the others.”

  “Well, thanks. Has anyone else had nightmares?” I continued, wondering if this was

  indeed a side effect of the drug.

  “Not yet, no. I am monitoring but you were the only one who was not sleeping normally,”

  Jane said. “I’m going to try to go back to sleep. Will you let me know if anyone else has

  nightmares?” I asked, burrowing under the blankets.

  “Of course,” Jane said and fell silent. I closed my eyes trying to think of soothing

  thoughts. Eventually, I fell asleep and did not dream at all again that night. I woke up in the

  morning far more rested than when I had woken up in the night.

  I got up and went through my morning routine before going in search of breakfast.

  Surprisingly, Sandra was the only other person in the kitchen. I nodded to her and made a bowl

  of cereal, wanting something simple this morning.

  “How are you?” Sandra asked me, munching on a leftover muffin.

  “Better than last night,” I said honestly. “I had a really bad nightmare. Jane had to wake

  me up.”

  “You know, I had a nightmare too, right before I woke up,” Sandra admitted, her face

  closed and dark. “It really scared me.”

  “I’ll share if you do,” I offered, shrugging. “Sometimes I find talking about nightmares

  helps make them less scary.”

  “Maybe. I was running from something and it was really dark,” Sandra explained,

  shivering a bit. “I was trying to find a place to hide in this building but all the doors were locked.

  It actually looked a lot like this facility but that didn’t click in the nightmare. I could hear whatever

  was chasing me, it was breathing really heavily, and it kept getting closer and closer. I imagined

  I could feel claws scratching at my back and it just made me run faster. Finally, I found a door

  that wasn’t locked and I darted inside. There was this... blue light inside but I couldn’t tell what it

  was coming from. I collapsed on a chair and that’s when straps grew from it and tied me down. I

  couldn’t move, not even to wriggle. I kept struggling, trying to break the straps but nothing

  worked. The door opened and the creature that was chasing me walked in. I still couldn’t see it

  very well; every time I looked at it, my vision grew blurred and I had to look away. It went over to

  the desk next to the chair and pulled something out, I couldn’t see what. Then it turned to me and I felt a prickling pain in my arm followed by a burning. I screamed, still struggling, then I

  woke up. I was actually screaming and that was what woke me up.”

  “I had a very similar dream,” I shared, a chill running down my spine. “Everything was

  exactly the same as yours except I hid under a machine when the creature was chasing me.

  And I started outside and found the building. I went into a room with a table, a desk, and a chair

  and the creature was sitting on the chair. It gestured for me to sit on the table and then it

  injected me with this blue glowing liquid. It burned as it went up my arm. Before it was

  completely injected, I could see little organisms floating in the fluid. It really reminded me of this

  trial and the building I was in was this one.”

  “That’s really creepy,” Sandra noted, staring down at her halfeaten muffin. “What do you

  think it means? It could just be coincidence, right?”

  “What could?” Amy asked, walking into the kitchen and yawning.

  “Sandra and I had very similar nightmares last night,” I explained, smiling when Amy

  came over to hug me.“And they seemed to center around the trial and Gnotret. Did you have

  any nightmares?”

  “You know, I did actually,” Amy said, grabbing an apple and another muffin. “I dreamt I

  was on some sort of ship. I was running through the decks, trying to find a way off. There was...

  something chasing me. I don’t know what it was. I finally found a door that was open and I ran

  inside, slamming it behind me. Inside, the light was blue and there were these little creatures

  floating in the air. They were round disks with tentacles coming from the sides. Several of them

  flew towards me and burrowed under my skin. I started screaming and scratching at my arms

  and legs but I couldn’t stop them. Before I woke up, I saw that I was glowing blue as well.”

  “Well, there are some common themes,” Sandra said, ticking off points on her fingers.

  “First, we’re all running from something. Second, we make it to a room where there’s a blue

  light. Third, these creatures that somehow enter our bodies. And last, we’re always screaming

  though that could be just because of it being a nightmare.” “We sharing nightmares now?” Michael asked as he and Billy walked into the kitchen.

  Michael still looked sick, as did Billy. “Because I had a doozy of a nightmare last night.”

  “I did too,” Billy muttered, staring at the rest of us. He looked like he had the flu: his skin

  was flushed, he was sweating, and he moved slowly as if his whole body ached. “But I’m going

  to make tea before I talk. My throat is really hurting.”

