He woke up.

Bleary. He could see he was in a field. Tall grass stretched far away. All he could see. Knew this couldn't be right. Didn't know why. He tried looking around. Couldn't. Stuck staring at this pretty landscape. Still out of place. Green shouldn't be here. Why?

He thought he was standing up. Too far above this beautiful greenery to be sitting. Right? Maybe if he turned around... No. Nothing would move. He could tell he wasn't paralyzed. His muscles twitched, urged to the right, to the left, anything. Stayed put. Beautiful, out of place grass. Everywhere. Maybe. Why?

He stood... stayed... existed... there, for a moment. An hour? Two hours? Not more than a day. Right? Days had nights, he thought. He couldn't remember a night for the day. Couldn't be sure. Maybe a year. An eon. Forever. And a day. He would have slept, right? Had he been asleep? This whole time? Gorgeous, silent, waving grass. Why?

After three weeks, or was it three minutes?, memory flashed across his vision. Stark contrast to the simple beauty before him. His senses each had their own instant story to tell: flames, everywhere; screams, from his loved ones; acrid smoke, coating his tongue; charred flesh, sickly sweet; pain, endless, pain; and a nameless dread, with too many names. Then gone. The monotonous grass was back. This was better. Maybe? Had those terrible things even been there? Was he even here? Why?

Now more flashes in front of him. Strange symbols. Letters? Lines and dials. Gradients. Then gone. A gentle hum, then gone. More endless, hideous grass.

More time. Why try counting? The hum was back. He could hear words in it. Talking to him. Weren't they? Senseless murmurings. Asparagus. Asparagus Valley... Cultural Society? Time for pie? Senseless, right? Hum de dum. Stronger and stronger. Still recounting never-existing lives to him. More than one speaker, he thought. Right?

Humming. Humming. Louder. Was he humming? Talking to himself, in his own way? Louder. Did he have a voice? Louder. Unbearable, really. But what could he do? Louder. Couldn't reach his ears, drown it out. Louder. So he listened, heard the stories it told him, or he told himself. Why?

A pop. Fizz. What a relief it was. But his constant company had fled. Good or bad? No, it was still there. Whispering sweet nothings. Not louder, not softer, just there. Comforting. The symbols were back. Sensical, this time. Atmospheres and celsiuses. Kilowatts, kelvins. Ion particles per second, soft clicking. What was this?

He had spent so long (a long time, right? how long had he been here?) standing here (he was standing, right?), with this disgusting greenness, he hadn't noticed that his arms now hung limply at his sides. No longer held, constrained, stiff. Having arms was reassuring. Hum de dum.

He lifted one, experimentally, waved it around. His head moved now, too. He had never moved before, never had arms before. Hadn't he? His arm was shiny, ridged, smooth, nodules every once in a while. The other one, too. Different ends... hands, right?

These weren't the hands he was used to, thought he was used to. A pincer, a claw, two sharp tips and two rubberized ones. Opposing each other. That one was... the left? Yes, the left. The other was different, this one like the hand he thought he was supposed to have. Five bendy things, fingers? Three in the middle, one each on the ends to make grabby motions. Grab grab, bend bend.

Looking down, more shiny. His body, his... his legs? Legs, yes. All shiny. These moved, too. Up and down, left and right, twisty twist. A few steps forward, then back, and side to side. He laughed, giddy and gleeful. This moving, very nice, very reassuring, hum de dum. It was suggested he look around, see the sights. He agreed, this seemed like a splendid idea, get away from the boring grass.

Turn, and shock. More staring. Couldn't move. Different this time, his sensors told him he was operating normally, but he wasn't listening. He could move if he wanted to, but he was busy, agape at this new view. This horrible, gruesome, revolting view.

The unending grass didn't seem so bad anymore. Hum de dum...


To be continued...