Felix’s eyes opened to a frosted glass panel. His heart was starting to push blood in his arteries, and his chest moved up and down to each breath. A tingling sensation from his nerves made him move his fingers and toes.

It was like awakening from a long dreamless sleep.

A plastic tube was jutting out from his mouth and the glass panel, going past his throat and leaving a burning sensation against his windpipe. After grabbing it and removing the tape holding it to his mouth, he pulled it slowly, trying to cough it out.

He threw the saliva dripping tube on his side and removed the electrodes from his pale skin, now hairless. His hands were much smaller than before, and he had all of his fingers at their right places now, which was a welcome surprise. An unwelcome one was that his arms looked like toothpicks, and the skin was stretched from each rib to the other.

He pushed the glass panel, but it wouldn’t budge. An alarm rang; “Human activity detected”, said a robotic voice, “Please, stand by. The system will now inject the required elements to survive”. A dark grey liquid moved in the plastic tube toward the IV in his arm, making him close his eyes and grit his teeth. His tolerance to pain seemed much lower; before he could endure being shot without giving much thought about it; now he couldn't even withstand a needle.

“The process is now complete”, said the voice, “You are now ready to survive outside. The Capsule will now open”. Felix ripped off the IV from his arm and jumped out, but, as his feet met the ground, his knees buckled and he tumbled on the ground, shaking. A harsh light hanging from the ceiling illuminated the small room, together with the blinking lights of the two buzzing cabinets connected at the capsule.

A young face raised his head, moving his long blonde hair from his face, and a pair of two blue eyes stared back at him.

“Who are you?”, he said, moving his arm toward him. The boy's lips moved as he talked, and when his fingers touched the glass of the mirror, his eyes widened. He knew that something in his body was different, but this shouldn’t even be possible. He waved his hand at the boy and he waved back.

“Oh, God”, he said, shuddering. Who was this guy? But he already knew the answer: it was him, but fifteen years younger.

His head slumped on the ground, his long hair covering his face, and his nails clawing on his skull. What he had built in all these years had been deleted with a snap of fingers; one of his nightmares becoming reality. He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to take a long breath to calm his racing heart. Why was even crying anyway? He was an elite soldier, or maybe it was better to say he had been one in the past, but he won't gain anything by crying.

What happened before arriving here? He knew that he was on a bridge, and he saw a tall man carrying one of his comrades, until a weird creature which he couldn’t remember the name attacked him. Then a woman in armor got shot, and the man grabbed her as she was falling, but an orange glowing spike pierced his throat, killing him.

He died, what next? There should be something to look here somewhere. His joints made cracking sounds as he stood up. His muscles were stiff, and he could see that this body, like a car, had been kept in the garage for too long.

He accessed the screen of the cabinet in front of him.

He moved past all the medical jargon he couldn’t understand until he arrived at the Logs:

12.03.2344: The Embryo has been successfully planted in the womb;

06.25.2345: Clone deceased due to brain malformation at birth;

08.01.2345: The Embryo has been successfully planted in a second womb.

07.05.2346: The birth has been successful. No anomalies to report.

07.05.2356: Ten years of age reached. No anomalies to report.

04.14.2363: Original subject decease reported. Stopping growth to allow transfer.

04.14.2863: Transfer complete. The subject awakened before estimated date.

He read many times the four numbers of the year, and he even traced it with his finger on the screen to see if it was real, or he was d, but after he woke up fifteen years younger, there was nothing he could find impossible anymore. There were other voices in the menu, but they were password-protected.

There was nothing to do here anymore. He had to move and go to see the outside world, to understand why he was alive again, and if humanity still existed.

The capsule, which was inside an alcove in the wall, had an openable slot next to it. Felix found a blue suit and a pair of boots put over a harness that should have been able to dress him when he was unconscious, something which left him dumbfounded.

He caught the falling sheet of paper before it touched the ground.

“In case of awakening”, he read out loud, “Enter again in the capsule and close the lid. The system will provide to the expulsion”. Now that Felix looked around noticed that the room was completely sealed. After dressing himself, he entered again.

The lid closed itself shut again. Metal plates slid over the glass, shutting all the light off. After a loud whirring sound, the capsule started to shake and race upwards.

Felix curled himself into a ball, shuddering at the thought of the capsule stopping and him being locked there for the eternity. He screamed every time it slowed down, or when it clanged against a large rock, slamming him against the walls.

After an eternity of time, it stopped. Apart from his death, this was one of the worst experiences in his life.

“Please”, he said, “Make it be the end”.

The lid of the capsule opened, and sand started to fall on top of him. He jumped out and faltered until he fell. One of the worst sensations was being aware of the rotating movement of Earth.

He raised his gaze to the sun setting over the dunes, dividing them into a brighter orange side and a dark one. On the opposite side, there were the pale blue silhouettes of the mountains, with a line of bright orange, yellow, and blue lights flashing at their feet.

“It could have been worse”