Tanked

Tanked - Chapter 2

Tanks. That's what I saw. Not military tanks, but huge vertical glass tanks kind of similar to fish tanks. And people, but caged like wild animals- or rather, wild marine animals- they were in some kind of liquid, which, considering the fact that people drown in water, I highly doubted that this was water. 

Not only that, but the "water" wasn't clear. It was an unnatural electric green, like the kind that traffic directors wear, and it was glowing. I stood there, in awe and in horror of these chemical tanks. I had to hand it to whoever designed these, they were beautiful, I don't know how, but something about them was just magically pretty.

I slowly walked across the single semi-circle row of tanks, feeling a little bit like some kind of Nazi taking the prisoners' roll call. I read the metal tags screwed onto the base of each person's tank. Anne, David, Jessica, Ashley, Will, Kaiden- something about all these names triggered a tiny spark in my void of memory, but I couldn't put my finger on it, so I moved on to the next strange thing- the people were flailing, but their gestures and movements were somehow human-like. No, they were human actions- one was walking, another looked as if it was cooking, and one looked like it was doing some kind of sport.

The thing that made these everyday actions look like something out of an alien sci-fi movie was the fact that they were all being done suspended in the middle of the water- did gravity not exist in this- well, wherever I was? 

No, it had to exist, considering I'm grounded and not floating on the ceiling. But then, what was in this strange liquid, that it had the power to make humans defy gravity? Ugh, so many questions, with so little answers! What in the name of fuck is this place?!

Then I noticed something else. They were all covered with some kind of skin-hugging gray suit, with tubes connecting them to boxes on the back of the tanks. This is such an inhumane operation, my god. While this display of scientific power was extremely unsettling, it didn't answer my question- why was I here? 

Then it dawned on me, and I turned around, slowly, as if I didn't want it to be true- it couldn't be, could it? Underneath a huge chunk of concrete was a crushed tank, a tangled mess of shredded tubes and pieces of the suit, and my cut off ear laying on the ground beside it- not in a pool of my blood, but in a pool of the toxic looking liquid. I walked towards it warily, and picked up the metal name plate with shaking hands. 

In gray, engraved letters the name 'Olivia' was written. The name plate slipped from my grasp, the clank of metal against tile echoing through the room. Shock took my body yet again. I was not magically transported here, I think, looking down on my soaking wet body, I was- my thoughts paused, trying to find a word for this, this surreal kind of human torture- tanked. And with that, I threw up all over again.