by Jodie Kobe
~~~
Once I’m out of the bedroom corridor and in the vast, white hallway, I head toward the cafeteria, not caring about people staring at me as I skid across the tiles with my socks. They’re slippery enough.
A few people jump out of the way as I run at them. My attempt to gain speed fails a couple of times, but eventually, I make it to the cafeteria.
The food line declines rapidly. Soon I’m carrying another reeflin along with the same can of water and for a second, I feel like I’m repeating the same thing as yesterday. I hope this doesn’t become a regular routine.
Instead of heading over to the tables, I make my way to the exit door, where to my horror, my brother—along with the guy who talked to me yesterday (the one who took my temperature on my first day here)—stands next to the doorway.
I don’t want to talk to him, but there is no possible way to avoid him. And I’m not feeling great enough to eat inside the cafeteria again. My room is waiting for me.
Taking the long way toward the exit, I slip past people. Some of them step out of the way to let me through. Piers and his friend still block the door and they won’t move. Get out, get out, get out.
Then, as if by some miracle, Piers shakes off whatever his friend is saying to him, and walks away.
I can practically jump up to the ceiling. However, I still have his friend to deal with. Maybe he won’t recognize me?
I scoff. Highly unlikely. There is a chance I could hide behind someone heading for the door. From there, I’ll just merge in the crowd. The people have already crammed themselves in the doorway again.
The distance between the door and me decreases, and I continue dodging people until, finally, I’m at the exit. And Piers’ friend has disappeared, and I didn't even notice before.
Just as soon as I’m about to squeeze myself out into the hallway, a hand snatches my wrist and jerks me back into the cafeteria. No, no, no. Not Piers!
And it’s not. I’m staring into the eyes of his friend, which I don’t know the name of yet.
“Please don’t call my brother,” it just slips out. As soon as I say it, a smile appears on his face.
“I won’t. Are you afraid of him?”
Squirming out of his grasp, I reply, “Of course not. I just don’t want to talk to him.”
“Don’t you like him?”
“I won’t answer that,” I snap. But of course I like my brother. I’m just not in a mood to start a conversation with him.
He just laughs and sticks his hand out. “We haven’t met properly. I’m Robin Garmin. People call me Rob and I suggest you should also.”
I shake his hand swiftly, struggling to hold my breakfast with my other hand. “I’m Vivian and you don’t need to know my last name.”
“Clancy,” he says. I have to sigh with annoyance. Of course he knows my last name. “Where are you headed?”
I gesture to the exit door we’re blocking. People walk around us so I step out of the way to let them through. “Obviously out of here.”
“Where’s Rian?” Rob follows me as I slip through the crowd and into the hallway. I wait for him as he struggles through. There is no point running for it. He’ll just want to follow me. Besides, I don’t want him to think I hate him. The last thing I want here is to make him an enemy.
“I came here without Rian so I don’t know where he is,” I reply.
Rob laughs. “You came here all by yourself? I guess you don’t need Rian anymore. By the way, have you picked a job yet?”
I bite into my breakfast and shake my head. Why does he want to talk to me?
“I’ve been alive for two days and you’re expecting me to get a job?” I say with a mouthful of food. “I need to learn how I’m alive first.”
Rob cracked his knuckles mockingly, clearing his throat. “Let me clarify.” I hope he's not going to tell me some stupid joke, because I'm really not in the mood for this. “I’m not sure how you died but I’ll do my best to explain this. First of all, we study cryonics here. It’s gotten advanced through the years so we’re able to thaw frozen people from the past. You died. I don’t know the cause but after your death, your body was sent here. This factory was in early development so we weren’t positive we’d be able to bring people back to life at that time.”
I hold my hand up, signaling for him to stop. “Hold on for a second. You’re saying we as if you were alive when this was being built. Were you alive?”
Rob shrugs. “I guess so. I’m thirty. And you should know that I never died.”
I blink. “And you were never frozen?”
Rob nods. “This doesn’t shock you in any way?”
Am I supposed to be surprised? I mean, I know I was brought back from the dead somehow, I just didn’t have a pretty clear idea of how.
We start walking down the hall, dodging people coming our way. “Do you know Dr. Janelle?” I ask Rob.
He nods. “I assume everybody does. You meet her at least once.”
“She told me I was murdered. Might you know where I could find more information on that?” If he did, I doubt he would tell me. They wouldn’t exactly let me search through their files.
“There’s a room containing documents related to everyone of our subjects.”
Oh, he just told me. I guess it’s not the “employees only” type of access.
“If you’d want to look into it,” he continues, “you have to ask Jack. You met him, right?”
I suspect he’s talking about Jack Welds. “Yeah. Yesterday.”
“You can ask him,” he tells me again. “By the way, are you free this morning?”
In my head, I run through a few possible things I could do to to evade what Rob has planned out for me. None of those reasons sound any good to convince him I'm busy. “Yes, I am,” I say. “What do you need?”
“There are a few new inventions I’d like to show you. Most of our patients get to see them. This tour just aids them in finding a purpose inside this facility. Want to come along?”
I give him a small nod, curious to what these “inventions” are. New vehicles? Devices? Food?
