OBLIVIOUS

Chapter 1

It took me quite a while to discover that I was awake. I could barely feel anything, and if it weren't for the strong smell of rusty steel and smoke attacking my nostrils, I wouldn't have even noticed that I was someone in someplace, in a room with dainty walls, or that I was heavily breathing while thinking what is happening. Of who am I, where am I, and why am I here.

I could tell that I was lying on a soft bed, and as my eyes started to adjust to the bright light coming from my left I could see that I was in an empty room except for the weird machine on my upper right that beeped a weird noise and flashed colored lights that made my head spin and my vision blurry. It took me a couple of seconds to grasp that I was not imagining things. My mind was chaotic from all of the things I was being exposed to and I have no clue of everything and anything right now.

As I was breathing heavily, another new sound to my ears seemed to welcome me and I saw a strange thing entered this room. I say that it was strange because it was humanoid yet mechanical and it came to my right side with a noise that sounded like a vehicle. I couldn't say that it was alive, because it looks more like a machine than a living creature. It has steel for arms and wheels for legs, but it certainly has a face. A mechanical face at that, with hollowed eyes that reminded me of light bulbs. Its whole body was made of metal. "Auto-Scan will commence," it said on a droning monotone voice that gave me the confirmation that this newcomer wasn't human. Its body started to emit beeps and its hollowed eyes lighted up like there were light bulbs inside it. It was a sight that would terrify and astound someone like me.

I tried to utter a sound but my body doesn't respond. It seemed that I couldn't do a single thing. I tried to calm myself, but a jolt of panic started to swell inside of me as I started to realize that I really couldn't move. I wanted to scream, but that was not even possible.

I watched apprehensively as the newcomer that just talked come closer and did something I didn't know to my body since I don't feel anything physically at the moment. It tripled my fear because surely, not feeling anything when a strange creature does something that made your body shake without you doing it is worse than waking up not knowing what on earth is happening. But I was experiencing both right now so lucky me, I guess. Waking up like this is so horrible. Everything felt foreign and scary. Even the sound of my breathing sounded wrong. All I could muster to think was that I was hopeless. I was useless. I can't even remember a thing about myself.

"Checking your vital status... Axis 1," said the mechanical creature that seemed to be checking on my body for something. Some weird blue light began emitting from its upper chest to my unmoving body and then I hear another swift round of beeps and clicks and then it became quiet again. "Body scan complete," it said again and then it zoomed out of the room without another word, slightly alleviating my anxiety.

Staring at the ceiling thinking of what just happened, a sudden thought just occurred to me that terrified me to the core. What if I was captured? There is a possibility that I could be a kidnap victim. I could be in real danger right now. I could've been abducted. Anyone in their right mind would think that waking up in a strange setting is a bad sign, right?

Again, I tried to move my body but nothing was happening. I know that there are a million reasons why I can't move a muscle right now. For all I know I might have been like this since the beginning, but I could move my eyes to look around in this almost empty room. To me this was absurd for my body seems to be fully unresponsive except for my eyes and vision. And my brain. Is this even possible? Does this thing happen to anybody else too? I needed answers. And being alone here right now without a clue of what is going on was making me paranoid. And rightfully so.

And then there was a new voice. It was not the humanoid machine's, but of someone new. "Hello? Can you hear me?" It was a soft voice of a girl and I got excited upon hearing another person and I tried very hard to reply but my throat doesn't seem to exist. I wanted to ask for help but with no luck and my fear was skyrocketing. "Oh right," said the voice again with the sound of near gibberish it was hard to understand at first. "If you had just woken up right now you wouldn't be able to talk too. I myself can't do anything for a week."

That information just made me panic even more. A week of not being able to utter a single sound was hell enough for me in this situation. I tried very hard to move my head to see where the girl was because it sounded like she was very near to where I was but all I could muster was to look around by moving my eyeballs. This frustrated me for I really wanted to talk to the person talking to me right now. I was afraid she would leave or stop talking if she would hear no response coming from me. I wanted to ask questions. A lot of questions, to be exact.

"I know you can hear me, so I'm gonna talk to you alright? Is that okay? I don't want you to become like me when I woke up. The shock and fear of waking up here not being able to even move nearly killed me. Literally. I was so scared. I thought I was already a goner, you know."

I wanted to reply to her with 'go on' but obviously I couldn't, so I just hoped she would continue talking and give me the information I needed. I was on the edge with anticipation as there was a long pause before I heard her voice again. "Don't be afraid of this place. You are in no danger. We are in a medical facility. Just like me, you are a victim of a grave accident. We were all in a coma and whoever owns this facility revived us."

I was in an accident.

That, I could accept. That answered most of my questions, though it also gave me new questions to ask again which made my head spin a little more. I was only trying my hardest not to miss anything she was saying, and it was good that she pauses for a while before she continues. However, it made me nervous whenever she pauses, maybe for fear that she might not talk again, but it also made me feel better for some reason if that made sense. Maybe it was because I was having a bad feeling about where I was and what happened to me that it made me feel so agitated. But upon hearing this girl explain what happened to me, and her for that matter, made me feel somehow at ease. At least I wasn't kidnapped. And at least I wasn't alone.

"That freak accident killed so many people," the girl went on, and I was still trying to decipher where she was as she spoke. After all, I was a hundred percent sure she was not in this room with me because I had this hunch that if there was another alive person with me here I should have already felt her presence. Or maybe she's here, and I just can't feel anything even with instinct, plus I can't see her in my peripheral vision. To make things simple for my already confused mind, I pretended that she is in another room, probably in the one next to me if there was one. I dunno, it just felt kinda weird talking to someone I don't know where they are.

"And all those who were severely injured from that deadly accident were brought here. So, to make this clear, we are being treated here. There is no need for panic, and once we get fully healed, they will be sending us back home."

