Derek Goodman - The Reanimation of Edward Schuett

Liddie stared at her. “Mom, I do hope you understand this is a weird request. It’s like telling a kid to go to someone’s sleepover because they don’t have any friends.”

Her mother smiled. “You thought that was weird? You never said anything about it.”

“That’s because Jamie was… well, I felt sorry for her. I thought maybe you were right.”

“Of course I was. I’m your mother.”

She kissed Liddie on the forehead and left the room, leaving Liddie to contemplate Edward and that long ago friend Jamie. The problem with Jamie was they had become friends after all, best friends, but only up until high school. That was when Jamie had slept with Liddie’s boyfriend.

That wasn’t exactly the sort of friendship Liddie wanted to have again.

It was tough for Edward to tell how much time passed. He never got a chance to go outside and none of the rooms he went between had windows. He would have tried to judge the number of days by the number of times he slept, but he never slept for more than two hours at a time and even then it seemed like he got sleepy at completely random intervals. He didn’t want to ask anyone, though. Keeping track of time was the sort of thing any old person should have been able to do, and he refused to admit he couldn’t.

Other things, at least, seemed to get easier. He still couldn’t hold down anything other than meat, but as time went on and his body no longer made any obvious changes he no longer felt the urge to eat it raw. Even better, his bowel problems started to get under control. For what seemed like several days after he arrived at Land’s End he had to wear adult diapers. He would have simply called them Depends, but Liddie didn’t know what that meant; they were apparently just another brand name that had disappeared a long time ago. His accidents became fewer and fewer, however, and soon he was able to go without them.

His room, too, changed for the better. He didn’t have to stay in that cramped little cell for very long. Liddie came to him several times asking him unusual questions ranging from his favorite color to his rest index ratio, which he had no idea what that was, but he eventually figured out that was something to do with advanced beds that hadn’t been invented yet in his time. He didn’t know what it meant until she came and led him to his new room, although it was really more of an apartment. It had been built in the facility just for him, and he could still smell the fresh paint and brand new carpet. She’d put a rush order on the place, apparently, and refused to let any of the tests on him start until he had a comfortable place of his own. That gesture alone would have meant a lot to him, but the cap on it all was the yellowed yet framed poster of Dale Earnhardt Jr. she’d put on his wall. She hadn’t know who Dale Jr. was, but she’d found out and searched high and low for it just for him.

He’d been nervous about all these cryptic tests Liddie kept mentioning, but once they actually started they proved to be little more than annoyances. They started out by taking only a few blood samples, but once it was discovered that he regenerated blood just as quickly as he could regenerate any other wound they began taking far more than a normal human would have been able to survive. All it did was make him feel slightly weak once in a while. There were also treadmills and various strength tests, the results of which surprised everyone including Edward. He’d always had a decent amount of strength, but he’d never been what he would call a bruiser or anything, and he certainly had never done very well running. But on the treadmill he could now keep up a good jogging speed for nearly an hour without getting winded, and he could generally lift more than he’d ever been able to in his previous life. The only side effect was that every time he pushed himself to that level he craved raw meat again.

This was all just the beginning, he was assured. Not only would there be more complicated and involved tests in his future, but they were going to see what they could do to help him recall events during his missing fifty years. On the outside he acted like this was something he was okay with, even excited about. After all, it was possible there might be something in there that could give him information about Dana or even Julia. But inside he was scared out of his wits at the idea of remembering. The red-tinged dreams had continued, except he knew damned well they were more than just dreams.

He was brooding on his brand new couch about that exact issue when Liddie knocked at his door. The door still remained locked whenever he was in here, but at least he didn’t have to ask for permission to go the bathroom anymore thanks to the toilet and shower of his own right in the apartment.

“Are you decent?” Liddie called from outside.

“About as decent as I ever am,” he called back with a smile. He’d only been in the new apartment a short time, but that had already become their familiar call and response every time she came to see him. She visited at least twice a day, once to collect him for the day’s battery of tests and once to just talk. They didn’t usually have a lot to talk about, but it was nice to have her around. It wasn’t like he ever had anyone else to talk to that didn’t want to stick another needle in his arm.

Liddie opened the door, but she didn’t come in right away like normal. Instead he heard some grunts and mumbles from the hallway.

“Liddie, is everything okay?” he asked as he started to get up from the couch, but Liddie’s voice stopped him.

“Don’t come out here,” she said. “Just stay on the couch and close your eyes.”

“Are you sure? It sounds like you need some help out—”

“No, don’t come out. You’ll ruin the surprise!”

Edward shrugged, sat back down, and closed his eyes. “Okay, they’re closed.”

“Good. No peeking, no matter what you hear,” she said. What he heard was more grunts, and he realized that she wasn’t alone. For a moment he almost panicked and opened his eyes. Maybe someone was coming for him. Maybe Liddie was just trying to distract him while some goons came to take him out. Maybe the CRS had for some reason decided that their precious Z7 was too dangerous after all.

Then he relaxed. He barely knew Liddie, but he believed she was trustworthy enough that she would never spring something like that on him. She would warn him and try to save him, or at least he hoped she would.

There were some bumping noises and someone cursed. It sounded like there were at least two other people with Liddie, and they were coming through the door slowly.

“Careful,” Liddie said. “It took a lot of convincing to get my mother to approve this thing, and I don’t think I can get her to approve another one if this one ends up broken.”

Edward raised an eyebrow without actually opening his eyes.

“Put it right over there. We can have someone move it later if he’d prefer it somewhere else.”

“Liddie? Can I open my eyes now?”

“Just a second. Okay guys, that’s good. You can go now.”

The two extra people left, leaving Edward alone with Liddie and whatever they had brought in.

“Okay,” she said. “Go ahead.”

Edward opened his eyes and gasped at one of the largest televisions he had ever seen in his life.

“What’s all this about?” he asked.

“Happy birthday, I guess.”

“It’s not my birthday. Or at least I don’t think it is.”

“I thought about asking you, but I thought that might give away that I was planning something. Really, I thought it might be something to help you pass the time, since you can’t exactly do much socializing or get outside.”