Life is But a Dream
by Forrest Armstrong
“I’m what they call an “acosmic pan-enthiest,” which means that I don’t believe that the universe exists. I believe that the only thing that exists is God and he is more than the universe. The universe is an extension of God into space and time.” — Philip K. Dick
The days of lush, green fields had passed, and with them left the blue skies that caressed the Earth and the yellow stars that twinkled brightly in the night, softly illuminating the world with a pure and angelic glow.
The ocean had gone with all the rest, no longer crashing against the shore and swirling back around the globe, only to collapse against the other side years later. The creatures that swam in its waters had all vanished into nothing, and the animals on land- great mammals like the lion or small insects like the ant- had disappeared as well. In the forests filled with pines and oaks, which had all dissipated as easily as the rest, sat a man.
The man was young, or so he thought; twenty-three years had passed by him, and he was sitting amidst the pines in meditation when his life began to drift away from him. Suddenly, the man woke up.
He looked down at his body; a frail naked image covered in a yellow bile, encased in a tall glass tube. He was horrified to find, at his mouth, another tube firmly attached, pumping oxygen into his lungs. He panicked and slammed his fists against the glass tube, but it was heavily-paned and thick, not allowing even the slightest crack in its surface. He soon became increasingly aware of his situation; he was a human encased in a test tube, nothing more than a science experiment.
He tried to glimpse his surroundings outside of the glass but everything was murky and blurred; all he could see was the color gray, and what looked like other test tubes. His vision was too fragmented and broken to clearly distinguish anything.
A red figure appeared outside of his tube, which he only noticed because it was radically different from the rest of the colorless landscape. As it came closer, it became apparent that it was indeed a very humanoid figure, and it was coming for him.
The creature was within feet of him now, and he could just make out its face; tinted by the yellow bile but still clearly a dark shade of red, eyes with huge black pupils and sharp, jagged teeth. The creature had a thin coat of what looked to be hair but he was unable to determine anything further through the glass.
The creature’s lips curled upward as it spoke. “At last, you have awoken,” it said.
The man struggled to reply, struggled to ask it where he was and when he had arrived here, how long he had been asleep, and why he had been forced to leave his perfect world. But the oxygen tube stuck in his mouth prevented him from speaking at all. The red creature laughed at him.
“Don’t bother,” it said. “You must have questions, and I will do my best to answer them. You are here because you have been selected by a scientific organization for experimentation. You were kidnapped against your will. The experiments were, as you probably have guessed, illegal. It has been six months since you were last conscious, and at last, we are finished with you.”
Although he could not admit it to himself, the man knew what that meant. He tried to escape to his forest, to flee the nightmare which was invading his reality, but he had already lost touch with Earth. He could no longer even envision the world he lived in for so long. He wondered if he even looked as he had always imagined; it was impossible to be sure.
“If it’s any consolation, the research you assisted in proved infinitely useful in the progress of science. Surely you understand why it is necessary to carry on like this.”
When it finished speaking, the creature turned to a control panel and pressed a few buttons. The oxygen tube began to loosen, retracting slowly, allowing time for the man to scream and reach for it, before withdrawing through the top of the tube. Bubbles of yellow bile flowed forth from his mouth as his last breath left him...
To all of those still blissfully asleep: Never wake up.
Copyright © 2006 by Forrest Armstrong
