Comfortable, clean light pressed gently at his eyelids and Dib obligated, opening them. He blinked a few times and stared at the white ceiling that seemed just slightly too close. He became aware of soft humming sounds, like machines quietly doing their job nearby. Shifting, he sat up on one elbow and looked around.
The room was impossibly white and well-lit, small, with only the bed-like structure he laid upon taking up space. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, the right one irritatingly blurry. It dawned on him that he could actually open his right eye and he did so again, looking down at his hands. His skin was clean, his clothing gone, exposing him uncomfortably. Dib rubbed at his right eye again but couldn't seem to clear the haze in it. He touched at his face gently. The swelling was gone, no trace of the injury remaining as far as he could feel. He looked down at his leg and saw the greyish alien substance smoothed neatly over where the rebar had made it's ugly intrusion.
Dib shifted to sit at the edge of the bed and noticed his clothing folded neatly beside it. He picked up his pants and stood slowly, carefully, testing the injured leg and then pulling his jeans on with satisfaction as it held him with no pain or protest. He wiggled into the dirty sweatshirt and stepped towards the rounded opening of the room, having to stoop to avoid bumping his head.
The doorway opened into a hallway, equally white and clean. He started walking slowly, looking into rooms he passed as he went. Most were empty, but he stopped when he saw another human in one. The man was laying on his bed, curled on his side, back to the door. A glass-like substance barred the doorway, sealing him inside. Dib raised a hand to tap but something whipped through his peripherals and he suddenly found himself suspended, wires wrapping tightly around his wrists, legs, and throat, lifting him off his feet in a most uncomfortable manner. He struggled but the wires wrapped tightly, choking off his protests.
A door at the end of the hall slid opened and the alien started walking towards him, saying something irritably in a tongue Dib had never heard. A computer voice replied in the same language, though pointedly more clipped and un-rolling, and Dib was dropped. He collected himself on his feet and took a step back from the alien nervously as it continued towards him. Something pounded the glass of the room next to him and he jumped, stumbling across the hall into the door of the opposite room. A human male he'd neglected to notice earlier was staring at him, hands slamming against the glass. His lips moved as if speaking but Dib couldn't hear him.
Zim stopped before the room and raised an arm as if to backhand. The man flinched and quickly scrambled away, sliding beneath his bed and hiding there, lips still moving. The alien kept going past Dib, and he followed angrily.
"Hey, you can't keep humans captive like this!" He reached for Zim but the alien whirled around, grabbing the side of his head in one hand. Something pricked at his skin and suddenly he was in a room back at the labs, agents and lab workers surrounding him, speaking to one another. He struggled to breathe, chest tight with fear and pain as machines documented his functions, gloved human hands groping his exposed body, instruments and needles invading his flesh. Searing pain as his PAK is pried from his back, wires snipped and pulled and torn until they relent, withdrawing to leave him naked, biting his tongue to withhold screams.
Zim released him and Dib fell to his knees, gasping. The Irken continued on his way. Dib stared at the floor, breathing hard. He could still feel the remnants of the memory, ghosts of adrenaline burning his veins as the scent of fear left his nostrils. After awhile, he got to his feet and stepped after the alien. He passed more humans this directions, male and female of all ages, some shaking, lips moving, others sitting motionless, eyes hollow.
The door slid open to him and he stepped into a larger room, blinking to adjust to the dim lights. The Irken is seated at a computer, tapping a keyboard. Dib tries to make sense of the strange symbols, fascinated in spite of himself. The alien glances at him briefly as he steps closer but continues his work as if he isn't there. Dib turns and looks around the room, taking in the tables, cabinets, screens, machines. He steps over to a bank of smaller monitors. They flicker between familiar scenes; a quiet street, neighboring houses, parked cars, people walking dogs and baby strollers. Is this outside of here? He moves to a table scattered with papers and charts, picking one up and flipping through it. Pages of alien text and rudimentary drawings of animals, plants, humans. He sets it back down and moves on, scanning over odd machines and computers. An unseen door slides open, startling him, and he peeks his head inside. A small room like the one he awoke in, only the walls of this one are lined with drawings, texts, human objects such as colorful gum wrappers, magazine ads, photographs, fliars. He finds a lost dog poster on the floor and picks it up, looking into the face of a cute collie. It is dated four years ago. Dib sets it on the bed and notices two machines on the wall above the bed, wires hanging from them. He reaches to touch one but a green hand grabs his wrist. He lowers his arm and watches the alien pick up the ad and stick it to the wall among others. The Irken glances at him and leaves the room silently. Dib follows.
"Can you speak my language?" he asks, following the alien through the room. "I mean, you spoke into the radio. How did you know to do that? What to say?"
Zim doesn't respond, leading him into another hallway. The door slides shut behind them.
"Can you understand me?" Dib glances into the rooms they pass. Lab rooms, perhaps, with alien equipment prepped and awaiting horrific experiments. Not unlike the labs at the agency. "Thank you. For saving my life."
The Irken's antennae twitch. He leads Dib to the end of the hall and presses a button on the wall. Dib turns to face him, frowning.
"I wish I could speak with you."
A door slides open behind him and the alien places a delicate hand on his chest, pushing him until he steps back into a tiny room. The glass-like door slides shut again and Dib watches the alien begin sliding downward as his room moves up; an elevator. The crimson eyes watch him until they can no more and Dib looks around the small room as blank wall slides by before him. A soft hiss emits from the ceiling and he starts to feel tired. Maybe he will just close his eyes for a moment..
He slides to the floor as the elevator takes him up, away from the lab, back to the world he knows.