Disclaimer - I own nothing but Carter.

Note - Sorry I haven't updated in a while, you know when you set a deadline and fly past it without writing a thing? Well...yeah, I don't do well with deadlines. Anyway hope you enjoy this latest installment, Reviews are valued so I know if its good/bad, or if I should just stop writing altogether :) I'll try to update every week. Let's say the next deadline is July 13th, will we make it?

Also, keep in mind that every nightmare Carter has has a hidden relevance to the story's plot. See if you can piece it together.

Chapter 3

The Exordium

The hallway is white. The industrial lighting is harsh in the narrow space.

Doors line the corridor.

One stands out among them. The Door stands at the end of the hallway on the left.

The last door on the left.

Unlike the other white doors this one is black, deteriorated, falling off its hinges.

Also unlike the other doors this one has no handle. It is the only one with light coming from the other side.

I glide slowly toward it. Movement doesn't feel like walking. It is like a ghostly presence moves me forward.

The Hallway suddenly narrows, and shortens, and I am standing in front of the Black Door.

The hallway, along with the other doors melt away, and I am left standing under a solitary light in front of the Door. The light behind the Door clamps shut.

There is a scream, a gut-wrenching 'thud' and silence.

A substance, something like Blood but dark crimson, black, seeps from the crack at the bottom of the doorframe. It pools at my feet, my image stares menacingly back at me in the reflective surface. It is metallic, like liquid lead.

My eye catches the glint of leaking fluid. It is running from spider-cracks in the Door. The black of the door is streaked with the red liquid; it oozes from every fissure, running like thick oil.

I am standing in a pool of blood, the redness is the only seeable color. It is bright in the gray and white of the hallway – rich against the blackness of the Door.

I realize that the small space is filling with the sickening fluid. It is running up over my shoes, staining them a brilliant red.

I wade to the Door, perhaps hoping to find higher ground. The dampness of the space is unnerving, the blood rising. The White walls around me start leaking, a droplet of the blood drips down on my forehead.

The drops come more quickly, the walls run with streaks of red.

Panic sets in.

"Is someone there? Anybody? Please help me!"

I pound on the Door in exasperation. "Can anyone hear me!" My voice echoes around me. The blood floods around my waist.

My hands are slick with blood, the ceiling is now spraying with it, like a warm shower of red.

Once again I grasp the door, pounding harder. Desperation clouds my judgment.

"Can anybody hear me! HEELP! PLEEASE."

Haunting laughter rings out.

I am genuinely afraid. Fear, the kind that strikes at the pit of your being, settles into my heart.

I break down, tears flood my vision and fall, mixing with the rising tide of blood.

With it pooling around by chest, I try one last time, throwing myself against the Door.

The Door opens.

The current of fluid lifts me off my feet, and drags me under, through the open door,

and down,

down,

Into the gaping mouth of Oblivion.

When I came to, I remembered nothing. I was laying on a hard bed, staring into a harsh industrial light.

My heart jumped, I didn't know why, but the unsettling feeling of deja-vu washed over me.

I looked around. I was in some sort of preparation room, the walls were all white accept for the blue curtain that was strung up to my right. There was an EKG machine tracking my heart rate. What was the most unnerving though, except for the incremental beep was the stark quite. My rushed breathing was the only other sound.

I unclipped the pulse monitor from my finger and tore the EKG lines off my chest. I pulled myself to an upright sitting position and tried to get my bearings. The room I was in was more like a wide hallway. It had hospital beds lining the one side, the wall adjacent to me was empty save for a small nurses station and crash cart.

I reached out and pulled the curtain back only to see more beds, and more EKG machines.

I was the only person in the room.

There were double doors at both ends of it, they both were reinforced with a metal plate, and had a small square window on the upper-mid section.

Above the double doors to my right there was a back-lit sign that read "Operating Room"

Slowly I slipped out of the bed, fixing the thin sheet of hospital gown that I was wearing.

I heard them before I saw them.

Suddenly the double doors at the far end of the hallway burst open. A team of doctors and nurses slid through, gathered around a stretcher, their bodies were blocking my view of the victim.

I jumped back to get out of their way, but they hardly seemed to notice me.

"I have no pulse!" One doctor yelled.

"Code Blue! Get that crash cart in here!" Called another. The whole mass of people slammed into the Operating Room doors at the other end of the hallway; they were gone.

Although I could still hear the faint hysterical calls of the dire situation in the O.R. the silence of the prep room resumed.

I slowly crept to the double doors and peered through the square window. Nurses were running around the room, back and forth between cabinet and patient. Doctors again crowded around the body lying stiff on the op. table. The EKG behind the team had flat lined.

Tentatively, on a hunch, I pushed the swinging doors wide open and stepped inside, still going unnoticed.

The whole surreal atmosphere was making me uneasy, and when the doctor stepped aside, I knew why.

The victim was me.

I was lying on that table motionless; about to be pronounced dead, yet I was here, I was witnessing my own trauma.

"Prepping the defib. Charging."

I watched the nurse, almost in slow-motion grab the paddles from the crash cart, rubbing them together, and holding them steady.

"Clear." Her voice called, becoming hollow and distant. I was still standing there, a figment of death.

She held the paddles against my rib cage and blasted 300 volts through my body.

PPPPMPPHMMMHFFTT

I grabbed my heart in agony. The jolt I felt threw me back against the double doors. I sucked in breath, choking.

"Again. Charging."

I looked up, my body still motionless, the EKG still static.

"Clear."

PPPHMMMPHHFFFT

I fell to my knees, keeling over on all fours, shaking violently. My vision shifted in and out.

"Again."

"Charging. Clear."

PPPPPPMMMMMMPFFFFHHHTT

My vision faded to a bright light.

beep _/\ _ beep _/\ _ beep _/\ _ beep
 \/ \/ \/

The industrial lighting was harsh in the narrow space. A blue curtain was strung to my left, and a nurse was to my right checking my vitals then scribbling on a thin handheld touch-tablet.

When she noticed I was awake she smiled. "Welcome back. You're lucky, you almost didn't make it."

I tried to push myself upright, but she held me back.

"Try and rest, you need it after what you've been through. I'll go get the doctor."

With that, she disappeared behind the curtain. My head was pounding and my thoughts scrabbled.

A moment later the doctor appeared, the nurse behind him.

"I see our trauma patient has held together nicely." He said, looking me over. "You know, just about two hours ago you were in labeled as in critical condition, but we have some of the finest doctors around."

He turned toward the nurse, "Go get me 15 mg I.V. of morphine, he'll be in pain shortly." The nurse disappeared. He shut the curtain behind her, and turned again toward me, his face contorted out of shape.

"Well, well, well, you almost cost us a major set back, Twenty-three. Butt we've got it all under control now." He smiled cynically. And, taking a syringe filled with unknown liquid, clamped down hard on my arm.

I shifted uncomfortably beneath his grip.

"Let's just make sure that your knowledge stays where it's supposed to." He said in a singsong voice, tapping my forehead. "We wouldn't want you to fall into any…" he paused choosing his words, "unfortunate harm, after all the progress we've made, would we?"

He pushed the syringe into the tube leading to my arm.

"Now you be a good boy and nothing will happen to your new friends." He warned, releasing his grip with an unfriendly squeeze. He disappeared.

My vision shifted once, then I was out – cold.

Where was I?

Where were Max and the Flock?

Why was I here?

What was going on?

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed, please review.