  “Let me tell mine first,” Michael said, sitting down at the table next to Sandra. He looked

  at our breakfasts and grimaced, one hand pressing against his stomach. “Though I think I’m

  going to skip breakfast. Anyways, I was dreaming that I was running on a track for some

  exercise. Then the dream changed. I was still running on the track but something was chasing

  me. I couldn’t see what it was but I knew I had to get away from it. Each lap it got closer and

  closer and I could feel its hot breath on my neck. I saw a storage shed on the side of the track

  and ran t
owards it, slamming open the door and shutting it behind me. Inside, there was this

  table and it was lit with a diffuse blue light. I sat down on the table and this guy appeared next to

  me. He jabbed me in the arm with a needle and it burned. Then I started glowing blue, these

  little round shapes swimming underneath my skin. I screamed, but the guy just laughed. Then I

  woke up.”

  “I had a similar dream, though I couldn’t place where I was,” Billy explained, his voice

  hoarse. He took a sip ofhis tea and sighed. “I was running on a beach of some kind. It was

  dark, just a small sliver of moon in the sky. I couldn’t see the stars, though. I knew I had to keep

  running or something would catch me. I didn’t know what it was, I just knew it would be bad. So

  I ran and ran, my feet slipping in the soft sand. I almost fell several times but caught myself

  before I hit the ground. The further I ran, the more the ocean changed. At first, it was dark and

  the water broke on the sand in little white waves. Then, it started to glow blue and I could see

  small shapes in the waves as they broke upon the shore. I tried to run further up the beach but I

  couldn’t get away from the water. I felt that if the water touched me, I’d be lost. I heard a howl

  from behind meand couldn’t stop myself from turning to look. When I did, I tripped over a log on the ground and fell into the water. Immediately, the little shapes swarmed me and flowed into

  my mouth as I opened it to scream. It burned and I felt them all the way down my throat. Then I

  woke up.”

  “This is something Dr. Carnesby needs to be made aware of,” Jane interrupted us, her

  voice causing us all to jump in the silence after Billy’s explanation. “You all had dreams with

  similar or identical elements in them. I believe that it can no longer be termed coincidence and

  that this is most likely a side effect of the drug.”

  “Is he awake yet?” I asked, checking the time on the clock. It was just past eight in the

  morning.

  “He is,” Jane confirmed. “Dr. Carnesby has been going over the labwork from yesterday

  to compare with the tests he’s going to perform today. I have told him about your dreams and he

  should be appearing soon to talk with you.”

  I finished my cereal quickly, knowing that Dr. Carnesby would likely want to perform all

  sorts of tests on us. I didn’t want to face the rest of the day without at least one meal in me. Amy

  and Sandra talked quietly while the rest of us just stared down at the table. I wondered what this

  could mean. I’d never heard of people sharing dreams like this before. Though they weren’t

  exactly identical; we seemed to have dreamt scenarios specific to each of our personalities. I

  had just finished my cereal when Dr. Carnesby came into the kitchen, a concerned look on his

  face.

  “Jane informed me you all had similar nightmares last night?” he asked, taking another

  chair and sitting at the table with us. “She seems to think, from hearing all of your explanations,

  that there is something going on withyou all.”

  “Well, we all have similar or identical themes in our dreams,” I explained, playing with my

  spoon.

  “Let me go grab a notebook and then you can tell me,” he said, getting up to head back

  to his office. He came back with a pen and pad of paper, opening to a page and looking at us expectantly. We went through our nightmares again while he took notes. I shivered as I retold

  mine, reliving the events all over again. After Billy explained his nightmare again, Dr. Carnesby

  sat tapping his pen on the notebook with a thoughtful look on his face. I watched him after I was

  done speaking, watched his face change with each new element to the nightmares. He looked

  concerned when we each described the blue light and the organisms that floated in it.

  “I think this is connected with the drug that we’re testing,” Dr. Carnesby admitted,

  meeting each of our eyes in turn. “But I don’t think it’s dangerous. Just unnerving. Please keep a

  record of all nightmares you may have in the future but I don’t think this is cause to stop the

  trial.”

  “They’re just nightmares,” Amy said. “I mean, I have nightmares sometimes even not

  taking the drug. This isn’t going to stop me from continuing.”

  The rest of us nodded, though I was more hesitant than the others. The sense of

  forebodingcame back, stronger than ever. I pushed it back, knowing that I’d committed to going

  through with this trial. Dr. Carnesby stood, pushing in the chair and flipping his notebook closed.

  “Well, I’d like to start the physicals and tests again since you’re all awake,” Dr. Carnesby

  said. “There may be differences already from Gnotret. Sandra, if you would?”

