Chapter 23: The Dorian Collective

The Merging, Part 2

Matthew, in his current motionless and voiceless state, kept his attention fixed to the casket at the top of the altar’s ledge. The plastic arms of the chair they’d plopped him into were more than uncomfortable, aching planks of thin cushion, perfect for pins and needles down his forearms. He kept catching his brain trying to lift, but the muscles of his body wouldn’t–possibly couldn’t–move with him. He fought the need to scream until a heaviness washed over him–one of dark surrender, his only remaining option to quell the remaining thoughts of panic in his lonely, desperate head. 

If the thawed body inside the Collective’s machine awoke in the way they intended, escape no longer mattered anyway.