The Disinformation War by S. J. Groenewegen

Author:S. J. Groenewegen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2023-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

EXTRACT FROM KAYLA’S JOURNAL (SIX WEEKS AFTER THE OPERATION)

Only twice in my life have I been knocked out with a full anaesthetic. Both times were courtesy of Yates-Grantley acting for Jackson-fucking-Burgess, so maybe under normal circs it would be okay. But these. No, no, no. Never fucking again.

First time was at the camp when we arrived. A ‘procedure’, they called it. Like it was no big deal. Like it would be like the aftereffects of a Rona booster or flu jab. God, those fucking liars.

Everything’s all jumbled up. My memories of it. I’m trying to remember it like SC told me to. She told me to write shit down because it would untangle the figurative brain-worms in my head.

Waking up was like I faded in and out of existence. I don’t know what came first, or what ranked worst. Nausea, chills, headache. A weird taste in my mouth like I had swallowed pints of blood mixed with liquid metal. I was so thirsty my lips cracked and everything felt swollen. Pins and needles stuck me everywhere, but not in my muscles. They stung and itched as whatever the fuck it was moved through my bloodstream.

And the cramps in my belly. Eesh.

Okay. It was the cramps that were the worst. I didn’t know then what I know now – at the time it was like the period pain I got occasionally. Only worse. It came in waves over the stabbing cramp of my hunger.

I dozed and woke up a few times, then dozed again. When I woke, I was too dizzy and nauseous to even consider trying to sit up, or even open my eyes for any length of time.

I have no recollection of them moving me after the procedure, but they did because I woke up on a different bed. And the smells were different. Less disinfectant and electrified dust and more a miasma of sick sweat, vomit and blood in close, hot air. And while I wasn’t on a bunk bed, there were others lying on them, and it looked like the nine of us were in a small shed made of metal that slowly roasted us alive.

The second time was when the disabler triggered while SC removed it. When I woke, I had the same wooziness and chills, and the same weird taste in my mouth of blood and metal. The difference was that I didn’t have cramp, but my leg hurt.

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