  She followed him back to the office, sighing. I could tell that Sandra didn’t enjoy the

  medical part of all this. I decided she was probably in it for the money more than anything else. I

  turned to Amy and saw that she had finished eating. I smiled at her, taking her hand and

  squeezing.

  “You want to watch a movie until it’s our turn?” I asked. She nodded eagerly, rising and

  pulling me to my feet. We headed out to the lounge and picked a comedy called Rush Hour. I

  put the movie into the player and curled up on the couch with Amy. Billy and Michael wandered

  in and pulled out the Mancala board. Billy set it up, quietly explaining the game to Michael,

  interspersing it with drinks of his tea. After about half an hour, Sandra came back and sat down

  in one of the armchairs. “Amy, he wants you next,” Sandra said, yawning. She looked exhausted, as if all her

  energy had been drained. She was also very pale with a light red flush on her cheeks. Amy

  kissed me lightly and got up, heading slowly back to the office. It seemed the longer we were

  up, the more exhausted and sick we became. I focused on the movie again, resting my head on

  my hand. Sandra watched as well, her eyelids fluttering as she fought to stay awake.

  Over in the corner, I heard a quiet laugh as Michael won the game of Mancala. They

  reset the game, Michael going first since he’d won. I started to nod off, the sound from the

  movie a muffled hum. I heard a snore from the armchair and realized that Sandra had fallen

  asleep.

  I smiled a little at her; Sandra looked so young when asleep. Very different from herself

  when she was awake. I’d already seen that Sandra was a very forceful woman, used to fighting

  to get what she wanted. I heard a muffled cheer from the corner as Michael dropped counters in

  his dish and went again. The movie I was watching ended, so I decided to study my fellow

  participants for a little while. After all, we were meant to provide a check on each other, noticing

  side effects that the others may have missed.

  I could see that Michael was still extremely pale, his eyes glittering as if he had a fever.

  He moved slowly, much like Sandra had, as if his joints hurt. He wasn’t flushed at all but he was

  displaying many of the symptoms I was feeling and the others had been displaying.

  Billy looked the healthiest, though he was naturally pale. His eyes were glittering like

  Michael’s and he had a slack expression on his face. He was shivering slightly, as if the room

  was too cold for him. As I watched, his head started nodding forward and he slowly fell asleep.

  Michael stared at him for a moment, hand poised above the
counters, before he laid his head

  down on the table and started snoring.

  “Jane, I think the drug is making us all sick,” I muttered groggily, the words sounding

  mushy in my mouth. “Pale, flushed, feverish, and we’re all... exhausted.” “I have noted that and informed Dr. Carnesby,” Jane said, her voice quiet. I think she

  was trying to keep her voice down in order to let the others sleep. “If you can stay awake for

  another twenty minutes or so, he wants to see you. He sent Amy to sleep in her room.”

  “Sure,” I yawned. I pushed myself to my feet, wobbling a little as I stood up to my full

  height. I felt dizzy and light-headed, feelings I associated with having the flu whenever I got sick.

  As I staggered through the kitchen to Dr. Carnesby’s office, I vaguely wondered if he’d given us

  a disease rather than trying a vaccine or something of that sort on us. It would make sense with

  all the symptoms we had. But then I remembered the dreams and that made no sense at all.

  Reaching the door, which was wide open, I stepped in and let my musings go. We’d find

  out eventually what was going on with the drug and there was no use speculating now. Though I

  was a little nervous at how quickly it acted. We had just gotten the first injection the day before

  and already it had leveled all of us.

  “George, please come in and sit down on the table,” Dr. Carnesby said, gesturing at the

  examination table. I moved over to it slowly, grimacing as my muscles protested the movement.

  I dropped down onto it, my weight almost too much to bear. Focusing my bleary eyes on Dr.

  Carnesby, I waited for him to start the physical.

  “I see we’re having our first side effects,” he stated clinically, studying me. “Sandra and

  Amy were just as pale and flushed as you are. Are Michael and Billy having the same reaction?”

  I merely nodded, too tired to try and speak. I yawned again, my jaw cracking with the stretch. I

  shrugged when Dr. Carnesby looked at me in concern. I couldn’t muster up the strength to

  worry about what he thought about what was going on.

  “I’d just like to run a few tests again on you today, though you won’t have to do the

  stress test,” Dr. Carnesby said wryly. “I don’t want you falling asleep on the treadmill and hurting