Post by Maximor on Feb 28, 2017 19:55:48 GMT
This is a prequel to Max's (my character) current life.
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Max sat in his car, chewing gum and listening to his music, enjoying the last time he would be doing this morning routine in that time, if not at all.
It was a huge day for him, and it could very well be his last, not that he cared about the later. Max got a job as a test subject for a new innovation in cryogenic technology, and it was a simple job with a great payout, for him if he survived, or for his family if he didn't. All he had to do way lay down in the contraption, have some things hooked up to him, and sleep. What made this job so special was that the experiment was going to be done extensively, maybe going on for some years. Cryogenic tech already existed, but the methods beforehand had proven to be dangerous given that the subject was frozen solid like a damned popsicle. The new technology being tested was going to take a different approach, not freezing Max solid, but instead inducing him into a coma-like state at extremely low temperatures but sustaining his body with life support and other complex things. The chances of it proving to be a success were high, but there was always a chance of failure resulting in death.
Max didn't fear death, he was numb to it. He had so many close calls in his life that happened out of nowhere, but stopped being fazed by them. He thought about Hamlet's Soliloquy, "To be or not to be..." and he thought about it hard. His family was great and he loved them, but they were not enough to stop him. He was young, healthy, and nowhere near dying naturally, but hated his life. His education was revoked since the trade schools he went to shut down, but he was still left with a huge bill that he was being forced to pay, all for nothing. He couldn't land a job in his field, the damned companies were outsourcing foreigners who worked for less compared to him. Max had tried to make it on his own as an independent software developer, but his efforts were swallowed by the egos of big companies that ripped off his idea, pinned the act on him, and got away with it.
It was a president of a game company who saw Max's work and took a liking to it. The company contacted Max and proposed to buy it from him, but Max rejected that since he didn't like the big developer. The company didn't accept that answer, and Max was constantly harassed about it. At the worst part, the company hired shady people to acquire Max's work and make it their own. Max knew about found out about a security breach that took his data and destroyed his network, and called the authorities, while investigating on his own. As usual, the cops proved to be useless, and the private investigator wasn't doing his job. Without them, Max was able to figure out what had happened and learn where the attack came from, but couldn't reach out to the authorities for using black hat methods. He tracked an associate of the company down and learned of the situation, recording everything. After all that though, he found out the authorities searched his home while he was gone, and his evidence went "missing". Immediately afterwards, he was blindsided with a trial accusing him of false crimes against the company, and lost, ruining his reputation as a developer and owing something to the very people who stole from them. Max's hatred couldn't be described with words, he held everything against the law enforcement, justice system, and big organizations that can get away with anything. One night, he snuck into the home of company leader, and butchered him. Max took his time making every last moment for the snake worse than hell, painting the walls with blood and leaving the body as an example for all to see. Everyone knew that it was him, but they had no way to actually prove it, there was no evidence at the scene that indicated Max, he had done it perfectly. His enemies were afraid to go on about this new case and drop it, but Max still had to owe them something for the incident that started it all, another unpayable bill that would ground his life.
That was it, he could take no more. He thought about jumping, hanging, blowing his brains out, but he never could bring himself to do such a cowardly act. While he was browsing local job opportunities, he found an open position as a test subject for a cryogenic hibernation experiment being done by a private company, and he was very interested. He was interviewed, examined, and approved by the company. He had debt collectors after him, but the employers let him in since some of them sympathized with him, while others didn't care and just saw him as expendable either way. Aside from getting payed, Max also saw this as a way to stick it to all the people that were after him, since they wouldn't be able to lay a finger upon him while he was out like a light, and if he didn't survive then they wouldn't get anything. If he died, at least it would be in a cool way with a good reason.
This was it, he got out of his car, stepping on the dirt road, taking one last look into the desert horizon and its landscape, kissing his car goodbye, then heading for the small building nearby. Max buzzed in the intercom, scanned his ID card, and the door opened. There was an elevator inside, which he used to go down into a reception area. He checked in with the uninteresting receptionist, and a man was called to escort Max to the test site. They went into another elevator, and took it downward. It was a long and boring ride, the other guy didn't talk, and there was no indicator to depict the floor number and how long they had to get there. Finally, it stopped and the door opened, showing an empty underground bunker tunnel. The boring guy guided Max through it, passing many strange doors on the sides, and going all the way to the end where the last door was. The lame man opened the door, finally speaking, "The site is in this room, have a nice day." Then, the man left to go back. Max was glad he was gone, his robotic voice and demeanor was annoying.
