The Runners: Chapter 10
Chapter 10
“Huh, Huh, Huh,” panting for air, Danielle woke up from her deep sleep. She felt cold and was unable to move. She didn’t feel any aches, rather only numbness in all of her body parts and energy seemed to have been drained from the core. Her eyelids felt like it weighed tons as she attempted to open her eyes. She could not see anything. Her visual field stayed pitch black even though she had managed to open her eyes wide. She felt numb and it was only after a few minutes have passed that she realized that she was lying on some sort of a raised platform, table, or perhaps a bed.
Danielle shivered as her repeated attempts to move her hands failed with a feeling that some sort of device was holding her wrists down against the platform. She tried to turn her head sideways, but she felt a contraption, around her forehead as well, which restrained her from making any movements. She panicked and let out a giant scream. Yet, the sound did not travel very far. All of her senses were cold and numb. And, any efforts to take control over her body seemed like a vanity that she wasn’t able to afford at best.
“Where am I? Can somebody.., help me…?” Her voice trailed off as she stayed motionless. Her mind was crossing back and forth the border line between dream and reality. Danielle calmed herself down and tried her best to keep silent. As she succeeded in doing that, she could hear herself breathing louder and louder. Feeling alone, cold, helpless, and weak, she lost all her senses as she drifted back to deep sleep.
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“Danielle! Danielle! Can you hear me? Can you hear me?”
As Danielle came to her senses she heard a thick monotonous voice calling her name. She couldn’t detect any variations in the tone. It was at a constant frequency as if a machine generated voice was speaking to her. She slowly opened her eyes. Her eyelids still very heavy, she had managed to squint as bright white lights filled her vision. Under the light, she was able to make out a hovering man’s silhouette that was speaking to her. She tried to move her head just slightly to turn to her left to focus on the silhouette when a hand held her head still by putting slight force against her forehead. She didn’t feel any warmth from the touch, perhaps, due to the fact that he was wearing a latex glove.
“I suggest you remain still. The doctor is taking your vitals and examining your conditions. It should be completed shortly.” Then he removed his hand from Danielle’s forehead as she felt a presence of another person in the room. To her right, she saw a second silhouette, that of a woman, who seemed to be moving a device over her body. The scanning device, starting from her head, slowly traveled down her midsection and then to her legs and feet.
“Her recovery is going well. Her pupil is responding well to the light and all of her vitals, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature are well within the normal range. She is slowly regaining consciousness from the effects of anesthesia. It will wear out in the next four hours. We’ll need to monitor her for two weeks to assess the success of the operation.” The doctor addressed the man about Danielle’s conditions.
“Thank you, doctor. I am sure it is a success. After all, your past records speak for yourself. But, I like how you take every operation with caution. That’s why I hired you for these projects.” The same monotonous voice returned the doctor’s comments. The man’s voice demonstrated both sarcasm and confidence in the doctor’s work.
“We’ll be moving her to her room in thirty minutes.” The doctor replied without acknowledging the laurels as she walked away from the bed. The doctor’s voice became softer and quieter as Danielle heard the doctor’s footsteps getting farther away from the bed. She heard a door open and shut with a banging sound ricocheting off the walls and the ceiling, then finally reaching Danielle’s ears several times. From the sound of it, she could sense the emptiness and the tallness of the room. She quivered at the sound of the door as it reverberated in her head.
Then, she looked up and saw the man again standing directly over her. She could not make out the features of the man, only the silhouette of the upper body line as there was bright white light still showering down from the ceiling above him. She felt as if she was staring at an eclipse of the sun. Her eyes began to bother her and she closed them as she heard the man’s voice talking to her once again.
“The operation has gone well. Your vision will return to normal and your ID chip has been successfully removed. You went thru a facial alteration procedure as well. I suggest you do not remove the gauze on your face yourself. I have honored your request to help your mother and your family. Now, it is up to you to keep your part of the bargain with utter loyalty and I expect nothing less. Attempts to deceive or failure to deliver your side of the agreement will force me to revert back your family’s circumstances. Yes, worse than they were before. Do you understand?” The man had stern warnings for Danielle and sought her complete loyalty.
