"This is Death Watch reporting live, temporarily of course. We join our newest vict- contestant now. So, Shinji what's the clock say now?"
"Well Mr. Ikari, seems life-support will last for another 10 hours before the asphyxiation via robot juice kicks in."
"Well that's just dandy! Hey folks, don't grab that remote just yet, when we come back this young man will regale us with the stunning tale on how he got in this train wreck, but now a word from our sponsors."
The seat is cold and rigid along my back, the screens are blank, my wrist with glowing LCD, cheerily showing me how little time I have left. The controls unresponsive.
Sensors blank. No outlying signals at all.
LCL starting to solidify. Imaginary news casters inside my head.
I vaguely realize I'm laughing, astounded at how this pittance of a man, this sob story disaster that is my life will finally end. My self depreciative merriment is cut short when I begin to choke on life… to death!
Heh, dying alone, unloved, in a damn hole. The worst of it all is that apparently my grave shall be marked in imaginary space. Am I such a loathsome wretch that my remains do not even deserve to take up room in an existing reality?
I'm glad Dr. Akagi isn't a psychologist. Telling someone that their apparent demise is occurring in non-physical place doesn't really help them survive it. Of course it's all I deserve really, a few nice words of encouragement, my lack of ability to notice sarcasm, and the fact that I hadn't been on the fast track to mind bending eternal depression in maybe a month amounts to this. The one time I use the little bravado in my possession, and act like any normal kid would if they had a mecha and was charged with saving the human race, I end up in a death trap. Gung ho heroism didn't work out that well.
Still, I think I'll sleep for a while, I can at least dream I'm not dying at 14, I can at least snooze away and wonder at how if by some stroke of luck I lived through all the angels and the world was saved I could maybe finally have a normal life. Or perhaps, I will construct for myself, in my last moments, a world as being a perpetual toddler, a world with smiles and hugs and laughter from him of all people, the cookie cutter family at last.
My stomach starts to grumble, I should have eaten breakfast.
*later*
I woke up. Normal enough, I'm used to surviving hopeless situations. Vertical plaster of an unknown location greets my eyes. Nerv is huge as are there medical areas; as long as I can smell antiseptic I can finf my way. I don't remember how I got here; sadly amnesia seems to follow me. I'm not to worried as I blink away the sleep from my eyes, night terrors usually impart the missing scenery to me and I can go one day without knowing what new horrible abominations have tarnished and raped my fragile psyche.
The rustle of a page turning catches my ear and I turn in fear as what I see is decidedly outside the realm of my expectations.
Rei Ayanami sitting at the bed side. Her light blue locks cut short for practicality, her bloody eyes discerning what natural disasters have occurred where, and which world leader is in trouble with the U.N. and other trifling matters. What startles me though is the concern in her eyes as she notices my consciousness. Concern of course being her turning her seat to face me instead of just inclining her head.
She then asked, not instructed, me not to move as that would risk my body's nerve signals to respond exponentially causing cranial shutdown for a few more days. She also brought me food. Then proceeded to feed me, citing that as the time was 4 a.m. it would be more convenient than alerting the night shift. I would have protested more, when I realized that I could only move my left arm.
The right one was being held hostage by the other team mate-feminine interest-headache in my life. This is not meant in jest, Asuka, she of the fire hair and ocean eyes, wasn't holding my hand in a way that would invite lo- companionship, she was gripping my whole arm like a favorite teddy bear, any tighter and she'd have carried it away as a bloody trophy.
Not wishing to make my stay here worse or longer than it had to be, I drifted into slumber once more, with Asuka's light snoring in my ears. The last sound I heard was Rei's voice, or something like it, singing a haunting melody that I couldn't quite make out.