New Life
Holy cow. What next? This drive home was taking way too long. I just want to get home and take a hot shower and hit the rack. The truck driving in front of him was moving slow. Funny looking truck. Kind of short and squat. AND SLOW! Come on, I just want to get home. The truck wove slowly down the twisting country road. Finally, it slowed and turned it's blinker on, turning right into Sam's driveway. That's odd, he thought. Wonder why they're going down there. Must be going to the neighbor's. But as he followed the rig up his long driveway, it turned into his house. Right where he wanted to park. What could this be? They must be lost. Pulling his car up beside them, he turned the engine off and grabbed what he needed off of the passenger seat. He walked up in front of the truck, which was still running, heading for the driver's door to see if they needed any help. As he approached the door, the window rolled down.
"Evening," Said Sam, "You guys need anything?" They had to be lost, being here at this hour.
"Good evening." Replied the driver, "How are ya?"
"Doing good," lied Sam, "You looking for somewhere?"
"Yes actually. Are you Sam?"
Huh. That's weird. "Ya, I am. What can I do for you?" Wet. Cold. Black.
A tight sick feeling in the stomach. Loud wheels on pavement, a diesel engine roaring. Wet. Black.
Dark. Regular dark. Nothing more. Body numb. Head huge. Laying, listening to the sound of his own breathing. Just breathing several minutes without a thought. Then a beeping at the end of where he is laying, a door cracks open. It is a normal door, and the bed that he can now see that he is in is a normal bed. A small, stout man momentarily silhouted against the doorframe walks into the room, and closes the door behind him, leaving it open just enough to allow the tiniest sliver of light to enter the room. Sam hears the sound of a metal chair's feet being scraped back along linoleum as the man sits next to him. The man smells of aftershave and tobacco smoke. Good tobacco smoke, like a good cigar, or a pipe, not the stale smell of a cigarette smoker. Sam stares into the black where he knows the man to be. All that he can see is is the tiny line of light on the wall beside him, opposite of where the man is sitting. He doesn't know what to say or expect, just lays staring at the dark where the man must be.
"Hello. My name is Manuel." Manuel, funny, no spanish accent. No accent at all. "Firstly, let me allay your fears. You are among friends. Sorry about what has happened to you. You will soon see why it was completely necessary." What in the hell is going on. I am so confused right now. "Please, speak freely. You are not restrained, though as you might have guessed, you are still drugged. That is for your own safety. As well as ours." Okay. Something that makes sense. I would definetly be freaking out right now, if I could move. The man sat in silence. "Well, you're certainly a quiet one."
Heck with it. Doesn't matter what I say or do, they've got me, whoever they are, and for whatever reason. What Sam tried to say was, "What's going on?" But what came out of his mouth was more like, "Wuhs ooee ooh?"
"Hahaha!" The man beside him laughed. "Still a little groggy? Alright then, for starters, some lights." He walked to the wall beside the door and flicked a switch. A soft light came on across the room from the top of a dresser. The man walked back to his chair beside the bed. He was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt.
Okay, now I'm really confused. Forgetting his earlier attempt, Sam asked, "What's going on?" It came out right this time. "Where am I, and why am I here?"
"Okay, so, let me start at the beginning. You remember that truck? The truck that pulled ahead of you in your driveway? Well, that was us. Obviously. Then we made sure that you were you, then be put you out. Then we put you in the truck. You gave us a scare for a second, bucking the drugs and all, but we got that under control. Then we brought you into here, gave you something to keep you from being able to move until we explained all of this to you, then we gave you something to wake you up. That's supposed to clear things up, but I realize it didn't. Just sit tight and let me finish, I can see you want to interrupt, which makes sense, I would. Well, actually did, too. But anyways, you got here the way that you did because if we just pulled up to your house and told you what I'm about to tell you, it wouldn't have worked so well. So this is better. Plus it's a lot of fun for us. No kidding, it's probably not completely necessary, but it's kind of an initiation. You'll get to do it some day, too, I'm sure." Sam's head was spinning. What was happening? This could not make less sense at all. "So anyways, you're special. I mean real special. Like friggin superman special. Literally. Okay, not really literally, but kind of. It's hard to explain to you, but it all will be. So, if I let you up, will you freak out, or are you gonna be cool? And no, you don't have superman powers or anything like that. Not really anyways. But if I give you the shot, you gonna stay relaxed?"