Realizing what was happening, tears overflowed from her eyes and Danielle felt the bandage over her face moisten. Eventually, trails of tears began to appear on her cheeks from underneath the bandage. They trickled down her cheeks until the moisture fell on to the bed. She shivered as she felt a sudden coldness inside her. She was suddenly hit with the reality that there was no turning back, no recourse in getting her life back to normalcy. She was forever in debt to this man for her family’s latest fortunes and would be a slave, a soldier and an instrument for whatever his causes demanded of her. Yet, she had no knowledge of what that meant or what she had to do. Only thing she knew, for sure, was that she must obey to whatever demands are to be made of her. The instructions would come in time and she knew that it would not all be on the right side of the law. Quietly, she sobbed and said, “I… understand…”
“Good! Then, as long as you follow my instructions, you and your family will have safe and comfortable life. Keep that in mind as well.” He took a brief pause so that the idea of a peaceful life will come with obedience would sink in with Danielle.
Then he continued, “You will be transferred to a recovery room in the next twenty minutes. A team of medical staff will attend your needs and will nurse you back to full health. The doctor is one of the best at what she does. Your vision will return to normal as well as your physical strength. From now on, all of the things that you need to buy will be paid in cash. That means, hamburgers, sodas, cookies, energy for your car, rents, or whatever you need. You will not run out of cash as long as you keep my instructions. You will not have the ability to establish an identity for financial transactions as you have permanently lost your ID chip. You are no longer an UN citizen. What you are is a runner! You do not exist!”
He was terse in delivering what she had become. The message rang in Danielle’s ears as clear as sounds made by tapping two crystal glasses together. As if to have come in contact with cold ice, she shivered with every single syllable that she had heard even in the state of half consciousness.
“I…, understand…” was all that Danielle was able to shout out in her head as she drifted off again.
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Moments later, Danielle found herself in motion, but not at her own will. Two men in white robes and white masks and caps held either ends of the bed. One was pushing while the second person navigated at the bottom end of the bed where her feet lied. She lied flat staring directly above at the ceiling. Thru the bandages over her eyes, she was able to see series of blurred white lights passing by her field of vision. She could not keep her eyes open as her sight was very sensitive to any measurable amount of light even with the protective gauze. Her eyes cringed as she traveled down the long corridor. She had managed to turn her head slightly sideways, briefly surveying the walls of the corridor.
The walls appeared to be very tall in half circular shape. The top and the sides of the walls were perfectly rounded off in half circle with no sharp angles. As Danielle passed, she sensed the lights go off behind her leaving a trail of darkness. She had managed to see several outlines of doors to her right side. In the doors, there appeared to be transparent windows, at around the height of the man who was at her feet. The access seemed to be with some sort of key-card that needed to be swiped. Soon, they reached the end of the long hallway, where they carted her into an elevator.
Without any spoken words, the man by her head pushed a button. The elevator door shut and she felt herself moving upwards. When the elevator came to a stop, the men gently turned the bed’s orientation so that her feet will exit the elevator first. She sensed that the entire corridor was lighted unlike the one she had just come from. Pushing the bed at a faster pace than before, they guided her to a room. They made a couple of right turns and then one left then went straight to the room at the end of the hall.
After positioning the bed in the middle of the room, they lowered some sort of monitoring device from the ceiling down to just inches above her body. Then they nodded at each other and exited the room.
Along the way, she did not see or sensed anyone else to be on the entire floor. It appeared to be a big facility based on what her senses could gauge. However, she found it difficult to fathom that no one else was there other than the four people that she had encountered since the operation.
Danielle laid still. Subdued by the anesthesia and contraptions that held her feet and hands to the bed. She did not try to move knowing that it would not do her any good. The room was big, everything white, the walls, the ceilings, the door and even the floor. She felt that the room was constructed for the sole purpose of showing off how sterile a room could be and nothing more. The room did not have any windows which indicated that she may be somewhere underground.
