Chapter one - Rude awakening

Chapter one — Rude awakening 

 The sudden exposure of the room's light almost blind my eyes. Instantly, I shut my eyes for a while, trying to figure out how I got to this place. The only thing I remember is the creak sound of the trunk. 

 After a while of failed reminiscing, I decide to get up, but it seems like there's no leg attached to me at all, did I lose my legs? I asked myself before pulling the sheets, luckily It's still there but numb. Slowly, my cold limbs begin to come alive, and finally, I'm able to wiggle my toes after hours of attempting.

I look around, trying to see if I'll be able to get out. Steadily, I got up but as soon as my foot touch the floor, I dropped. My lower limbs aren't ready to move yet, for the meantime I keep my eyes busy with studying the room. The painted white walls, with several x-ray posters on it. I turned to see a computer monitor beside me beeping, I studied the slopes on the screen for a while until I hear footsteps approaching, finally.

 Quickly, I climbed the bed and lay back, pretending to be asleep. The door made a low beep then it creaks open, slowly the footstep approach to my bed.

 “Sleeping beauty, how's your night?” A female voice says. 

I narrow my eyes to see catch a glimpse of the lady beside me. I watch as she plunges the syringe into a small bottle, extracting a clear liquid from the container. She covers it as soon as she emptied all the bottle, then she turns to me. 

My heart beat raced when she lean closer to me, pointing the syringe needle to my arm. Her eyes widened in shock as soon as our eyes meet. Before she is able to make any move, I hold her by the wrist and pull her to bed, turn her over then sat on top of her. Slowly, I grab the syringe from the lady.

 “Shhh” I whisper with my hand on her glossy lips. “I'm going to draw back my hand from your lip but don't try to shout or else you'll get hurt”.

 She shook her head and slowly, then I move my hand aside. “Please don't hurt me”, she begs.

 “That depends on you” I say, then I turned to look around. “Where is this place”.

 “Safe space facility, Seattle”.

 “Seattle” I repeat, trying to recall. “Where is Seattle?”

 “The largest city in west central Washington”, she replies quickly, but I still fail to recall any Washington.

“How did I get here?”

 “To be honest, I don't know. I was assigned to administer propofol every morning since two weeks ago”.

“Two weeks. For how long have I been here?” I asked.

“According to your medical record, you've been in coma for six months”.

 My heart pounds on hearing 'six months'. The only memories I have is the sound of a vehicle trunk, and it feels like yesterday. After a while of pondering, I return to the nurse under me.

 “How do I get out?” I asked.

 ********************************

 My eyes darted down the hallway as I stepped out of the ward, my legs still tremble as I walk. Surely, it'll take a while for me to balance my movements. Slowly, the numbness feeling in my foot reduce gradually, but wish I'm able to move faster. At the moment, I fell like a little child who's still learning to walk.

 I made a quick turn at the end of the hallway but unfortunately for me, I bumped into three men in black polo shirt with the word 'SECURITY' boldly inscribed on it. They look hefty and taller than me, each has a small baton in their left waist holster and a pistol by the right. Without hesitating, I turned away, fleeing as fast as my numb legs can.

“Hey! Get back here”, a voice bark at me.

Still, I run with every ounce of strength in me. Though, my legs are still unsteady, but stopping isn't an option either. Quickly, I pulled out the key card I got from the nurse and place it to the door's sensor in front, unfortunately for me, it refuses to open. Millions of thoughts run down my head in seconds, why isn't it working? But it worked for previous doors? 

 I take some step back, and I catch a glimpse of what's written on the door, 'level seven officials only'. I looked at the number on my key card, 'Level 4'.

The hefty men finally catch up with me. I felt disappointed, but in a moment like this, there's only one option.

“Come with us”, One of the men says to me, calmly.

I stand still with my legs apart, clenching my fist while I wait for what's coming up. One of the men marched forward, swaying his baton.

“We are not going to hurt you”, He says, pulling out a handcuff from his pocket. “Be a good boy, come with us and nobody gets hurt”.

 As soon as he gets closer, I swing into action,, but he sways to dodge my punch. With the corner of my eyes, I sight his baton. Quickly, I grab his wrist and twist his arm using my other hand to slam his head against the wall, making a loud thudding sound. Instantly, he falls to the floor, lying unconsciously. I take his baton and faced the other men, five of them.

“What are you all waiting for?” I say, pointing the baton at them.

 To be honest, I don't really know that I'm so good at fighting until now.

