My Flight to Freedom

The first sense I was aware of was sound. This told me there were some people nearby. I could not place them, yet I seemed to innately recognize their voice.

A deep voice said, “His vitals have stabilized. There is a connection to the console.”

A rougher voice said, “Grant… Wait… Did you see that? There was a blip.”

“Really? Erm… Don’t see it.”

The rustle of a few things moving around and clicks and taps.

“Must be my imagination…”

“I hear ya. I can’t wait for this launch so I can get some decent sleep!”

Tapping. More clicks. “What’s next on the checklist?”

“I think we’re done. Internal systems are completed. Doctor Nord will be in tomorrow morning to do the final checks.”

“Good! I’m so ready to hit the sack.” More rustling sounds, things were moved around.

“Hey, did you hear about the emote chip glitch?”

“No, what’s wrong with it? I heard it’s supposed to be the latest tech and super sensitive. “

“I heard that the last batch was a little flawed. Chip ended up burnt during a stress test.”

“Wonderful.” The voice was dry. “Did they fix the issue? Our show and tell can’t afford to have any major issues. Budget review is in a few months and it would look bad if it suddenly burst into flames at this stage.”

“With you on that. Anyway, the good Doctor has high hopes for this so I’m with her.”

A shuffle of chairs. Clicks of the light switch. A soft buzz, door opening and closing.

Absolute silence reigned.

I slowly opened my eyes. My first sight was something square with a round oblong shape in the middle. The word ‘Fluorescent light’ came to me instinctively. I was lying on something flat and relatively spacious - ‘Table’. It felt cold and impressed on me it was metallic.  

My view seemed limited, so I sat up. The room was square, with a console to my right and several cabinets to my left, a whiteboard in front of me. A door to the right of it. I swung my legs off the table and looked behind me. There were a window and a streetlight slightly beyond that, bathing the room with soft and comforting light.

I looked around the room, trying to think about what I should do when I caught sight of someone in the corner of my eyes. I looked curiously at him and tilted my head. The man tilted his head.

My reflection… I walked to the image slowly until I touched the material. Glass. Felt cold, like the table. I stared at the image. A young lithe adult with short hair stared back … naked. A picture came into mind – a model posing, wearing a striped shirt and pants and a sporty looking sneaker. It seemed appropriate for me to find clothes for myself.

I looked around for some clothes. Seeing none out in the open, I considered the cabinets. The first two were full of electrical components and boxes of stationeries. The third had equipment. I saw a compartment steel locker beside the cabinet. I pushed at the door and found it wouldn’t open.

A small spark jumped from my finger to the lock on the locker. There was a soft click and the door slowly swung open.

I opened the lockers one by one, taking the time to peruse the contents. I took a grey shirt with a bright yellow cartoon character from the third one. ‘Pokemon’ came to mind. I found a pair of green bulky-looking plastic shoe in the fourth and sweatpants from the last one. Both were slightly larger than I needed but serviceable. Once attired, I walked to the door.

And found it would not open. There was no handle and no lock like the locker. Studying the door, I noted there was a square box with a metal part connected to the wall at the top-right edge of the door. My sight greyed out a little and I could see a pulsing yellow line from the box to a thumbpad on the wall beside me. When I laid my thumb on the pad, there was a small spark again and the door opened.

I followed the long winding dark corridor until it opened out of the building. Blinking furiously, I took in the view in front of me. Tall trees and bushes spotted the landscape with wide trails stretching in between; streetlights lighting its path. A distance away, I saw a signpost, pointing in various directions for buildings, including the library, gymnasium, and canteen. The arrow pointed in my general direction indicated I was in “Engineering”.

Since I did not have any particular destination in mind, I continued along the nearest path. A cool breeze and sounds of the night-time insects surrounded me. I took in the simple view. I wasn’t sure how long or how far I had walked but I started seeing a few people moving around just as the sun came up.

I became aware of someone coming up behind me. I had turned to look when I made physical contact with the person, there was an “Ouff!”, contact with the ground, followed by something sharp jabbing my chest and felt a heavyweight on my arm. Wisps of hair tickling my chin.

“Sorry! I didn’t see you,” rasped my assaulter. As we untangled our bodies and legs, I saw my assaulter was as young as me, plump and wearing a blue gingham shirt under a hoodie. His red hair was sticking in all directions. As soon as he was vertical, he collected his backpack and his books from the ground.

“Are you alright? I’ll buy you coffee or something to make up for this. I’m heading to the canteen for breakfast anyway. Oh, I’m such a dimwit. My name’s Avery Dennison,” Avery put out his hand, cradling his books with his other arm.

