The readjustment period was one if not the most bizarre event of human history. Every single structure built by humans was replaced with another one out of the blue. All of the houses and stores were designed in a way to look the same. The creator of these places was a mystery. Could this have been divine intervention by God? No one could really say…
The readjustment period gave people the excuse to act callously. Many broke the law whether it was petty crimes like theft to bigger crimes like murder. The public used the excuse of every resource they had being taken from them to justify their misdeeds.
This period of time overall led to public outcry and a demand for a new government to combat the new problems in the world. The council was created to address the new issues replacing the government. All of the members were from unknown backgrounds and served to calm down the public. The council besides serving as a party to mediate society's worries was created to look after the best interests of humanity. No matter the cost.
Ivory wakes up in a dark hospital room. She rests her fingers on the cold bed which almost freezes her fingers to the touch.
Ivory sharply pulls her hand back, "Why was everything so cold…"
She notices a monitor to her left tracking her heart rate. The heart rate monitor looked like it was not of this world and merely brought here through some other mystical way. This wasn't far from the truth. She rubbed her eyes trying to imagine that any moment now she would wake up. Ivory tried to imagine the cold being replaced with the warmth from her blanket in her home.
She opened her eyes wider as footsteps started to echo in the hallway. Something was getting closer to her. Slowly reaching its destination. Ivory fidgeted with the cold bed sheet with her right hand. She was scared. A terrible feeling rose within her that whatever approached from the dark would be a not so pleasant visitor.
A man with circular glasses and thick blonde hair walks in the room. He couldn't have been more than thirty. The life seemed to be missing in his eyes like he hadn't been sleeping for days. He flips a switch as fluorescent blue led lights lit up the room. The lab coat he wore was revealed to have been stained with some kind of alcohol. The aroma that filled the air made her realize it was whiskey.
Ivory thought, this man must have stopped by a bar before coming here. She sat up straight realizing immediately there was some tension in her wrist. She looked down towards her left wrist to realize she had been handcuffed to the hospital bed.
Ivory winces, "What the hell. Let me out of this…"
The man sits quietly on a chair with a cup of coffee in his hands pulling out some sort of a computer. He ignores ivory and begins typing furiously on his keyboard like he was trying to complete an essay the hour before it was due.
The drunk medical professional puts a fake smile on his face, "Have you been feeling alright lately?"
Ivory sneers, "I was doing okay before you cuffed me to this fucking bed."
The man writes down a sentence on his computer. He looked like this situation was a life or death situation. Why was he so afraid? Why was she cuffed to the bed?
The drunk medical professional says, "Have you been feeling too hot or too cold?"
Ivory winces from the tension on her left wrist, "No. Nothing. I'm perfectly fine."
The man dusts off his lab coat and grabs his things before turning back to face the young woman.
The drunk medical professional says, "The doctor will see you in a couple minutes."
The man in a frenzy grabs the door knob and walks quickly away. Why would this man be so scared for his life in her presence?
Ivory looked around the dimly lit hospital room. The walls were white and looked like the paint had just been applied. This wasn't the case. She looked at her left wrist closer, noticing the tightness in how it was wrapped around the pole supporting the bed.
Ivory mutters under her breath, "Damn government pigs. Why would they treat me like this? I didn't do anything wrong."
After a couple minutes of waiting. A knock could barely be heard as a faceless entity walks into the room. This didn't surprise her. The faceless entities were assigned to certain buildings with professions during the readjustment period. Just like everything else that happened in the world, the world came to accept them too.
The faceless entity wore a white lab coat and held onto a pen and a blue spiral note book. The face of this entity was empty but it seemed to see clearly.
The faceless entity says, "Hello Ivory, I noticed you have a case of sun burn. Can you tell me when this started?"
Ivory breathed in and out trying to compose herself. The faceless entities even if they were something she got used to seeing were terrifying. Apparently they only listened to the council but acted in their own moral code. In short if she said the wrong thing to trigger one of them, she would be dead.
Ivory says quickly, "The sun burn started a few weeks ago. I tried putting on the sun screen and it didn't help at all. The cream that was supposed to act as a treatment for sun burns and a protection from future burns didn't help at all. The sun burns got worse over time and spread all over my body."
The faceless entity nodded its head acting like its head was some kind of a bobbly head. The faceless entity writes down a quick note using a ball point pen on a blue spiral notebook.
The pen twirls in the faceless entity's hands, "You're a problem. The council doesn't like problems."
Ivory smiles nervously, "I'm not. I'm fine, really."
The faceless entity stands up hovering over the bed, "Liar. Show me your arm."
Ivory with one hand pulls her sleeve up revealing that sun burn was missing. Where the hell did it go? Did it miraculously go away? Was she saved?
The faceless entity freezes and nods its head, "I… You're excused. Make sure to rest."
The creature tosses Ivory a key and walks away ducking underneath the door frame.
Ivory quickly removes her wrist from the handcuffs and wraps her right hand around her left wrist massaging her wrist slightly. The pain had been unbearable. The cuffs had left behind a cut on her wrist which hurt as she moved it.
She takes off the clip attaching her finger to the heart rate monitor as it makes a long beeping sound. She could have died. The faceless entity could have killed her for being some kind of a threat to humanity. Now could she just go to work the next day and forget everything that happened?
Ivory walks in the dimly lit white hallway to the check out desk. A balloon with a smiley face greets her first before anyone else. It makes her gasp for a moment before making her laugh to herself. I hate this. I really do hate this. The man from earlier sits down in the chair in front of her.
The drunk medical professional says, "Come back if you have any other issues. You're free to go, the exit is the first door on the right."
Ivory began running to her right and held the exit's door like a life line. The door instantly became cold to the touch the moment she held it. It was just like the bed had been before. She stared down toward her arm as red marks began piercing out of her skin. The reason the bed was cold earlier was because of her. Not because of the temperature of the room. The sun burn was still there. No one could know or her life would be at risk.