Six Seconds : Emerging

I think I survived. I could hear voices. People surrounding me. Hands grabbing me. Lifting me up. I opened my eyes. I was rising, from the pool.

Paradise. Yes, that’s how it felt. My body was neither numb, nor in pain. The pins in my ankle were either gone or had completely stopped hurting. The air was both warm and welcoming. Not the same air I had been breathing before my fall.

There was a nagging feeling that something was supposed to happen. Whether it was something wonderful beyond belief or something horrible beyond a hellish nightmare, I could not be certain. Nor was I bothering to think about it.

I survived. I spat out their death and inhaled my first breath. It was blissful fire. I don’t know how long I had been in the pool, but this first breath hurt like it was the first in an eternity.

The faces peering at me were pale and distorted in shock. Yes, I think I saw terror in Dr. Sung’s eyes. His lips fluttered and quivered. He wanted to take control. To see what happened. To pick my body over.

I realized I am still sitting in the tank. Their pool of glowing death was still bathing me. I wanted out. Suddenly, I was.

I was standing next to the tank, dripping wet. The raw power was pooling on the floor of their precious lab. Even as it touched the floor, the light from it died. It turned clear and simple evaporated.

The old nurse was the first to react. Her withered body reacting as swiftly as it had when she first became a nurse. She rushed at me, with a towel. Her age illuminated by the glow of the tank. I didn’t want her to touch me.

She was gone. The towel fell to my feet.

Dr. Sung began shouting orders. There was an alarm sounding. Its red light blended with the tank. The room flashed purple. People ran towards me.

Jones tackled me. He was stronger than he looked. My body slammed against the floor, causing the room to spin.

Jones’s life flashed before my eyes. His parents. His first dog. The accident that destroyed his dreams. Everything he ever knew, learned, or experienced was forced into my mind. It was painful. An agony that set my brain on fire.

Jones flew off me. He wasn’t harmed, but he would not touch me, again. He sat against the wall, unable to move. His eyes and face reflected the shock of the unknowing. He feared me.

The security team came into the room. They were trained men. All of them were capable of maintaining their composure. Keeping their cool. Doing what was needed. And they were all armed.

No, I was not that kind of threat. All I wanted was to live. To survive. Was it too much?

Sung’s voice rang out, a bark of terror and command. There were some shrill screams, but they were of no consequence, now. Sung’s was the only sound that mattered. And all he wanted was to examine my corpse.

Jones had known these men. They were more mercenary than rent-a-cop. Their body count ran through my mind. Their after-hour jokes and smiles. Murderers. Sadists.

They were raising their weapons. It was a slow arc, to me. Everything was getting slower. Not sluggish, like when I was plugged into the drugs. I was thinking as clearly as I could, considering I was still dealing with Jones’s mind in mine.

He was as disgusted with their callous attitude as they were with his squeamishness. Jones wanted them to pay. Wanted them to never harm another person.

I just wanted to survive.

Their weapons exploded into super hot shrapnel, peppering their whole bodies. The trained men fell in agony. They would feel the death of every person they had killed.

My mind slowly opened. That’s the only way to describe it. It opened and I felt everything. I felt their misery. I felt their dying moments. I felt their minds.

All of their memories flowed into me, as Jones’s had. Burning a fiery trail in my brain. The pain was crippling. It was too much.

My mind continued to open.

Everything was pouring into my head. Every living being’s mind was forcing its way into mine. Every second of existence was climbing into my mind. And it felt as if it were a white hot brand being pulled across my skull.

I just wanted to die. Give me an end.

Whatever power I had, whatever I had done to Jones, that old nurse, those poor bastards, it granted my wish. As slowly as it could.

The energy from the tank reached out and pulled me. Dr. Sung would have seen it, if he was not curled up begging for mercy. Maybe one of the other doctors would be able to explain the strips of flesh that was burned from my chest or arms.

The tank reclaimed me. I could scream into the cool blue death. I could scream into the nothingness.

Six seconds. They say that you can gain untold power and knowledge, if you can last six seconds in the tank. They say that because nobody has ever lasted five seconds. Nobody lasts six seconds.