Chung-Mee

I wrote this story to be based in the far future. Where there are facilities that house small communities of people that live in an aritifical environment simulating that of one that was in the past, sort of like a zoo... But with people.

 

             The sirens on the mustard yellow and brown ambulance blared, following the sirens of the yellow and brown law enforcement vehicles. Chung-Mee looked around, eyes barely able to open from the smoke and fire suffocating him. He struggled to get upright, mind overcome with pain. Looking down at his feet, Chung-Mee screamed, his shoes were gone, only the charred black masses at where his feet remained. Running, stumbled over a flaming black mass. Looking closer, the black mass was a person, frozen in a moment of severe and inevitable agony. He ran for five minutes, past hundreds of black masses, flames licking at his bare flesh. Finally, reaching ground that was not charred black or on fire. Looking back, Chung-Mee knew, that his family, his friends, his home, his entire life, was lost, burning in the gigantic black crater. He took one last look at his arms, the skin was red and peeling, parts of it black, boils were forming all over his hands. “Rest…” he thought. Strange noises emanated from the distance, sirens, in which he was ignorant of their existence, became louder and closer. Closing his eyes, Chung-Mee began to lose consciousness, blinking lights, the last thing he saw before he collapsed next to the inferno-ridden crater.

 

            “He’s suffered third and fourth degree burns all over the body, feet and calves completely carbonized”, Chung-Mee woke up. “Franz, begin decarbonization on the feet, we may be able to save them”. The words the people were saying did not make any sense to him, he didn’t know where he was, bright yellow lights nearly blinded his vision, several people wearing strange brown clothes and masks were surrounding him. Only then did he notice that they were stabbing, cutting, drilling, opening him with strange metallic instruments. Chung-Mee screamed, wide eyed at his half open, half destroyed body. “What the hell?” a male doctor yelled in disbelief, “the sedative wore off! Pump him with more! Now!”

One of the doctors walked toward his head with a syringe. Gritting his teeth, he readied himself for the excruciating pain that never came. He saw the needle penetrate his skull, an amber liquid draining through the needle. He tried to feel, but he couldn’t move, he didn’t feel the drill going into his arm, or the dozen needles stuck inside his feet, connected to tubes, more amber liquid. Chung-Mee heard their voices begin to mass, even though he could not understand their dialect, the sound hurt his ears, he wanted to sleep.

And he did.

 

            Chung-Mee woke suddenly, he was unsure where he was, or what had happened. Startlingly regaining memory of what happened to him before he fell asleep, he looked at his body; he was wearing a brown garb that looked like a drapery with two holes in it. His arms, his legs, no holes, no needles or drills, normal. The room was mustard yellow, no windows, the only thing that penetrated the bland yellowness was the brown bed he was sitting in. An expressionless nurse entered the room, wearing a brown dress, “Young boy” she said, “What is your name?”

Chung-Mee did not understand what she was saying; only tilting his head in confusion. The nurse walked out of the room, only to return a few moments later with a fat syringe attached to a very long, dripping needle. His deep brown eyes grew wide in fear. “This may hurt” the nurse said monotonously.

 

            Brown bands wrapped around Chung-Mee, he could not move a muscle, not even blink or move his eyes. The nurse stood at eye level with him, reared her hand back, and drove the needle through his skull. He could feel the needle penetrating the brain, pain exploding out of every inch of his head. He wanted to scream, but no noise escaped from his motionless body. Slowly, the nurse injected the ink-like liquid into Chung-Mee’s brain, pain not receding. No longer able to withstand the pain erupting throughout his mind, Chung-Mee drifted out of consciousness.

 

            He awoke, not with fear, but with enlightenment. His head hurt pretty badly, feeling where the needle had penetrated his skull, he felt nothing. The same monotonous nurse returned to the room. “Let me guess, that was your first time being injected with knowledge serum?”

“Knowledge serum?...” Chung-Mee said, flabbergasted.

“Knowledge serum?... you don’t… know… what?” she said, somewhat shocked, which was the most expression she had ever used in her life.

“That’s enough, nurse” a gruff voice said as it entered the lonely room. “You may leave.” The nurse nodded, left the room immediately, leaving Chung-Mee with the mysterious, clean shaven, short brown haired man wearing a large brown suit and a yellow tie. His face showed no expression, and he guessed it had never showed any before. “Chung-Mee… your name, correct?”

