1 1: 9

"We had so much potential, such promise to the world who favored what we had created. We created something huge and gave it to the world... but we squandered it... In the pursuit of technology, we were blinded... and it only sped us quicker to our doom...

Our world seems to be ending... but life

must go on."

.

.

I let out a long shaky breath a moment before slowly opening my eyes. I looked around, in a daze before forcing myself to sit up. It was hard for me to see. Not because of the eerie atmosphere that was only lit by so many candles, but because of the feeling my eye lids were heavy. I blinked a few times, trying to get my eyes to adjust.

I wasn't the only warm body in the room. There were others. 8 to be exact. That's how many I counted. Some were sitting on beds, some moved around while other people in the room came to examine them. It was as if they had been there before. It was odd how everything to my eyes were faint.

Two older boys sat on the window trim while another stood against the wall next to them, in on whatever conversation they were having. They seemed to be in their early 20s.

The room seemed to be something out of an asylum dated back in the 1960s. The beds, furniture seemed the same.

Only a few seconds after, strange noises began to fill my eyes. I found myself deaf. The room was lively now. I watched two boys, who seemed like twins, hop and skip around beds like active children. Both boys seemed to be about the height of a child, but who knows how old they were. One the boys almost stumbled over a boy, who seemed much older than them, but the boy managed to step out of the way. The other twin stopped to watch the boy gently snap at them.

I looked down at myself. I wasn't surprised or anything, but I questioned it. Was there something wrong with me or was it weird to find my arms, legs, torso and my lower face were connected to wires and tubes? Of course, half of my body was covered in a pale grey blanket, but the tubes and wires were visible. The material felt soft against my bare legs. Yes, my legs were bare. It was possible I wasn't wearing anything but a hospital gown. Was I sick or something?

Some sort of mask covered the lower part of my face. I was breathing through it, of course, but something in chest didn't feel right. I figured it was my legs and that it was hard to breath.

It was rather hard for me to move. It sort of hurt when I did try. I was only able to move my head around normally. Had I been here for months? Years? What?

A girl with short green/blur turquoise dyed hair appeared at my bedside. She wore a mask over the lower part of her head. She had two different color eyes, one blue and the other red. She seemed about my age.

"You're awake," She pointed out. Her voice was strong, yet kind. It seemed she was going to say something else, but a boy with brown basic surfer dude type hairstyle came up. He wore the same mask as the girl.

"Hey cutie, nice mask you got there." The boy flirted. I figured he thought I was female. "What's your name?"

"Shoo!" An elderly man in a white lab coat ordered a bit aggressively, hurrying towards them. "Get away from him!"

My mask? What about my mask? Didn't it look like theirs?

The two quickly moved away, hurrying pass the old man. The twins stopped running about and turned their attention on me and the old man. The others did the same. What was so interesting about me?

The old man pulled a metal stool out from under my bed and sat next to me. He began to examine me as if he were a doctor. He totally was a doctor.

His hands gently touched the surface of my right arm as if it was fragile. He checked my eyes, asked me to wiggle my fingers and toes and to move my arms and legs. Anything to see if my limbs were fully functioning.

After he was finished with the examine, he began popping and pulling out the wires and tubes from my body and patched me up with bandage wraps. I didn't really pay attention to it the first time, but I noticed the others were wearing bandage wraps too, but not as much as I was.

"It appears you are way more fragile than the others." The old man explained, "You will need to to keep that mask of yours on for another week or two."

I stared at him, listening.

"I am Dr. Hauffman," He introduced himself, "I will be taking care of each and every one of yo for the time being, in fact, I will be the one and only. Tell me how do you feel?"

It was hard to speak. I answered him slowly, though I tried. "W...eir...d..."

This was no surprise to the old man. He nodded, "Not normal?"

I nodded my head.

The old man nodded. It seemed he was expecting this.

I wanted to ask him why I was here, but was I said, it was hard to speak.

"Edica is your name and only I am to call you by your name. Everyone else, no matter who it is, is only to call you "9"." He spoke quickly. It seemed like he wanted to get through this quickly and get back to whatever he was doing before.

He stood up and pushed the stool back under my bed before helping me stand. He allowed me to take it slow. He took the blanket from my bed and threw it over my shoulders. I was confused by this, but didn't questioned it.

I was clothed in a thin paper gown. Normally it wouldn't be closed up all the way in the back, but it wasn't for me.

The old man took me and the others outside. There wasn't much to look ay, so the only thing as far as the eye could see were numbers of run down, partly destroyed buildings, and scattered debris at the foot of the mountain. The air wasn't like it used to be once I stepped out that door. The air suddenly filled my nostrils. I could smell carbon dioxide and gases, but of course I couldn't tell what they were.

I stepped over what was left of the pavement, which was nearly turned into gravel.

I wrapped my blanket and looked out over the area. The sky was dusky, but the orange/reddish/yellowish sun was slowly coming up over the horizon. The wind moved my semi-long hair a bit over the sides of my face. Most of it would move in front of my eye. I didn't care that much where my hair went.

"At this time, you all would be called to dinner, normally." The old man explained, "But since we had a delay, things have changed."

There was an African American woman walking up to the old man when I turned my head around. She looked at me, calmly, then looked back over at the old man.

"It's 8:00, and usually at this time, like I said, it would be dinner time... so," He pulled out a rusty silver wooden handled bell from his lab coat pocket and held it up, "Nurse Rose will be the one to ring the dinner bell. This bell is very loud, so you will be able to hear it in any room or outside the house." He explained, holding the bel out towards us so we could see it.

From where I was standing, it seemed old. Like it was from years and years ago.

"Dinner is ready, doctor." Rose spoke out in a kind, smooth tone of voice.

"Right then," He said, "After dinner, we will have ourselves a meeting in the living room. We will do this every night, if needed." He moved his head a bit in Rose's direction to say something to her, "Rose, could you give it a ring, so they can know and understand what it sounds like?" He puled it back and handed it to Rose.

Rose took it from him and moved it a little, allowing it to ring.

I heard it, it kind of hurt my ears a little. I thought I heard the nice sound quickly move across the large city below us.