Earthquake? The first word that pops into my mind upon awakening into a world that won't stop shaking. We learned about them in science, but I have never heard of one actually happening. Warm sets of hands, one just above my knees and one against my back hold me in place. I am the one shaking, not the earth. The light burns my eyes as they reluctantly open to reveal one of the last people I expected to see: Switch. "She's awake," he calls earnestly across the room to Bump Nose. "Hold her still!" He replies sharply as 12 and 14 burst through the door making me jump out of my skin. In their white knuckled fists are four plastic pill bottles labeled with complicated sequences of numbers. 12 begins to read them off without having to even look at the label.
"625898425896436, 852906421678427, 490637842575338, and 095258953789643." She tries to place the bottles on Bump Nose's desk with a bit too much haste and they roll off and onto the floor where she chases after them. It would be comical if it weren't for the fear in her eyes. Tight Rope emerges through the door holding an injection encased in a clear protective bag. She bites her lip as she leans back against the door catching her breath.
14 turns toward Switch, green eyes blazing with urgency. "Lay her across the desks." Switch carefully picks me up and sets me across the first five desks. I don't dare to utter a sound. He holds my ankles down. Bump Nose's voice calls from across the room. "Whatever you do don't let go." Switch nods, scrutinizing his knuckles while 14 carefully holds down my shoulders. Tight Rope slowly approaches, the injection unwrapped. With a shaky hand she inserts the sharp metal tip into the depths of my neck. With a squirt the world goes dark.
I hate those dreams. The tranquilizer specials where you can tell that you're dreaming yet it somehow still feels real. It's somewhere between a daydream and a hallucination. Hallucination? I keep on hearing voices whispering that one word. What does it mean again? Right now I can't remember. I will surely remember when I wake up. I scarcely ever forget anything. I am stuck sitting on a patch of dirt, legs crossed in a hole underground. I can see the sky up above, that's where the voices are coming from. They whisper "hallucination, hallucination, hallucination, hallucination, hallucination, hallucination, hallucination. SHUT UP!!!!"
I wonder if they say it enough times will it still sound like a word? Maybe it's not a word at all. I bet they are all sneezing up there or something, and it just sounds like that word from all the way down here. I scream "HALLUCINATION" up through the hole expecting the polite response for a sneeze, yet I hear nothing back. How rude. I yawn, allowing my eyes to blink closed for half a second. When I open them I am falling. The earth is parting beneath me. I look down to find an endless chasm of blackness. I scream but my panic is short lived. There is pressure surrounding my right hand, I look up to find it clasped by another hand coming in through the wall of earth. It lifts me up until once again I have a clear view to the dusky sky. I wait for the grip to pull me up and out of this hole, yet instead it begins to tighten until I can scarcely feel my hand and the bones of my fingers threaten to crumble.
Then it begins to morph, becoming increasingly blunt and clumsy in shape until I am staring at the arm of an ape. It goes in stages, finally becoming the misshapen limb of a quadruped before morphing into a fin that releases me, sending be falling back through the crumbling earth. I close my eyes in fear, but once again I am saved, the hand gripping with more ferocity than ever. This time the evolution is forward. The hand shifts in odd patterns fingers lengthening and shortening as the palm morphs in size and the fingernails begin to disappear. With every change it tightens more until I an screaming in pain. It becomes cruel looking, a weapon glowing in the darkness. The more advanced it becomes the less human it seems until I am forced to look away. Finally with a sickening crack my hand is reduced to dust and the earth caves in above me.
