Awake (9 page)

Tom threw himself onto the glass, pressing
his face against it. “What the heck is this? A morgue? Holy
crap…it’s creepy.” He counted the beds. “There are fifty beds in
there!”

Kevin stared at a bed. He noticed a subtle
movement from the person. “They’re not dead. Only asleep. A
policeman told me that the most important people were moved to
facilities where they could be looked after. Maybe this is one of
them.”

While they stood in wonder, a loud scuffle
came their way. They turned their heads in unison. A small silver
sphere, the size of a basketball, was rolling towards them. Once it
drew near, it came to a halt.

“Hello.” To their surprise, the sphere
produced a monotone vocalization.

“Oh,” said Tom, seeming uninterested, “a
talking ball. Hello.”

“I am not just a talking ball,” said the
sphere irritably. “I am the robotic assistant of Doctor H.E.
William. Please follow me. I will show you the way to his
office.”

“Why? What’s in his office?” asked
Kevin.

“Information about his research and his last
message for mankind.”

Kevin frowned. “His last message? So
he’s…”

The round robot moved back and forth to
demonstrate a nod. “Yes, he has fallen asleep.”

“The last message….” Kevin sighed. “I wonder
if there’s anyone still awake out there.”

The doctor’s office was at the end of the
corridor. It was an odd office to be sure. Kevin could pretty much
sum up the entire room in one word: books. Large bookshelves
covered the walls, absolutely overflowing with books, so much so
that heaps of books littered the floor.

The books appeared to be used for much more
than just reading. Books were neatly put together in the center of
the room in the likeness of a table, and right next to it was a
stack of books that resembled a cushion for sitting. On one side,
the books were used in the construction of a simple couch, though
it looked rather unpleasant to use since all the books were
hardcover. Lastly, with a little imagination, Kevin identified a
structure of books that looked like a sleeping bag; a bunch of
opened books were put facedown, used as a blanket.

“Excuse the mess,” said the sphere, “but the
doctor never had time to tidy up.” The sphere wandered over to a
remote control on the floor. “Now, if you will please lie down, the
video will begin.”

“Lie down?” asked Kevin.

“Yes. Direct your attention up. I will
project the image there.”

The sphere rolled over a button and a small
projector on the floor began displaying video on the ceiling. As
the lights dimmed, Kevin and Tom uncomfortably lay down next to
each other on the mess of books, which felt hard and lumpy on their
backs. Fascinated, Helios happily jumped out of Kevin’s clothes and
took his seat between the two boys’ heads.

The image showed the grim face of a
dark-skinned man. His visage did not look elderly, but his hair was
completely gray and the wrinkles on his face were pronounced. The
background of the recording looked exactly like the room they were
currently in.

The man said, “To those watching, I am
Doctor William. I am head researcher of the department of Fairy
Tale here at the MORIA Industries R&D.” He hesitated to
continue, his forehead wrinkled by the strain of distress. “I…I
have done a terrible thing—unintentionally, of course. I am making
this video as my last act on earth. It is documentation for future
generations, should the human race survive.” He smiled. “Or, it
might be documentation for any alien races who visit our planet and
wonder if there was ever any sign of highly intelligent life.”

The doctor’s face darkened. “But I digress.
Whoever you are, by the time you watch this video I will have
already gone to sleep. I, along with the other researchers, have
already come to the conclusion that there is nothing we can do to
stop this mess. Based on our data, we have concluded that mankind
cannot be wakened. That is why I no longer search for a cure. Death
by sleep is painless anyway, so the extinction of mankind will be
quiet.”

The doctor straightened, drawing in a deep
breath. “I will begin by explaining how I created this problem.
Obviously, we were researching sleep…and the possible effects of
sleep with telepathy. The human mind is a mysterious thing, one of
great potential and power. I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying
‘mind over matter.’ Is there any basis for mental abilities?
Telepathy…telekinesis…such powers are wondered about, but do they
exist?

