The First Day of My Life

I opened my eyes and all I could see was limitless blue. The swell of the ocean filled my ears and enveloped me in a blanket of sound. Through the swirling waves, I heard the faint murmur of people and the tones of a familiar voice. It was honey-sweet with soft edges. A summery voice that put me at ease although I couldn’t make out the words. I turned my head to meet the voice and at once I knew her. But something was wrong. The shape of her body was the same as I remembered. Her skin was browned and freckled from the sun and the curls of her hair tumbled softly onto her delicate shoulders.

It was everything I remembered, but her face was missing.

Though I knew she was speaking to me, there was no mouth to make words. No eyes to convey intention. Her speech was muffled as the sound of the ocean grew stronger. I sat up to meet her and shake the blurriness from my eyes, but the water’s surge built to a cacophony of sound that washed all my thoughts away. In desperation, I reached out to grab her.

My hand passed through her like a child smashing a sandcastle. Her body crumbled and blew away in the breeze as the waves reached a deafening pitch. Frantically, I stood to my feet and searched wildly for answers just as the sea came thundering down onto the beach swallowing me whole.

Everything was white.

I opened my eyes and there was no limitless blue. Instead, I saw the inside of a glass case. It was dark except for several small, red lights blinking on the ceiling above me. There was no sound except for my shuddered breathing. I moved my neck slightly and felt the creaking of my bones. An immense soreness awakened in my body and blinding nausea rose from deep within me. Without thinking, I tried to sit up and dodge the inevitable sickness, but instead, my forehead collided with the thick glass case above me. I sputtered vomit down my chin and onto my chest, splattering the glass.

Several minutes passed as my body heaved and writhed in pain, my eyes blinded with tears, and my throat stinging from the passage of stomach acid. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, my body calmed down and my breathing slowed. I opened my eyes again to see the glass that imprisoned me was cracked. Seeing no other option for escape, I began smashing the weak point with my fist.

Blood ran from my knuckles down my arm and pooled below me. Despite the sharp pain, I managed to break through the glass, which released a rush of warm, sticky air into my chamber. The red lights were still blinking, but now an alarm was echoing through the space around me. I contorted my arm through the jagged hole and found a latch on my chamber door. The latch released and the case opened.

Bleeding profusely and still ragged from my rude awakening, I gingerly pushed the door aside and pulled my body upright. Despite the darkness, I could tell the floor was flooded since the blinking lights reflected in the water’s stillness. Stepping into the foreboding pool below me shocked my system.

When was the last time I felt water? Was it that day at the beach? With her?

These thoughts deftly came and went as I trudged through the murky water in hopes of finding a wall to guide me. I need a clue as to what was going on. As much as I wracked my brain, no answers came to me. Instead of answers, I found something steel and robust collide with my shin as I waded through the abyss. I groped the object in a reckless attempt to discover its identity.

A bright, holographic image appeared before me thanks to my frenetic searching and blind luck. The light shocked me and sent my weakened body tumbling backward into the oily lagoon. Too stunned to stand up, I watched the hologram while sitting defenseless in the murky water.

It was the image of a woman. An unsmiling woman wearing a preoccupied look on her face. She appeared to be a doctor or a scientist, somebody dressed in all white. Her eyes were sedated in a way that conveyed hopelessness. She took in a deep breath and stared intently towards the camera. Her expression awakened suddenly, as though she’d been dreaming.

“Today is June 29th. The year 2032. If you are receiving this message, then our experiment was successful. You have our immense gratitude for volunteering in our study despite the obvious risks. When we put you to sleep, the world was collapsing. Our climate change projections were severely miscalculated, and we were left with no choice but to accelerate our experiment with little regard for safety.”

My mind was racing. Put you to sleep? Volunteer? I had no recollection of volunteering for a study. No recollection of the world collapsing. No recollection of life before today. The only image was that day on the beach. The sound of the ocean. The bright wisps of her hair blowing in the wind. And then… nothing.

“Unfortunately, I have very little to offer you,” she continued. “There should be a life support bag with rations, medical supplies, survival tools, and a few personal belongings stashed here in the room. Other than this meager reserve, all I can offer is good luck. The world you once knew is no more, but you have been chosen as a torchbearer for the new world. A world that will hopefully recognize the folly of man and the destructive power of nature.”

By this time, I was back on my feet, mouth agape, eyes the size of the moon as the faint hologram showered me with unthinkable information. I’ve been asleep, but for how long? The old world is no more. That means my friends, my family, she… they’re all gone. Just as my thoughts and fears were colliding and melding into a panic, she spoke again.

“There are others like you. Others who were put to sleep with hopes they’d one day live again in this new world. Among your belongings is a briefing. There is extensive information on the studies we conducted as well as the locations of other laboratories nearby. This is your best hope for survival. The rest is up to you. Godspeed.”

And with that, the light went out.

The room was once again filled with silence except for the occasional drip of leaking water from the ceiling. I stood there, bewildered, naked, blinking in the inky darkness. My thoughts drifted to the beach once again. In vain, I tried to picture her face, but all my imagination could produce was the endless roll of the tide. The sound began again to crescendo, but before I let it consume me, I shook free and steadied myself.

My best hope for survival. The bag. I need to reach the bag quickly. I can feel my body wavering, knees wobbling, and head spinning. I’ve lost a lot of fluids. That’s when I felt a nearly imperceptible breeze against my back. I spun around immediately. Airflow must mean a way outside. A door, a window, anything.

I chased after the breeze, clumsily navigating the room, stumbling over the uneven terrain until finally, I reached the wall. I reached out and felt a thin crack where air was escaping from. A door! Hope welled up inside me as I probed wildly for the handle, and flung the door open with every ounce of strength I had left.

Cool air wrapped its arms around me and a subtle light flooded the room I once thought to be my grave. It was still dark outside, but cracks in the deep night were starting to show as a delicate streak of pale light signaled the coming of dawn. I could see a single ray of light cresting the horizon and illuminating a tall tower of glass above me. The light radiated across the area, spreading light into the room behind me.

With help of the new light and a rejuvenated spirit, I charged back into the room in search of my bag. A row of industrious lockers lined the far wall. Without hesitation I hurled myself across the room to inspect. The lockers were dank, dilapidated, and riddled with mold and rust. Many of the doors had fallen off. One of the units was labelled: “Patient 117”.

For some reason, I knew that was me. I opened the locker. Inside was a military-grade bag. My eyes gleamed with excitement as I reached to pull the bag out, but before I could, something caught my eye. It was metallic. Shining faintly in the sparse morning light. Instead of grabbing the bag, I plucked the object from the locker and rushed outside to inspect.

It was a heart-shaped locket. Before I knew what I had in my hands, I was crying. Tears fell onto the tarnished bronze treasure, washing away a thick layer of dust and grime. With trembling hands, I opened the locket.

It was her.

Everything I remembered. Everything I loved. Everything I lost.

But now I have her back.

I looped the chain over my head and kissed the locket softly.

Then, one last time, I walked back inside the room, shouldered my bag, and went searching.

So began the first day of my life.