She closed her eyes in an attempt to remember how she got here. Soon, bits and pieces of images were flashing by. She saw a man befriending her in the time of her distress at the hospital where her mother was staying, holding her mother’s hand at her bedside, attending classes at the university and talking to her friends happily. Finally, she saw an image of herself getting into a large SUV, perhaps chrome like material finish, with heavy silver tinted windows. She saw herself drinking a cup of water or liquid of some kind in the vehicle and that was all that she saw.
Now, she was preparing herself to live a life with new face and no identity, but how? It all seemed surreal to Danielle. She started to sob quietly knowing what’s expected of her. She felt cold as tears wet her cheeks under the bandage and her sweat began to moisten her hospital gown. Then, trembling intermittently, she fell asleep wondering what might be awaiting her in the new life.
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Danielle spent most of the next fifteen days in the recovery room. Her vision has improved markedly and she was able to see objects with incredible clarity. The room was big enough to perform simple exercises. She regularly did sit-ups, push-ups, and jogged on a built-in tread machine that was in one corner of the room. She ran for couple of miles a day on the track, she thought. It helped her put her mind off of her uncertain future.
The room, it turned out, had a lot of amenities. The space was shaped in a perfect square, comfortable size, finished with shiny white wood like material on all four walls, and the ceiling. The height of the ceiling was about three times her height with some sort of mirror like object taking three quarters of the ceiling space in the center. The ceiling was rather dark, but was created in such a way that it perfectly blended in with the whiteness of the room. She could see herself laying on the bed or doing her daily exercise routines. Large white leather couch was placed against the farthest wall from the door, a large screen TV was hanging on the opposite wall, facing the direction of the head of her bed, and the built-in track was set near the wall by the headboard.
En suite bathroom had a spacious walk in shower, a separate walk down sub-floor soaking tub, and a separate area for toilet and vanity. If she was not told that she was at some kind of medical facility, she would have mistaken it for being in a very nice hotel.
Danielle has not set a foot outside the room since being placed here. She was interested in exploring where this facility was located, but knew very well that that won’t happen. Most of all, she has not seen her new face. As each day went by, she grew more anxious and wanted to see herself in the mirror and feel her new face.
Today wasn’t any different than the previous fourteen days in the room. She went thru the morning exercise routines and took a warm shower. She stood in front of the mirror at the vanity with a towel wrapped around her body. She leaned forward and wiped the mirror clear of the fog. She stood still, staring at herself in the mirror, again wondering what she would look like behind those bandages. Feeling anxious, she wanted to remove them herself to reveal her new face. She moved her hands around over her face, feeling the bandages. Then she located the end of the bandage that had been wrapped around her head, hiding her face. Inching her fingers closer to the ends of the wrappings, she gently pushed her index finger nail under the end.
There, she held her breath and stood still for a second. Just as she began to dig her fingers deeper under the end, to start to un-wrap the bandage, there was a knock at the door and she heard someone walk in to the room.
“Hello! Danielle, are you in there?” The doctor who had operated on her and who had been making the daily visits called for her as she entered.
“Yes, I’m in the shower. I’ll be right out!” Danielle shouted, abruptly stopping herself from revealing her face in the mirror. She quickly dried herself and put on a fresh set of clothes. Stepping out of the bathroom and moving over to the couch, she acknowledged the doctor.
“Good morning, doctor. I was freshening up after the morning exercise.”
“Good morning, Danielle! How are you feeling today?”
The doctor always wore her full gray uniform as if she was to perform an operation. One piece uniform, a mask, and latex gloves were her trade marks each time she had visited the room. Today was not an exception. Perhaps, a continued attempt to shield her identity, Danielle thought.
“I am doing as well as I can possibly do under the circumstances…” Her voice trailed off. Then, she composed herself tall and with some measure of protest in her tone, Danielle continued, “To tell you the truth, I am a bit tired of being cooped up in this room every day! I feel very strong and my vision is as good as before and I would like to see the outside world. I am suffocating being held up in here like this! When will you let me go?”