He walked into a brightly lit room that looked like an operating theater from a hospital, but more rugged with reinforced walls and a paneled floor. There was plenty of equipment in this room, and finally some actual people, scientists obviously, dressed in lab coats and happily chatting with one another. One of them, an older man looked up and saw Max, warmly greeting him, "Oh, hello Max, we've been expecting you." He at least had some personality, but Max stopped listening for a while while the man was talking about the process of the experiment and how significant this was. Max just kept up a smile, and waited until the guy was done talking. There was nothing of interest in what the scientists were discussing, not much he could understand anyway.
It was finally time to do it, everything was ready to go. Max felt closure in making the arrangements on his things and notifying his family prior to this, he had nothing else that he needed to do. He was walked over to a large pod with lots of tech and some monitors on it, and it opened up to reveal a rather comfortable place meant for lying down. He was happy to hear that he could just keep his current clothing on, then crawled into the pod to lay down. When he was inside, one scientist wiped his arm with disinfectant, and put a strange brace on his arm with, then connected some wires to it. Another scientist came along with needles attached to tubes, and inserted them securely into the slots of the brace, going into Max's arm; it stung, but it wasn't as unpleasant a tetanus shot. After that, some other scientist came over and applied a mask hooked up to the pod onto his mouth, and adjusted it until it fit. When all that was done, the pod closed up, isolating him from the outside world.
There was no going back, this was it. Max gave a thumbs up that he was all set, and the scientists nodded and fired up the machine. Max laid on his back with his arms crossing over each other, and felt the temperature slowly drop. At this point, machines started beeping, vital monitors went online and showed that everything was going well. His mask provided him with a steady stream of oxygen, making it easy to breath. The tubes started to be filled with colored thick liquids, which were pumped into his body. He didn't know what the liquids were for since they were classified, but they played a role in keeping him preserved.
The air inside got colder and colder, causing Max to shiver. It must have been at least freezing temperature by now, but there was nothing inside that could tell. Max's body began to feel weary and his head heavy, he was slipping away. His life didn't flash before him like he thought it would, but he was glad it didn't. It just felt like he was going to sleep, into a deep induced sleep His eyes shut slowly, and everything was gone.
"Sweet dreams, Max," was the last thing he heard.
-------------------------------------------------------
Max sat in his car, chewing gum and listening to his music, enjoying the last time he would be doing this morning routine in that time, if not at all.
It was a huge day for him, and it could very well be his last, not that he cared about the later. Max got a job as a test subject for a new innovation in cryogenic technology, and it was a simple job with a great payout, for him if he survived, or for his family if he didn't. All he had to do way lay down in the contraption, have some things hooked up to him, and sleep. What made this job so special was that the experiment was going to be done extensively, maybe going on for some years. Cryogenic tech already existed, but the methods beforehand had proven to be dangerous given that the subject was frozen solid like a damned popsicle. The new technology being tested was going to take a different approach, not freezing Max solid, but instead inducing him into a coma-like state at extremely low temperatures but sustaining his body with life support and other complex things. The chances of it proving to be a success were high, but there was always a chance of failure resulting in death.
Max didn't fear death, he was numb to it. He had so many close calls in his life that happened out of nowhere, but stopped being fazed by them. He thought about Hamlet's Soliloquy, "To be or not to be..." and he thought about it hard. His family was great and he loved them, but they were not enough to stop him. He was young, healthy, and nowhere near dying naturally, but hated his life. His education was revoked since the trade schools he went to shut down, but he was still left with a huge bill that he was being forced to pay, all for nothing. He couldn't land a job in his field, the damned companies were outsourcing foreigners who worked for less compared to him. Max had tried to make it on his own as an independent software developer, but his efforts were swallowed by the egos of big companies that ripped off his idea, pinned the act on him, and got away with it.
