Rebirthing

Successful reanimation.

A matter of hours later, Rafe burst into the autopsy room, startling both Ileana and Hamilton. He caught his breath as Ileana ripped the blue gown from her and ran towards him. “The temperature is nearing seventy degrees.”

 

“Amazing. I didn’t think it’d be that quick. We need to get the cybernetic cell resuscitator in there. Quick!” She and Rafe set about draining the soniionization solution then filled the chambers with a slimy, slate-gray substance that came with the faint odor of blood and obscured the aged leathery bodies of the mummies from view.

 

A week after they had immersed the mummies, Ileana and Rafe watched the cybernetic cell resuscitator drain away.

 

“Oh, my god. Are you kidding me?” Rafe stepped up to one of the mummies and pressed a hand to the chamber at the people inside with their soft, supple skin that was pale to the point of glowing under the intense light of the room. “They look… normal! Like they’ve never seen the hand of death! It looks like they’re sleeping or something.”

 

“Pretty amazing, right? Help me get them to the table. We need to examine them.” Together, she and Rafe opened the chambers and moved the body of a female onto a gurney and wheeled her into the X-Ray room. “It looks as though an animal may have gotten to her before she died. Look at these wounds.”

 

She moved the woman’s leg in a way that was unnatural. Rafe stared at the jagged bite marks that had pierced the bone, leaving it shattered. “Well, that’s not good.”

 

“You’re telling me.” Ileana held her breath as she waited for the scans to appear on her screen. When they did come up, her heart fell. “She’d take too much time to repair. Look how terribly mutilated her organs are. She was going to die anyway. You can see her blood level is greatly deteriorated too. It would be too risky to do a transfusion on her without more research and tests.”

 

“Next subject?” Ileana nodded and helped Rafe move the woman’s body to the autopsy room before retrieving the next mummy. Each was in just as terrible shape as the last.

 

“Just one left. Is there a point?”

 

“We have to try. There’s no point going to Kenneth with only a half-assed attempt.” She shook her head and trudged into the chamber room to look up at the tall male with his long curly hair. “You know that the taller males had a better chance of survival in his day? They would be able to give that downward strike. Since they were more capable of defending themselves, they were able to fight off others for their resources and offspring. That was very attractive to the females since it basically guaranteed their survival.”

 

“Well, then, let’s hope this guy is fit enough for us.” He moved the body to the gurney and wheeled him to the X-Ray room where Ileana again anxiously awaited for the results. Her heart sped as image after image appeared on her screen. “Good so far?”

 

“So far so good!” She tried to repress her smile but failed miserably. “He’s got good lungs, a strong heart and good blood supply. I think this is our guy!”

 

“Let’s go shock him!” She and Rafe went into the room where she strapped the man down and Rafe started the Heart Lithoressecutator. He looked at her as he slid the needle into the man’s lifeless chest until it came to rest at the apex of the right ventricle. She held her hands up and listened to the high-pitched whine of the machine charging and imagined the electrical currents shooting into the ancient heart.

 

The man’s dark brown eyes shot open and he gave a scream as he came rocketing back to life. He bellowed and struggled against the restraints with as much energy as his week muscles could muster.

 

“Hello, J-six-seven-four-eight-two. Welcome back to the world.” She smiled at him and watched his muscles work beneath his thin skin.

 

“Holy s**t!” Rafe jumped away from the man with his eyes wide while Ileana curiously gazed into the chocolate orbs and put a hand on his shoulder. “You did it! Oh my God, you did it! You’re officially Frankenstein!”

 

“Frankenstein took different parts of people.” She shook her head and ran her gloved hand over the man’s curls in an attempt to sooth him. “We need to tell Kenneth first and prep him for testing. Shave everything but his eyebrows and let me know when you’re done.”

 

“Shave him?” Rafe looked at the length of the man’s body. “All of him?”

 

“Yes, shave all of him. What’s the matter with that? I don’t feel like dealing with any kind of prehistoric contamination.” She watched Rafe’s eyes linger on the man’s legs as the bellowing continued. “Just sedate him then shave him. I need him ready in ten minutes, so get cracking.”

 

She turned to leave until Rafe stopped her with a high voice. “All of him?”

 

“Yes! You have to touch his junk! He’ll be sedated so it doesn’t matter!” She rolled her eyes and burst out of the room, anxious to find Kenneth.

 

 

Rafe filled a needle with the tranquilizer and injected the man with it, flinching at the man’s bellows grew louder and his struggling harder. “Calm down, man. It’s all good. Just chillax. This’ll make you feel a lot better.”

 

After a moment, the man’s bellows dwindled into small grunts and his body relaxed on the table. His brown eyes followed Rafe with curiosity as his mind attempted to comprehend what had happened to him and where his tribe was. He looked at the machines he had been hooked up to beeping steadily around him. Rafe snapped his second layer of latex gloves into place and laid the electric razor by the man’s foot.

 

“Alright, man. I’m telling you this even though there’s absolutely no possibility of you understanding me. I don’t want to do this. I know you don’t want to be hairless and that your hair’s probably some kind of honor statement but it’ll grow back. I’m only doing this to make boss lady happy. She’s a forced to be reckoned with.” Rafe took up the scissors and sucked in a heavy breath before shrugging. “I hate doing this! I hate this! Alright. Just don’t give me bedroom eyes, alright? Just don’t look at me. This is so weird.”

