1 The beginning

Authors note: I am returning to writing after a long time so be considerate for the first few chapters. Will launch a P.atreon with extra chapters for this story as well as my GoT fanfic in a few days so that you can read ahead while supporting me. Please show support and enjoy.

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"The vitals… check the vitals already!" An impatient voice rang through all the noise of people murmuring, and machines beeping and hissing.

"Che! Damn idiots. Where does the headquarter even find you dumb guys? I was so close to perfecting it and now another experimental material is wasted." The same voice was shouting irritably and the room fell silent except for a long beep that kept ringing.

The sharp and incessant beep sounded like a tune of mourning. As if it is the last goodbye from the world to a poor soul who was unjustly sacrificed for the ambitions of people he would never know.

Why do I always have such weird dreams? I could feel the vivid sensations of the things stuck on my body being ripped off violently, including some needles. Woah! They're taking their frustrations out on a dead body huh?

I can feel that something is off about this dream. Sure, it wasn't the first time I have had a bizarre dream. I have been having those all my life for 26 years now. But there was something wrong with this one.

There was a terrifying feeling building up. The terror crept up, like a cunning snake, slowly strangling me. I didn't know what was happening to me until the last moment and then it hit. BAM! The terror of feeling exactly what death feels like hit me like a truck all at once.

*Wheeze*

I immediately sat up wheezing and struggling to breathe, fighting the feeling of drowning even though I wasn't anywhere near a water source. Taking long breaths I clutched my aching chest.

Fuck! That was too vivid for a dream. It felt like I died for real. I cursed Sandman for giving me a shitty dream as I groped to the side in the darkness to find the glass of water that I kept by my bedside every night before sleeping.

But what I felt was not the cold touch of the glass but something else. 'A person?' I don't remember bringing any girl home tonight.

The terrifying feeling started to build up once again as I looked to the side. I know it's a horror movie troupe and I'll probably get a jump scare but I have to take a look right? Curiosity won over reason.

My eyes had started to adapt to the darkness a little and through the very dim light in the room, I saw something that almost stopped my heart. I froze at once, a sinking feeling drowning me while my body went cold from fear.

What I saw around me were rows upon rows of people on stretchers, all laid down exactly the same with a white cloth covering them up to their chests.

I wanted to believe that this was just a hospital and I had ended up here somehow between the patients. But somehow I knew, it was a feeling that I couldn't shake off, no live human was here except myself.

Suddenly there was some noise outside and I could see some shadows moving on the other side of the windows. I hurriedly laid down and tried to be as still as I could.

"Fuck! I hate incinerator duty. The smell stays on me for days and I can't even bring myself to eat meat for weeks." A voice complained as the door opened.

Another voice reprimanded, "They will break your fucking legs if anyone heard you say that. Just take extra showers and use scented soaps like I do and stop complaining."

"Yeah, yeah hail hydra and all. Just push the corpses down to the incinerator already." The first voice was complacent.

"You! Fuck you'll get me killed someday." The second voice grumbled as the stretcher wheels rolling made a grating sound against the floor.

"That's what a brother is for!" The first voice laughed.

As the sounds went further and silence returned, I sat up. The conversation between the two men played in my mind over and over again.

Then came the questions which I had conveniently not thought of earlier due to the massive shock and fear. How did I end up here? I should be sleeping in my room!

Combined with the clues so far, did I really travel to a different world? The world that is possibly Marvel?

As Sherlock says, after removing all that is impossible the remaining improbable hypothesis must be true. And considering This bizarre situation, the possibility of transmigration seems very likely and I might be in the body of a dead hydra experiment.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why did it start in nightmare mode? Why not in Magneto's body? Or as Tony Stark's son or something?

Let's calm down. It's not certain that this is Marvel. It might just be a regular hospital and a viral outbreak happened when I was sleeping. Yeah, they might let me go since they made a mistake.

I tried to reason with myself. Trying to find any semblance of hope.

The voices outside returned once again and I laid down hurriedly. I could hear the awful singing of the first guy. Is he singing Lionel Ritchie's all night long?

"Tch! Don't you think of it sometimes?" The first voice asked, stopping the butchering of the song.

"What?"

"One of these guys here could've become a super soldier like Captain America."

"Fuck! How many times do I have to tell you? Don't speculate or talk about the experiments. They will shoot us both the second they find out we know about their research here."

"Okay, okay. But we are definitely stealing that medicine once they complete it. When we become superhuman, we can go hide in some remote village somewhere."

