“Mr. Robinson, if you could please sign your name here just below the Terms of Agreement and we’ll get started.”


The words, they rang through my head like a cancer, slowly spreading throughout my entire body. After a moment of reassuring myself, I gripped the black-ink pen and nervously put down my signature. This contract granted another chance at a different life. The future. A time in this world I might actually have a chance at, no more fighting, no more wars, economics issues, racism, and all the problems that our world is facing today in the 21st Century could be gone by the time I wake up.

I walked out of the changing room in shining white clothes that seemed to squeeze my body as an anaconda would its prey. I returned to the cryogenics room, when I came through the door, I saw a white dove peeking through the window. The dove was standing there looking innocent as ever, in my religion, Catholicism, doves are considered to represent the Holy Spirit. I wonder if God was warning me of something, but why would he come to me now? He never answered my prayers I put my heart into when my parents filed for divorce. I just knelt by my bed with tears running down my young face while my house filled with arguments downstairs. Then suddenly the man in the sunglasses interrupted my thoughts and caught my eyes standing there with his black aviators reflecting light creepily like in the old Matrix movies. “Mr. Robinson, if you could please now step inside the machine and the procedure will be underway.” The man said.
“Yeah, sure, but is it alright if I can get some time to myself?” I nervously asked.

“I am truly sorry Mr. Robinson but time is money and the longer we wait, the longer you have to anticipate a better future. Now, Mr. Robinson, please get inside the machine.” He quickly replied.
“No..no I’m sorry Mr. “Shades” but I don’t know if I’m ready to make this type of decision. Just think about it, I’ll be living amongst my nephew’s grandchildren, my friend’s granddaughter, and an infant’s son! I just can’t process this through my mind, when I wake up, it’ll be 100-250 years from now!” I stated. Red veins began to rise on the man’s forehead, his face slowly turning blood-red from anger. He then smirked as if he thought of the best possible comeback.

“Oh, but Mr. Robinson, you are now my property. You do as I say and what I say is get in that damn machine! You signed your name giving permission to allow this procedure to be done and you are holding us back. Now I will ask one last time before I use force.” He said while taking a quick pause to regain composure, “Mr. Robinson, “If you could please now step inside the cryogenics machine so that the procedure may commence.”

I stood my ground, looking at the mysterious man’s eyes, staring deep beneath his retina continuing straight to his nervous system attempting to figure his intentions. “Alright, before I go, can I at least have a name?” I asked.

He then sighed with an obvious sign of stress, “You know what Robinson? I’m getting tired of your stubborn, bull-headed bull crap, but, if that is what it will take to get a sorry excuse of life like you into the machine behind me, fine, I’ll bend to your will. My name is Robertson, John E. Robertson, Commander of the 7th Division of the U.S.M.C. and head scientist in this procedure, now, must I use physical force or will you cooperate Mr. Robinson?” he said irritatingly.

I nodded my head with a sigh, the closer I got to the machine, the heavier my legs seemed to weigh each time I lifted them to continue to move forward. After walking across the white tiled floor and through the white painted walls, making me feel as if I am in a psychiatric ward, I finally arrived at the machine. Seeing this tube, it reminded me of when I watched all the old Star Trek movies with my father, watching them go into a deep hyper sleep. I then suddenly remembered how my father and I would easily get into fights and I was forced to be beaten and always taking the blame. Remembering this continued my limp body forward into the machine.

The metal was cold to the touch, with white steam seeping through tiny holes in the metals surface. Inside the machine a body mold of gel was custom made for my extreme comfort as if predicting a long stay. My legs trembled as I placed each foot into the foot holes. I then grasped the handle with my left hand to gently guide my body into the gel padding. I squirmed around the tube until I could find a comfortable position. The glass casing began to slowly rise closing the opening, as the case was closing more white steam was seeping out of the tiny holes until visibility was at an all time low.

The glass casing then came into a final position, hydraulics forcing the case shut with automatic screws being put in, making any attempt to get in or out impossible. To the right of me, a small speaker began to crack until I could hear Robertson’s deep, grouchy voice. “Mr. Robinson, in just a few moments, you will notice a cold blue steam entering the tube, it is a tranquilizer to help ease the pain of being frozen. After that a darker tone of blue steam with enter and will put you into semi-consciousness just enough so I can communicate with you about the continuing procedure.” Robertson calmly stated.

"Y-Yeah, I understand." I meekly replied. Moments later I felt a cold tingling sensation all around my body, the tube began to fill with ice cold smoke turning m body numb. The speaker cracked.

"Now, the smoke that I was previously talking about has been inserted into the machine, it's a tranquilizer so you will not fill a bit of pain as your body begins to freeze. We are now ready to commence freezing, thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Robinson." Mr. Robertson calmly said.

