Monday's Child – Dystopia

Part Three - Dystopia

Chapter 2

Carol woke up and looked around. She did not know this place. Very unfamiliar green walls which seemed to be padded. She tried to get up but felt suddenly dizzy. A man, around forty, stood in the corner.

"It's okay Carol, you're safe now. You'll be all right" said the man.

"Who are you?" she asked "Where am I and how did I get here?"

"My name is Diego" said the man. "I'm a doctor assigned to your case."

"Case? My case?" asked Carol. "I don't understand."

*John? Elizabeth?* she tried to 'path without success.

"You won't be able to contact anybody that way" said Diego. This room is filled with a psionic damping field."

"You know I'm telepathic?" said Carol.

"Most people are" said Diego.

"Not where I come from" said Carol, swinging her legs round to sit up on the bed. She suddenly caught sight of herself in the mirror on the far wall. "Oh my God! What's happened to me? My hair!" She struggled to her feet and forced herself to walk to the mirror.

"You're not ready for walking" said Diego, joining her at the mirror. Carol looked at her reflection. Where her long blonde hair had been was now covered with a very short layer of stubble. She felt her head in disbelief. "You were in a very sorry state when those boys found you. If it weren't for that suit you had on, most of your internal organs may have been beyond repair."

"What boys? What happened to me?" asked Carol, becoming more agitated.

"Two local boys were ice diving on Ullswater. They found you under the ice. By our estimations, you must have been under there for about three weeks" said Diego.

"Three weeks? How did I survive that?" asked Carol.

"Oh, but you didn't" said Diego. "Dead on arrival."

"What! Wait! No! You're confusing me" said Carol. "What are you saying?"

"You arrived here, mainly with extensive cranial traumas. We spent two weeks remoulding your skull – that's why we had to shave your head – and you've spent the last week in this recovery suite" said Diego.

Carol looked straight at Diego. "Am . . . I . . . dead?" she asked.

"No, of course not. Not now anyway" said Diego.

"What do you mean, not now?" asked Carol.

"We specialise in reanimation here" said Diego.

"You mean I'm some sort of zombie?" asked Carol.

"No, just a simple routine procedure. We're just in the process of reasserting your personality traits at the moment" said Diego. "You're going to experience some very wild mood swings. That's why you're in this room. Padded walls so you don't hurt yourself and the damping field so you don't teleport off before we're ready to discharge you."

"So I was dead, but now I'm alive?" asked Carol.

"If you like to think of it that way" said Diego.

"And where exactly is here?" asked Carol.

"The New Republic Hospital, just outside Brampton" said Diego.

"Brampton? But that's near Hadrian's Wall! What am I doing so far north?" said Carol.

"Hadrian's Wall?" asked Diego. "That was removed over five hundred years ago!"

"No it wasn't" argued Carol. "It's been there for a couple of thousand years, if I understand my old Roman history correctly."

Diego looked at Carol for a moment, then asked his killer question. "Carol" he began, "are you a time traveller?"

"Time traveller?" said Carol "Me? No! Well I sort of time travelled once, but I don't think that counted, because it all happened in hyperspace. I got abducted, you see and . . . wait a minute! You said most people are telepathic, that Hadrian's Wall hasn't been around for five hundred years, and . . . oh my God! I'm in the future, aren't I?"

"Carol, just calm down and tell me what century you thought you were living in" said Diego.

"Well, the Twenty-First" said Carol.

"You're actually off the mark by about ten thousand years! "said Diego.

"Ten thousand!" exclaimed Carol. "How do I get back? Tell me?"

"I can't answer that" said Diego. "How did you get here?"

"I'm not sure" said Carol. "I was with my friends. I think my sister was there too, can't remember. My nephew was there, I remember him being there. I was about to jaunt – I mean teleport – back to the Galactic Trig, when there was what felt like an explosion. Knocked me off my feet. That's all I remember."

"So you have no idea how you got here?" asked Diego.

"None" said Carol.

"Maybe they'll go easy on you then" said Diego.

"Who will?" asked Carol.

"The Courts of course. You obviously don't have a licence for time travel?" said Diego.

"Licence?" asked Carol.

"Silly question" said Diego. "Time travel is very tightly regulated. Without a licence, they'll throw the book at you."

"Then I'm screwed" said Carol.

