Author: Ellie Brumley
The heavily sealed double doors slid open and I entered an operating room filled with doctors and scientists in white lab coats. I knew immediately I was doomed. Experimental surgeries were practically a death sentence.
“Welcome,” a scientist said. “Please take a seat.”
As there were no chairs, I sat down on the operating table.
“Thank you for your obedience to The Government,” she said. “We will be performing an experimental procedure on you using a new technology, which should enable humans to have a sixth sense, perception outside of time. A nanochip will be implanted into your brain, and if the experiment is successful, you will see and experience the past, present, and future and still remain conscious in this very room. Just lie down and relax. It won’t hurt a bit.”
That statement was a total lie and we both knew it.
Reluctantly, I lay down. A surgeon took the nanochip, inserted it into the end of a long, thin needle, and injected it into my brain. He pressed a button and a splitting pain shot through my whole body.
Things went blurry and I no longer seemed to be in the operating room.
I was sitting at my desk during Quantum Physics class at school when I received a message from The Government to be the first person to test out the experimental “Sixth Sense Device Implantation.” My physics teacher had gotten the message too because when I looked up at her with questioning eyes, she said;
“Go ahead Jordan. The Government needs you”.
Things went blurry again. Now I was saying goodbye to my aggrieved mother, father and my little sister, Annalise, who had been summoned to say goodbye before The Government would come to take me.
How strange. I had a funny feeling it had happened before, but could not remember when. I heard the scientists’ worried voices. At first, I could not tell what they were saying, but my mind slowly came back to the operating room.
“His brain cannot handle so much information at once!” one voice said.
“We have to shut down the nanochip!” answered another.
“But if we shut it down while he is experiencing a different moment in time, his brain will be stuck re-living that moment in time forever!”
My mind started to slip away again. Now, I was sitting at a desk in an office, typing code into my computer, programming an autopilot function to be used for a new space shuttle.
I began to see another vision in my head, but the last one was somehow still there.
I was watching the space shuttle launch. I was cheering with the crowd as it blasted off into the sky like a firework.
How was I in two places at the same time? I could not tell what was real and what was merely a dream. I vaguely remembered that I should be somewhere, or something terrible would happen, but I did not know where.
A third scene came into my mind. I was lying on the operating table with the surgeon standing over me.
“He is fading away, lost in a different time. There’s nothing we can do.”
I realized what I had to do. I focused as hard as possible on that one moment, trying to push the other scenes out of my mind.
“Look at the monitor! He’s coming back to our time!” someone exclaimed.
“Quick! Remove the nanochip before he fades away again!” another said.
I felt the same splitting pain as before. Everything went black and I remembered nothing more.
Interesting vignette.