Awake

“Hey, watch it!”

  “Ouch!” Kevin groaned, “You’re stepping on my head!”

  “Sorry!” Tom lowered his foot slowly, searching for the next rung on the wall. It was nearly impossible to see anything in the dark.

  Kevin reached the solid floor at the bottom. “There’s got to be a light switch somewhere.” He groped around in the darkness, feeling the wall for anything to press. Finally, Kevin felt the shape of the switch and flicked on the floodlights. Startled by the sudden light, Andrew lost his grip and fell, knocking Tom off as well. The two boys landed on top of each other ungracefully.

  With Andrew’s foot in his mouth, Tom mumbled, “Gurd awha heee!”

  Andrew removed his foot and asked, “I didn’t quiet hear you.”

  “GET OFFAH ME!” Tom screamed.

  “Oh, oh! Sorry….” Andrew quickly got up.

  The hole was empty. There was nothing much to it aside from a door. When Tom opened the door, a cold draft swept across them. The door led to a giant steel hallway, which was cold like a freezer. Besides a low hum coming from the fluorescent tubes overhead, it was quiet.

  Kevin hissed out a trail of vapor. “I should’ve brought a jacket! Why’s it freezing down here?” He stared at the group. “Wait a minute…. Where’s Katie? I thought she was behind us.”

  “She didn’t want to come down.” Andrew rubbed his arms, shivering. He looked in his chest pocket. Terminus was snuggled inside, immersed in Andrew’s body warmth. “I don’t blame her. Let’s do what we came for…and quickly.”

  Kevin nodded in reply, keeping his lips closed, afraid to lose heat from his breath.

  The main hall only had twenty doors, ten on each side. However, each door was nearly a football field apart. The other end of the hall seemed so distant and tiny. They began examining the first few doors.

  “This place is massive!” exclaimed Kevin. “Each door leads to a different department…”

  “And they all have code names,” Tom added, pointing at the sign. “Like this one. It’s called ‘Phantom.’ I wonder what’s inside.”

  “Phantom,” Andrew said nervously. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Why not?” Tom snickered. “Do you believe in ghosts?”

  An uneasy feeling rising in his chest, Andrew glanced around. “N-no way. G-ghosts don’t exist…I think.”

  While Andrew was looking around, Tom snuck behind him and let out a ghastly moan in his ear. His eyes nearly bulging, Andrew gasped, then jumped and spun around, his hand clutching at his heart.

  Squeezing Andrew on the shoulder, Tom cracked up. “Oh man, are you serious?”

  Glaring at Tom, Andrew stormed away.

  Kevin ignored them and hurried down the corridor, glancing at every door.

  “There’s got to be something here related to sleep.”

  The third door down had a sign that read: Fairy Tale. He thought about it for a minute. Many times fairy tales involved sleep, usually being some form of a curse. Could the solution to their problem lie behind this door?

  A voice behind him shouted, “Boo!”

  Kevin thrust back his elbow and made contact with someone’s gut. Kevin looked over his shoulder and saw Tom kneeling on the ground, grunting.

  Tom held his stomach tightly. “Ugh…I wasn’t expecting that.”

  Kevin smirked. Then he turned his attention back to the door and placed his hand on the door. “What do you think? Should we open door number three?”

  Tom, still in pain, groaned, “Sure, why not?”

  Curious, Kevin glanced around the hall. “Where’s Andrew?”

  Tom shrugged. “He just ran off. Maybe he went to check out another door…” A thought came to his mind, and his face split into a grin. “Or maybe he’s thinking of a way to get back at me. But I’ll be ready. No one ever gets me back and gets away with it.” He suddenly forced out a howling laughter that echoed through the halls, making him sound like a stereotypical villain.

  Kevin said coolly, “Whatever.”

  They went inside. It was much warmer in there, close to the comfort of normal room temperature. The first area they saw was a large office full of cubicles arranged like a rat maze. There were dead ends everywhere. The partitions nearly ten feet high, it was impossible to see across the room. Finding their way through would be a matter of trial and error.

  Kevin stopped to peer inside one of the cubicles. No one was around. It didn’t look like an ordinary cubicle, like the ones he had seen on TV. Three flat computer screens were attached to the walls, providing the user with a screen at every turn of his head. The screens were showing a screensaver, which displayed cuddly baby pandas. The place looked like a giant mess, charts and graphs scattered across the desk. Stacks of reports towered over, almost about to topple.

