III
You awaken once again. This time you are in a different room, still strapped into the gurney by the electronic tethers. You are have been leaned up against a wall, giving you a full view of the place. It is a spacious, octagon shaped room. It has the trappings of a science lab...bright white walls, ceiling, and floor...the same fluorescent light illuminates the place, yet there is no source, no bulbs. The light is evenly projected from the walls and ceiling. There are high tech gizmos everywhere, but none of them appear familiar. You look down, and the floor is perforated with tiny holes, like an air hockey table. The floor is making a faint humming noise. You realize that you are actually hovering, not touching the floor. At the center of this lab is a table, with a glass eye mounted above it. The eye is about four feet wide...A door lifts vertically, and two more beings who look more or less like your initial captor enter the room. Like you, the are not touching the ground, but seem to glide like air hockey pucks towards you. They have the same aluminum foil uniforms, but with different emblems. They approach you and hover before you..."Where's Branch?", you ask. The one on the left lift his hand and touches your forehead. You try to form more words but the connection between your brain and your mouth has somehow been short circuited, and you are now mute. The other creature has an instrument that resembles an clothing iron. He holds it outward, toward your torso, and you feel yourself being pulled forward, gurney and all. He begins gliding backward, pulling you along. You realize you are being led toward the table with the eye above it. You are powerless to struggle or even talk. Your gurney is now leaned up against the end of the table. You think of your parents. How is this all happening. What the hell is going on. One of the gray beings touches the gurney and the electronic tethers disappear. They each grab and armpit with vise like strength and slide you onto the table so you are laying on your back, looking up into the big glass eye. It is black, like the beings eyes. New electronic bindings appear across your chest, hips, wrists and ankles. They are wider rivers of electrons than the ones on the gurney, and are bright white. You look, and see one of the aliens produce a syringe with a foot long needle. My God, you think, what's next??
