Captured Mind - Chapter 1 Excerpt
CHAPTER I
This was her passion, the final inspection, she called it. Every day the process of removing radical elements from society was never less exciting. It had taken too many decades to reach a point of scientific thought re-engineering to not relish the experience. In her view, to make it this far in creating the most perfect conforming citizen was the greatest triumph for mankind.
When Doctor Sheila glanced over to her assistant, she saw a man in his early twenties with a daunting look of complacency. She’d never liked this man ever since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him in the Temple of Group Thought. It was just her luck to be assigned a dupe with a PhD. Maybe it was the budding bitterness of her old age, or perhaps it was just an aging woman’s wisdom. All she knew was that her once youthful devotion to the new religion of science while mentoring under Doctor Frankel was unlike that of the newer generation. Back before the last great world war, it seemed everyone was alive with energy and moving forward because of motivations. Never before had she seen the bland and calm uncaring demeanor of the newer graduates. She had no idea where all of the work ethic and discipline had gone, but this was what she had to work with now - a generation of easy come and easy go – youth with very much to gain in knowledge and too little to lose.
From the corner of her eye she watched as he followed her inside the hospital room. Just as he was about to step upon her shadow she turned to him and said, “You fool…it’s forbidden to tread yourself over any part of me!”
“I won’t tread.” He bowed. “I’m sorry.”
“Didn’t you pass the etiquette exam?”
“I did.”
“Then back off!”
The assistant stepped to the side. He quickly tried to collect himself and changed the subject. “Are the patients ready?”
“All except for those two.” Doctor Sheila pointed to the far corner where two patients slept under black blankets and blue strobe lights. “I’ll deal with them later.”
She led him into the center of the room where six patients slept on beds soaked in yellow flashing lights. “Do you see how the green tint is in their skin? This means the The Mold is present. You must’ve learned that in the academy?”
“I did.”
“For them it’s time for the next phase. Their minds are captured. You can prepare them to wake.”
He slid away the eye masks from each patient and punched a sequence of numbers into the computer. “What’s wrong with the other two?”
“Something in their thought patterning is resistant,” Doctor Sheila said. “On a deeper level, they’re still carrying the enemy word virus. It could have something to do with genetic resistance in the brain. I need to re-evaluate the EEG.”
“Do you want me to set up the-”
“Of course,” she interrupted. “What do you think you’re standing in this room for?”
“I’m on it,” he said.