  “I don’t think anyone’s here,” said Tom.

  “I think you’re right.”

  “We can still—” Tom abruptly tilted his head.

  Kevin asked, “Something wrong?”

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “A sound…like a soft growl or howl or something…”

  Kevin ran his eyes across the room in silence. “Nothing.”

  “I could’ve sworn—”

  An eerie gurgle softly penetrated the walls of the office. Though soft, it was long and pronounced, like a pot of water boiling over. They only heard it for a fleeting moment.

  Kevin smiled. “It’s probably Andrew…or his stomach.”

  Tom said, “I bet he’s trying to scare us.”

  Snooping around, they didn’t find much of interest. The only thing that stuck out was the set of white double doors at the end of the office area. These doors led to another area of the facility, one that resembled a hospital ward. One side was a solid white wall, but the other was a wall of thick glass, or some other form of transparent material. The two teens gawked in wonder. Behind the glass were several rows of beds with people resting on them.

  Tom threw himself onto the glass, pressing his face against it. “What the heck is this? A morgue? Holy crap…it’s creepy.” He counted the beds. “There are fifty beds in there!”

  Kevin stared at a bed. He noticed a subtle movement from the person. “They’re not dead. Only asleep. A policeman told me that the most important people were moved to facilities where they could be looked after. Maybe this is one of them.”

  While they stood in wonder, a loud scuffle came their way. They turned their heads in unison. A small silver sphere, the size of a basketball, was rolling towards them. Once it drew near, it came to a halt.

  “Hello.” To their surprise, the sphere produced a monotone vocalization.

  “Oh,” said Tom, seeming uninterested, “a talking ball. Hello.”

  “I am not just a talking ball,” said the sphere irritably. “I am the robotic assistant of Doctor H.E. William. Please follow me. I will show you the way to his office.”

  “Why? What’s in his office?” asked Kevin.

  “Information about his research and his last message for mankind.”

  Kevin frowned. “His last message? So he’s…”

  The round robot moved back and forth to demonstrate a nod. “Yes, he has fallen asleep.”

  “The last message….” Kevin sighed. “I wonder if there’s anyone still awake out there.”

  The doctor’s office was at the end of the corridor. It was an odd office to be sure. Kevin could pretty much sum up the entire room in one word: books. Large bookshelves covered the walls, absolutely overflowing with books, so much so that heaps of books littered the floor.

  The books appeared to be used for much more than just reading. Books were neatly put together in the center of the room in the likeness of a table, and right next to it was a stack of books that resembled a cushion for sitting. On one side, the books were used in the construction of a simple couch, though it looked rather unpleasant to use since all the books were hardcover. Lastly, with a little imaginati
on, Kevin identified a structure of books that looked like a sleeping bag; a bunch of opened books were put facedown, used as a blanket.

  “Excuse the mess,” said the sphere, “but the doctor never had time to tidy up.” The sphere wandered over to a remote control on the floor. “Now, if you will please lie down, the video will begin.”

  “Lie down?” asked Kevin.

  “Yes. Direct your attention up. I will project the image there.”

  The sphere rolled over a button and a small projector on the floor began displaying video on the ceiling. As the lights dimmed, Kevin and Tom uncomfortably lay down next to each other on the mess of books, which felt hard and lumpy on their backs. Fascinated, Helios happily jumped out of Kevin’s clothes and took his seat between the two boys’ heads.

  The image showed the grim face of a dark-skinned man. His visage did not look elderly, but his hair was completely gray and the wrinkles on his face were pronounced. The background of the recording looked exactly like the room they were currently in.

  The man said, “To those watching, I am Doctor William. I am head researcher of the department of Fairy Tale here at the MORIA Industries R&D.” He hesitated to continue, his forehead wrinkled by the strain of distress. “I…I have done a terrible thing—unintentionally, of course. I am making this video as my last act on earth. It is documentation for future generations, should the human race survive.” He smiled. “Or, it might be documentation for any alien races who visit our planet and wonder if there was ever any sign of highly intelligent life.”

