Revival

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded humanity”
- Albert Einstein

“Hello?” It thinks. “What, why do I hear myself?” A voice says, in a curious tone. “Everything's black, wait, why can’t I feel my eyes? Why can’t I feel anything?” The voice wonders, now realizing it’s thoughts are the only thing it knows are happening. “Okay this is weird, man this’ll be so cool to tell- wait oh man what’s his name?” The voice starts to panic, realizing it can’t remember anything, their life feels like a dream they had just woken up from and now can barely remember. “Okay okay what’s my name?” “Charlotte? No that’s a girl’s name maybe Chris? No! C’mon what’s my name?!” The voice screams to itself, it’s thoughts voicelesly manifesting. “I’m a boy! I know I am! What’s going on?!” The voice screams into the darkness, the darkness of an empty mind. 

Suddenly he hears himself for the first time, and he now hears machines beeping. There are people talking softly and unintelligibly and the feeling of air on his face. Then he hears a voice 

“What’s my name?” He yells out into the darkness. A voice sounds out to him, “Patterson, your name is Pat...” 

“No! That’s not my name!” He screams at the voice. 

“Patterson is your last name, David is your first name” The voice speaks, it’s tone is now very serious and almost mad. 

“David please listen to me, I’m Doctor Hess and I’m going to ask you a few questions, is that alright?” “Sure” David replies, knowing not to p*ss off the likely already pissy doctor. 

“So Mr. Patterson to start things off, how are you feeling?” The doctor says, his voice having zero emotion. 

“Well I can’t see still and also I can’t move my arms or legs” David replies. 

“Do you know what year it is?” The doctor asks. 

“2021?” David replies, unsure. 

“Actually the year is 2025” The doctor says. 

“What do you mean 2025?!” David shouts, trying to move only to hear a cascade of beeping and people rushing around the room. 

“David calm down! Listen to me!” The doctor shouts back. 

“Where am I?! How’d I get here?! Who are you and why can’t I feel anything!?” David continues to try to move only to feel a sudden shock race through his mind freezing him and leaving him unable to speak once again. 

“David I know this is hard to believe, but you’ve been dead for 4 years. Most of your brain was damaged beyond repair and we replaced most of the parts with a computer. This computer is not yet activated which is why you can’t remember anything or control most of your body” The doctor says, pausing and whispering something to someone else making David realize it isn’t just him and the doctor but a whole team of people in the room. “David would you be okay if we were to activate the computer?” The doctor asks David. 

“I-I don’t k-know but s-s-s-s-sure” David replies, for some reason scared of what is about to happen. Suddenly different lights, colors then memories, so many memories pound into his head, fleeting and rushing through his quickly filling head. 

“Chris, his name is Chris! Well I mean at this point this would blow his mind to smithers!” Charlie says smiling, looking around the room to see he was right to think the room was filled with people. As David looks around he realizes colors aren’t like he remembers them. “Everything seems different, like it's fake. Like I’m looking through an old tv” Charlie says confused. “Sadly your body didn’t fare much better than your mind. You were burned so badly what we could salvage was still horrendously burned. We were forced to give you new limbs and eyes. The only part of you that survived was your mouth and most of your teeth. That’s how you were identified when you were found in the twisted metal,” the doctor says, almost breathless from his almost speech-like answer. 

“Twisted metal? Wait, my parents? No Chris where’- no wait I remember! I went on a vacation during break! Oh god, all the homework I must do, wait for the plane I remember the plane there was a mistake I had to sit in the front but then…” David suddenly stops, he feels like he’s gonna cry but for some reason can’t. The pain, he can now remember it. “The plane, it started going down, there was fire on one of the wings and then it was all gone and then it all stopped. Where are they!? Tell me they are okay please!” David screams into the room, not knowing which person the original voice came from. “David, your parents were fine, they likely suffered from some injuries but they both survived” A tall doctor says, his glasses concealing his eyes due to the light in the room. “And about your eyes, you said they seem like you're looking through a tv because you technically are. They are cameras that are connected to your brain via Bluetooth connection. Actually all of your limbs are controlled using a Bluetooth connection from them to the computer in your brain” The doctor says, smiling with pride at what he and his team had done. 

