Chapter 6: Meet the Unknown

Matthew was woken up. He couldn't regain consciousness for a few minutes. He felt like he overslept just the way he would usually do on Sundays.

He tried to open his eyes but couldn't. That made him panic a little. And suddenly, he felt really cold and shivered.

He remembered that he had ears, and tried to hear something. But it was complete silence.

He sniffed the air, but it didn't smell like anything. It was just air.

At last, he tried to open his mouth. He wanted to speak but his vocal cords must have been asleep, too. He cleared his throat and tried to mumble a ‘hello’ while still working on his eyes. That was the first thing that came to his mind. He was panicking more and more every second and his survival instincts were moving.

"Hello," Matthew startled upon hearing a voice. Was it a man, a woman? He couldn't remember the voice. When did that person come in? Matthew didn't hear anything since he woke up.

"Where am I? I can't open my eyes."His voice finally came out, and it sounded as panicked as he was feeling. He spoke in a rush and wanted to move, but his body was not taking orders.

"Wait for a few minutes, then you'll be able to," It was a woman. She sounded very young and joyful. "You are in your tube."

"What tube?"

"The tube you've been sleeping in." And then he remembered. Everything. Why he was there in the first place.

Matthew tried to open his eyes again, and this time he was successful and was comfortable doing it. The light was soft and the ceiling was sage green.

He turned his head and saw the decorations. It wasn't like a laboratory or house, but in between and it didn’t make him feel like a rat that’s been examined.

“Who are you?” Matthew felt courageous asking a person from the future who she was, yet he couldn’t see her. She was just a sound in the air.

“I am Rona.” Her tone was a bit more serious. Matthew would wish her to be more talkative. That made him anxious. How could someone speak to a person from the future?

“What year is this?” He regretted asking it right away. He wasn’t ready for whatever answer she’d give him. Robots were not walking around like crazy, and Gina said the year might have been around 2500. Maybe the technology didn’t develop that much.

“It’s 3100.” That was too late. Too far from the world he used to know and live in.

Cathy was gone, Oksana was gone. Everything he knew must have changed in all those centuries. That made Matthew feel like everything fell apart on him. He was under a wreck, trying to breathe, trying to regain consciousness. At that moment, he felt like a rat lab. He made a quick move to get up. That made him dizzy a little, but he was fine. He looked around, there was no one.

“Hey, was it, Rona, where are you?” He got out of the open tube and turned around a few times. It must have been opened while he was waking up.

“I am with you,” The voice was coming from very close. Then, Matthew saw something like a very little drone, flying around.

“Are you a robot?” Matthew was shocked.

“No. I am a living being.” Her tone was joyful.

“Then why aren’t you here?” He tried to touch the flying thing but it was quick to run away from him.

“There’s no need.”

Matthew looked around. There was his tube, it didn’t look that mechanical. There wasn’t a window or door. There was a little table and some objects on it.

“How will I get out? Where’s the door?”

“You should stay for a while. The doctors will come to check you.”

Matthew turned to the flying thing.

“Are you like an assistant? Or a nurse?” He was curious about everything. Each question was waiting in his head to come out.

“You could say that.”

“You don’t talk much.”

“What do you expect me to say?”

“I don’t know anything about this place!” Matthew suddenly got mad. He didn’t know what his situation was. He wanted answers, explanations, anything that helped him to understand what his current situation was. Was he even healed?

“You will learn, eventually. What is the point of rushing?” She was really calm and clearly didn’t understand much about patients who came from the past.

“Well, I have to start. What is this place?”

“It’s Cryolife.”

“Thanks, but I already knew that, I think,” He moved his hands angrily. “When is the doctor coming?”

“In a few hours.”

“Should I wait that long? Why can’t the doctor be here now?”

“You regained your consciousness earlier than we expected. Your appointment with the doctor is

in 2 hours and 8 minutes.”

Matthew didn’t say anything. He clearly couldn’t get what he wanted from the first person he met and the general rules.

“There’s got to be a door. Where is it?” Rona didn’t answer this time. He checked the sage green walls. He couldn’t understand until he touched it.

He moved his hand slowly on the wall. It was soft and vibrating. He quickly pushed it but the wall became hard and he hurt his hand a little. “What is this?” he murmured. It wasn’t sticky or granular. It was smooth.

There was no answer.

Matthew went by the table. He took the objects in his hands one by one. First one was a brown circle made out of wood. It was for decoration, Matthew guessed. It didn’t have any function at all.

Second object was a metal with buttons on it. The buttons were in different sizes and places. He pressed the buttons but none of them worked.

The third object was a glass. He had one of those, he loved drinking beverages from it. But Juno decided that it better stayed on the floor, in pieces. But this one had a cable under it and the cable was going through the table. He followed the cable and it went into the wall.

He had nothing to do but think. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. He tried to face the feelings but they were impossible to understand. He was afraid, excited and nervous and a lot of other feelings he couldn’t quite understand yet.

He wandered around the room for at least 20 times and did some stretching. But after an infinite amount of time, he finally heard something.

“Reed. How are you feeling?” Matthew turned to see the owner of the voice and was able to see the doctor entering the room. There wasn’t any door. The doctor just opened one part of the wall like a door.

Matthew pulled himself together and answered “I don’t know.”

The doctor was not wearing a normal, white, doctor’s uniform like Matthew saw frequently in his time. He had one piece of blue, long dress. It had long arms and looked like it was made of plastic.

“That’s normal. I am Po.” He smiled. His skin was almost glowing, and his hair was short on his shoulder. It was freshly cut. But he didn’t seem like a robot, or very different from a normal person. Matthew got confused but didn’t want to ask right away.

“You know my name. Okay, Po. So what are we doing now?” Matthew was craving answers about the process. He touched his hair impatiently.

“I will give you a pill,” Po was holding it in his hands. “Take it.” He lifted his hand.

Matthew came closer and looked at it. It looked like a painkiller.

“What is this for?” He asked while stepping back.

“It’s for your brain infection.”

Matthew raised one brow. “What do you mean? This will cure my deadly disease?”

Po was surprised. “Isn’t it why you’re here?”

He was right. That was exactly why Matthew was there, at that moment. The time he got sick, the world didn’t have any cure for it and it was lethal. It was killing Matthew slowly. But now, they were treating it like a headache.

Matthew came closer again and took the pill. “There’s water behind you,” said Po. Matthew checked the table and there was water in the glass. He took the pill. He couldn’t tell if the pill or the water tasted sweet.

“I’ll see you outside, Reed,” said Po and left using a different part of the wall as a door.

That was it. Matthew would be healed with a small pink pill. And it was the thing he came 1078 years in the future. He thought his treatment would be longer and harder.

He realized that he had to go out. How was he supposed to touch the door? How could he go out?

He went by the door and pushed a little. It seemed like the wall was made out of a special material and all parts of it could be doors if you push it. It opened and Matthew dared to step out of his little room.

Matthew knew nothing about the world that was awaiting him. But that shouldn’t have been hard for a man who slept for 1078 years.