with several tentacles. I screamed and it echoed off the room, the sound getting louder and louder instead of dying away. It turned into a shrill, insistent beeping and I opened my eyes to a
dark room and someone calling my name.
“George! George, wake up!” Jane’s voice called loudly. She sounded as if she was
emanating from every wall in an effort to get me to wake up.
“What? I’m awake,” I finally muttered, sitting up in bed swiftly and panting hard. The
dream, well nightmare really, had terrified me and sweat soaked my clothes and sheets.
“Are you all right, George?” Jane asked me, concern evident in her tone. I scrubbed a
hand over my face and just breathed deeply for several moments, trying to calm my racing
heart. When I felt calmer and my pulse slowed, I threw back the blankets and got up, pulling out
another pair of pajamas.
“I’m fine, just a nightmare,” I replied. “It was really vivid, though. I think my fears about
this trial were twisting in my head with my fear of being chased. Just a nightmare.”
I repeated that last sentence quietly to myself, trying to shake the sense that something
horrible was going to happen with this trial. I kept it up as I headed into the bathroom to splash
some cold water on my face. Starting the shower, I stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were
red-rimmed and I was very pale. When the shower was warm, I got in and sluiced all the sweat
off quickly. I got out, dried off, and dressed in my clean clothes, already feeling much better.
When I lay back down, another thought came to me.
“Jane, how did you know to wake me up?” I asked.
“Your heart rate was up and you were yelling in your sleep,” Jane replied. “I deemed it
prudent to wake you before you woke the others.”
“Well, thanks. Has anyone else had nightmares?” I continued, wondering if this was
indeed a side effect of the drug.
“Not yet, no. I am monitoring but you were the only one who was not sleeping normally,”
Jane said. “I’m going to try to go back to sleep. Will you let me know if anyone else has
nightmares?” I asked, burrowing under the blankets.
“Of course,” Jane said and fell silent. I closed my eyes trying to think of soothing
thoughts. Eventually, I fell asleep and did not dream at all again that night. I woke up in the
morning far more rested than when I had woken up in the night.
I got up and went through my morning routine before going in search of breakfast.
Surprisingly, Sandra was the only other person in the kitchen. I nodded to her and made a bowl
of cereal, wanting something simple this morning.
“How are you?” Sandra asked me, munching on a leftover muffin.
“Better than last night,” I said honestly. “I had a really bad nightmare. Jane had to wake
me up.”
“You know, I had a nightmare too, right before I woke up,” Sandra admitted, her face
closed and dark. “It really scared me.”
“I’ll share if you do,” I offered, shrugging. “Sometimes I find talking about nightmares
helps make them less scary.”
“Maybe. I was running from something and it was really dark,” Sandra explained,
shivering a bit. “I was trying to find a place to hide in this building but all the doors were locked.
It actually looked a lot like this facility but that didn’t click in the nightmare. I could hear whatever
was chasing me, it was breathing really heavily, and it kept getting closer and closer. I imagined
I could feel claws scratching at my back and it just made me run faster. Finally, I found a door
that wasn’t locked and I darted inside. There was this... blue light inside but I couldn’t tell what it
was coming from. I collapsed on a chair and that’s when straps grew from it and tied me down. I
couldn’t move, not even to wriggle. I kept struggling, trying to break the straps but nothing
worked. The door opened and the creature that was chasing me walked in. I still couldn’t see it
very well; every time I looked at it, my vision grew blurred and I had to look away. It went over to
the desk next to the chair and pulled something out, I couldn’t see what. Then it turned to me and I felt a prickling pain in my arm followed by a burning. I screamed, still struggling, then I
woke up. I was actually screaming and that was what woke me up.”
“I had a very similar dream,” I shared, a chill running down my spine. “Everything was
exactly the same as yours except I hid under a machine when the creature was chasing me.
And I started outside and found the building. I went into a room with a table, a desk, and a chair
and the creature was sitting on the chair. It gestured for me to sit on the table and then it
injected me with this blue glowing liquid. It burned as it went up my arm. Before it was
completely injected, I could see little organisms floating in the fluid. It really reminded me of this
trial and the building I was in was this one.”
“That’s really creepy,” Sandra noted, staring down at her halfeaten muffin. “What do you
think it means? It could just be coincidence, right?”
“What could?” Amy asked, walking into the kitchen and yawning.
“Sandra and I had very similar nightmares last night,” I explained, smiling when Amy
came over to hug me.“And they seemed to center around the trial and Gnotret. Did you have
any nightmares?”
“You know, I did actually,” Amy said, grabbing an apple and another muffin. “I dreamt I
was on some sort of ship. I was running through the decks, trying to find a way off. There was...
something chasing me. I don’t know what it was. I finally found a door that was open and I ran
inside, slamming it behind me. Inside, the light was blue and there were these little creatures
floating in the air. They were round disks with tentacles coming from the sides. Several of them
flew towards me and burrowed under my skin. I started screaming and scratching at my arms
and legs but I couldn’t stop them. Before I woke up, I saw that I was glowing blue as well.”