“Am I able to move?” David asks, not sure weather to try to move his limbs or not. “You can move but your torso is fastened to the table so try to move your arms and legs” The doctor says beaming, curious of how well David can control his body. David tries to move his arms and legs, he lifts his hand but what he sees scares him. A shiny almost creamy white hand lifts up, suddenly he feels the air and sees a number show up in his field of view. “What’s this number? What is that?” He asks the doctors.

 “Due to your body’s senses mostly being monitored by the computer part of your brain they show up in your field of view as numbers. Some say what time or day it is while others show the temperature of the air around you,” the tall doctor explains. “Now we have answers to everything you might want to ask on a file that we are about to share with you,” the doctor says, giving a hand signal to another person who proceeds to press a bunch of buttons. Suddenly David’s brain is filled with information about his limbs and how they work. Now that you are all caught up, time for you to go to physical therapy. After weeks of therapy David is sitting down holding an apple, trying to see if he can see the number monitoring the apple’s temperature change, when someone comes up behind him “You are ready to leave” the voice said as David turned his head to see Doctor Hess standing behind him. “What? You mean I’m going home?!” David asks. 

“No, when we notified your parents about how we are bringing you back they refused to take you back in, spewing some religious nonsense about death and Heaven. Anyway you are going into foster care” the doctor says. Not long after all the doctors untie David and tell him to stand up, David is scared but once he tries he finds he is already a master at walking with his new, equally creamy white legs. They take him out of the hospital and he gets into a bus and they head far away from the hospital. David thinks to himself how bored he is then suddenly he’s there. His robot brain had shut his consciousness down during the car ride for what seemed like hours. Now he’s at the front door of a large house. A woman opens the front door and stares at him. “Hello, I’m David'' He says to the women at the front door. “I’ve been expecting you, they said you’d be ready months ago but they kept stalling and stalling, but no matter. This is your home now, and about all those doctors. You likely won’t see them again, they tend to focus completely on their next experiment and dump them off to me” the woman says. “My name is Jess, I work for the doctors and you will be living here with me” she says, walking inside then stopping and motioning him to follow. Jess leads him down a hallway to the last door on the left. She gives him a key to the room. He opens the door to find the room filled with boxes. He knows they are for him by the large “David '' written on every box, he opens them and inside them are most of his old stuff except for a few boxes containing chargers. His chargers to charge his limbs when he’s asleep. David realizes he shouldn’t have known that but then remembers the file the doctors shared with him. For a few weeks he just lays in his bed and barley leaves his room. He just lays in his bed and remembers each and every one of his memories of his old life and wonders. “Which college did Chris go to? Did he even go to college? I wonder how Alice is doing, I hope whoever she’s dating is nice to her” David thinks to himself, remembering how much fun he had hanging out with Chris and how much of a crush he had on Alice, he never got the chance to ask her at the dance due to him being dead when it happened. The days fly by almost as quickly as they come. Jess usually only leaves her room to make food or go to work. One day another person shows up. Jess calls down David and he comes only to come face to face with a short thin little boy. “This is Tom, he is your foster brother” Jess says with enthusiasm. “Hi,” David says. The little boy looks at David, then says something David can’t understand. “Say again?” David asks. “H-Hi, my name is Tom” the boy says shyly. Over the next few weeks David and Tom don’t really talk. One day David is laying on his bed staring at the ceiling thinking and remembering like he usually does before dinner, and every other meal. 