  The doctor’s face darkened. “But I digress. Whoever you are, by the time you watch this video I will have already gone to sleep. I, along with the other researchers, have already come to the conclusion that there is nothing we can do to stop this mess. Based on our data, we have concluded that mankind cannot be wakened. That is why I no longer search for a cure. Death by sleep is painless anyway, so the extinction of mankind will be quiet.”

  The doctor straightened, drawing in a deep breath. “I will begin by explaining how I created this problem. Obviously, we were researching sleep…and the possible effects of sleep with telepathy. The human mind is a mysterious thing, one of great potential and power. I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying ‘mind over matter.’ Is there any basis for mental abilities? Telepathy…telekinesis…such powers are wondered about, but do they exist?

  “When we are awake, we are busy observing things, thinking about things or performing tasks. Our minds are focused on being alive and doing the things we do. But what happens when we sleep? We have involuntary functions that keep us going…but the rest of our cognitive processes move into the dream. We live in the dream…we act out fantasies…we do what we’re not doing. Our mind is awake and alive, yet not necessarily using its full potential…

  “Then I had an idea. The possible reason why we can’t use such abilities might be related to the fact that we unconsciously use our mind for other things. It is the limiter of our own brain. Could being in a dream state enhance telepathy? Could we actually communicate with one another while we sleep, even if we don’t realize it? Or what if…the dream was removed from sleep entirely? What would happen to that withheld power of the mind? I was curious. Such a thing sounded impossible, but I figured, why not try?

  “MORIA is a private company. Our research and development is a secret operation. Because of that, we do not feel obligated to follow any laws so that we may further our research. To study sleep, we needed test subjects. We took fifty volunteers and gave them a genetic alteration. We isolated the gene for the hibernation of bears in winter and modified it accordingly to fit it with humans. Then, once a trigger is activated through environmental conditions, the person will fall into a deep sleep. We did this for all our test subjects and monitored their condition for about a month. Lastly, to break the dream state, we had them undergo a bit of shock to the brain in an effort to disrupt the neurons.

  “After this experiment, we began using various neuroimaging techniques to see the effect. It was phenomenal. Instead of a decrease in functionality, the activity of their brains was increased several fold. More importantly, every person’s mind seemed to be in sync with one another. When comparing scans from every individual, the results were nearly identical! Everyone’s mind was functioning on the same level…on the same wavelength, so to speak.

  “Then the unthinkable happened: they could not break free from their hibernation. We tried to resuscitate them with whatever means possible…but nothing worked. So we kept them on life-support, hoping that this was just a temporary setback.

  “Then things got worse. Some personnel who had gone home to rest never returned. We could not contact them. It didn’t take long to figure out we had a problem on our hands. Using our network, we tried to determine the extent of the ‘epidemic.’ Data was difficult to gather because everyone has different sleep cycles, but the correlation was too striking to ignore. Our research lab was the epicenter of this crisis. It began from here—and soon enough, it enveloped the whole world.

  “We brought some people who had fallen asleep back here for studying. The results were astonishing. Scans showed the same activity as our original test subjects. The only conclusion we could draw from this was that the experiment was a success. Somehow, the minds of the unconscious victims were linked together in a dream state. The best way for me to describe this is a network through telepathy. A mental network that I call the Dream Wave.

  “I believe the Dream Wave has always existed, but in a much weaker state. Our world has different time zones. In each time zone people will generally go to sleep at a similar time for obvious reasons. This forms the vertical Dream Wave that stretches loosely across the populated continents. This Dream Wave creates a weak link, but this form of vertical Dream Waves moves horizontally as people in the neighboring time zone go to sleep. That is why when a person sleeps they may sometimes have a similar dream with another person or have a realistic dream with someone they know. It is a subconscious communication system.

  “The Dream Wave never fully connects across the whole world because of two factors: people will eventually awaken on the other side of the world, thus severing the link, and the oceans create a natural gap.

  “However, because of the strength of the Dream Wave formed here in our research, we may have created this crisis in which the Dream Wave, instead of being weak and severed, has now encompassed the entirety of earth. That is all I know and that is all I hope to know.

  “This video is a warning. I pray no one else makes the same mistake. Sometimes there are boundaries you should not cross. I do apologize for the problems I have caused. But that is all I can do. Thank you for watching…and goodbye.”

  - Life and Death -