Chapter 7: Friday June 23rd, 2056
Andrew is laying on a bed, in a large room. Currently, he is the only one in the room, but there are six beds in total. There are curtains between each bed and the floor is full of moveable cabinets. On the walls are also numerous posters, about various psychological illnesses. A large window allows light to flow into the room, and opposite of the window is the exit door, and the bathroom. Nearly everything in the room is white. Basically, a typical hospital resting room for patients.
Helen enters the room and walks towards Andrew's bed. She detaches about half of the infusion lines from his body, and she presses a button on the machine next to him. She sits down next to him on his bed, and waits. After only a minute or two, Andrew opens his eyes.
"Good morning, or rather, good afternoon." Helen says. "Did you sleep well?"
Andrew stares blankly at the ceiling. He looks at a poster, but can only read the words in the big letters. Hulive Foundation.
[That's probably where I am. It doesn't make much sense, though.]
"I guess, what day is it?" He answers.
[Feels nice that I can talk normally again.]
"Friday the 23rd. We decided to wake you up a few days earlier, because your recovery seemed to be going well. How are you feeling?"
[How am I feeling? I don't know what to feel, still need to get answers on…]
"Physically." Helen interrupts his thoughts. "This might sound a bit odd, but the rehabilitation protocol tells me that I need to focus on your physical health first, and then your mental health." She leans in closer to him and starts whispering. "But I can assure you, I don't fully agree with that part of it anyway, so I might ask a few things here and there."
[Man, I don't feel like taking in that much info right now. I'll ask her about that protocol later.]
"I still feel really tired, and hungry. It feels like I've been through a full school day, without breaks."
Helen writes it down on a device that resembles a small laptop.
"Anything else?" She asks. "I'll get you something to eat in a bit, we'll have dinner together here."
"Thanks, and I don't really know. If there was anything else major, I would've noticed it. My legs and arms, and whole body basically, feel weaker than usual. I don't think I have the strength to stand up."
"You don't have to anytime soon. That weak feeling is not out of the ordinary, and it'll go away when you start to exercise and eat again." Helen says, as she notes what he said on the device.
Andrew looks at Helen.
"Hey, can I ask something?" He asks. She nods in response. "How many have woken up before me?"
"Forty-one." Helen answers. "You're the forty-second patient to properly wake up."
"Properly?" Andrew responds.
[Does that mean people have died after waking up?]
Helen stands up. "I'll explain it after getting our food, what would you like?"
[I don't really mind. I hate tomatoes, but anything else works.]
"Anything without tomatoes is fine."
"Not a picky eater, I see. I'll get you something nutritious." She says. "You'll have to do with water as your drink, since you aren't allowed anything else."
"That's fine, thank you."
Helen exits the room, and walks down the hallway to the elevator. Andrew looks up at the poster again.
[The fact that I'm here, makes it almost certain I 'died'. I'll ask her the most important questions first, the others can wait a little longer. 2056 minus 2019, that's 46 minus 9, 36 plus one. Thirty-seven. I've been asleep for almost thirty-seven years. My birthday has already passed, as it is in April, so I'm 17 plus 37, 7 plus 7 is fourteen, plus forty. I would've been fifty-four years old. I could've just done 2056 minus 2002 now that I think about it. So I skipped thirty-seven years, of my life.]
Andrew tries to let this thought sink in. Because of it, his mind goes blank. This realisation leaves him stumped, feeling like one of the most extreme occurrences of his life so far.
Helen enters the room, with two plates with dinner on it, and she walks towards Andrew. She puts the plates down on two separate cabinets and sets them up as a makeshift table next to Andrew's bed.
"Looks like you haven't tried sitting up yet." Helen says.
"I don't know if I am allowed to."
"You are, but it's not necessary. It'll just make eating a bit easier. I'll help you."
With her help, Andrew sits up right, with his legs over the side of the bed.
[My body feels heavy, I don't think I can keep this up for long.]
Helen passes the cutlery over to Andrew.
"Thanks."
"It's a simple, yet nutritious mashed potato dish. I couldn't really get you anything else since it needed to be something easily chewable, given your condition." Helen explains.
"It's fine." Andrew takes a spoon full. "I'm happy just eating something."
Helen also starts on her dish. It is a salad with varying types of lettuce, small blobs of cheese, tomatoes chopped into pieces, walnuts, and other minor ingredients. Helen stops eating and looks at Andrew.
"So," She starts "I'll answer some questions if you have them, but not all of them."
"Why not?" Andrew responds.
Helen hesitates before answering. "I guess I can give you an explanation, but it'll probably be the most elaborate answer you're getting for the time being."
Andrew looks at Helen while continuing to eat, awaiting an answer.
"Well, the Rehabilitation Protocol, which is a set of rules we have to follow for the rehabilitation of patients, says that we aren't allowed to give out a lot of information to the patient in the first few weeks. We made this decision, because there were patients who, right after waking up like you, got a lot of their questions answered extensively. If I remember correctly, 14 of the first 19 patients who successfully woke up, experienced severe mental issues because of all the things they had to process."
