Page 16
I start falling, my mask breaks, I am surrounded by a blue sky, there is no ground below me. Yet I fear the impact of cold earth. The breaths I draw, unfiltered, drive me crazy, every iced cubic centimeter stings my lungs and mind goes haywire. The uncontrolled thoughts come crashing into my skull. All that exists in my head is the lust for the sweet red liquid. A lust that only rivers can quench. Breathing the metallic air from my mask for years has done nothing but hunger me for more of the metallic tasting liquid. No, more. Oceans. I need oceans of it. Before I realise it, a grin creeps onto my face, fears start to drain away. Only one remains. The sight of a hand that slowly drifts away. I reach for it, but all I feel is the sub-zero gas around me. The hand is no longer there. No, don’t leave me here! Not like this. With darkness surrounding me faster and faster, my mouth opens to let out… nothing. No sound comes out yet the call is sorely needed. The darkness envelops me inside it and the fall accelerates into nothingness.
My eyes fly open. Breaths are drawn fast and blown out with intensity. I rise up and take off the filter section to down the bottle of water I kept beside my bed in the morning. I look at the clock beside me. Five thirty two PM, huh? Looking around, the apartment is a single room. The kitchen is joined on to the living room and there is one bathroom. Pushing my blankets aside, my tired legs begin to take me to the shower. Sweating last night and now again. Just before I get to the bathroom a call takes my attention.
Page 17
“Hey there, good evening!” Goodness sake, he’s lively. I turn around to meet a guy who, well, is quite built. A jock, I presume. But how did he get into Cambridge like that?
“Hey, how are you?”
“Not bad, are you the 16 year old going to two courses at the same time?”
“Not really, I’m only attending the lectures of both. No projects or anything like that.”
“Then what’s the point in going to uni? Especially Cambridge.
“The facilities, they are nice. Good to work with.”
“What do you mean?”
“The lectures are only for the professors to get me up to date on what tech the campus has got and some treatment skills that I will be needing.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’m going to be working here in 8 years time.” At this point, he just gives me a blank stare, probably speechless. Yeah, I have a tendency to talk too much and give away details about me that could prove sensitive.
“Sooo, what, you’re going to teach?”
“Oh, no. I’ll be working with doctors to provide better medical technologies and help maintain current ones as well.”
“Well, it would be great to have you on the team.”
“What?”
“I’m training to be a surgeon, I’m in my third year of getting my undergraduate.”
Page 18
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
“I see, you have been accelerated as well.”
“Yep, you’re not the only one. But I am still surprised that you accelerated that fast. Won’t it be tough for you to study all that time?”
“Not really, I remember things that I like, and while the medical side will be quite boring at parts and will need some serious work, the engineering part should be easy.”
“Great, well, welcome aboard!” He seems so confident and outgoing but at the same time he is quite the opposite of a jock, polite, good vocabulary and formal dialect. And he really is, he isn’t hiding anything. Usually, I see right through facades, but he seems to be true about it. “Also, care to explain the mask? Do you, perhaps, need it to breathe or something similar?”
“No, it’s to let me think. It’s complicated.” He whips his towel on to his shoulder, probably used it in a workout recently.
“Well, we are roommates, so feel free to tell me when you have spare time, that gizmo looks quite interesting. I wonder if it can be used for something else.”
“Sure, I’ma go take a shower, so don’t mind me.” He turns on his heels and heads to the kitchen.
“I’m calling next!”
Oh yeah, there’s one more guy who is going to be living with us. We are going to split the rent between us evenly. But he doesn’t seem to be here now. He’ll be back.
Page 19
Before long, hot steaming water runs down my body, heating up the outer layer of flesh and blood. Muscles begin to relax after a long day of… Nothing, I have done absolutely nothing today. Should have not slept for that long. That trip was pretty tiresome though. Had to get going throughout the night. I only got around three hours of sleep. A voice resonates in my head, drowning the sound of water splashing onto the shower floor. It’s the same voice. I can’t get that song out of my head. How did she sing so well? I didn’t know there are people out there who can do the impossible and yet go unnoticed. Well, maybe impossible is an overstatement.
I get out of the shower and realise a fatal mistake. Oh, for goodness sake. My towel! The drying utensil that I require is inside my bag. But how do I get to my bag without being seen? The door slowly opens as I push the handle ever so slightly. Coast is clear. I sprint across the room, grab my bag and run back to the bathroom. All while my body goes uncovered. The door slams shut and I plunge my face into the towel, with the rough material scraping against my skin. After a good five minutes of drying myself, I wrap the towel around me, tie it into place and unlock the door.
“Hey, you alright?” The jock stands ahead of me with an extremely confused look. He no longer has the wet towel. It is, instead, replaced with a blue and, more importantly, dry one.
“Yeah, why?”
Page 20
“Well, I heard footsteps that sounded like thunder. Thought that you might have hurt yourself or something.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Alright, my turn.” He makes a dash for the bathroom behind me. My eyes track him but a second body comes into view. Oh boy. The two men clash at the door, but the smaller one who just came into view manages to slip below the other’s shoulder. The bathroom door shuts once more, leaving me and the jock outside.
“What the hell?”
“That is the other guy staying with us. A student from the computer science department. Of course, like all students who use the latest and fastest hardware available, they are always impatient. So I tried to get in the shower first just to tick him off a little.”
“I see.” The hissing of water falling in the shower begins as the third tries to cleanse himself of sweat and smell.I resume reading the medical book by Daniel Spence after getting a t-shirt and pants on. It’s nice having no one to command you around the house. I’ll still do my part but in my own pace and way. I begin to drift off into the book but the familiar metallic taste of the air from the mask keeps me chained to reality. Even non-fiction books like these take me away. Oh, crap! My head rises to look out the window, out to the city. My eyes scan the landscape but they have no idea what they are looking for. I need to clear the other two filters in my bag tomorrow. The labs should have heating elements that I will need to purge the oxygen.
20,000 Words 