“Well, there are some common themes,” Sandra said, ticking off points on her fingers.
“First, we’re all running from something. Second, we make it to a room where there’s a blue
light. Third, these creatures that somehow enter our bodies. And last, we’re always screaming
though that could be just because of it being a nightmare.” “We sharing nightmares now?” Michael asked as he and Billy walked into the kitchen.
Michael still looked sick, as did Billy. “Because I had a doozy of a nightmare last night.”
“I did too,” Billy muttered, staring at the rest of us. He looked like he had the flu: his skin
was flushed, he was sweating, and he moved slowly as if his whole body ached. “But I’m going
to make tea before I talk. My throat is really hurting.”
“Let me tell mine first,” Michael said, sitting down at the table next to Sandra. He looked
at our breakfasts and grimaced, one hand pressing against his stomach. “Though I think I’m
going to skip breakfast. Anyways, I was dreaming that I was running on a track for some
exercise. Then the dream changed. I was still running on the track but something was chasing
me. I couldn’t see what it was but I knew I had to get away from it. Each lap it got closer and
closer and I could feel its hot breath on my neck. I saw a storage shed on the side of the track
and ran t
owards it, slamming open the door and shutting it behind me. Inside, there was this
table and it was lit with a diffuse blue light. I sat down on the table and this guy appeared next to
me. He jabbed me in the arm with a needle and it burned. Then I started glowing blue, these
little round shapes swimming underneath my skin. I screamed, but the guy just laughed. Then I
woke up.”
“I had a similar dream, though I couldn’t place where I was,” Billy explained, his voice
hoarse. He took a sip ofhis tea and sighed. “I was running on a beach of some kind. It was
dark, just a small sliver of moon in the sky. I couldn’t see the stars, though. I knew I had to keep
running or something would catch me. I didn’t know what it was, I just knew it would be bad. So
I ran and ran, my feet slipping in the soft sand. I almost fell several times but caught myself
before I hit the ground. The further I ran, the more the ocean changed. At first, it was dark and
the water broke on the sand in little white waves. Then, it started to glow blue and I could see
small shapes in the waves as they broke upon the shore. I tried to run further up the beach but I
couldn’t get away from the water. I felt that if the water touched me, I’d be lost. I heard a howl
from behind meand couldn’t stop myself from turning to look. When I did, I tripped over a log on the ground and fell into the water. Immediately, the little shapes swarmed me and flowed into
my mouth as I opened it to scream. It burned and I felt them all the way down my throat. Then I
woke up.”
“This is something Dr. Carnesby needs to be made aware of,” Jane interrupted us, her
voice causing us all to jump in the silence after Billy’s explanation. “You all had dreams with
similar or identical elements in them. I believe that it can no longer be termed coincidence and
that this is most likely a side effect of the drug.”
“Is he awake yet?” I asked, checking the time on the clock. It was just past eight in the
morning.
“He is,” Jane confirmed. “Dr. Carnesby has been going over the labwork from yesterday
to compare with the tests he’s going to perform today. I have told him about your dreams and he
should be appearing soon to talk with you.”
I finished my cereal quickly, knowing that Dr. Carnesby would likely want to perform all
sorts of tests on us. I didn’t want to face the rest of the day without at least one meal in me. Amy
and Sandra talked quietly while the rest of us just stared down at the table. I wondered what this
could mean. I’d never heard of people sharing dreams like this before. Though they weren’t
exactly identical; we seemed to have dreamt scenarios specific to each of our personalities. I
had just finished my cereal when Dr. Carnesby came into the kitchen, a concerned look on his
face.
“Jane informed me you all had similar nightmares last night?” he asked, taking another
chair and sitting at the table with us. “She seems to think, from hearing all of your explanations,
that there is something going on withyou all.”
“Well, we all have similar or identical themes in our dreams,” I explained, playing with my
spoon.
“Let me go grab a notebook and then you can tell me,” he said, getting up to head back
to his office. He came back with a pen and pad of paper, opening to a page and looking at us expectantly. We went through our nightmares again while he took notes. I shivered as I retold
mine, reliving the events all over again. After Billy explained his nightmare again, Dr. Carnesby
sat tapping his pen on the notebook with a thoughtful look on his face. I watched him after I was
done speaking, watched his face change with each new element to the nightmares. He looked
concerned when we each described the blue light and the organisms that floated in it.
“I think this is connected with the drug that we’re testing,” Dr. Carnesby admitted,
meeting each of our eyes in turn. “But I don’t think it’s dangerous. Just unnerving. Please keep a
record of all nightmares you may have in the future but I don’t think this is cause to stop the
trial.”
