Lights flickered from a lamp hanging from a low ceiling, barely illuminating the scanty room below.
An old fashioned alarm clock blared suddenly, halting the peace of the still and nearly dead silent room, which was only broken by periodic heaves evidencing someone in the room.
A figure stirred on the lower lower half of an metal bunk, the iron bars supporting beneath groaned from supporting its full weight. A young man with short, dark, scanty hair and sharp eyes groggily rubbed his eyelids a couple of times, breathing out deeply.
He was Michael. He looked at the table right by his bed, filled with a sense of vertigo and having an insatiable desire to fall back asleep, because on the average day he would sit in bed for about an hour tossing and turning, trying to acclimate to the sudden change in his state.
But today, today he just had to get up earlier.
Michael was getting ready for an online certification exam, and was hyper for one of those remote jobs everyone seemed to be on these days.
He grabbed his towel off the bathroom door and dived in ready to cool the sudden heat that washed over him, throwing his senses into disarray.
Turning the knob, all he got was a wheeze shortly followed by a subtle but sharp pain in his chest borne from resignation, making him furrow his brows.
"I can't believe clean water has been added to the list of items deprived because of this shitty war rumor" he sighed in disbelief.
Grunting in displeasure, he reached for a bucket in the corner of the bathroom, and briskly walked out of the room, hoping to get some water from the borehole directly outside his dorm.
Upon stepping foot outside outside, the vast field was evergreen, softly and gently illuminated by the rays of the morning sun, the dew was visible, weighing down heavily on the narrow and slender leaves of the grass they rested upon, the slight howl in the wind, everything here was just….. natural.
He craned his neck left, the iconic yet strange dorm buildings standing tall. The red bricks, the moss covered walls with net like cracks spreading all over, hinting at the aged and depreciating state of the buildings.
"wait, wait" he repeated, heaving once
Gathering his thoughts, he realized he was wasting valuable time appreciating nature instead of prepping. In a hurry, he skipped over the concrete steps leading to the dorm, and just as he placed his bucket under the tap and began to heave on the handle of the seemingly prehistoric machine no one ever had a reason to use, a deafening siren blared out, killing whatever sense of calm the serene environment had gifted him.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed something strange, and subconsciously turned to focus in on it. It was grotesque shape, it looked like a bird, but was much bigger and much too rigid to be one. It was zooming, no, better to say it was plummeting, because up until that point, the contrails following closely behind suggested it was gliding. It piqued his interest, and he edged closer to the iron netting installed as a makeshift wall, his fingers digging into it, face pressed tightly against it, nearly wishing he could phase through it, and right before his eyes, just as it made contact with the closest high rise building in the distance…
A sudden, rapidly expanding ball of light, accompanied barely seconds after by a muffled, distant thunderclap, all shrouded in contortions from dust and debris.
He had seen a couple videos of explosions and thought it wouldn't get all the way to him. But that expectation was cut short by the realization that the mushroom cloud was climbing higher by the second.
His heart pounded, icy fear gripping his heart and pushing it all the way to his throat, and all he could think up in that moment, was a desperate wish that it was simply a gas explosion and the single thought reverberating through his mind, louder than the siren still blaring and the now barely audible shockwave in the distance
Run!.
He spun on his heel and lunged, his body reacting to his subconscious need for self preservation. His steps were hurried, disjointed and motivated by the frightening realization of what was about to occur, he had no choice but to keep on moving, for fear of what would befall him in the event he stopped.
He hadn't gotten as far as five meters from his dorm building, when the echoes of a shockwave reverberated louder by the second.
as soon as he got a foot out the gatehouse, a sudden gust swept him from behind, flinging him like a ragdoll against the rough concrete floor.
Then everything was dark and cold, and that was all that mattered.
By the time Michael, or what remined of him stirred, he was sprawled on his back under what seemed to be rubble, discombobulated and confused.
A constant ringing threatened to deafen him, nearly subduing slight, almost imperceivable cries from above and around him.
He opened his mouth, the shape for a cry on his lips, but all that came out were stifled gurgles and gasps, evidencing the air bubbles trapped in his throat. He began blink rapidly, losing his grip on the reality around him, desperately trying to reject things. And with every cycle his eyelids shut off to the world, he began to see a bright light, an unusually bright light, enveloping a fragile looking palm, and as he reached out to it, praying to whatever Gods existed to save him, to rescue him from this nightmare, vertigo took a hold of him.
It was all sudden.
A cacophony of sounds and completely different sensations; the familiar feeling of raindrops on his cheek, the slushy sound from water rushing around him, even the distant rumble of thunder.
The hand he reached out to earlier and firmly grabbed onto, seemed to dwarf his own. It dwarfed him way too much and into view came a stranger in a raincoat bending over him.
"such beautiful babies, now who could've possibly left you in this foul weather" a low, yet feminine voice resounded
He could barely hear anything, but gleaned out those few words while still trying to process everything going on to him, and after some seconds to think, he begun vehemently denying everything he saw and felt.
Michael stared down at his tiny, pudgy hands, still trying to make sense of it all. His fingers once strong, dexterous and calloused from gripping pull up bars and working night shifts were now soft, stubby, and completely useless.
(no no nooo)
He wiggled them, hoping they'd return to their familiar form, but no such luck. A shrill cry escaped from his throat as his confusion turned to frustration, but all that met his ears was the high-pitched wail of a child. A sound he had no memory of ever making before that moment.
Hearing approaching footsteps, he strained his neck to get a good look at whoever, or whatever had apparently carried him, but he couldn't get a good look, all he could discern was that it was a woman.
His head throbbed and wobbled as he looked around the room, soft colors blaring like headlights and a large window letting in cold air; something the stranger fixed a moment later. It was like being trapped in a dream, in this case-a nightmare, and he was not amused with every passing second that aggravated his fears. The walls were adorned with hand drawn images of smiling animals and gentle clouds. There was a damn rocking horse in the corner, for gods' sake.
His mind tried to fight the reality of it, but no matter how hard he focused, he could feel his new body, hear his toddler cries, and tasting the bitter tang of confusion in his mouth. This wasn't real.
The stranger came around to pick him up , feeling his small body squirm in her arms as she cradled him, rocking back and forth, but his mind was consumed with a single thought
(What the hell was happening?).
He wanted to shout, to demand answers, to tear this illusion apart, but all that came out was a gurgle. The frustration of his situation mounted, but his new form was weak, unable to express anything other than childish sounds and basic needs. He had been reduced to an infant.
'I don't like this, i don't like this at all' he muttered to himself, the words barely a whisper from his lips, though they would have been incomprehensible to anyone else regardless of how loud he could have been.
She suddenly thrust a nozzle shaped buttle towards his mouth attempting to feed him, but before he could say anything, a liquid poured down inside of his mouth and he lost himself in the dizziness of his first meal.
"Lets call you Mikhail, yes, i always wanted to name one of my little ones that"
Mikhail stared at the woman with half closed eyes. She had long brown hair tied in a braid down her back and azure blue eyes sheltered beneath her long eyelashes.
He drifted off too sleep as she rocked him and all that remained was a haze leaving him in confusion.