"If you can convince them that your appearance here was part of an unavoidable accident, they may show some lenience" said Diego.

"Oh! I could go to prison!" said Carol.

"Don't be so pessimistic" said Diego.

"I'll have to get back to my own time" said Carol.

"That'd just compound things" said Diego. "If you were caught – and they would catch you – it'd be viewed as a deliberate act."

"Oh, Diego, what am I to do?" sobbed Carol.

"If you can convince the Courts that you are only here by accident, your best option would be to try and make a life for yourself in this time" said Diego, "and for goodness sake, toe the line."

Carol regained some of her composure and looked at herself in the mirror. She examined what was left off her hair. "I suppose it'll grow back before long, won't it? I could always wear a hat. Do people still wear hats?" she said.

"Yes, people still wear hats" replied Diego.

" My brother always said hats made me look like Paddington Bear. I could go for a new look – sort of elfin." She caught sight of her nose. "Oh what have you people done with my nose?"

"Is it wrong" asked Diego.

"It's different, not necessarily wrong. It was a different shape" said Carol, pressing a finger on the end of her nose.

"Just tell us how it should be and we'll correct it" said Diego.

"No, it's fine as it is" said Carol. She looked into the mirror, as if to look beyond it. "There's someone on the other side of that mirror, isn't there?"

"Yes" said Diego.

"So I'm under observation, like some circus freak" said Carol, walking back to her bed. "Look! I can walk!"

"Well on the way to recovery now" said Diego, sitting next to Carol on the bed.

Carol began to grin, then chuckle, which became one big uncontrollable laugh.

"What's tickled you?" asked Diego.

"I haven't a clue" said Carol through the laughter. "I just started to think about . . ." but her words became lost in the laughter as she rolled around on the bed.

"Reassertion" said Diego. "It won't be long now. You'll experience a whole catalogue of extreme emotions. Just let it come."

Carol managed to pull herself up to sit up and face Diego, tears of laughter streaming down her face, still laughing uncontrollably. She flung her arms around Diego's neck and buried her face into his shoulder. The laughter stopped. She lifted her head slightly and looked into his eyes before suddenly kissing him fully on the lips. He pulled away.

"Carol, please!" said Diego.

"Don't you think I'm attractive?" asked Carol.

"Of course you're attractive" said Diego nervously, "but please realise I have to maintain a professional distance."

"Well I think you're attractive," Said Carol, leaning in to Diego, with one hand on his chest. "In fact, I fancy the pants off you!"

"Carol, please, you're not yourself! It's the reassertion that's making you do this! Please control yourself!" said Diego, but it was too late. Carol pinned him flat onto the bed before straddling him and finally kissing him again passionately full on the mouth, tearing at his shirt. Diego struggled, and managed to fight Carol off.

"Don't you want me?" said Carol. "Because I certainly want you!"

"No, Carol. You don't know your own mind" said Diego. Try to fight it."

Carol pushed Diego onto the floor and straddled him again. Still sitting astride Diego, her demeanour started to change. At first she seemed calm. At last, Diego thought, Carol was becoming more rational. Then she spoke.

"You bastard!" said Carol, almost spitting the words through her teeth.

"Sorry?" said Diego.

"You heard, you bastard!" said Carol, beating Diego's chest with her fists. Diego grabbed her wrists to control her fists, and lifted her to her feet.

"It's all right, Carol" said Diego. It's just the reassertion. You'll be okay soon enough.

"Don't you dare patronise me! " yelled Carol.

And then she punched him. A left hook that caught him just below the right eye, knocking him squarely on his backside. He got up and tried to hold Carol off, but she was too strong for him. Another left hook, this time to the jaw followed by a kick to the groin. Diego bent double in agony as Carol followed through with a kick to the side of the head leaving Diego in a heap on the floor. Carol began to kick Diego in the ribs. Once she began to kick him, she couldn't stop. Each kick was followed by another until she suddenly felt herself being lifted off her feet by two tall men who carried her to the bed. Her demeanour began to change again, and as she looked over at Diego lying on the floor with his shirt covered in his own blood, she began to sob uncontrollably.

"It's all right Carol" said one of the men.

"Look what I've done to him!" said Carol. "I shouldn't be able to do that! What's wrong with me?"

"He'll be fine in half an hour or so" said the man as his colleague went over to tend to Diego.