“They’re just nightmares,” Amy said. “I mean, I have nightmares sometimes even not
taking the drug. This isn’t going to stop me from continuing.”
The rest of us nodded, though I was more hesitant than the others. The sense of
forebodingcame back, stronger than ever. I pushed it back, knowing that I’d committed to going
through with this trial. Dr. Carnesby stood, pushing in the chair and flipping his notebook closed.
“Well, I’d like to start the physicals and tests again since you’re all awake,” Dr. Carnesby
said. “There may be differences already from Gnotret. Sandra, if you would?”
She followed him back to the office, sighing. I could tell that Sandra didn’t enjoy the
medical part of all this. I decided she was probably in it for the money more than anything else. I
turned to Amy and saw that she had finished eating. I smiled at her, taking her hand and
squeezing.
“You want to watch a movie until it’s our turn?” I asked. She nodded eagerly, rising and
pulling me to my feet. We headed out to the lounge and picked a comedy called Rush Hour. I
put the movie into the player and curled up on the couch with Amy. Billy and Michael wandered
in and pulled out the Mancala board. Billy set it up, quietly explaining the game to Michael,
in one of the armchairs. “Amy, he wants you next,” Sandra said, yawning. She looked exhausted, as if all her
energy had been drained. She was also very pale with a light red flush on her cheeks. Amy
kissed me lightly and got up, heading slowly back to the office. It seemed the longer we were
up, the more exhausted and sick we became. I focused on the movie again, resting my head on
my hand. Sandra watched as well, her eyelids fluttering as she fought to stay awake.
Over in the corner, I heard a quiet laugh as Michael won the game of Mancala. They
reset the game, Michael going first since he’d won. I started to nod off, the sound from the
movie a muffled hum. I heard a snore from the armchair and realized that Sandra had fallen
asleep.
I smiled a little at her; Sandra looked so young when asleep. Very different from herself
when she was awake. I’d already seen that Sandra was a very forceful woman, used to fighting
to get what she wanted. I heard a muffled cheer from the corner as Michael dropped counters in
his dish and went again. The movie I was watching ended, so I decided to study my fellow
participants for a little while. After all, we were meant to provide a check on each other, noticing
side effects that the others may have missed.
I could see that Michael was still extremely pale, his eyes glittering as if he had a fever.
He moved slowly, much like Sandra had, as if his joints hurt. He wasn’t flushed at all but he was
displaying many of the symptoms I was feeling and the others had been displaying.
Billy looked the healthiest, though he was naturally pale. His eyes were glittering like
Michael’s and he had a slack expression on his face. He was shivering slightly, as if the room
was too cold for him. As I watched, his head started nodding forward and he slowly fell asleep.
Michael stared at him for a moment, hand poised above the
counters, before he laid his head
down on the table and started snoring.
“Jane, I think the drug is making us all sick,” I muttered groggily, the words sounding
mushy in my mouth. “Pale, flushed, feverish, and we’re all... exhausted.” “I have noted that and informed Dr. Carnesby,” Jane said, her voice quiet. I think she
was trying to keep her voice down in order to let the others sleep. “If you can stay awake for
another twenty minutes or so, he wants to see you. He sent Amy to sleep in her room.”
“Sure,” I yawned. I pushed myself to my feet, wobbling a little as I stood up to my full
height. I felt dizzy and light-headed, feelings I associated with having the flu whenever I got sick.
As I staggered through the kitchen to Dr. Carnesby’s office, I vaguely wondered if he’d given us
a disease rather than trying a vaccine or something of that sort on us. It would make sense with
all the symptoms we had. But then I remembered the dreams and that made no sense at all.
Reaching the door, which was wide open, I stepped in and let my musings go. We’d find
out eventually what was going on with the drug and there was no use speculating now. Though I
was a little nervous at how quickly it acted. We had just gotten the first injection the day before
and already it had leveled all of us.
“George, please come in and sit down on the table,” Dr. Carnesby said, gesturing at the
examination table. I moved over to it slowly, grimacing as my muscles protested the movement.
I dropped down onto it, my weight almost too much to bear. Focusing my bleary eyes on Dr.
Carnesby, I waited for him to start the physical.
“I see we’re having our first side effects,” he stated clinically, studying me. “Sandra and
Amy were just as pale and flushed as you are. Are Michael and Billy having the same reaction?”
I merely nodded, too tired to try and speak. I yawned again, my jaw cracking with the stretch. I
shrugged when Dr. Carnesby looked at me in concern. I couldn’t muster up the strength to
worry about what he thought about what was going on.
“I’d just like to run a few tests again on you today, though you won’t have to do the
stress test,” Dr. Carnesby said wryly. “I don’t want you falling asleep on the treadmill and hurting