“yes, sir”

“is any of this familiar to you?”

“no, sir”

“well, maybe I should start from the beginning”…

            The expressionless man in the brown suit explained everything to Chung-Mee. He was a child living in a facility known as a “Time Capsule”, how whole idea of Time Capsule is highly controversial. A radical against them had bombed the facility where Chung-Mee had lived. He told Chung-Mee that he would have to adapt to life in the “future”, since the Time Capsule was set to 19^th century Korea. “You have two choices,” the man in the brown suit said, “you can either come with me and work for the government, or, you can go out into the city, with no connections to anything.”

The man in the brown suit scared Chung-Mee, his eyes were black and never moved, showing no expression. He shook his head, “no, I don’t want to work for the government”

Chung-Mee though he saw a frown or maybe even the slightest sign of a grimace, but no, the man in the brown suit’s face did not move.

“Very well then” he straightened out his suit, “you can leave now, just go out the door on the right, your new name is John, by the way” The man in the brown suit stepped out of the room, turned left, and walked away, Chung-Mee never saw him again. He stepped out of the room, turned to his right, and looked. The hallway was the most empty hallway he had ever seen, one light ran all the way down the entire ceiling, only one door was at the end, a glazed yellow color, everything else was brown.

 

            Chung-Mee began to walk down the hall, eyes focused on the yellow door. He walked for several minutes, stopped. Turning around, he noticed the door he had exited was ten feet behind him, but the yellow door seemed like an eternity away. He continued walking, began to hear voices, see things, smell odors, every minute he inched closer to the yellow door, senses becoming more active. Hours passed, it seemed. Chung-Mee looked back at the door he had left, it was very far away, yet the yellow door was still an eternity away. Frustrated, he began to run towards the yellow door, voices, became louder, things became more noticeable, odors becoming more pungent. Many minutes passed, he ran, many more minutes passed, he collapsed onto his knees, gasping for air, staring at his reflection on the brown floor. He saw no longer Chung-Mee, but instead, a young adult, brown hair, black eyes, he looked like a less stocky version of the guy in the brown suit. He screamed, adding to the insanity that twisted around him. Walking… and walking… and walking… Chung-Mee walked for days, weeks, months, years, for what seemed like an eternity. Every step brought more noise to his head, more hallucinations into his eyes, more smells into his nose. Many a time he had collapsed from the madness and suffering he faced, but never giving up hope, he would get back up, and walk. The door he came out of had long since disappeared from his view. He looked back down at his reflection on the floor, white hair, wrinkled, tightened skin, liver spots, boney fingers, missing teeth. Chung-Mee had long since lost interest in how he looked, since he seemed to always be changing. He got back up and began to walk, stopped, shocked. He stared in disbelief, eyes wide, empty mouth gaping. The yellow door was inches away from him, the door itself was very simple, the whole thing was yellow, mustard yellow, doorknob yellow as well, no engravings, very simple.

 

            Smiling, Chung-Mee took one last look down the hall he had just walked, there was his family. His mother, his father, his little sister, his older brother, all of them, grinning at him. Tears met his eyes, the first expression he had shown in a very long time, “Mother! Father!-“

“My child, we have been waiting on the other side for you for a very long time, we are glad you have finally come” his mother said in Korean.

“But…”

“You know better than to talk back to your mother” his father said, “now go through that door, isn’t that what you have been trying to do this entire time?”

“…”

“Go, Chung-Mee, go, if you do find us on the other side, I can tell you my secret”

Chung-Mee nodded, smiling, he grabbed the knob of the door, turned, and opened. A brilliant light mixed with a swirl of darkness shone upon him. All the noise, all the hallucinations, all the smells, all the insanity, gone. Walking into the brilliant dark-light that was on the other side, he closed the door.

Author's Note

I owe my inspiration for this story to Vera, a dear friend of mine. Ignore grammar errors, again, im bad at grammar.

Reviews

[Deseret]

this is sort of a weird story, i would not have gotten what the story was about unless you actually told me, so that vould be something to work on, its a good and interesting idea though, but why would he see his parents before he went through the door? another thing... maybe the government dude should impress upon the side he wants him to take, like how you had it only more so "it is not a very kind world our there... you'll die very slowly if you dont come with me...." and then at the end maybe he'll say something funny, like "good luck on getting to the door"

:)