Sunday, September 6, 2009

From 'Paternity Ward'

Officially it was called ‘paternity ward’ but everybody referred to it as ‘the service’.
Bruno had heard many stories from the elder – mainly friends of his parents – that some 100 or maybe 150 years ago ‘the service’ had meant something completely different. It was rumored that at that time men actually did serve in some strange institution with the single goal to train people who’d become experts in annihilating other people. They’d call it ‘the army’. The whole story didn’t make much sense to Bruno, but he wasn’t to blame – how can you figure out something you’ve never seen, something that doesn’t exist even as a notion in your head…
So there he sat in the warm twilight of the late May evening… and his head was all buzzing with weird visions. He had some flashbacks of the last modification that just took place earlier today. Their very presence in his head was disturbing because scientists performed all their sessions under deep anesthesia, and he wasn’t supposed to sense or remember anything. But somehow Bruno’s brain had ‘cheated’ and was now floating in a strange state on the verge of consciousness.
He was seeing himself levitate in the air above the surgical table. Long thin cables twisting like snakes supported his limbs, and all kinds of plugs stretched out of his head. It was not the plugs that made Bruno shiver from the vision… there was something else, only he couldn’t tell what. But something wasn’t okay at all. Something about the place… Yes! That’s it! As his consciousness was striving towards the surface Bruno realized that the whole place didn’t look like any of the rooms in Siracuse labs. It was unfamiliar, hostile… and completely out of date, as if he was somehow thrown back in time. And some guy in the weirdest green uniform on brown spots was bent over him, inspecting his face with an air of concern.
“Private Barilla? Can you hear me? You scared the Jesus out of us! Feel better now? Why, you’ve been lying unconscious here for the past 15 hours… “

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