“When we are awake, we are busy observing
things, thinking about things or performing tasks. Our minds are
focused on being alive and doing the things we do. But what happens
when we sleep? We have involuntary functions that keep us going…but
the rest of our cognitive processes move into the dream. We live in
the dream…we act out fantasies…we do what we’re not doing. Our mind
is awake and alive, yet not necessarily using its full
potential…

“Then I had an idea. The possible reason why
we can’t use such abilities might be related to the fact that we
unconsciously use our mind for other things. It is the limiter of
our own brain. Could being in a dream state enhance telepathy?
Could we actually communicate with one another while we sleep, even
if we don’t realize it? Or what if…the dream was removed from sleep
entirely? What would happen to that withheld power of the mind? I
was curious. Such a thing sounded impossible, but I figured, why
not try?

“MORIA is a private company. Our research
and development is a secret operation. Because of that, we do not
feel obligated to follow any laws so that we may further our
research. To study sleep, we needed test subjects. We took fifty
volunteers and gave them a genetic alteration. We isolated the gene
for the hibernation of bears in winter and modified it accordingly
to fit it with humans. Then, once a trigger is activated through
environmental conditions, the person will fall into a deep sleep.
We did this for all our test subjects and monitored their condition
for about a month. Lastly, to break the dream state, we had them
undergo a bit of shock to the brain in an effort to disrupt the
neurons.

“After this experiment, we began using
various neuroimaging techniques to see the effect. It was
phenomenal. Instead of a decrease in functionality, the activity of
their brains was increased several fold. More importantly, every
person’s mind seemed to be in sync with one another. When comparing
scans from every individual, the results were nearly identical!
Everyone’s mind was functioning on the same level…on the same
wavelength, so to speak.

“Then the unthinkable happened: they could
not break free from their hibernation. We tried to resuscitate them
with whatever means possible…but nothing worked. So we kept them on
life-support, hoping that this was just a temporary setback.

“Then things got worse. Some personnel who
had gone home to rest never returned. We could not contact them. It
didn’t take long to figure out we had a problem on our hands. Using
our network, we tried to determine the extent of the ‘epidemic.’
Data was difficult to gather because everyone has different sleep
cycles, but the correlation was too striking to ignore. Our
research lab was the epicenter of this crisis. It began from
here—and soon enough, it enveloped the whole world.

“We brought some people who had fallen
asleep back here for studying. The results were astonishing. Scans
showed the same activity as our original test subjects. The only
conclusion we could draw from this was that the experiment was a
success. Somehow, the minds of the unconscious victims were linked
together in a dream state. The best way for me to describe this is
a network through telepathy. A mental network that I call the Dream
Wave.

“I believe the Dream Wave has always
existed, but in a much weaker state. Our world has different time
zones. In each time zone people will generally go to sleep at a
similar time for obvious reasons. This forms the vertical Dream
Wave that stretches loosely across the populated continents. This
Dream Wave creates a weak link, but this form of vertical Dream
Waves moves horizontally as people in the neighboring time zone go
to sleep. That is why when a person sleeps they may sometimes have
a similar dream with another person or have a realistic dream with
someone they know. It is a subconscious communication system.

“The Dream Wave never fully connects across
the whole world because of two factors: people will eventually
awaken on the other side of the world, thus severing the link, and
the oceans create a natural gap.

“However, because of the strength of the
Dream Wave formed here in our research, we may have created this
crisis in which the Dream Wave, instead of being weak and severed,
has now encompassed the entirety of earth. That is all I know and
that is all I hope to know.

“This video is a warning. I pray no one else
makes the same mistake. Sometimes there are boundaries you should
not cross. I do apologize for the problems I have caused. But that
is all I can do. Thank you for watching…and goodbye.”

- Life and Death -

Kevin stood up and heaved a sigh. “I don’t
really get what he’s talking about, but it looks like the
scientists gave up on a solution.”

