Chris Kennedy [Kennedy - Don’t Call Me Ishmael

I awoke to blackness. Not the dark of the night, but the complete absence of light. I stretched and hit the wall about six inches above me, then to the one about three inches to my left, and then the one four inches to the right. In fact, as I shuffled around, I realized I was completely trapped on all sides by a metallic box of some sortthere were also walls at my feet and beyond my head.

A coffin. I was trapped in a coffin.

I clamped down on the panic that threatened to overcome me and took a deep breath. The air was a little stale, but not as bad as if there werent any airflow at all. I had no idea how long Id been in the box, but it seemed like Id been there a while. If I could still breathe after that time, there must be a way for air to get in.

That also meant I wasnt buriedmy second worryas there wouldnt have been any air underground to flow. And I hadnt been cremated. Nor had I gone to hell, yetunless this was some evil gods version of hell. It wasnt a good one, though, as I could fall back asleepI can sleep anywhereand pass the time napping. I wasnt in hell.

So I was in a box. Somewhere. I had no idea where I was, and I also realized I had no idea how I got here. In fact, I couldnt remember much of anything.

Having contained the initial panic that I was going to suffocate, I checked my surroundings more closely. The box wasnt square; the lid above me was rounded, like ait took me a moment to find the word for itlike a tanning bed.

I didnt remember being in a tanning bed. In fact, as I thought about it, the absence of my past history was nearly complete. I didnt even remember who I was or what I was doing here. Perhaps Id hit my head? I wiggled to get a hand up to my headit was just possibleand checked myself out, but didnt find any bumps, bruises, or other indications of a brain injury.

Which didnt help my situation at all.

Help! I called out several times, in the hope that someone was nearby. If they were, they didnt come to my aid.

Leaving me trapped. And amnesic. Of course, if I couldnt get out of the tanning bed, or whatever it was, it really didnt matter if I knew who I was, did it?

With that cheery thought, I set myself to examining my surroundings as best I could. I found a small area of mesh on the wall past my head, which must be how I was getting air. It was no bigger than my fist, though, so I wasnt getting out that way.

I had nearly given up when my hand hit something that dangled from the lid of the box, up near the end past my head. My adrenaline surged, and I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself. Although I was getting airI thoughtI didnt want to burn it up too quickly if I really wasnt.

I wiggled up until my head reached the end of the box, then searched above my face and found ita little piece of plastic tied to a piece of string that led through a tiny hole in the lid. I closed my fist around the plasticit seemed designed to fit my graspand tentatively pulled.

It didnt budge.

I pulled a little harder. Still, nothing.

Fuck! I yelled, yanking as hard as I was able. The string pulled, and I heard a click! from my left. I reached to my side and found the lid had been released. I pushed on the lid above my face, and it rotated up and away. I was free!

I struggled to sit up and found my muscles were much weaker than seemed appropriate. Once I was able to dangle my feet off the side, I was able to rotate to a sitting position. It left me breathing hard, but with a view of a dim line of light, like from under a door, across whatever room I was in. It wasnt much brighter than its surroundings, but my eyes were adjusted to a complete lack of light, and I saw it immediately as a beacon of hope.

I called out again, my voice weak in the larger space, even to my ears. No one came. Again.

None of it made any sense. If Id had an accident that caused my memory loss, Id be in a hospital, which would have staff and a number of instruments hooked up to me to monitor my vital signs, not locked in some sort of tanning bed.

I slid off the side of the bed and collapsed to the floor when my legs didnt hold me. Turning around, I pulled myself partially up onto the bed and began exercising my legs to get some blood flowing through them. They were stiff and weak at first, but life eventually began to course through them, with a pins and needles feeling that both hurt and burned. A lot.

With a little more mobility in my legs, I forced myself to a standing position and stood there wobbling. The effort had cost me a lot of energy, and I waited a second to catch my breath while the dizziness passed.

With my heart rate somewhat under control again, I pushed off the bed and shambled unsteadily across the floor to the line of light. I probably look like a zombie, a voice in my head said, but then realized I had no idea where the voice came from.

Great! I thought. Now Im amnesic and schizophrenic.

I listened at the door for a few moments while I caught my breath, then, deciding the day couldnt get any worse, I pulled it open.

An emergency light on its last legs illuminated an office space that had seen better days. The drawers had been pulled from the desk and dumped unceremoniously where they fell, and all the books had been pulled from the bookcases. The chairs were upended and scattered about, and paperwork from the desk nearly covered the entirety of the floor.

If a mini-tornado had hit the space, it couldnt have done a more thorough job.

Among the detritus on the floor, I saw a candy barstill in the wrapperand realized I was hungry. In fact, I was pretty sure Id never been so hungry before, and I collapsed around it, taking a book in the side for my efforts. I greedily tore the package open with my teeth as my fingers didnt seem to have enough strength and wolfed it down.

It then took all of my willpower to keep it down. Apparently, my stomach had been without food for so long it wasnt sure what to do with the sudden massive sugar input, and had decided to reject it entirely. An open bottle of water laying on its side provided a few mouthfuls of the precious fluid. I tried to drink them slowly and was able to keep everything down.

I rolled onto my back to let everything settle

* * *

I may have fallen asleep for a while, because the emergency light seemed dimmer when I next opened my eyes. I realized I needed to get up and out ofwherever I wasbecause if the rest of the building was as screwed up as the room I was in, I was liable to break a leg trying to get out of it in the dark.

I pulled myself up on the desk and looked at the doorway through which Id come. The door didnt have a handle on this side, and it was almost shut, allowing me to see that the pattern on the door blended well with the wall surrounding it. Was that why the room had been tossed? Looking for the entrance to a secret room?