Shouting...
Neon-red hair...
Black Widow...
Glint of a knife...
Pain...
Pain? My mind struggled to adjust to the concept. Pain? The dreamy, blurry scene in my head confused me, it was like some crazy, impossible dream. I tried to focus on the colourful images in my head, tried to remember the details, but...it wasn't important anymore. It was just a dream, nothing to worry about. The dream floated out of my thoughts as my mind moved to more interesting topics. Like my current location, for instance. Despite the calm sense of serenity I felt, I could feel something was off. Not wrong exactly, just not quite right. Why was that? I felt fine. Better than fine actually. Yet I couldn't shake the feeling of unease that was slowly creeping into my mind...What was I just thinking? I wonder where I am. I used what senses I could to try and learn something about my surroundings. I opened my eyes: nothing, still darkness. I moved my hands, trying to feel the surface I was lying on. That was odd. I was lying on a smooth surface but it was cold, really cold. Like metal. I inhaled deeply through my nose, hoping I could determine my immediate area by the smell. Disinfectant. The strong, distinct smell of it burned my nose, bringing with it a lesson I had learnt in my childhood: disinfectant meant institution. And institution meant...
I jerked upright and motion-activated lights leapt to life, showing me the deep shit I was in. Harsh blue light stung my eyes and filled the room I was in, but it wasn't just any room. Highly polished sterilized surfaces glistened at me, high-tech medical instruments lay neatly organised on surfaces lining the room. I almost hit my head on the low-hanging overhead light, the sort that wouldn't look out of place in an operating theater in an expensive private hospital. Looking around the laboratory I was in, I could see that I was sitting on an operating table, I swung my legs off the side to get down, noticing how little I felt. Not just emotionally, because I was pretty sure I should be feeling something other than serenity right now, but physically. I remembered being hit in the chest but nothing after that. All the pains of the distant fight in the desert had gone...weird.
Lurching to my feet, I quickly examined the lab I was in. I saw a glimpse of a face and my heart leapt in panic, but on pausing, I realised it was in fact my own face reflected off one of the surfaces. Intrigued, I moved closer. God, I looked like hell! My hair was so covered in dirt and grime it was impossible to tell it's natural colour and hung in greasy, limp clumps over my face which didn't look any better. Dried blood was covering almost all of my face and was artistically streaked down my neck and shoulders. There were bags under my eyes and over my right eye was a huge scar. The scar started halfway up my forehead and ended halfway down my cheek and was interestingly enough shaped like a bolt of lightening, or an elongated 'Z'. Huh. It actually looked kinda cool. Quickly examining the rest of my body, I studied the mess that was my clothes, now completely unrecognisable and wouldn't look out of place on a corpse as they were covered in dirt, dust and blood. They were heavily ripped, but the skin underneath was unblemished and smooth, even on my arm where I vaguely recalled being hit by a ray gun. I could feel the effects of whatever-I-had-been-drugged-with wearing off as the full fear of my situation sank in. Uncomfortably aware of the limited time I had before someone would inevitably find me, I all but ran to a sink and scrubbed the blood and grime from my face, hands and all visible skin. I even attempted getting it out of my hair but all that achieved was just caking the grime in even more...and getting water trickling down my neck to boot. As the last of the bloody water drained away down the sink, I set about looking for a change of clothes. I would stand out a mile dressed as I was, the only speck of dirt in an abnormally clean world. But nada. There was no clothes in the lab except for a lab coat on a hook by the door. I quickly seized it and shoved it on before leaving the room.
Outside the room was, expectedly, a very sterile-looking corridor with numerous doors leading off it. I cautiously tried every door, but they were all locked apart from one at the end. I quietly opened the door and peeked round, bracing myself to run, but all there was on the other side was a deserted locker room. I rushed in and went straight to a locker. I almost cried with joy as I opened it. I'd finally lucked out and inside was an exterminator jumpsuit, the sort that looks like a bio-hazard suit or whatever, complete with mask (which had the BLI logo across the face) and raygun (standard issue). Quickly ditching my lab coat, I pulled off my ruined clothes and dressed in the standardized uniform (white t-shirt and pants), strapping on the exterminator suit and protective gear over the top. I pulled the mask on over my head and slung the ray gun over my shoulder before looking in the mirror. Perfect. I now looked exactly like one of Them. Grabbing the lab coat and my old clothes from where they lay on the floor, I shoved them in the disposal bin as I made my way out the door. The corridor was still deserted. I paused as I reached end of the corridor, breathing slowly to keep my fear under control. Taking a last deep breath to steady myself, I pushed open the door leading to the rest of the building and hopefully, after that, my freedom...