“That is truly most disappointing,” said
Helios thoughtfully.

Taking a seat on the couch of books, Tom
frowned. “So…it’s all pointless? There’s nothing we can do?”

Kevin looked over at the sphere.
“Hey…um…robot dude—”

The robot replied, “If you were wondering
about my name, you can call me Shiro.”

“Shiro? Sounds Japanese,” said Kevin.

The robotic sphere rolled back and forth, as
though nodding enthusiastically. “That is my country of origin. My
birthplace.”

“Typical. So anyway, Shiro, is there no way
to save the human population?”

“There might be a way.”

Shocked, Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Really?
But didn’t that doctor just say that he couldn’t find one?”

“Oh, he found one.”

Kevin’s jaw slackened. “Wait, what? I
thought—
what?
This is just—I don’t get it.”

“Your confusion is understandable,” replied
Shiro. “Through our research, we found a possible solution.
However, it is not a solution that the Doctor would accept.”

“Why not?”

“Because the solution is based on a certain
folklore entitled
The Three Stars
. The folklore talks of
three stars that fell to earth a long time ago. All three stars
crumbled away into dust, darkening the earth for three days and
three nights. During this time, all mankind fell asleep—except for
one man. And that man was able to save everyone from eternal
sleep…”

“And then?” Kevin demanded.

“That is all the doctor wanted to know
before dismissing the story as useless. And to call it folklore is
also misleading because we were unable to determine where such a
story came about. It might’ve been just a prank on the Internet.
There are plenty of those.”

“Still, it’s very similar to the situation
we have now,” said Tom.

“Folklore or not,” said Helios, “it sounds
like a clue.”

Kevin nodded, agreeing with them. “I want to
find out more about this story—like how the man was able to save
everyone. Even folklores sometimes have truth to them.” He said to
Shiro, “Do you have an Internet connection in this place so we can
do some research?”

Shiro said, “We do. However, our computer
network is password protected. You need to be a member of the
facility to log into an existing account.”

“You can access the Internet, can’t
you?”

“I can. But I cannot give you access. You
are intruders, after all. My instructions are only to bring you to
this room so you can watch the video. Nothing more.”

Tom snapped, “Wow, you suck!”

Shiro’s robotic eye turned bright red.
“Blame the programmer, not the programmed. I’m not human. I don’t
have a choice. I must follow my programming.”

Kevin abruptly glanced toward the door. It
looked like something was bothering him. “Well, no matter. I want
to meet up with the others as soon as possible. We can find
Internet somewhere else. I’m worried about Andrew. He’s been gone
for quite a while.”

Helios climbed up into the pocket of Kevin’s
jeans. “Indeed. It is not wise for one to be separated. But he does
have Terminus for protection.”

“You guys are just getting paranoid.” Tom
smiled. “There’s nothing wrong. He’s just hiding…I know he is.” Tom
went to the door and motioned for Kevin to follow. “Come on, let’s
see if we can avoid his traps and give him another scare.”

Kevin took out his cell phone. “This is no
time to be playing around.” He tried calling Andrew several times.
He didn’t answer.

“I’m telling you, Kevin,” said Tom, “he’s up
to something.”

“I hope you’re right.” Kevin followed Tom
back into the tight corridor where all the people were sleeping
behind the glass.

As they walked down the long hallway, Kevin
glanced at Tom’s facial expression. Even though Tom looked
confident, Kevin imagined him to be afraid under his calm exterior.
After all, this was terrifying stuff. And Kevin didn’t want to be
the only one who felt scared.

Up until this point, everything felt like a
game to him, even if he didn’t want to admit it. It was something
out of the ordinary, an experience of a lifetime. Talking to
animals, staying awake as long as possible, hanging out with new
faces—all of this was fun to him. The only reason he didn’t feel
worried before was because he thought it didn’t really depend on
them. He had believed that somewhere out there someone else would
figure something out. He had believed that the government or some
scientists would be able to help them.