It's Monday and I have another free short story to try to keep everyone entertained and distracted in this crazy world we live in. Here is another horror piece from a past anthology. Enjoy! Reanimation Lab
By Sheri Velarde The final frontier for science is to prevent death itself, in particular brain death as the brain is the only organ that cannot be transplanted and allow a body to retain their original personality. Once a brain is dead there is no bringing it back. Or is there? That is the premise of the Reanimation Lab, a place that can reawaken the truly dead. Those you love can be brought back to life by the power of science and stem cells. It was a motto that Elizabeth knew by heart and believed in more than any other scientists that worked there. Elizabeth went into this line of scientific study for a very personal reason, her mother lived in a vegetative state and had for decades. She had been pronounced brain dead after a car accident while Elizabeth was in college. That accident had changed the course of Elizabeth’s life. Numerous doctors had told her that her mother was gone, to just pull the plug and let go, then they both could be at peace. “No. She’s not gone. I will find a way to bring her back.” Elizabeth had sworn to herself and to everyone who tried to talk her into killing her mother. Now all of her hard work and determination was about to pay off. She had found a way to regrow damaged brain tissue. Sure her only successes thus far were a few rats, still they had been completely brain dead and now were not only awake and aware, but functioning well while still under observation in secluded cages. Soon it would be time to see how they dealt with being reintroduced to their society. Elizabeth knew that she should wait until all results had been gathered, but she had already waited too long. She wanted her mother and tonight would be the night she brought her back. “Liz, we can’t do this. We’re breaking so many ethical laws, not to mention probably real laws that could get us arrested. We should wait until clinical trials on humans are approved.” Her friend and assistant Charles said even as he helped her prepare the samples that would be inserted into her mother’s damaged brain. “No, my mother has been lying in a bed with machines breathing for her and tubes feeding her for far too long. Tonight we are going to give her life back.” Yes, Elizabeth had broken some laws to get her mother’s body brought to her labs, but truthfully the nurse who had been taking care of her in a private facility seemed relieved that she would no longer have a job. It hurt to take care of someone in a coma that had no hope of waking up. However it was that exact hope that her mom could wake up that had made Elizabeth the top neuro geneticist in the world. Deep down she knew that she should wait for the human trials to begin, but she couldn’t. After seeing her process work on rats, well she just knew that it would work on her mom. Soon she would have her mom, her best friend, her family back. “Everything is ready.” Charles interrupted her thoughts. “Good. Let’s get this over with. I’d rather apologize after my mother wakes up than explain what we’re doing and possibly be stopped. Besides, once I prove that this procedure works on human subjects no one will care that I broke a few rules.” “I hope you’re right.” Charles said. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your name out of this if anything happens. We both know that I’m the one who could not only lose her reputation but her mother as well.” “I know and that is the reason I agreed to help you, I just wish you would wait but I know I can’t talk you out of this.” With that they set to work. For the miracle that they were performing, the process itself was relatively simple. Her mother’s brain had been inactive for so long they hardly had to prepare her, most of her brain cells had already died off long ago. Now all they had to do was introduced specially treated stem cells near the brainstem and then watch them multiply. Her brain would regenerate and she would wake up. Yes, something so simple had taken scientists decades to perfect, but it would change the world now that it had been and her mom would be the first person brought back to “the land of the living”. Two people performing brain surgery was unheard of, but she really only needed Charles to monitor anesthesia and hand her instruments. She would be able to implant the new material fairly easily in her mother’s depleted brain and then all there was to do was wait. The procedure went by without a hitch, though even Elizabeth was shocked at the state of her mother’s brain. Years of not being used and it had withered down to nothing. “That only means that the new cells will take hold that much sooner.” She said with confidence. “Elizabeth, have you thought about what she might be like if she wakes up? With brain damage this severe, there is no knowing what will happen when the brain regenerates. She likely won’t retain any of her old personality, we have only seen rats wake up and eat. We have seen them resume basic life activities, we know nothing if the self is still intact when a patient wakes up.” Charles spoke her deepest fear, that her mother wouldn’t still be the mother she once knew. “No, this will work. She may be confused and she has over a decade of the world to catch up on, but she will be fine. I know it in my heart.” Charles did not seem convinced, but said nothing. However as soon as he mother was in recovery in a private room within the lab, good friend or not, Charles left as quickly as he could. No one else knew what they had done. She would take care of her mother herself for the next few days or weeks, staying at the labs herself and sneaking off whenever she could. She wanted to be the first face her mother saw when she woke up. Weeks went by and her mother remained in a vegetative state. Elizabeth began to wonder if the procedure work on humans after all. Had her entire life’s work been futile? Over a month after the procedure, Elizabeth sat by her mother’s bedside, thinking about pulling the plug on her mother’s life support for the first time ever. If she hadn’t woke up by now, maybe there was no bringing her back. It was then, at her lowest moment, that Elizabeth saw a flutter of movement from the bed. Her mother’s hand moved. She saw it, she couldn’t be imagining it. Soon her mother’s breathing seemed stronger, with hope blossoming in her once more, Elizabeth removed the breathing tube and to her delight her mother continued to breathe on her own. Laughing, Elizabeth called to her mother, “Mom? Can you hear me?” Tears of joy slipped down her face as her mother’s eyes fluttered open. Blinking and unseeing after years of being unused. “Mom! It’s me, Elizabeth! There is so much that I need to tell you! So much!” Gasps and grunts came from her mother’s mouth, like she wanted to speak but couldn’t. “Don’t try to talk yet. It will take some time. But soon you will be strong and healthy once more.” Her mother stared towards her voice, but made no sign of recognition. “It is just going to take some time.” Elizabeth said for herself more than her mother. So Elizabeth kept feeding her mother through a feeding tube, but slowly started to get her to drink and eat on her own. Soon her mother could sit up, but still couldn’t talk. Then one day she heard terrible sounds coming from her mother’s locked room. Elizabeth rushed to see what had happened to her mother, the rest of the lab still unaware of her mother’s presence. She threw the door open to see that her mother had ripped out the feeding tube as well as the other machines connected to her. Her mother stood near the door, shrieking at the pieces of the smashed mirror in front of her. “Mom, it’s okay. Let’s get you back in bed.” Elizabeth walked towards her mom, trying to calm her down. She never saw the shard of glass in her mother’s hand until it had slashed through her throat. Elizabeth struggled to grab her mother, to somehow stop her, but before she could her mother had knocked her down and was lapping at the blood freely flowing from her artery. Her mother got up and the last thing Elizabeth saw before darkness took her was he mother, bloodied and still clutch the piece of mirror, running through the open door.
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AuthorAuthor, artist, jewelry maker and all around creative person. I write in many genres and have a lot of fun doing so. Please take a look around and enjoy! Archives
January 2022
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