"Mom was right, you're going to get us in trouble with that loud mouth of yours someday. Just like dad's loud mouth got us into this shitty hydra base."

"Would you relax? There are only corpses here. I'm not stupid to talk about this outside."

When the voices were once again far enough I wanted to get up again but my body just didn't listen. The fear had invaded deep into my bones. There was nothing I could say to myself to make it any better.

I was just an ordinary guy in the other world. I don't have any special skills other than the fact that I'm slightly smarter than average, having been a Data Science graduate from Columbia University. I can't see how that is going to help here.

I weakly got up and stepped off the stretcher. I don't even have the time to process my fear of this world. I have to find a way to get out of here.

After looking around, I found some surgical tools on a table in the corner. This seems to be the morgue. Probably used for autopsies and whatnot.

Picking up a long surgical knife, I walked over to the door and hid behind it. My body seems to be very weak. I need to use the element of surprise if I want to have any chance at this.

While waiting in silence with a knife in my trembling hands, I thought of everything other than my current situation, trying to get my mind off the terrible predicament.

After what felt like hours, I heard the footsteps. Like a horror movie, my heightened senses due to the tense situation made me focus on every sound of the step and every little movement. In this state, I became miraculously calm and still.

"Why don't we just stack them up like plates and wheel them down? We would have to walk a lot less." The first voice spoke as he moved to one of the stretchers close to the door.

"You and your stupid ideas." Just as the second voice sounded from the opposite direction, I lunged and placed the knife over the first guy's throat. The guy was a little fat and fortunately shorter than me. "Don't move! Move and I'll slice his throat." I growled.

"Okay, okay calm down! Calm down!" The second guy who seemed to be in his late 20s raised his hand, panic written all over his face. I nicknamed him Skinny.

There was some blood trickling down the shallow cut on the fat guy's throat. "Let me go! Fuck!" he spoke terrified.

"Throw your gun away!" I spoke as I spotted the handgun on Skinny's waist, while I quickly groped and pulled the gun away from the fat guy's waist and pointed it at Skinny.

After disarming both of them, I ordered, "Lie down on the ground face down with your hands on your head!"

"We will do as you say, just don't hurt him." Skinny spoke as he did as told and got on the ground.

I made the fatty I was holding hostage tie up Skinny with a cloth on one of the corpses and then proceeded to tie the fatso as well. After securing both of them and holding two handguns, I proceeded with the questions.

"I ask and you answer. I'll let you go if you answer all my questions. So, where is this?"

"Hydra base in Utah."

"Date?"

"15th March 1994"

"Do you know my identity?"

"No. All the experiment subjects are guys brought in from places like psych wards, homeless shelters, and such. So most of them don't even have any identity."

"Why do they have idiots like you in the base?"

"We are only responsible for janitorial work. Today was our shift for disposing of the old experimental materials."

"Can you take me out of here without the guards finding out?"

"We are checked thoroughly every time we step out of the base. So it is impossible. Even the garbage is checked before it gets out of this base."

"But I heard you had a plan to get out of this place after stealing their research. What was your getaway plan?" I asked while trying to sound angry while I hit one of the brothers with the butt of the gun.

"Shit. Your loud mouth…" After cursing, Skinny continued, "The incinerator. This base is built under a pharma company. And the exhaust pipe of the incinerator leads to the exhaust shaft of the company. Since there are only corpses and cleaners here, the guards don't check the incinerator. As long as you get there and mix with the regular people you can get away easily."

"Okay. Take me to the incinerator."

I then laid down on the stretcher while pointing the guns at both the brothers under the sheet cover and got to the incinerator. After learning how the incinerator worked and how to turn it off from the brothers, I tied them again.

I thought over and over about whether to kill them or not. But I couldn't leave any evidence. This is a world where if possible I should even extinguish their souls to keep my secret buried.

I made both of them take off their janitor coveralls at gunpoint. I could see that Skinny was starting to realize what was coming. But I shot two bullets before he pleaded for mercy. I don't think I have it in me right now to shoot a guy who is pleading with me.

The overwhelming sensation made me vomit right away but my stomach was empty so I could only pant uncontrollably while trying to keep my emotions in check.

I wasn't overwhelmed by the fact that I killed those two. While there may be a small part of it, I had already hypnotized myself to believe that killing villains shouldn't weigh on me. But what really weighed on me was the fact that it was so easy to be killed.

The knowledge that death can happen so easily and that I'm in a world where this is the norm was too much for an ordinary guy. And for me who had experienced death once, I was sure that I needed some serious therapy sessions.