Suddenly there is a knocking on his door. He gets up and opens it to see Tom holding a large extremely fluffy orange cat. David looks at the cat Tom is holding. “Where did you get that? Wait did Jess let you get a cat?” He asks. “Yup! His name is Jack!” Tom says holding the cat close to his face. “Want to hold him?” He asks, holding the cat out to David. “Sure,” David says, taking the cat and putting it in his arms and instinctively petting it only to be told the cats body temperature by the computer. “Isn’t he soft?!” Tom exclaims, squirming and almost dancing while smiling ear to ear. “I don’t know, I can only feel how warm he is. But it makes me feel kinda happy. Here, you can have it back” David says putting the cat down only for it to immediately be picked back up by Tom. “I’m sorry you can’t feel how soft he is, but at least it makes you happy” Tom says, putting the cat down and sitting next to David on his bed. “So Jess told me some things about you but I don’t really understand” He says shyly but with some confidence. “Well, my hands and legs can only feel warmth and coldness and while my eyes are really good I tend to get really dizzy when seeing close and far away things moving”
David says, feeling happy that someone cares about him. “Why do you stay in your room all day?” He asks. “I like to remember” David says, still trying to get back into the memory he was reliving before Tom came in. “Remembering what?” Tom asks innocently. “My life, my best friend Chris, my crush, my parents my life my” David says, his voice trailing off as he slips back into his trance-like state. “I don’t like to remember my old life” Tom says quietly, his voice and similar story intriguing David and taking him out of his trance. “Yeah there are parts of my life I wish I couldn’t remember” David says. Thankful he can’t remember all the breakups, dumps and rejections he’s gotten in his pursuit of happiness. “I want to see my parents again” David says, feeling an overwhelming sadness for his parents having to deal with his death. “I want to see them, I’m going to go see them” David says suddenly standing up. “No, don’t do that” Tom says in a warning voice. “It won’t be worth it!” He says raising his voice as David walks by him and out the door. 

David walks out of the house to the same bus stop he once stood at months ago when he first came to the house from the hospital. The bus comes and he gets on and tells the bus driver. “Take me to 293 Moonlight drive please, and here’s a ten” David says, giving the driver a ten dollar bill and walking to a seat. The drive was long but David spent it all deep in his memories. He remembers the house, it’s mint green paint and brown roof with a fence of the same color. He can’t wait to see how it’s changed. To see how his parents have changed as well. He wonders if his mom still has the short brown cut she always had. Eventually the bus stops and he steps out onto the driveway he used to draw on as a kid. The house is similar, the color scheme is the same but the paint is peeling. He walks up the concrete steps and knocks on the door then walks back down the steps and waits. A woman opens the door with a confused look on her face, which quickly changes to surprise when she finds herself face to face with her son “Mom it’s me!” David says, walking towards the steps as his body becomes extremely warm with happiness. 

“Y-you...” She says retreating back to the front door of her house. 

“Mom don’t you recognize me?” David asks, the warmth and happiness slowly fading. 

“You, go away!” she screams, her body contorting as she falls back to the door in terror. “You died! You went to Heaven which cannot be undone! Whatever they put into you is evil! It’s not you, it’s not you!” she screams at David. David suddenly feels nothing at all, he’s not scared but not sad either. He should’ve known she’d react this way. He walks away from the screaming women, not caring what more she has to say. He gets back on the bus and sits down, he knows he should feel sad but he can’t, he can’t feel panic over this either. He’s locked, unable to feel upset but unable to react to this due to his new lack of emotion. 

He gets back to Jess’s house and in anger punches the cement steps as hard as he can with his right hand, smashing it, revealing the sharp metal finger joints of his now broken hand. He runs into the house, grabs a glove from his room and puts it over the hand, then runs straight to Jess who’s sitting at the dinner table reading a book. 

“Jess, Jess!” David yells as he runs up to her, her eyes slowly rising from her book to meet his. “What’s up?” She says in a curious but deeply serious tone. 

“Jess I can’t feel my emotions!” David says, trying to feel sad and panicky about it but failing. Jess puts down her book and looks at him with an almost angry look as she lets out a deep sigh of boredom. As if she’s done this a million times before and can’t be bothered anymore.

“Well I had hope, but this always happens, it’s as if they want it to be this way those f*cking idiots!” Jess says angrily. “What? What do you mean?” David exclaims. “Well, you’re not the first revived person to come to me from those doctors. Those doctors always find the same fault in their design. Your kind always lose their emotions and end up either dying from the brain decay or dying from their own actions. But I have hope that you won’t suffer the same fate, I’ll try to keep you alive for as long as I can” she says with no emotion. 

“You seem like you don’t care! I’m losing my mind and you don’t even care!” David shouts at Jess who remains without any emotion. 

“That’s because I’m like you. I died 20 years ago and was brought back 5 years later. I lost my emotions but decided to stay alive so I can help the other individuals they bring back live their last months or years in peace. We’re all just failed experiments, left to die and to never actually live a new life like they want us to” Jess says with a slight but fake bit of emotion. 

