Dark Matter

Jason wakes as he is being lifted onto a gurney. The woman attending him addresses him as “Dr. Dessen” and asks how he got out of the box. She wheels him through a huge facility into an operating room, where a man in a hazmat suit congratulates him and welcomes him back. Jason does not remember how he got there. He does not remember the man, either, who introduces himself as Leighton Vance, the chief medical officer and Jason’s friend and colleague. Jason thinks he is hallucinating. Leighton wheels Jason into a glass chamber, referring to him as a test subject. Cold mist from the vents blasts Jason, burning his skin, before warm water washes it away. The process brings Jason to his senses though he is still groggy. Leighton wheels him into a padded cell with a bed and a change of clothes. He tells Jason to relax, and that he’ll be back after getting the results of his bloodwork.

Jason struggles to remember the details of the previous night. He remembers being with his family but not what prompted him to the leave the house. Leighton returns, excited that Jason’s lab work showed no signs of toxic contamination, and escorts Jason through a set of doors to a cheering crowd. They reach the second floor, where a woman in business attire, Amanda Lucas, takes Jason to an interview room for debriefing. Outside a glass observation window, a team of researchers is watching, and they give Jason a standing ovation. Jason notes that two of the people are armed. Amanda tells Jason he has been gone for 14 months, and that they have all been waiting on “pins and needles” (39) to ask him about his experience.

Jason pieces together going to the bar and being attacked, and his vital signs (Leighton is monitoring him) begin to spike. He asks to be excused, embarrassed that he is not the hero they believe him to be. Leighton offers the chamber for Jason to relax in, but Jason asks to use the restroom. Leighton leads him up two flights of stairs to the ground level through a door that reads VELOCITY LABORATORIES. He takes Jason to his first-floor office so he can use his private restroom.

Leighton tells Jason that they can help him work through this, and that Jason needs to trust him. Jason locks the bathroom door and escapes through a window above the urinal. He runs through a dark alley and across the office park where the building is located until he reaches the shore of Lake Michigan. He can hear Leighton’s people following him. Injured and disoriented, Jason makes his way through a South Side neighborhood and ends up in a baseball field, where he collapses.

Later, Jason walks a mile through empty streets. He flags down an off-duty cab and offers to pay twice the rate if the driver will take him to the North Side. Reluctantly, the driver agrees. When he sees Jason’s bloody, disheveled state, he offers to take him to the hospital. Jason insists he wants to go home.

Jason finds his house abandoned. It has been elegantly remodeled and is filled artsy, expensive furniture. A sketch on the wall bears the signature “Daniela Vargas,” but there are no traces of him or his family. On the wall of the master bedroom, he finds a certificate for the Pavia Prize awarded to him for “outstanding achievement in advancing our knowledge and understanding of the origin, evolution and properties of the universe by placing a macroscopic object into a state of quantum superposition” (53). Overwhelmed, he dials Daniela’s cell phone number from a landline in the house, but a strange man answers. Soon, Jason hears footsteps in the house: Leighton and his men have arrived.

Leighton tries to coax Jason out but fails. Finally, he yells: “We have all given up our lives working toward tonight. Come out here! This is fucking insane!” (55). Jason locks himself in the bathroom and dives down the laundry chute. He runs out the back door and into a neighbor’s backyard, where he hides in a shed. When the coast is clear, he walks 10 blocks to Mercy Hospital: He thinks he has a brain tumor that is making him hallucinate.

In the emergency room, Jason tries to explain his situation. The doctor examines him, asking him about his background and any previous drug use. Jason says he is married, but when he touches his ring finger, he realizes his wedding ring is gone. The nurse draws blood and notices the needle mark where Leighton drew Jason’s blood earlier that evening. Jason cannot explain where the mark came from. The doctor takes Jason to a private room and promises to give Jason a brain scan. After the doctor leaves the room, Jason realizes the indent from his wedding ring is still on his finger. Before he falls asleep, he wonders what will happen when the last traces of his marriage and identity are gone.