Forward (2 of 3)
By mac_ashton
- 232 reads
Note: I've split this story into three parts. Part 3 will come next week. Part 1 can be found here: http://www.abctales.com/story/macashton/forward
Let me know what you think. What works? What doesn't?
Part 2: Backward
Dom was led into a small room with dark grey walls that looked like they’d be soft to the touch. A metallic chair jutted out of the floor in the center, lined with black padding and a series of wires running below it into the smooth floor. “Why don’t you have a seat and we can start getting set up.”
Dom felt queasy. What will I see? What do I want to see? The possibilities were limitless. He thought about looking down his career track to see if there was another promotion ten years down the line; watching how his children would grow up; answering the ultimate question: How long do I have left?. The idea of it was frightening, but the knowledge behind it was enticing.
Dom sat in the chair and the bearded assistant pulled a lever to lean him back. “I’m going to be putting some nodes on you. You’re going to feel a small pinch with each placement.” The man’s calming voice did nothing to assuage the eerie feeling that brewed in Dom’s stomach. It was the terrifying sense that the founders of Future Solutions had actually accomplished what they set out to.
“Yeah, sure,” he said, his muscles tensing for whatever was about to come. The bearded man pulled a tray of tiny pads from beneath the chair and parted the hair on Dom’s scalp. There was a pinpoint of pain as the pad was stuck to his skin. The man continued to apply the pads, and added a few to his neck and shoulders. “What are those for?”
“These are to measure your vitals, make sure that you’re safe throughout your trip.” He applied a final pad and then stepped back to admire his work.
“Trip? Will I be going somewhere?”
“In a sense, yes. I’ll explain as we go along.” The man smiled at him with plastic sentiment, clearly meant to put clients at ease with the whole process. “Looks like we’re all set. You ready?”
There was no part of Dom that was ready. His palms grew clammy with sweat and he felt nauseated, but the prospect of ultimate knowledge was too much to ignore. “Yeah, let’s do this.”
“I’m going to leave the room, but I’ll have you monitored at all times.”
“Good to know.”
“Almost forgot, you’ll need this.” He pulled out a tan piece of plastic and handed it to Dom. “Put this in your ear. It will allow us to communicate. I’ll be guiding you through the initial process and informing you of how much time you have left.”
Dom pushed the plastic piece into his ear and heard a strange buzz. The man left the room and shut the paneled grey wall. For a moment the grey room was quiet and shapeless. The uniformity made Dom feel like he was floating.
“Can you hear me?” The voice brought him crashing back to his chair, rooted in the moment.
“Yes.”
“Ok, to locate your mind we’re going to walk you through some basic memories.”
“Locate my mind?”
“I can’t get too detailed with you, obviously with non-disclosure, but our process is rooted in memory location. We use your past memories and your present self to create a sort-of guide. Once we have a good read, we can use them to locate your future memories as well. Everything has a signal if you’ve got the right equipment to find it.
“Seems straightforward.”
“I assure you, it isn’t.” The man’s tone seemed off to Dom, but he was ready. “Ok, any problems with going back to your tenth birthday?”
“No.”
“No family traumas around that point?”
“No.” Dom felt like he was in a psychologist’s chair.
“Good, we like to start with something benign to ease you into the process. Ready?”
“I suppose so.”
“This is going to feel a little weird.” The grey room around Dom shook and blurred as if caught in a massive earthquake. The world turned around him in a bright cavalcade of color, but he felt his body, rooted in the chair and unmoving. It helped ground him as everything else shifted to a much brighter and vibrant setting.
He was sitting on a park bench. The wood beneath him was warm and smelled like pine. For a moment, he could see nothing but his immediate surroundings; the table, the dust particles floating through the air, and his own hands, small, like a child’s. The world moved at a snail’s pace and wound a lazy path to focus.
On the table in front of him were several brightly colored presents. Dom felt an excitement that had lain dormant for years. Childhood elatedness shot through his mind like a drug as he imagined what would be inside the boxes, and then he realized; he knew. His mother walked over to the table.
“Are you ready to open presents sweetie?”
“Yeah!” The voice was his, but untouched by age. His mother was young and bright. Even the sky around him was blue. It was years before the skyscrapers would blot it out, making its light something valuable to attain.
“Dom? You doing alright in there?” It was the voice of the bearded man.
Dom felt that he could only stammer.
“I know. Pretty amazing right? However, you’re not here to see the past. Let’s work you through a few more memories so that we can get on to the real interesting stuff, the future.”
Dom was dumbfounded. “I can’t believe it. This is incredible.” It felt like he was inside his younger body, reliving the experience exactly as it had happened.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The world whirled into a blurry mass once more as his mind jumped through time.
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