Writing Prompt: May 2 - "Write about story about a character who has recently been brought back after being cryogenically frozen."

Go to Sleep

Get Frozen

Get Thawed

Wake Up

That was the plan. 4 steps. Not that difficult, right?

Cryogenics has been mainstream for what, two centuries now, right? There's nothing new or unusual about the process. In fact, most of it is automated.

So tell me why steps 4 and 3 seem to have been mixed up for me? I'm serious, tell me now, because I'm starting to freak out a little bit.

There's no way that I should be conscious right now. It's only because I can see that I know I'm actually alive. Thank God. If my eyes had been closed with they flash-froze me, I'm pretty sure I'd believe I had crossed over to the beyond.

But I'm not in the chamber where I ought to be.

All of the other people-cicles on my cycle should be in the other booths in the room, but right now all I see is havoc. The booths in my sight-lines are toppled. Doors ajar. Is that.... blood?

Oh god, now I'm freaking out a lot. As much as I can without being able to move. Fuck. Ok - don't think about that, think about the fact that you can see. Focus on what you can do. Can you move your eye-balls? No. OK. In training, they said there would be a tingling when you start to wake up - like if your feet fell asleep. Do you feel that? No?! Ok.... OK... close your eyes & breathe. Gotdarn it, eyelids won't shut.

So just breathe then. In.... Out.... In.... Out.... at least the insides aren't frozen still, or I'd be conscious just long enough to realize I was going to suffocate. But wait... does this apply to all the insides? Am I going to shit myself?

Not the most important thing now.... In.... Out.... In... Out...

This isn't even the right room for people-cicles. What's that logo to me left? I can barely see it in the blur of my periphery. It looks like a circle... a triangle? Circles around a triangle? It's yellow, that's usually not good.

A whirring starts up.

Oh good, that means my ears work too.

The whir increases to a dull rumble, followed by a few clanks as whatever machinery it is cranks to life. Clankity, clank, clank, clunk, Whirrrrr. It actually sounds familiar. Something from my memories as a part of the janitorial staff is making its way forward. It sounds like....

...like the ejection vacuum for ship waste.

...FUCK. Am I about to be ejected?? That sign, the fuzzy triangular circle, that's the biowaste sign. That's the sign for the chamber of materials to be incinerated *and then* blasted into space. Can't be dumping hazardous waste into the void willy nilly.

At least it'll be quick. Typical incineration occurs between 1,560 and 2,200 degrees. Our system runs at double that. As soon as the countdown for the system begins, I'll have 15 seconds to say... think... my adieus.

Bzzp, Bzzp, Bzzp, Bzzzzzzp.

Ah, there it is. That starts the countdown.

The whirring ramps up.

15

Oh, this can't be real.

14

It's real.

13

I must be dreaming

12

I'm awake

11

Maybe it's a joke!

10

Noone jokes with incineration

9

The sensors, the sensors will stop it

8

The sensors woke me up

7

Someone will see me

6

I'll look frozen

5

Someone will see that there's a person here and question it.

4

Noone gets paid enough to question things

3

Fuck

2

FUCK

1

....

_______

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