[This is already a lot of work to process.]
Helen continues. "How hard it may be, you should keep the most extensive questions for yourself for a while."
[I wouldn't want to end up with these problems too, but there are lots of things I need to ask. I wonder if there will be time for them somewhere this week, or next week. I don't want to delay it any further.]
"I'll try, but I can still ask things, right?" Andrew answers.
"Of course, but I probably won't answer them as extensively as you want to. Also, I won't answer any questions about the incident that brought you here, as that caused major psychological stress in those first patients."
Andrew takes a large sip from his glass of water. Helen also continues on her salad.
[So she's basically saying she won't answer any of the important questions.]
"Well," Andrew starts. A long moment of silence arises. "Sorry, nevermind."
[All the questions I can think about are related to what happened to me or the other patients, what else can I ask?]
"It's fine." Helen says. "You're not the first to not have some simple questions. I guess it is for the better."
Andrew nods, but he doesn't say anything.
"Well, I have a question for you." Helen starts, and Andrew looks up, surprised. "What happened during your long sleep? Did you feel anything?"
[I don't know.]
"Not really, sorry. I only remember cycling to school, feeling really cold, and waking up on a bed with you in front of me, but not anything in between."
[I can't remember. I know something happened, something must have happened. I ended up here, so I must have died in some way or another. 'Died'. That sounds odd, since I'm also still alive.]
"That seems to be a recurring theme." Helen responds.
"What do you mean?"
"All the patients I took care of thus far don't remember anything from what happened before and during their Stasis."
[Stasis probably refers to the 'long sleep'.]
Helen takes note of it on the laptop-like device.
"What's that?" Andrew asks.
"Windows ServPad, it's what you would call the notepad program of this time. It sends data directly to a common server, which can be accessed by all devices on the same network, and it doesn't have a memory drive itself, only a keyboard and a screen."
"So Microsoft is still in business?" Andrew responds.
"Yep. Apple was fined and went bankrupt in 2029, though. I'll spare you the details, but that reminds me." Helen stands up and walks to a large closet, opposite of the bathroom. "We also preserved some of your belongings, on request of your parents." She pulls out a relatively large box, and carries it to Andrew's bed. She places it next to him, and sits down on the bed, next to the other side of the box.
"Let's see what we find in here, as I never opened it myself before." Helen states.
She pulls off the lid.
"When was this room assigned to me?" Andrew asks.
"About two weeks before you woke up for the first time. During that time we were setting everything up, and someone must've also stored this box in the closet."
The objects in the box are all neatly organised. Some things are packaged up in smaller boxes, or plastic bags, while others aren't.
"It feels like a time capsule. I wasn't even alive when this box was made." Helen says.
"Wait, how old are you then?" Andrew asks.
"That's rude, you know. I don't look like I'm almost forty, right?"
"But you mentioned 2029 too."
Helen just looks at him, and Andrew is quick to pick it up.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. 2019 doesn't feel like that long ago, to me."
Helen chuckles. "It's fine, I understand. I'm from 2034, and my birthday is yet to come. You can do the math yourself, it'll be a good mental exercise."
[So that's, 22 or 23, I'm not too sure. I'm assuming the thing with Apple gets taught in history class, so I guess that explains that.]
They start unpacking more of the box. Andrew pulls out a small wooden box, and opens it. Inside is his phone, a charger, and his earbuds. The model is an iPhone 6S, dating back to 2016, when he got it for his fourteenth birthday. It feels extremely cold.
"It's like a relic." Helen says, with sparkles in her eyes ."After Apple's bankruptcy, they obviously didn't release any new products."
"It feels like I still had this in my pocket yesterday." Andrew says. Helen takes hold of the phone.
"We had pictures of phones like these in our history textbook." She says. "However, the only ones I saw were iPhone 11's. Should we charge it?"
[Well that explains her knowing of Apple.]
"Sure." Andrew gives the charger to Helen, and she tries to plug the it into the outlet.
"I didn't think about this." Helen says.
"What do you mean?" Andrew asks.
"We changed the type of outlet in the country years ago, around the time I was four. I still remember the hassle my parents were going through to find adapters." She laughs a bit while saying that. "Well, I'll see if we still have one at home." Helen puts the charger and the phone back into the box.
"You should probably get some rest again." She says, as she closes the large box. "I'll wake you up tomorrow for breakfast, at a reasonable time." She puts the box back in the closet.
"Reasonable time?"
Helen looks at Andrew and points at the clock.
[Eleven p.m. So I had dinner around ten. I didn't even notice. My sense of time is gone.]
"Your sleep schedule is off, which is normal. I'll wake you up early the coming days to fix that, but not nearly enough to deprive you of your sleep. If you need help you can press the red button behind you."
Helen helps Andrew lay down, and pulls the blanket over him.
"Good night, and see you tomorrow." Her heart-warming voice makes Andrew's heart skip a beat. Helen walks out of the room, and closes the door behind her.
[The way she said it, so soft, so warm.]
[It reminds me of May.]
Andrew pulls the blanket a little closer, and shortly after he is fast asleep.
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