Flash Fiction / writing prompts

The Facility #4

Chris Hall86 Comments

You’re wheeled into a bland anti-room and the homely-looking nurse murmurs something to the blank-faced orderly who places a restraining hand, gloved in dark rubber, firmly in the centre of your chest; there’s a momentary flash of crackling bright blue light, and the world of sharp senses swims away to be replaced by the sterile hums and beeps of medical machinery.

Later, consciousness returns and you find yourself lying in dimly-lit room, redolent with the unfriendly spectres of duplicity and distrust, hooked up to a machine; probes have been inserted under your skin, like tiny burrowing animals, connected to wires and tubes which snake away into the gloom.

You sense you’re not alone: others are in the room, you can hear them breathing – you try to shift position, but your limbs are leaden and you can’t move your head – a gloved arm reaches over and another shock is administered; you float on the edge of unconsciousness once again.

Someone’s speaking, you open your eyes to the yellow glow of sunlight and the homely-looking nurse smiles faintly and extends her hand to you; others are in the room, filing out through a great glass door into a patch of green garden, where there is even a hint of a breeze; you find your feet and follow.

You shuffle around in a silent circle, noticing that everyone looks alike; then you catch your own reflection in one of the windows – a face you don’t recognise.

A face that’s just like theirs.

Confused? You might be! Read previous episodes of The Facility here.

Written in response to two challenges:

– Di of Pensitivity101‘s Wednesday’s Three Things Challenge – ANIMAL, FRIEND, TRUST
– Denise Farley of GirlieOnTheEdge‘s Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt – SHIFT

Photo credit: Scott Webb on Unsplash

Click here to read more Six Sentence Stories here – consider bringing your own too!

86 thoughts on “The Facility #4”

  6. Good one, Chris. The Facility is becoming even more nightmarish. I wonder if the walk outside is to ‘show the goods’ (I’m still stuck on clones) to potential buyers, or simply a prison exercise break, or something else even? You know it’s good when we as readers keep posing the questions 🙂

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  17. Remember that Movie with Cage & Travolta where they interchange characters with face plastic surgery?
    I couldn’t help, after reading this part of the story, remembering the scene where the protagonists exchange some lines using the movie title: Face off!!

    …Fac(ility)e…hmm.

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  23. Very Twilight Zonish, Chris. In a way, your Six reminded me of the TZ episode, “Eye of the Beholder”.
    Metaphor for the drive to make humankind more homogenous? Break down all avenues of self expression, eliminate individuality, instill complacency and compliance?
    (Yes. Appears there are more questions than answers 😀 )

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  24. Eeeeekkkk!!!! 😳
    Oh my goodness, Chris. I’ve still no clue what’s going on, and now find myself with an urgent need to know. But I have to wait for the next part! 😮🙂

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