 The men marched to me at once, the one in the right swings his baton to me, but I swiftly bend down to dodge it. Without hesitating I strike mine to his knee, instantly, his patella cracked. He screamed in pain and falls to the floor.

 I swing left to dodge another baton which is being swung towards me from the right. I struck my baton violently to the attacker's stomach, he made a loud grunt, placing his both hands on his stomach as he drops his baton. Quickly, I jabbed him in the head with mine, roughly, he falls to the floor. 

 I turned towards my left. Speedily, I blocked a striking baton with my arm, immediately it strikes my bone, I felt a shock in my arm down to my spine, resulting to a rapid stiffness and joint pain, while still trying to recover from the numbness, another baton strike violently to my left knee. My bone cracks and I drop to the floor, groaning in pain. The three other men marched to me.

“Stay down, we prefer not to hurt you further” One of the men warns me with his baton still pointing at me.

A sudden rush of adrenaline flow down my body giving me a chill feeling, the numbness in my arm suddenly disappear, the pains on my knees suddenly soothes by itself. I had to wiggle my fingers and toes to be certain.  

I turned to the man who's about to cuff me, Instantly, I sweep his feet, with every ounce of energy in me and jabs him in the nose as soon as his back hit the floor, he black out immediately. There's a visible shocking expression in their faces as I stand on my feet, again.

“I guess this is the part where you run” I say.

 The other men hurriedly drew out their batons, with full rage I rush to them, jumping high with my head almost touching the roof. I land with a drop-kick on their chest, they staggered and hit their back vehemently against the door which collapses immediately, followed by a loud thud. 

 I feel confuse as I try to make sense of what just happened, I turned looked at the men again, and I felt stunned. 'Did I just take down five men?'

 “Get him!” 

 A voice from the end of the hallway startled me. More of them approaches with batons, quickly, I drew the key card from one of the unconscious guard pocket, then I head for the exit. 

 The lights suddenly turn red followed by a loud beeping sound echoing from an unseen speaker, I kept running and taking different turns until I sight a red door with the word 'EXIT' boldly written. My pace increase as I head for the door. Luckily, the exit door seem not to have a sensor, but unfortunately, I'm unable to open it. After several pushing, kicking and banging, I finally gave up. 

 The security men hurried to me, with their baton pointing forward as usual, they slowed down immediately I turned to them. Almost thirty of them approaching to me, of course, armed. 

“You can't fight your way out of this.” A hefty bald man in white beard said to me.

 “Watch me”.

***********************

(Ten minutes later)

 I walk carefully to the last man at the corner, as I tried not to step on the ones laying on the floor unconsciously. Still groaning in pains, he tries to crawl at the instant he turns to me with his bleeding nose, my punch seem fatal than batons, I still can't explain how this is possible. The deep cut on my arm suddenly heal, as my skin patch itself. But my head still aches due to the baton bangs.

“Please don't hurt me” The man says.

I grabbed him by the shirt, pulling his face closer as I leaned forward. “Where is the key to the exit?”, I ask.

“I swear, I don't know”, He says.

 “Ok, I'm going to ask again. Where is the key to the ex-”

“He doesn't have it”

 A distance voice interrupts, slowly, I drop him and turn towards the sound direction. A middle age man in a white lab coat smile at me as our eyes meet. 

“Hi, I'm Doctor Fred” He says, carefully stepping forward, trying to avoid treading on the men I battered earlier. 

 He stops immediately I clench my fist in defense. Guns corking sound echo from behind, but he ordered the armed men to stand down. 

Doctor Fred turns to me and smile again. “I'm sorry about the whole-”

“What's my name?”, I ask, curiously.

 He looks at me through his big round glasses without saying a word at first, he rubbed his curly hair and turns to the lady beside him.

 “Bring his file”, he says to her.

 A slim, light skinned, brunet lady in suit steps forward holding a big brown paper. She hands it over to doctor Fred, and she immediately steps back as soon as he collects it and flip through some papers. 

“Adam, your name is Adam” He says as he peered through his glasses.

 Honestly, the name didn't ring a bell. He seems to more about me better than I do.

“What's happening to me?”, I ask.

“Adam, there's a lot happening that you need to know” he replies.

 There's a total silence until the lady in suit move closer to him. “Are you sure we can trust him?” She whispers to his ear.

" We need him on our side if we are going to get what we want”. Doctor Fred replies, again he turns to me. “Adam, the world is no longer what it used to be”.