//------------------------------//
// Frozen in Time 
// Story: The Curse of Cryonics 
// by Mine_Menace 
//------------------------------//


Act One: Humanity
Frozen in Time



"So, are you sure you're ready, Mr. Walker?" the masked doctor asked again as I climbed into the coffin-like box.

"Yeah, sure, I guess so," I replied, eyeing the gray room around me. I mentally noted how the walls themselves were hard to see; there were computers lining every wall, computers that held information on literally almost everything. This would be important for after the hibernation was over.

"Are you sure? No other personal items you may need?" he said, gesturing to the floor around, where some possessions of mine lay in various cases.

"No, we've been through this already!" I snapped impatiently.

The doctor sighed. "Okay, I'm just checking. We can't have you unprepared for when you wake up."

I sighed in return as I laid my head back into the box. "Sorry. I'm just kind of stressed and tired," I said, thinking about the past few weeks and all of the things I went through: learning about this, preparing and getting conditioned for this, stressing out about this. "This won't hurt, right?"

"No, we've already tested this out many times. The worst that happens is you don't wake up, but we have worked that problem out through tests."

"Right, I thought so," I replied. "I'm supposed to wake up in a thousand years. Am I right?"

"Exactly." He peered into my eyes slightly anxiously. "Are you sure you want to go through with this, Mr. Walker? The chances that everyone you now know will be dead when you awaken are almost certain."

"First of all, call me Patrick," I replied, frowning, "and second, I thought I was chosen partially because I didn't have any ties to anyone, not even family."

"You were, Mr....uh, Patrick. I was just checking."

I sighed and stared up at the dull gray ceiling. "Well then, I guess this is good-bye. I'm as ready as I will ever be."

"All right then, just relax and close your eyes..." the doctor told me calmly. "I'm going to be closing the lid now. Just letting you know."

I shut my eyes and spoke my last words for a very long time. "Okay. Do it."

Through my eyelids, I could sense the change in the light as the lid of the box closed and I was encased in darkness. I kept my body relaxed and my eyes and mouth shut, and I didn't react when I heard hissing by my ears.

And then my memories just...stopped. I was frozen in time. There was nothing I could process. I was dead without being dead.

Beforehand, I'd expected it to be pretty much like sleeping, but it wasn't. I knew that I'd be going many, many years without being conscious. I just expected it to be a really long nap.

But when I woke, I felt like I'd literally just fallen asleep. Possibly because every single bodily function of mine had essentially been put on pause. It was like I fell asleep and then woke up again immediately. As in, less than one second of sleep.

And when I did awaken, I woke to a hiss coming from above me as the box depressurized and opened.

I blinked once.

Twice.

Thrice.

I twitched my fingers.

My toes.

I was awake. And it was later. Much later. I could tell that much.

I felt the same as I always had, besides a dull haze in my brain that usually happened after I awakened. I breathed normally. I could see the same drab gray ceiling that I'd seen seemingly seconds ago before falling asleep. The doctor who'd put me under, unsurprisingly, was nowhere in sight.

But I could hear voices. That was good.

"What the hay is in that...box thing?"

"Why'd you even open it?"

"And what's all this stuff around the room?"

"That's what you're wondering? Why is there even a room like this in a bucking crystal mine?"

My mind wasn't working quite right yet and I didn't register the confusion in their voices, which should have told me something was amiss. But I sat up straight and started speaking to the people of tomorrow. "Greetings!" I said, looking around, seeing only a few bright lights at about waist level as my eyes adjusted. "Do people still say 'greetings'?" I continued, squinting. "I haven't been awake for a really long time."

There was silence for a minute. Someone coughed. "I...what are you?" the same person said nervously in a deep, scratchy voice.

I frowned and crossed my arms. "What am I? Are you crazy? I'm a huma...hu..." I started stammering as my eyes finally adjusted and I was able to see past the lights.

The lights were on headlamps, which were on heads. But the heads looked...slightly wrong. The faces seemed to stick out slightly more...and those eyes looked too big...

"Um...could you show yourselves with your lights, please?" I asked quietly, trying to stay calm.

There was a pause, and then the lights turned and pointed at the people who were holding them.

Except they didn't look like people. Not even close.

In the darkness were five furry, weirdly colored heads with huge eyes and vaguely equine features. Faces that seemed intelligent, but also all wrong. Even slightly creepy in this poor lighting.

This was wrong; I was supposed to meet people from the thirty-first century, not...these creatures...whatever they were...oh.

Mutant horses. They were freaking mutant horses.

And darkness overtook me once more.