Kaarina fights the heaviness in her eyelids, fights the shadows closing in at the edges of the room. Whatever it was that they slipped into her water, it’s about to kick in with full force.
“People can be so ungrateful. All we really want is for everyone to have peace of mind, for them to lead a worry-free life.”
“Like. Raino.”
“Oh yes, just like your pharmacist friend. Bless his old heart. No pills or programs or realities can cure that man’s mind. He’ll always live in the past, in regret and sorrow. It’s only natural for him to give in, to come here and live with the rest of the damaged individuals.”
“He will. Die.”
Her laughter is now sharper, more impatient than before. “No dear, not die. He’ll be plugged into the CS, resting inside one of these wonderful machines.” Laura taps the stasis capsule’s open door. “He’ll be out cold, like he’s taking a very, very long nap. Just like you will be soon. You’ll get a neat job, just like your friend Markus has at the Server-Center. The only difference is that you won’t be going home at four o’clock in the afternoon.”
The doctor’s words jolt Kaarina into greater alertness. Her mind screams at her to run, to hide, to fight. There’s no fixing the chip. No cure. No brain scans. Just a cord and her brain—to be forever used as a server for those living in the augmented reality.
The doctor lifts a syringe, pushes out a drop of liquid. A nurse wearing a white mask lifts Kaarina’s hand and attaches it to an IV.
Solomon walks closer with a syringe in her hand. Whatever substance inside, it’s about to find its way to Kaarina’s veins, her body, her being. Will she be the same, when she next wakes up? Or someone else? Something else?
A loud bang stops her hands. The light in the operating room flickers, then goes out with a zap.
The doctor’s chuckle sounds eerie in the dimly-lit room. The syringe clinks against the metal tray next to the operating table.
“Oh, Mister Nyman. Why didn’t you just go to work like I told you to?”
***
The strangely soft and comfortable operating table caresses her body. The paper blanket on top of her may as well be a down comforter, or one of the cozy sleeping bags in the attic above the barn.
The ceiling light is out. No one’s in the room with her. How long has it been since the nurses and the doctor ran off? Five minutes? Five hours? Longer?
One by one, her fingers reconnect with her brain. She fingers the paper sheets, feels their rough surface. Her shaved head feels like it weighs too much for her to sit up and look around. But it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing left there for her to see.
This is the end. No second chances for her. No more options to choose from. The city. The barn. Even joining the Unchipped. All of it is now out of her reach. She’s doomed to be alone. Her mind turned off forever.
A dull voice is hollering again at the back of her mind, like it’s coming from under water. Too tired to focus on anything else, she lets the strange comfort of the operating table lull her in.
How her head fits perfectly between the blocks that stop her from turning.
“Kay.”
The thermostat’s pleasant whirr.
“Kay-Kay, answer me.”
The warm sensation under her bum and around her thighs.
“Wake the fuck up, Kay.”
“Bill?”
“Yes it’s me, you dim-wit. Snap out of it. Time to go.”
“But I’m so comfy…”
“You’re not comfy, you’re the opposite of comfy. You’re about to score a drill through your skull and you just pissed yourself. Get the fuck up. Let’s move before the evil witch and her puppies come back. Chop chop!”
Slowly, she opens her eyes but doesn’t move a muscle. With slurred words, she says, “Get up? Why? To run away? And where to, Bill?” She needs to take a breather before continuing. “I’ll never be Chipped. I’ll never live in the city.”
“So go back to the woods, Kay. Do you really want to be one of these murderous fucks, anyway?”
“The Unchipped will kill me. Just like they were going to kill Rocky.”
“Last I checked, the black market is not really big on human flesh. Now get up. You can moan and drown in self-pity later. Don’t you want to make sure Ässä finds a new home before you let the crazy scientist plug you into that death-capsule? And make sure Rocky is okay?”
Kaarina lets her head press heavily against the operating table. “The dog’s better off without me. And so is Rocky.”
Bill stops talking. Has she won the debate? For the first time ever? Before she has time to celebrate, Bill’s muffled voice returns.
“Okay, fine. I didn’t want to pull this card. But it looks like your head is way too deep in your ass for me to do anything else. Remember when I agreed to help the old pharmacist? When I risked my life for you to score a few nasty vegan-bars?”
Her eyelids feel less dense. Raino’s relieved laughter echoes through her tired brain.
“Yes, to help him. You said you’d owe me. Well, I’ve come to collect. Get. The Fuck. Up. Kay.”
Pouting like a kid whose mother has just denied her five more minutes of sleep, she wiggles her toes, her feet, her legs. Her head and upper body heavy, she moves her right leg and lets it drop down from the table. Her body drags down, hangs halfway off her comfy prison. After moving her left leg off the table, she crashes down.
“That’s okay, that’s okay. You’re off the bed. Now we need a door, let’s find a way out of this torture chamber.”
Still annoyed by Bill’s interruption of her state of Zen, Kaarina gets on all fours and crawls toward the door. She cracks open the swinging door and takes a peek, scans the hallway. Doctor Solomon stands at the end of
