Thump-ump.
Thump-ump.
Thump-ump.

My heartbeat, that was the first thing I was aware of. The precious little thing thudding against my chest in protest of its imprisonment within my body. Then came the ringing. A faint sound  in my ears like something echoed constantly throughout them.
I noticed a light. A small red light that moved and hovered about me. Its sudden existence startled me and I yelped, drawing in a gasp of breath. I yelped again at the sudden realization of my voice.
"Subject is active," a smooth, metallic, all too human voice murmured.
"Hello?" I asked, unaware of where the words came from, or how I knew them, I looked around the blackness in fright of the enclosed space, the warm, soft, yet coking cocoon that pulsed with my breath and seemed to grasp me ever closer, ever tighter.
"Subject oh-six-seven-point-nine-dash-zero, good day. You were awakened due to habitable conditions and humanoid disturbance outside your pod. You have been kept stable and alive through nutrient systems and slight genetic alterations for one thousand, two hundred and seventy two years."
I didn't understand the words, and as strength filled my limbs, I began to struggle against my oppressive prison, screaming fearfully for my life as hunger and fright clawed out my stomach.
"You may have experienced some slight mutations due to these alterations and outside alpha, gamma, and residual BNG particles. Please remain calm as I check your biological condition."
Cold, metal claws ejected from the walls of my cell, folding over me and tightening about my limbs and body, pinching them painfully close together. I heard a mechanical whirring and something started to apply a cold, slimy, liquid to the center of my spine. I shivered and started to scream, but my voice left my body in naught but a single wet gasp.
Pu-Chunksssh!
Something blasted out from behind me with a burst of stale air and a sharp object jabbed deep into my back with a sickeningly wet tearing sound. I found my voice and screamed, shaking violently and attempting to break free. A cacophony of noises erupted from the rapidly moving red light and the needle in my spine spun quickly around and around. Oh, the pain! The pain was horrible!
Then, as soon as it began, it was done. Another metal utensil wiped my back with something else as the needle backed out. I continued to scream as the pain slowly faded and something worked to close up the new hole in my back. The pain wouldn't leave quickly enough, as if it savored my tears and fearful shaking and fighting. Metal and plastic objects I could not see whirred past my head, hands, and feet, clipping away my toenails, fingernails and hair.
I suddenly silenced and stiffened in reaction to a heavy knocking coming from the wall in front of me. The knocking ended, then resumed a few seconds later. A smooth, comforting voice could be heard.
"Hello? Are you okay in there?"
I stood still, unsure of what to do, pushing up against the back of my cocoon.
"Hello? If anyone is in there, please answer!" this time, the voice ha d a tinge of worry.
I heard another voice mumbling, but I couldn't make out what it said.
"Yes," the first voice said," but it couldn't hurt to open it up and see if they're alive. Trea, hand me the scribe."
I couldn't hear anymore for a few seconds and this scared me. I lay still, my breath heavy, waiting for the rescue. It seemed to take forever, as if my death in this prison was inevitable, but finally, a crack of blinding light appeared. A thin crescent line that grew upwards, losing shape until it was an open circle. My eyes adjusted to the light slowly, and I hesitantly rose up out of the cocoon that for so long had held me prisoner. In my first few tentative steps, I was still mostly blind, and I fell down and out of the strange container, landing on and scraping my chin.
I pushed myself up onto my knees and looked around through the blinding light, starting to make out basic shapes. The air out here was fresher than the air inside the cocoon, and I took a deep breath, savoring its dusty taste.
I looked up and saw four figures. They stood on two legs, and were tall and… I looked at myself. They were exactly like me! One of them walked up to me and helped me up. This one was beautiful, with long brown hair above her brown eyes that wrapped around its head, fell to its shoulders, and ended in a knot tied around its neck. It stood a little shorter than I, and had protrusions on the front of its lithe form the other three did not. I felt strangely attracted to her- for of course she was a girl, and wrapped her up in a large hug that surprised her and made her expel a melodious laugh.
A second one came up to her and took a square thing with a glowing screen from her and waved it over me, clicking on it with a plastic stylus as it beeped. This one was a man, though he could not have been very far past his adolescent years, and stood at the same level of me, though his stance was less forward and more relaxed. His hair was messily cropped close to his head and was the same color as the girl's. His eyes however, were a light brown, almost yellow, and his muscles slightly more defined within his relaxed and triangular build.
The other two just eyed me from where they stood, one suspiciously, and one curiously. The suspicious one was horribly disfigured and much taller than me, his skin pink and pitted, like a spider web of melted wax. His eyes were dark and black, and he had no hair. The other was very short, obviously young, with brown eyes and lighter brown air the color and length of the spindly grass on the dusty ground. His skin was also brown, which was strange, as the others and I were merely a dusty off white color. All four wore strange brown, yellow, and green clothing made from what appeared to be leather, fur, and old cloth clothing. I however, was nude, which gave me a strange, embarrassed feeling.
"The scribe says he's okay, though we'll need the master cartographer to judge for sure," said the man with the square object he referred to as the scribe.
"Good," said the woman, and she turned back to me, "Can you speak?"
"Speak...words…I speak words! Yes, I speak!" I blurted out the words that seemed to have been holed up for years. My voice was deep, very much unlike the woman's pretty voice," I don't know how I know! What am I? Am I one of you?"
"Yep," the man with the scribe grinned," You're one of us. Not one of those rejects wandering the badlands. We all awoke the same way. Well, except for Meresti," the boy nodded.
"No!" the ugly man said, shoving the kind man aside," He's not one of us until King says so! You know this, Trea!"
"Sorry, micaptain Spear. I meant only in species is he one of us. The scribe declares he is not a reject. He does have some form of mutation," Trea-for that was the man's name-bowed to the man apparently called Spear.
"And you are?" I smiled at the woman, the only one whose name I was unaware of.
"I am called Mead," she smiled right back and handed me a pile of ragged clothing," Here, see if these fit."
The clothing did fit well, and was actually rather comfortable, thanks to the cloth under layer. I patted down some of the wrinkles and slid into a pair of foot coverings called boots. I turned around to look at my formal prison. It was a rusting green metal cocoon filled with black cloth and machinery that whirred and snapped in its dying throes as it shut down, its mission complete.
The cocoon lay in a pile of rubble and wreckage that poured out of a monstrous, dilapidated building. I realized now that we were in a veritable mountain range of these buildings, and that everything, even the sky, had a brownish grayed tone. A thought crossed my mind.
"Where are we," I asked," And who am I?"
"This is the edge of Haven Country," said Mead," and your name…well…"
"His name is Bait until we get back to Haven Shelter and he is named," snapped Spear.
"Yes, micaptain Spear," I stammered, trying to appease the man. I knew exactly what Bait meant.
Smack!
The man slapped me across the face and I reeled back, unsure of what to do.
"I'm not your captain," he growled," Not by a long shot!"
I didn't know what to do so I just nodded and shuffled back behind Trea and Mead, who were unsurprised. I was so new to this strange world, this place called 'Haven', and my fears were piling up.
A shrill scream of hunger went up from the ruins beyond.
"Hunters," Trea grunted.
"We'd better get moving before darkfall, micaptain," Meresti shuddered," The master cartographer warned of a greenstorm that may come."
Spear nodded thoughtfully and commanded," Bait, you're taking point by a good 10 paces. I'll direct you."
I nodded and quietly moved forward, wondering about these 'hunters' and their world beyond. Would it really have been so bad to sleep for eternity in that metal coffin?