the machine hummed on

The machine hummed on. His ears were red. The droning of the machine, up, down, up, down was throbbing in his head. His heart was aching. It was beating slow and fast, erratic. That was the word. It was making him feel nauseated. His stomach grumbled. Full and sickeningly empty. Swollen and taut. The sight in front of him was normal. It was not as if you could tell. He felt as if he could smell the horses from his childhood. Which was odd, since there were no horses here, and probably had not been here for at least the last four decades. His stomach did a backflip. It was now full. He felt like throwing up. He could taste the sweat and animal fur in the air. The ground was squelchy and squishy beneath his feet. The machine droned on. Up. Down. Up. Down.

The sky went dark. Thunder cackled. He looked up as rain began to fall onto his face. It was cold at first. Then it began to burn. He screamed. He woke up. He was in the mud. He was drowning in it. He had passed out, the rain had stopped. The clouds were still swirling above. Dark. Thick. Something else. Purple. A purple glow about them. They felt unnatural. He was tired. He was terrified. He tried to move. He could not. The machine was droning on. But now, it felt as if it were choking on water. His heart stopped for a second. He tried to move. His arms would not move. His legs would not move. He tried turning his neck. No dice. Only his eyes could move, and as he stared at the sky, an image formed. A shadow. And then solidifying. More and more. Stronger and stronger.

Everything went black.

When he came to, he was still on his back. The sun was shining. He didn’t remember why he was on the ground. He panicked. But he couldn’t remember why it felt so strange. Other than the fact that he would never have knowingly gone to sleep here. He might have passed out. That was common. A twinge of panic and then acceptance. He got up. Extracting himself off the ground felt like hard work. It was as if he were glued to it. And then he was out. A squelch later he was unglued from the ground. Almost immediately after he stood up, he put a hand behind him and sat down. The world was spinning. Stars in front of his eyes. Twinkling. And then he was up again.

The sky was beautiful. The ground was wet, a little, maybe. But otherwise, pretty spectacular. The grass was lush now. His head was still spinning, and he felt a little light but he was fast recovering. He didn’t want to move for fear of falling down but that would only take a few more seconds. It were as if he was rebooting. Something was wrong. The machine, he couldn’t hear it drone.