A variety of posters helped me a while back in developing an idea.
Unfortunately, when it came to the point of "what would you do/think
if you found yourself in this situation" everyone knew what it was all
about. Not knowing what a 'normal' reaction might be kept the story
from gelling.
So, using you as fresh blood:
You go to bed as usual.
You wake up on a gurney. There are no IVs, electrodes, or anything
else attached to you. If you wear earplugs, a blindfold, or a t-shirt,
they've been removed. If you wear a pajama shirt, it's open. Otherwise
you are just as you were when you went to sleep, and you feel fine.
Sitting up, you find you're in a room with a CT scanner, and there are
half a dozen other people asleep on gurneys.
A clock on the wall (with day/date/time) shows that you've 'overslept'
about twenty six hours.
No matter how much you call out, no one comes.
Throughout the hospital, you find people asleep in beds, on chairs,
curled up in corners, etc. and you can't rouse them.
It is noticeable that no one seemingly 'dropped in their tracks' --
that is, everyone is in a reasonably comfortable place, with nobody
sprawled on the floor as if someone conked them from behind.
Through the windows, you see no one outside and no traffic.
The telephones work, and you can reach answering machines, but no
person ever picks up.
Every chart you can find, except for those people who were already in
the hospital, shows only something like: "brought in asleep, unable to
rouse" along with normal vitals and, in a few cases, dosages of
medications which were tried, unsuccessfully, to awaken the patient.
1) What are your first thoughts about what happened?
2) What is the first thing you'd do? The second?
3) What precautions might you think about to prevent it from happening
again?
As the author, I obviously know what is going on, but that means my
view is tainted, and it is difficult to connect to what might go
through a normal person's mind (I hate stories where someone is thrust
into a surreal situation and they instantly grasp what is going on).
Any help appreciated.
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