Kim’s Earth: Bethany: Waking Up

[k_a_webb]

The last thing I remember before falling asleep, or possibly passing out, was how badly my entire body ached. Like everyone else I’d had the injection. All the actors had gone first, waving for the cameras, somehow managing to act normal when they came out, as though everything was fine even though they must have all felt as bad as I did. The director had followed, because people knew him too, and it was important that they saw someone they felt they knew going in for the injection. It would do good things for the fear some of the newspapers had been spreading, about how the injection hadn’t been properly tested.

I’d gone in not long after the director, because I was going to be needed. Of course then I didn’t know that the actors were faking their smiles and thought everything was going to be fine, the way the World Government kept assuring everyone it would be, but then I actually had the injection. At first it was fine. Then I stood up. I’m not sure what was worse – the wave of dizziness that almost had me falling over or the pain in the arm that the needle had gone into. Like all the actors I simply smiled and carried on, because I had no other option. Everyone who’d gone in before me was in need of help, so I helped them, even though all I wanted to do was curl up on my bed, give in to the pain that didn’t seem to fade, and hope that everything would be better in the morning.

As I fell onto my bed at midnight, long after everyone else had, I couldn’t help thinking I’d made a huge mistake. When I checked my phone I knew I had. The battery had been newly charged the night of the injection, just in case anyone needed me in the night, and that meant I still had one bar left three days later, but no missed calls. I knew then that something was very wrong. People called me at all times of the day and night, because I’d been hired by the hotel to be there if anyone needed anything, and they’d all come to trust me. Even though all I wanted to do was find out what the hell had happened I knew I had to take things easy.

My last meal had been three days ago. There was nothing edible in the mini bar, but there was some orange juice, and I should get something inside me no matter how badly thinking about food or drink made me feel. Slowly I slipped off of my bed, glad I hadn’t bothered with the covers or had the energy to take my shoes off. Fortunately the dizziness had mostly faded, replaced by the horrible feeling of having low blood sugar, so I forced myself over to the mini bar to get the orange juice, because I knew I needed to start checking on the people who hadn’t rung me. I couldn’t help thinking that maybe the newspapers had been right.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.