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Question number one: Why is she explaining anything to me when clearly I should be under the care of a doctor? But I say nothing, just wait for her to talk.
“You’ve been in cryostasis, Angie.”
I blink. I don’t know what I was expecting to come out of her mouth, but that definitely wasn’t it. It’s bullshit, of course. We don’t have that level of tech yet. I would know if we did, I read every damn proposal that lands on Baxter’s desk, I…
A memory hits me like a punch. Andreas fucking Baxter - spitting mad, impeccable suit all dishevelled, yelling at me. His voice echoes in my ears.
You’ll pay for this, you little bitch. I will make you pay.
His outrage made me smile then. It almost makes me smile now.
“Does that make sense?” Brooks says, snapping me back into the present moment.
“What?”
Her expression is infinitely patient. “Cryostasis. It’s a…”
“I know what cryostasis is. I know we have teams within science tier looking into it. I also know that none of them have been successful yet. So why don’t you try again with the truth this time?”
Brooks blinks, eyes widening with surprise. “Uh, I’m not lying to you, Angie.”
She continues talking, probably trying to come up with some bullshit explanation, but my mind is firing on all cylinders now, that memory of Baxter dislodging the last of the brain fog.
I pissed him off. He vowed to make me pay. I didn’t take him seriously.
Apparently I should have.
What did you do to me, Baxter? What the fuck did you do?
Brooks is still yapping, so I have a look around, first at the pod I’m sitting in, then the environment around me. The pod is a work of art, high-tech looking, but not so high tech that it looks like a piece of science fantasy. It hums and whirs with electronic energy, something like steam rising out of it around me. There’s monitoring equipment attached to my legs, my arms, my chest that I hadn’t noticed before, and I rip them off now, causing the incessant beeping to stop. Some functionality as well, then. Just to add to the illusion.
The room around me is dingy. There are two other women besides Brooks - the pretty blonde, and a dark-haired woman. Both of them are quite obviously pregnant. I can see at least five more pods, but unlike mine, they’re closed, vertical. In the closest one, a female face is visible through a small window at the front of it. A shudder goes through me. It’s all a little too well done.
Why would someone so convincingly fake…
It hits me before I even finish the thought. Doctor Novak. This reeks of Doctor Novak and his creepy as fuck social experiments. That weirdo loves to dump people in wild fictional scenarios and see what they do. And for reasons I haven’t figured out yet, Mercenia's big wigs just fucking love to give him funding to do it.
“What’s the scenario?” I say, ignoring whatever Brooks is babbling on about now.
“Umm?” she says, clearly floundering.
“No, go on, tell me. I’m curious. What’s the scenario? Frozen for a thousand years, it’s a post apocalyptic wasteland out there? Last survivors of the human race, but we have to stay indoors in this closed environment because of what, radiation? Deadly super virus? Brain eating zombies?”
Brooks frowns and, damn, she’s a good actress, because she looks utterly confused. “Angie, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t,” I say. “I suppose you aren’t prepared for this. Doctor Novak’s stuff only works because the people he’s running the experiments on don’t know they’re in an experiment, right? Well, I don’t know who you think I am, who you were told I am, but I’m not supposed to be here, okay? I’m not a suitable candidate for this, because I’m aware of Novak’s work. So you can stop trying to convince me this is real and skip straight to removing me from this little experiment and sending me back home.”
The silence that rings out after my words is vast.
“Do we know who Doctor Novak is?” Brooks says, looking at the other two.
“No,” the dark-haired woman responds, the blonde shaking her head.
Their confusion is very convincing.
I don’t like that it’s very convincing.
After a moment, the dark-haired woman steps forward.
