Mad Giggler on :
Poor guy.
Wednesday, August 31. 2005Tommy Xiang
Thrashing wildly, Tommy sat up, wide-eyed in the dark. No lights shone in the bedroom; for a moment, he thought that he was in the staging area for the environments. He forced himself to breathe deeply. Slowly, his pounding pulse slowed, and once again he drifted off. The dream started again.
He saw hands, small, clean hands, pulling on surgical gloves. They smeared Lidocaine gel over the back of a patient's neck. Tommy waited for the three small incisions, but they didn't come. Instead, the hands clenched around the scalpel handle, and buried it with all their strength in the side of patient's neck. The patient thrashed, and turned over. Tommy found himself looking down at himself--the stainless steel scalpel still protruding from the side of his neck. Then, his point-of-view shifted. He found himself lying on the table, a terrible pain in his neck, fear in his nostrils. He looked up to see his attacker, and saw the girl, still riddled with bullet holes, and the blank stare of death in her eyes. She jerked the scalpel out, and raised it again. Tommy screamed, scrabbled to get off of the table, and thrashing wildly, sat up, wide-eyed in the dark. This time, the faint light of dawn shone around the edges of the blinds. Tired, aching, Tommy rose, and shambled to the bathroom. Clothes lay scattered on the floor. Tommy kicked them out of the way irritably as he made his way to the shower. Couldn't she understand that he was trying to redeem himself? Couldn't she leave him alone? His hands shook slightly as he looked down and saw the stainless steel scalpel, the surgical gloves, and the patient's exposed neck. Forcing himself to remain calm, he cut through the skin with steady strokes. A few minutes later, it was over. He reassured the patient, explained the healing process, and escorted her out of the abandoned hospital. An old bench sat near the front door. Tommy sank down onto the bench, and stared up at the sky. An aging moon shone faintly through the haze. A few bright stars pierced the night, but for the most part, the sky was a mass of darkness. That was the last of the new implants. He would have to get Night_Watcher to make some more. Andy Swenson had loved the environments, but after the first visit, his first question had been, "Can I tell some of my friends about this?"
Now, Tommy had to make schedules so that the system wouldn't get overloaded, and so that the patients didn't hurt themselves. Three of them were already on powerful immunosuppressants to fight the reactions that came from spending too much time in the environments. Tommy's resources were strained to the limit; black market dealers were leery about selling drugs to doctors. Something had to change. His eyes closed for a moment, then he jerked awake. He couldn't sleep. Couldn't allow it. If he slept, she would come. She would come, and torture him. He felt gingerly at the side of his neck, half scared that he would find a bloody wound, or a protruding scalpel. Nothing. He glanced at his hands, expecting to see her blood there, black and accusing in the dark. But they were clean. He breathed deeply, reached for his phone, and called for a taxi. Several minutes later, lonely headlights swept across the street. Tommy rose, crunched across the glass-strewn courtyard, and collapsed into the back seat of the taxi. As the abandoned hospital retreated in the rear-view mirror, Tommy's eyes closed, and he slept, deeply and soundly for the first time in what seemed like ages. Trackbacks
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radar on :
I may have said that I had a favorite episode, and that hasn't changed. But this has got to be the most well written one. I can just feel his agony, and torture. Brilliant!
Sideshow on :
I told Jared this, but figured I'd post it here. What I like about this episode, is not only do you feel that time has passed, but Tommy mentions he's now used up all those implants that were made for him. And that so many people now use the environments.
I like the fact that all this occurred without our knowledge. It helps give a feeling that the world is a real world, and we're only getting glimpses into and that when we're not looking people still have their daily lives. Instead of this feeling like a world that has been created simply for our own benefit, and when we're gone nothing happens. |
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