"Ya, I'll be okay." What options were there? Besides, if they were gonna do anything, they wouldn't give him the chance to get away now.
Manuel took a syringe from his pocket, and gave Sam a shot in the thigh. "You should be coming around in just a minute." Putting the cap back onto the needle, and putting it back into his shirt. "Okay, so to explain some more. Umm. Well, I guess the best way to put it is that you have abilities. No, you can't fly. You can't do magic. That's not what it is. Everyone is a little different. Take me for example. I'm really good at math. Sounds cool, huh? Obviously not. But I can outthink any calculator. You, you've got no emotions."
"No emotions? Sure I do. I've felt emotions before. Lots of times."
"Yes, you have. But that's just because they were turned on. Once we hit the switch, you'll see. That's not the only thing that you've got going for you. That is just the base of your package."
Package? "My package?" What's he talking about? "Like I have other things?"
"Yep. But someone else will tell you about that. It's kind of important that you find out the right way, or it could all be lost."
"Why didn't I know about this? How did you guys find out?"
"Well, we, or other people, not me anyways, but it was done to you. You just didn't know it. Your whole life up to this point has taught you what you know. It's just that you only know it subconsciously. It's all going to be unlocked here. The way it was explained to me was like this; say you go out every day and you throw rocks at birds. You get really good at throwing rocks at birds, 'cause you're doing it all the time. Then one day someone hands you a baseball and tells you to throw it. Maybe you've never seen a baseball in your life. But you know how to throw it. It's not exactly the same as a rock, so you'll need to work at it a little to get it just right. But basically, you should be able to throw the baseball pretty well, for never having thrown one. That's the best I can explain what's happened. You should be able to use your legs by now. Follow me."
Sam threw the covers off of his legs and swung them off of the bed. They were sore with stiffness, but seemed to be working fine. Manuel walked out of the door ahead of him. They were in a hallway that stretched for some distance in either direction. An open doorway was the termination of the hall on the left, and it turned a corner on the right end. Both sides of the hallway were identical. Lined with doors. The only thing different about anything were the name placards on the doors. The floor made of hardwood. The walls are paneled in oak. Well done, but not overdone like an old mansion. Manuel waited for Sam to clear and then shut the door behind him. Then he started leading on to the left.
"These are all our rooms. The rooms are all that are in this wing. Right now we're going to the office. They'll get you your pass key and give you manuals that you'll need to read, stuff like that."
"So, I'm supposed to live here? Just move right in? What about everything else?"
"Everything else what? You mean like your life? Forget that. You can't go back. Not your choice, sucks, but you'll get used to it. Besides you'll like this." Stopping and turning to Sam. "It was designed that way, too. Have you ever noticed that you never really lived a normal life. You never had a serious girlfriend. You never had any serious ambitions towards anything in life. You just kind of did your thing from day to day, and you were happy with it like that. Do you remember ever having one single ambition that you couldn't realize in the near future? You never once had a long term goal. Not a one. That was all done so that when you came here, you wouldn't be leaving anything behind that you couldn't live without."
"Can't live without! What about my family? I sure as shit can't live without them. Or my friends. You're saying that I can't ever see any of them again?"
"Sorry, I'm not the one to answer that." Sam could see worry in Manuel's eyes. "I was just available to be here when you woke up, and to give you this little orientation." And something else. Pity. "But you'll get used to it, anyways." He turned and continued walking down the hallway. Silently now.