I mind began to wander off before a sudden picture came to mind, a white figure basking in the sunlight. The figure began to take flight and closing its distance between us. As I squinted my eyes and put my hand over my eyes to shield hem from the overpowering sunlight, it was a dove. Was this dove a sign of something to come, to warn me? Before I could continue my thoughts, everything went black.

I woke up gasping for air, my body still numb with steam emitting from my cold blue skin. My body began to shiver attempting to gain a sustainable body temperature. I began screaming for help, no knowing if it would ever come, until a familiar crack came from a frosted speaker.

"Mr. Robinson, your company has been long awaited" A creepily familiar voice announced.

"Rah-Robertson? Get me the hell outta here! You dirty b******, what did you do to me, just wait till I get my hands on you!" I screamed.
"Calm down Mr. Robinson, the Robertson you speak of has been dead for 110 years I am his great-great-grandson. You are going through Cryogenic Shock, so we need you to calm down sir or we will need to inject you with sleep aid." The voice said.

I began to cry without reason, losing all sanity I thought I had, "No! No more injections! No more anything! Just let me go home to 5th St. I don't want to be frozen anymore, just let me go home." I sobbed.

"Mr. Robinson, your home as you call it, no longer exists, it was demolished so that the Ferguson Penthouse could be built and all could have a roof over their head, now I am sorry but we will now stabilize you." The great-great-grandson of John Robertson said, "Yes, go ahead and inject the serum."

"What? No! No!" I screamed, my voice began to gradually become softer as the serum came into effect. Everything around me began spinning, the frost that build over God knows how long, my head became light and my head threw forward as I passed out.

I woke to bright lights all around me, outlines of heads and body were all around my peripherals. I tried to move around, freeing my body to go back home, but my wrists and ankles were strapped by some blue energy technology. I continued to look around and noticed my skin-tight silk clothes were replaced with black silicon-based clothing. I assumed it was formal because the material gradually got lighter towards the middle with a symbol on the left breast that was a capital F combined with a lowercased F.

"Mr. Robinson, my name is Matthew Robertson. I'm the lead scientist in this facility in Seattle. Welcome to the 22nd Century, It's, excuse me, we've been waiting for you for 150 years now." Matthew Robertson said.

"No. No! Please, just stop. I can't take this terrible nightmare anymore. Does it really matter, all of this, is it all this important to deprive a human being of a free life?" I eagerly asked.

Robertson then gave a faint smile followed by a low tone giggle, "No sir, not at all. Now if you don't mind we're just going to continue a few tests."

"What? But all we've done since I first woke up is testing on me, I'm a human being and I deserve to live my life outside in the world, not strapped to a chair or some cell. I did all of this so I could finally have something to look forward to!"

"Janice, I think Mr. Robinson might be going through another emotional shock, please sustain him with meds immediately. "

I heard a quick yes sir in reply, "What? No! You can't do this to me! I'm not a test subject, I'm Timothy John Robinson! I'm timothy John Robinson damn it, why won't you listen to me?" I felt the gentlest stream of tears falling of my eye lashes on to my cheeks, gently sliding down off the lobes of my ears.

"Calm down Mr. Robinson, everything will soon be alright as soon as you get your medicine."

"Can't you at least listen to my cries, feel some sympathy for once!" I cried

"Only if you wish Mr. Robinson. My ears are open, just don't forget about your medicine."

"I didn't want this you know, I thought being in the future, I'd be famous for doing this, but so far, all I've been is your lab rat, testing me about everything. I dreamed of standing in front of thousands, cheering my name, hell, even your great-great-grandfather, John Robertson told me so. Now I can see all of this was a lie, just to test some new technology on a human subject for personal profit." I bellowed out my final with, struggling to hold back more tears, "Now that I think of it, I had so much in my previous life, I just didn't realize what I had and now all who I loved are dead. Dear God!"

I soon felt a pinch in my left wrist, I threw my head forward, bursting out in tears for the horror I saw. It was a clear vial injecting a purple serum, but that's not what was terrifying. On that vial was a black skull, could that mean death? It increasingly became harder to breathe, nearly impossible to swallow as if all of my bodily organs were failing. My eyes began to fall, felling the heaviest they've ever felt. I was again surrounded by darkness.

"Test subject was a failed attempt, we were so close this time! Prepare to wake subject 216CT" I heard Robertson's voice say.

One last light overpowered the darkness, sunlight, a familiar sight came to me ,but this time the white dove began to fly away. Where was it going? This dove was the last thing I could hold on too, the farther the dove flew from me, the more tired and at peace I felt. A calming warmth covered my skin and I began to feel lifted up from the surface. Where was I going? I did not know, for I never saw the light of day again, I just followed the dove, trusting it while I was searching for a new home.