I dunno who she is calling 'they' but I assume that they are probably the medical staff in this facility. And they are treating me here. That's good to know. I would rather want that talking machine to be a nurse rather than an abductor. Being a nurse or a doctor made it less scary to look at.

"You don't remember anything from your past, do you? Don't fuss about it too. I've been there and I know the feeling. Not recalling a single thing even my name was so terrifying, I was soundlessly bawling my eyes out. And until now I still don't know my real name. Forte said it is because the procedure that revived us took out our memories as a side effect but they will come back to us once we fully recover."

Hearing that made me happy that it made me want to reply to her so badly. I wanted to ask her so many questions, like how did she know everything that she is telling me right now, or who in the world names their child Forte, or where in the earth is she right now. I had so many things in my mind at the moment that I can't even decide what to ask her first if I was able to talk. Heck, I am even curious about what would my voice sound like.

"Forte used to be one of the patients here, in case you're wondering who I just mentioned. He went through all of these things too just like us. And just two days ago, he finally went home. I was so jealous of him, you know. That day he was discharged I cried so hard that Forte felt bad that he was leaving me. I really wanted to go home too. I really do. Being kept in the dark like this, knowing nothing of your life outside this place sucks. I wanted to stop him from leaving, but I still couldn't move when it was time for him to say goodbye."

Her voice sounded so sad while she was telling this that I could tell that she became attached to this Forte person. I could feel the longing in her voice and it affected me too. It gave me this sweeping pang of loneliness on my being and I was starting to fear being alone here as what she might've felt when that person left. That would really suck, as I too was already dreading the moment this girl will finally stop talking to me.

"It was him that told me everything I know about this place, you know. So him leaving was so painful for me."

Of course. Misery loves company, and we are miserable here. I am already miserable just a couple of minutes away from the moment I woke up. One silver lining that this strange setting could have given us would be other people having the same circumstance, but I am already hearing of people leaving, which was not a very good start to this pitiful journey.

I could already picture the Forte guy breaking down as he was saying his farewell, even though I don't know what he looks like. I was also sure that this girl cried a river the moment the Forte guy left. But I don't blame her. Anyone who woke up here just like the way we did might have been lonely as no one from the facility seems to be keen enough to show themselves or talk to us. I don't even know if someone will see me other than that humanoid machine. All I have right now is this mysterious but kind girl whose voice is soft but full of life, and I didn't even know that I was already holding on to every word she was saying if not for the fact that she opened up about the possibility of people leaving. Just thinking of it pained me. So, I totally understand why she is being emotional right now. This Forte guy must've been the same thing to her when she woke up in this solitary room as she is to me right now. I think I will lose my mind if she says that she will leave already.

"When I woke up, he told me everything that I needed to know. He was there outside on the window. He knew that I was already awake even though I was just lying there on the bed looking like a dying patient. Maybe he saw my wide-eyed stare at the walls. I stared and stared on the walls when I woke up just because I couldn't do anything else."

Same, I replied on my mind, thinking of how dull this room was. "Forte decided to talk to me, hiding inside the tall Hydrangea bush that's planted beneath the window pane. It was then that he told me where we are, of what happened to us, and why are we here. It made my head hurt, but he said that the smoke outside could cause headaches if we think too much. But it's just his theory so I don't know if it's real." So the smoke that I had been smelling since I woke up is coming from outside. But what kind of smoke is it? I hope this Forte guy knows.

"He too stayed immobile for a week, and then he started being able to move his body after someone came into his room and said that he was ready for the next step of our rehabilitation. Forte revealed to me that once you can move like stand up and walk by yourself you are going to be allowed to go out of your room. That's how he found me. He sneaked in from the garden to the window of my room and peeked inside if someone was lying on the bed too. It was one of his regular exercises and he decided to search for other people in the white rooms. He said that he saw me unconscious, and guessing what would it be like if a girl wakes up in this traumatic situation, he decided to come every day and wait until I wake up. He somehow knew that I was going to panic the moment I realize I'm immobile and useless so he waited for me to wake up so that he could calm me down. And so I did calm down."

That was quite a touching story. So this Forte guy had waited for this girl to wake up so that she would not panic when she realizes she remembers nothing from her past. That is so cheesy too that I was tempted to ask if these two were a couple, but I immediately remembered that I can't talk this whole time and it actually sucked for my part. I feel like I'm worse than a wall or something inanimate here in this dull room. All I could do was wait. And I hated waiting. I don't know who I was before I wake up here, but I'm pretty sure that the only thing I hated more than the fact that I could not talk back to this girl was the fact that I have to hope that she talks again. Ang again and again and again.

"Oh, what am I doing? I forgot to tell you my name," she said in an apologetic tone and I heard her giggle a little at her fault. "I know I don't remember my real name yet but Forte told me that in here we do have a name, albeit temporary. The Mediborgs had been calling him Forte 1, so he just took it just omitting the number after the name. It was a good idea because obviously we can't recall our real names yet so I decided to do the same."

Again, I wanted to ask her a question and it was becoming a really uncomfortable internal struggle not being able to interact with her but I really wanted to ask her what is a Mediborg. I had a wild guess that it's what the humanoid machine is called but she already talked past that.

"I also listened to what the Mediborg calls me. It usually calls you in a certain name with a certain number when it scans your body for a daily checkup. The Mediborg that comes to check my vital status calls me Vista 1 so I guess you can call me Vista."

I tried to recall what that machine called me when it came here to check on me just a few minutes ago. It called me Axis 1; I am sure of it. I don't understand what the 1 means but I decided that I can live by the name it calls me. And I admit that it's not that bad.

Hello, Vista. My name is Axis. I'm so glad I can hear you, I said to her but just inside my head.