It was a president of a game company who saw Max's work and took a liking to it. The company contacted Max and proposed to buy it from him, but Max rejected that since he didn't like the big developer. The company didn't accept that answer, and Max was constantly harassed about it. At the worst part, the company hired shady people to acquire Max's work and make it their own. Max knew about found out about a security breach that took his data and destroyed his network, and called the authorities, while investigating on his own. As usual, the cops proved to be useless, and the private investigator wasn't doing his job. Without them, Max was able to figure out what had happened and learn where the attack came from, but couldn't reach out to the authorities for using black hat methods. He tracked an associate of the company down and learned of the situation, recording everything. After all that though, he found out the authorities searched his home while he was gone, and his evidence went "missing". Immediately afterwards, he was blindsided with a trial accusing him of false crimes against the company, and lost, ruining his reputation as a developer and owing something to the very people who stole from them. Max's hatred couldn't be described with words, he held everything against the law enforcement, justice system, and big organizations that can get away with anything. One night, he snuck into the home of company leader, and butchered him. Max took his time making every last moment for the snake worse than hell, painting the walls with blood and leaving the body as an example for all to see. Everyone knew that it was him, but they had no way to actually prove it, there was no evidence at the scene that indicated Max, he had done it perfectly. His enemies were afraid to go on about this new case and drop it, but Max still had to owe them something for the incident that started it all, another unpayable bill that would ground his life.
That was it, he could take no more. He thought about jumping, hanging, blowing his brains out, but he never could bring himself to do such a cowardly act. While he was browsing local job opportunities, he found an open position as a test subject for a cryogenic hibernation experiment being done by a private company, and he was very interested. He was interviewed, examined, and approved by the company. He had debt collectors after him, but the employers let him in since some of them sympathized with him, while others didn't care and just saw him as expendable either way. Aside from getting payed, Max also saw this as a way to stick it to all the people that were after him, since they wouldn't be able to lay a finger upon him while he was out like a light, and if he didn't survive then they wouldn't get anything. If he died, at least it would be in a cool way with a good reason.
This was it, he got out of his car, stepping on the dirt road, taking one last look into the desert horizon and its landscape, kissing his car goodbye, then heading for the small building nearby. Max buzzed in the intercom, scanned his ID card, and the door opened. There was an elevator inside, which he used to go down into a reception area. He checked in with the uninteresting receptionist, and a man was called to escort Max to the test site. They went into another elevator, and took it downward. It was a long and boring ride, the other guy didn't talk, and there was no indicator to depict the floor number and how long they had to get there. Finally, it stopped and the door opened, showing an empty underground bunker tunnel. The boring guy guided Max through it, passing many strange doors on the sides, and going all the way to the end where the last door was. The lame man opened the door, finally speaking, "The site is in this room, have a nice day." Then, the man left to go back. Max was glad he was gone, his robotic voice and demeanor was annoying.
He walked into a brightly lit room that looked like an operating theater from a hospital, but more rugged with reinforced walls and a paneled floor. There was plenty of equipment in this room, and finally some actual people, scientists obviously, dressed in lab coats and happily chatting with one another. One of them, an older man looked up and saw Max, warmly greeting him, "Oh, hello Max, we've been expecting you." He at least had some personality, but Max stopped listening for a while while the man was talking about the process of the experiment and how significant this was. Max just kept up a smile, and waited until the guy was done talking. There was nothing of interest in what the scientists were discussing, not much he could understand anyway.
It was finally time to do it, everything was ready to go. Max felt closure in making the arrangements on his things and notifying his family prior to this, he had nothing else that he needed to do. He was walked over to a large pod with lots of tech and some monitors on it, and it opened up to reveal a rather comfortable place meant for lying down. He was happy to hear that he could just keep his current clothing on, then crawled into the pod to lay down. When he was inside, one scientist wiped his arm with disinfectant, and put a strange brace on his arm with, then connected some wires to it. Another scientist came along with needles attached to tubes, and inserted them securely into the slots of the brace, going into Max's arm; it stung, but it wasn't as unpleasant a tetanus shot. After that, some other scientist came over and applied a mask hooked up to the pod onto his mouth, and adjusted it until it fit. When all that was done, the pod closed up, isolating him from the outside world.
There was no going back, this was it. Max gave a thumbs up that he was all set, and the scientists nodded and fired up the machine. Max laid on his back with his arms crossing over each other, and felt the temperature slowly drop. At this point, machines started beeping, vital monitors went online and showed that everything was going well. His mask provided him with a steady stream of oxygen, making it easy to breath. The tubes started to be filled with colored thick liquids, which were pumped into his body. He didn't know what the liquids were for since they were classified, but they played a role in keeping him preserved.
The air inside got colder and colder, causing Max to shiver. It must have been at least freezing temperature by now, but there was nothing inside that could tell. Max's body began to feel weary and his head heavy, he was slipping away. His life didn't flash before him like he thought it would, but he was glad it didn't. It just felt like he was going to sleep, into a deep induced sleep His eyes shut slowly, and everything was gone.
"Sweet dreams, Max," was the last thing he heard.