Impossible Possibilities

3. Awake

Very long chapter.  Told you they'll vary!  Enjoy...  Vote :)

I tightened my fingers on the wheel as we hovered just outside of the atmosphere of Tel Adol, the fifth great planet of the Decory Empire.  Getting into the polluted atmospheres of core planets had always been a difficult challenge, but a challenge I had no problem beating every time.  I glanced just once up into my rearview mirror.  Mr. Benton was in the back with one leg crossed over the other and a laptop sitting on his legs.  We chatted a bit during the forty minute trip from Outspace to here, I found out Mr. Benton owns one of the largest terraforming companies to grace the galaxy—and he was in the back of my cab.  My little yellow five-seater cab.

But Mr. Benton wasn’t the first big name I’ve had back there.  In fact I’m pretty notorious in the big business world as being one of the fastest and smoothest rides they’ll ever get.  In a hurry? Need a ride?  Call me.  I’ll be there in under an hour and take you wherever you want in the galaxy at the most competitive speeds around.  That’s right.  I can cross the galaxy faster than most trained inter-galactic starship pilots.   

Me and my little yellow cab.  I pulled the decelerator and rapidly sunk towards the planet.  It’s a yellow monster which has pollution storms and the occasional acid rain. It’s very unpleasant to live on, but that’s the life of a human isn’t it? We go, we destroy, and we move on to ruin countless other planets.  That’s all we’re good for, destruction.  We’ll be the ones to suck all the life out of the universe generations before its eventual heat death.

Can’t say I could do anything about it, unless I kill the man in the back of my cab, one of the ones responsible for the destruction of fresh planets.  But I can’t live without his fare.  I can’t afford the gas for travel, or the repairs.  I needed him as much as he needed me. We hit the yellow clouds and slight fires lit on the sides of my cab from the re-entry, something entirely normal.

Peace, clouds—yellow clouds.  Yellow clouds that where square.  Wait, I remembered having cotton over my eyes, white cotton with squares.  The yellow clouds turn white at the thought of that.  Something was covering my eyes.

I moved my hands to get the clouds out of my eyes.  Metal clinking against metal.  Yes.  I was awake.  I waited in the silence.  The silence, such beautiful silence, no noise.  There was no need for me to struggle against the bindings—I didn’t mind the silent hospital.  And according to the doctors before they knocked me out, it was good I didn’t move much, it sounded like I was a wreck.

A few minutes passed, I quickly decided the silence wasn’t me after all, I missed my beeping.  I kind of wished it was back, it distracted my mind from the impending doom and the hidden reason behind why I was trapped in a hospital in the first place.  I needed ruckus to feed off it, to absolve and bathe in it.  I pulled my hands up clinking the cuffs against the metal bed railing. 

Then I starting thinking, what if the bed wasn’t really a bed?  What if the metal wasn’t really metal?  I mean, there was no proof that it is, it’s not like I could see any of it.  I had to get this blindfold off my eyes, I wanted to see the world around me, I didn’t see a point in the cotton, it was just there to irritate me. Just like the beeping machine was put there just to irritate me.  Just like the dumb doctors came into my room to irritate me.

My eyes worked just fine.  I knew that cause I could see the cotton without issue.  In fact, it was surprising the cotton was so darn thick.  I mean it was white, but it blocked out everything, I couldn’t see a peep through it.

I struggled to move my head up and down against the pillow it was resting on.  Maybe I could force this stupid blindfold off my eyes so I could finally see. Then maybe, with my eyes, I can tell these stupid doctors to free me, maybe then I could see how bad the damage from whatever the hell happened really was, maybe then, maybe then something would make sense.