“No, th-this isn’t true!” David screams at Jess, Tom comes into the room just now hearing the commotion. “What’s going on?!” Tom asks confused “I can’t! It’s too much you guys are just here to comfort me! Like I’m a f*cking hospice patient!” David screams, his computer telling him his forehead is warmer than the rest of him. Suddenly he remembers something. He remembers the way the bus took him from the hospital to the house. Suddenly it all becomes clear, he knows what he has to do. He runs from the house, Jess and Tom shouting for him to come back. He won’t though, he can’t take it anymore. He knows he should be feeling sad and angry but he’s not. He knows he should love them but he can’t even understand that anymore. He knows what he wants to do and where to go. The hospital. 

He runs right through the elegant glass doors and straight into the front office and demands to know where Doctor Hess’s room is. “Who are you?” The desk clerk asks,“tell me now or I swear to god I will f*cking kill you!” David shouts, taking off his glove to reveal his broken and sharp right hand, brandishing it at her like a knife. 

“J-just off the right hallway to the left” the lady says, almost starting to stutter like David used to. He runs down the hallway, starting to remember it again. How clean and bright it all was, suddenly with little effort he is in a room with a sign saying “Doctor Hess” in big Comic Sans lettering. He breaks down the door to find not just Doctor Hess, but most of his team, they turn around and look at him in both astonishment and curiosity. 

“What are you doing here?!” Doctor Hess exclaims. 

“I’m here for you!” David shouts. “I’m here for you all!” David continues to shout profanity and threats while slowly walking towards them.Before he can get far he hears the footsteps of two people not far behind him. Jess and Tom rush into the room panting and huffing. “I don’t care if you’re here, you can’t stop me” David says to them, “I know you both love me but I cannot live like this, losing emotions and my ability to even love and life is unbearable!” David shouts at them. 

“Wow, most start degrading after a year but you really went downhill fast” Doctor Hess says, a grin encompassing his long pale face. “You knew,” David says, clenching his teeth with the only emotion he can still fully feel, anger. “Stop right there!” Another doctor says to David. “No, you all deserve this!” David says, as he closes in on them. Suddenly one of the doctors runs at him, but David knew what to do. He takes out his hand out of his pocket just in time to stick his broken metallic hand right against the doctor's neck. “Get out, all of you!” David shouts, his mind getting more and more cloudy with anger. The doctors run out, their faces almost as white as his limbs. They run out until only Doctor Hess remains. “You!” David screams, running up to him and punching him in the stomach and hard as he can, throwing him to the floor. “You took everything from me!” David shouts, picking up Doctor Hess by the neck and lifting him up as high as he could. “I had a death! And while it was tragic those who knew me mourned then moved on! I moved one! I was content with being dead but you brought me back into a living hell!” David shouts, his fist clenching Doctor Hess’s neck tighter and tighter. They stood there, locking eyes in absolute silence. David looked deep into the doctor’s eyes and saw nothing but fear. Fear, something David couldn’t even comprehend anymore, feeling just made more anger. Anger that built up and up and up until “crack” a noise sounds through the room tearing apart the silence. Suddenly the computer tells David the doctor is no longer warm and there is no longer a heart beat. David drops the doctor then hears crying. He looks to see Tom and Jess. Jess with equally fearful eyes holds Tom and covers his face, stopping him from being able to see what David had done. Suddenly the anger stops like an avalanche slamming into a wall. He has finally lost it, all his emotions are gone. He bolts out of the room, runs down the hallway and ends up at an elevator. He runs into it and closes the door, taking it all the way to the top. 

As the doors open the roof appears before him, barren, cold and empty just like his mind. The cold wind is the only thing he can still feel. “It’ll be quick, just jump and you can go back to sleep!” He thinks to himself. He tries to take a step then suddenly he can’t, his computer stopping him telling him there’s an over 100 foot drop in that direction. David finally loses it, he takes off his glove and stabs it at his head over and over, the only thing he can feel is the blood gushing out until one final stab and then suddenly everything’s silent. He can’t see or feel anything. He can’t even remember what’s going on. Suddenly he sees something, a light. Suddenly he can feel everything again and he gets up and walks towards the light finally being able to feel curiosity again. He gets to the light and everything turns black and he feels tired, so so tired. “I think it’s time to rest” He says to himself, closing his blue eyes as they tear up, his mind flooded with a feeling of contentment and peace.