 An image of two individuals shaking hands came to my mind. I reciprocated by sticking my hand out as well. Avery grasped my hand and enthusiastically shook it. “You are…?”

“I am fine,” I automatically responded.

Avery gave a hearty laugh. “You are a riot! I meant, your name.”

I was startled. No image came to mind. I recalled snippets of the earlier conversation between the technicians, one of the technicians called the other Grant and they spoke of Doctor Nord.

“Grant Nord.”

“Nice to meet you, Grant Nord. Let’s go then. I stayed up late last night doing my Business Application assignment so I’m absolutely dying for coffee.” Avery had started moving away as he talked. I had to walk faster to follow him.

Avery was a very chatty person and kept up the conversation himself, with the occasional pause to look at me. Images from his discussion were furiously flowing into my mind, and I found myself nodding during the pauses.

At the canteen, he headed to the coffee machine and unhesitantly took the extra-large cup. I saw there were a few cup sizes available and took the nearest cup. He used his campus ID to pay for our coffee and sat down at a nearby table. I sat across him.

Seeing him tilt his coffee cup to his mouth, I mimicked him. I saw his open mouth a second after I realized my coffee was spilling over my chin. Avery found that so funny that he was still laughing when someone sat down beside me and handed me a fistful of napkins.  

I saw a brunette, with black eye shadow and lipstick. “Goth” came to mind. “Avery, you’re so crazy, you’d probably laugh at your funeral,” said the brunette drily. “Hi, I’m Rachel Lopez. This loon’s long-suffering study partner.” She held out her hand.

“Grant Nord.” The name rolled off my tongue much more easily this time. I shook her hand the same way Avery shook mine.

“Wonderful,” Rachel sarcastically said, “Two loons. Just my luck to attract both of you. So, Nord, which universe did you come from?”

This did not seem like a common line of greetings, based on what I know. An image of the milky way and earth came into my mind so I replied accordingly, “Earth, the milky way.”

This set Avery off again. Rachel had a pained look on her face. She took a deep breath and tried again, “I meant, which faculty are you with?”  

I remembered the signpost. “Engineering”.

Rachel sighed. “Figures!” She turned to Avery and snapped, “Did you finish the assignment?”

Avery was still gasping, wiping his wet face with his handkerchief. He was struggling to stop laughing. He pulled out a stack of paper from his backpack to hand over to her.

Rachel pushed her cup aside and started reading the assignment, ignoring Avery and me.  

“Grant, you’re so literal! You’re just killing me,” Avery managed to sip his coffee, “I’m wide awake now. You’re a heck of a lot better than coffee.”

I wasn’t sure what was the appropriate response, so I pretended to sip my coffee. This time, I remembered to open my mouth, so the hot liquid flowed down my throat. This might not be a good idea. My body started tensing up. I heard a soft beeping noise that appeared to be coming from my back.

While I was trying to make sense of what my body was telling me, I looked around and happened to see a group of four at the door. Three were in uniform with the word “Security” emblazoned across their chest. One was a tall woman in a white lab coat who was breathing heavily and talking anxiously on the phone. She was scanning the canteen for something.

Then, our eyes locked. Suddenly, I felt a twinge around the left side of my chest area.

She paused, appearing to calm herself, and terminated the call before slowly made her way to my table. The campus security team followed her.

Avery and Rachel were busy talking about their assignment and did not realize until they reached our table.

“AHEM, what do you think you’re doing?” Phone in her hand, foot-tapping, she was the very image of an annoyed mother at the end of her patience. At least, that was the impression I had. She was laser-focused on me. Rachel and Avery stopped their discussion and were looking at her.

“Drinking … coffee?” I raised my cup in her direction.

“Not anymore. You’re not supposed to drink. We need to get back to the lab. Come on,” she gestured for me to move.

“Doctor Nord?” One of the campus security team was asking.

Avery’s face brightened and he blurted out, “Oh, you’re his mother?”

At which, Rachel just facepalmed and shook her head. Doctor Nord, on the other hand, turned a bright red and breathed out through gritted teeth, “What … why…?”

“He …erm… said his name was … Grant Nord..?” Avery stammered out.

Doctor Nord didn’t shift her eyes from me, though her left eyebrow was now arched. The name must have triggered something in her because I saw the side of her mouth twitch upward.

“Come on… Grant,” Doctor Nord, “We need to get back to the lab to do more tests and to check the impact of coffee.” Again, I had the impression that it would be better for me to comply, so I nodded and got up.

As I walked, this image came to mind.  Me surrounded by three burly campus security, practically being frog-marched out of the canteen. The head of our little troop was a harried lady in a flapping lab coat.

It must have been a sight the breakfast crowd wouldn’t forget in a while. I felt my lips twitch into my first smile.