 

The more Rafe talked, the more the man became interested and curious about him. The language was like none he’d ever heard, the cloak the man wore was interesting. He liked the tools Rafe was using. He wanted to know what they felt like. He watched Rafe with heavy eyes as the man clipped his hair short watching with great interest as the long dreadlocks were picked up and dropped on to the floor.

 

“Alright. I said no bedroom eyes.” Rafe dropped the scissors to the steel table and went to the table of tools to retrieve a cloth which he draped over the man’s eyes much to his discontent. “There. Now this isn’t so weird is it? Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t like that. Just think of this as being a spa. Well, I guess you can’t because you have no idea what a spa is or even what it is that I’m saying. Do you? You just grunt a lot, don’t you? You’re a grunter. That’s okay; with the way chicks are these days, it’s better to grunt than to have an opinion.”

 

“Oh really?”

 

Rafe looked up at Ileana who was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. “Uh, well, it’s true. Isn’t it? I was just the best example of that.”

 

She only smirked as she walked in and looked down at the man. “Kenneth says we’re to proceed. Why are you only this far in to the process?”

 

“He kept giving me bedroom eyes! It was freaking me out. I’m on it though. It won’t take long, boss. I promise.” He bowed his head and went back to shaving the man’s leg as quickly and carefully as he could. “I can’t lie and say that this isn’t just a little weird.”

 

Ileana glared at him. “Go get the psych tests prepared. I'll shave him.”

 

“Thanks, boss. Sorry, boss.” Happily, Rafe dropped the razor, ripped the blue gown from his shoulders and hurried from the room. She smirked at the man’s light grunts as he felt the table in slow movements.

 

“Let’s get that thing off of you, shall we?” She removed the cloth from the man’s eyes and gazed into his eyes with a soft smile as he studied her face with his tired eyes. “You look very odd nearly bald, but your hair will grow back soon. I’ll make this quick, okay?”

He only gave a heavy breath through his nose as she went down to his legs and made quick work of shaving him.

 

“There, all done. Now we can get five millennia of ick off of you and go see how well that mind of yours works.” She covered him in a white sheet then brushed a few stray clippings from his brow and stared into his eyes as she rinsed him with a specialized sanitizer. “You need a name. You’re not entirely a science experiment; you’re a human being as well. What shall we call you? Hmm… decisions, decisions.”

 

She pulled the gurney back and began to wheel him through the double doors and to the psychology room where Rafe was busy at work.

 

“You alright, boss? You look a little… deep in thought.”

 

“He needs a name. Every other human being has one. I can’t quite figure out what to call him though.” She sighed as she unbuckled the restraints and lifted him into a sitting position with her arms wrapped around his shoulders. “Get me a robe for him, would you?”

 

“Why? Cavemen were always naked. They don’t feel shame and want modesty like we do.” He fetched the robe despite himself as the man shuddered against Ileana, allowing his arms to hang at his sides.

 

“Well, then, we’re teaching him today’s society’s rules and requirements.” She rolled her eyes as she took the white robe from Rafe and helped the man into it. “There we go. That’s better, isn’t it? Nice and….”

 

“Ana?”

 

“J-six-seven-four-eight-two. On a telephone key pad, what does that spell?” Rafe only gave her a blank look as he tried to visualize the object. “It spells Joshua. We’ll call you Josh. Do you like that?”

 

He only stared into her eyes as she held him up, cradling his head in her hand with his brows working into small frowns before his eyes flicked around the room curiously.

 

“Does he really need a name? Don’t you think you’re getting a little too personal a little too quickly?”

 

“No. As a people, we react to positive interaction. If we call each other by a name but him by an assigned number, that’s a negative thing. He’ll resent us when he gains enough knowledge to understand the difference and rebel against us. We need to treat him like a baby that’s newborn until he can be successfully integrated with the rest of society.”

 

“I think you’re nuts. How long will it take him to get to that point? I don’t know if I want to work on this project for eighteen years.”

 

“Don’t worry about that. You and I both brought him into the world; I’ll sue you for child support.” She glanced at Rafe who had failed to see the humor in her quip and rolled her eyes before stroking Josh’s cheek gently with a small grin knowing his brain was growing with each moment. “Well, I like Josh. You look like a Josh. Come on; let’s see how smart you are.”

 

With Rafe’s help, Josh stood and ambled to the oversized black chair where he sat and yawned, looking around as they connected sensors to his bare head, then strapped his head back to keep it from snapping painfully forward. Josh gave a long, low groan as Ileana and Rafe turned and started out the door to the monitoring side of the room. She glanced back at his eyes that caught hers immediately. “I think he likes you, boss.”

 

“Amazing what happens when you’re nice to someone.” She shrugged and went back into the room knowing words of comfort would be a waste at that time. “I guess I should try it more often.”

 

“Yeah, how do you survive living all the way out in the middle of nowhere all on your own like you do?”

 

“It’s peaceful.”

 

“You’re diabetic. What if something happened and you needed help? Moose isn’t Lassie and he certainly doesn’t know how to dial out for help. You should move closer to the city or at least get a roommate.”

 

“Let’s just… focus on the tests.” She slid forward in her seat and crossed her legs. “I’ll handle the monitor, you administer.”

 

“Alright, doc.” Rafe shook his head and raised his brows as he booted up the system.