Chapter 22
"Ugh… Where am I?" Renton groaned. He coughed a bit, his throat felt as if it was scrapped raw. He snapped his eyelids open and immediately, light flooded in causing his eyes to sting and burn. He quickly closed his eyelids and sighed at the relief. The previous day's events poured back into him and played across his closed eyes. "I got to get out of here!" He thought and tried moving his arms and legs. However, he could not move; he was chained, arms and legs, to a strange machine. Renton slowly opened his eyes despite the piercing sting of light. The whiteness soon became shapes and colors that moved busily. Renton gasped and could not believe what he was seeing. Strange instruments were strapped onto him and many wires stuck onto his wrist and chest. An even more numbers of wires were fixed upon his forehead. Slow beeps from the many surrounding machines created a dreary feeling of a hospital. Renton rapidly observed his surroundings. He was in some sort of lab room. Many strange people with white suits and three-eyed masks stood and droned on with some unknown task. A big plasma screen hung above them. The screen suddenly flickered on. The droning workers turned in unison and stared as if they were expecting something to happen. A image of a white haired man appeared. A white and light blue cap sat upon his braided hair. Renton gasped in astonishment and horror.
"Dewey!?!"
One of the strange people stepped up and started talking to the figure of Dewey on screen.
"We have the boy. He is all set up and ready for the wipe."
"Good." Dewey replied.
"I still do not understand why we have to do this."
Dewey laughed, "Because."
"Because?"
"The corralians are surviving only because of those two."
"Can't we just kill them?"
"No, death cannot break the ties of love… it may even strengthen it."
"Then how?"
Dewey laughed once again, "By having breaking the bond themselves."
Many of the strange people laughed in their nasal machinery voice.
"Oh I see! We mind wipe the boy and then have him break up with the corralian girl!"
"Exactly." Dewey said coldly.
Renton could not believe what he saw and heard. Dewey Novak was alive somehow and now they were planning to wipe his mind. "I have to stop this madness!" Renton thought.
"Why do you have to do this!?!" He yelled out loud.
Dewey smiled, one that sent chills crawling down Renton's neck.
"Why, to rid human kind of an old enemy."
"The corralians don't want to harm us!"
"You've got it all wrong. They are leaching off us. Don't you see? They leech off you in order to survive."
"No, you've got it all wrong! We survived this long because of them!"
Dewey ignored him and continued talking to the other people.
"Start the wipe now."
The strange people got back to their machines and started clicking buttons. "No! Listen to me! You've got it all wrong!" Renton protested. "Paralyze him." One of the people said. Almost immediately, Renton's body went numb. All feelings fled from him and he could no longer twitch a muscle. All Renton could do was stare and wait for the people to finish their work.
"Initialize wipe."
Renton let out a scream of pain. His forehead felt as if it was splitting in half. Images of his life sped through his eyes. "No… no… NO! EUREKA!" Images of Eureka flashed across his eyes. All turned to darkness and Renton lost consciousness.
"Wipe complete. 99 wipe success. 1 of recovery."