The people in their sterile green and white froze. One man stopped in the doorway and turned, so that when the swinging doors closed they smacked him on the side of the face. Another, smaller gentleman who’d been attending to something in the corner made a sort of whimpering noise and fell to the floor.

Murmurs floated in from the hallway, disturbing the pinging silence of the room, ”...shouldn’t have achieved sentience.”

I repeated, as politely as I could, “What’s happening?” No hand stopped me as I rose to my elbows, though the room stayed slightly hazy, a morass of white stained with green and smatterings of red.

A woman, slight and graceful, made a step in my direction. An arm quickly swung up into her path. She made a sound of protest but said nothing. Rapid footfalls clattered in through the still undulating double doors.

A voice from behind me whispered over my head, “Does he remember?”

“Remember what?” I challenged, turning my head. A bolt of pain in my neck took away all sense, all light.