A Perfect World

Chapter Sixteen - The Tower

October 11th, 2028

Late afternoon...

Bright ceiling. Blank. Nothing that can be properly described.

The lights were so bright, everything was still out of focus. Someone or something hovers over... a person...?

Everything slowly fades in...everything slowly gets even more clearer...

"... ... crys-... ..."

Someone calling their name...?

"... uncon... ... days... ..."

There's almost nothing to be made of this....

Everything goes dark once more...nothing to be seen or heard. Only the faint noises of the world...as well as a steady beeping that soon got louder...and louder... Then...?

Noises, gunfire, people shouting, men and women laughing. The world suddenly surrounded her, drowning her own thoughts out, before everything finally came into focus.

"Whoa there, glad you're back with us. We almost thought you wouldn't wake up." Confusion. "You were out for a week." More confusion, loss for words. "I'm Doctor Klein, an associate of Doctor Alfred. Please, take your time getting up."

A sudden realization, a moment of denial. Reaching a hand up, the realization came into being more and more. They gazed upon a feminine hand, their pale skin blocking out the bright light above. Raising it and moving it about, they started to remember. Looking at their wrist, was a cuff that held her name. 'Crystal Fushigi' But it wasn't her anymore, that carefree attitude was gone. As she stared at her own name, the realization sunk into her.

"Why was I saved...? If I knew that everything would change like this I would've..." She started to shake, tears came out of the corner of her eyes. Suddenly, she felt that need...that deeper despair... "Why did I live?" She asked finally, before sitting up and then starting to struggle to get herself off of the bed.

"Hey! You need to relax, you need to calm down." They struggled for a moment, as he tried to hold her down to prevent her from doing damage to herself. Suddenly, a sharp pain filled his hands. Looking down, there were small spikes of clear glass-like structures protruding forth from her skin.

The pain was seering, it was almost paralyzing with how much she was moving. He knew that he wouldn't be able to hold her back for much longer by himself. Pulling a bloodied hand away, he fumbled for his device, before rapidly tapping on the emergency call option. On the other end someone responded, "Hello, what services do you need?"

He instantly responded, "I need someone to help me hold her back. She's getting out of control and we need to contain her." As they finished, there was little response as the others on that side instantly dropped everything. As he continued to keep her held down, he feared he would lose his hand if no one rushed to his hand soon.

"Let...go of me!" Crystal shouted, before finally shoving him off and then lengthening the glass to stab into the ground, pinning him there. Getting up, she saw him struggling to get free. Tearing off all the wires and then pulling out her IV, she got up and then started her escape. Exiting the room, there were people just down the hallway headed her way. They raised their weapons at her now that she was out.

"Stop right there!" One of them shouted, before shooting at her. One of the objects hit her with force, but it didn't penetrate. However it left a weird liquid on her arm, which only started to expand. Once she realized that they were out to capture her, she started to run the opposite direction. "Don't let her get away!"

Running down the hallway, she started to feel anger in her heart. 'Why would the people that were supposed to protect us, make us fight their war? Why were we forced to do such a thing?' Turning another corner, she found the stairwell at the end. Rushing towards it, she could hear the footsteps closing in behind her. Putting all of her effort into running, she could feel her drastically weakened body already wanting to give up on her.