In the center of the large white room, there was a coffin-sized glass box. The glass box was filled with glowing blue liquid that sat still in fluorescent lights that neatly lined the ceiling. The hospital dress clung to Eileen’s goose-pimpled skin. She lay, restrained on a gurney beside the vat of blue liquid, waiting. Scientists in white lab coats and face masks floated around the large gymnasium, preparing for the first trial. Eileen started to feel a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Is it too late to reconsider?
Suddenly a low voice fills the gymnasium simply saying, “Start case E13”. The lab coats scatter as if someone shook the room and they were white marbles, speeding in all directions. One of the many scattering marbles came to Eileen’s side and injected her with a liquid that burned entering her bloodstream. Suddenly, Eileen lost the ability to move. There was no turning back now. She was lifted from the gurney and carefully deposited in the blue liquid. Fully submerged, she realized that she could breathe.
She felt like a rock dropped in a deep pond. The water was still. All she could see was blue glowing liquid surrounding her. Seconds passed, and she regained the ability to move. She had two more seconds of peace until her lungs started to fill with water. She quickly sat up, breaking the surface of the water with a coughing fit. When she cleared her lungs of the water, she finally managed to open her eyes. What Eileen saw made her too stunned to move. Shock became wonder when her eyes adjusted to her new surroundings.
Distant clouds whisper the promise of afternoon rain. The stubborn sun peeks behind the veil of clouds. Birds glide in the cool morning air from earth to nest. A trickle of morning dew from the low-hanging branches of willow trees falls gently on the dark loam circling around the pond. Eileen smelled the new air, and it smelled of fruit, fresh damp Earth, and the promise of life. Eileen wades through the pond she’d risen from, and stepped on the soil, leading to a path. This path becomes strewn with fruit-bearing trees, large shrubs with flowers sprouting as she walked by, leaving a scent of roses and lavender through the garden among the sweet fruits. The ground is soft and mossy in the garden. She buries her feet in the garden’s rich soil, and she suddenly feels grounded.
She uprooted her feet and strode along the trees. Her feet stood bare and caked with the damp earth between her toes as she committed the garden to her memory. Looking more intensely at the garden Eileen saw apples of the purest red glint at the sky. Pears of neon yellow and green shine in the garden. Ruby Pomegranates hang low from the branches; their sheer size making the branches groan in the wind. Eileen didn’t notice how hungry she was until she spotted them. She eyes the Pomegranates and decides to snap the ripe fruit off the nearest branch. The tree yanks back its branch in protest. Eileen continues to rip the Pomegranate open to reveal the pretty, garnet beads. She quickly devours them. One, two, three Pomegranates are sacrificed, and Eileen starts to feel her mouth begin to burn. She runs to the pond for water to relieve her mouth of the fire that was set aflame in her mouth. The water seeps down her throat, and she immediately loses all feeling in her body. Once again, she is unable to move, and the world goes dark. She feels the pond dragging her deep into its depths, her lungs thankfully not filling with water, slowly bringing her back to the state of a fallen rock at the bottom of the pond. Minutes pass, and she regains feeling, and just as before her lungs start to fill with liquid. She springs up in the vat of blue liquid, and gasps for air; breaching the surface once more.
As her eyes began to adjust to her new surroundings, she could finally see the fluorescent lights of the gymnasium shining crudely. Her eyes shifted and saw faces, stunned horrified faces. These faces had white lab coats without face masks. How long was she gone? The loudspeaker sounded and the familiar voice spoke the words, “End of Trial E13”. The voice on the loudspeaker was aged and final. The scientists stirred and began to write furiously on their notepads, looking at Eileen as if she was a rarity. All Eileen could do was wonder how she could still see pomegranate stains in her hands.