“We are aware that you are recovering very well. You are blessed with healthy genes. You should thank your parents for that. Your body is adjusting to foreign tissues amazingly well. I believe your new eyes will be just as good, if not better than the old ones as you have already indicated.” The doctor spoke quietly as she studied Danielle’s new corneas, intermittently flashing light into her eyes. Satisfied with the progress, she tilted Danielle’s head up with her chin raised high. Then, she examined the condition of the bandage that was covering her face and took out a pair of surgical scissors from the pocket of her gown.
“I think your bandage is ready to come off.” The doctor said quietly looking down on Danielle, finding some signs of prodding at the ends.
Upon hearing this, Danielle felt a rush of adrenaline that led to nervousness. She shook and took in a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. This was the moment that she has been waiting for since she came out of her sleep two weeks ago, and as recent as five minutes ago. But now, she wasn’t so sure whether or not she wanted to see the new Danielle.
“Are you ready to meet the new you?” The doctor asked, her tone lacking any sense of compassion for the young girl’s predicament.
“Not sure…, doctor…”
“I understand your hesitation. I assure you, you won’t be disappointed. If you are not ready to see, there is no big hurry. Should I come back tomorrow?” The doctor said nonchalantly.
“Uh, no, let’s do it!” Sitting higher than before, Danielle sat up bravely in her couch.
“Alright then, here it goes.”
‘Snip, Snip’, the doctor moved the scissors gently and cut free the ends of the bandages. She slowly began uncovering Danielle’s face. Once, twice, Danielle counted in her head, the number of passes the doctor’s hand holding the end of the bandage passed by in front of her eyes. With the final round of unfolding motion of the bandage, Danielle couldn’t help, but close her eyes. Then she felt a sudden coolness on her cheeks as her skin was directly touched by the cool air of the room for the first time in over two weeks.
The doctor held up a mirror in front of Danielle and told her to look when she was ready. A long silence pervaded in the room as neither spoke or moved. Danielle opened her eyes nervously, but soon, fixed her vision at her eyes in the mirror, still afraid to see the whole of the new her. Slowly, she began moving her eyes, studying her eye brows, forehead, nose, ears, lips, and cheeks then compared with all the details and features that she had remembered in the older version of herself. She tried hard to seek for any resemblance of her past in the new face, but there was no familiarity, except her long hair that was left intact.
“Who are you?” Danielle asked the person in the mirror with intrigue and fear.
Her face structure has been altered. She saw brown eyes with long eye lashes. Her brows were narrower than she had remembered. The ends were closer to her nose, which had a small down slope and then quickly reversed in a circular shape thru and above her eyes, creating perfect demarcation where her forehead formed. Tip of her nose has gotten pointier and more distinctive. Her cheeks were narrowed from the line of the tip of her nose to perfectly carved chin that was narrowing, but not too pointy. Her upper lip was slightly thicker in the middle and narrowed towards the either end. Her lower lip was now, thicker and voluminous, perfectly aligned, and proportioned between her bright eyes. As she moved her cheek muscles to give a quick smile, there were visible dimples in both her cheeks.
Prior to the surgery, she was considered a very beautiful woman in her own right. The surgery made her a sculptured art and removed any minute blemishes there might have been, if any. The new Danielle was stunning. Yet, Danielle felt uneasy and her anxiousness did not dissipate with the newly revealed herself.
“How do you like your new self?” The doctor broke the silence.
“You must approve.” The doctor answered her own question as Danielle failed to respond, but intriguingly continued to stare at her new image.
“Here, let me clean your face. This is purified water with diluted hydro peroxide. I am cleaning any wounds from the surgery and the medicine that was applied to heal the wounds. Your facial conditions should be as new as when you were first born. The feelings will return to normal in the next 24 hours. As planned, you will be able to leave the facility within the next week’s time.”
“What am I supposed to do when I leave here?”
“That question should be directed to the director. The man you’ve met in the surgery room. Now, if you don’t need anything else, I will see you tomorrow. ” The doctor turned and walked out of the room, leaving Danielle, once again, all alone in the recovery room.
Danielle, however, has a lot of new things to ponder about with the new self.
“Thank you, doctor.” Danielle whispered out almost in unconsciousness, oblivious to the fact that the doctor was long gone.