Originally written in November 2009 by Otis Shaw for Media, Culture and Literary Studies ( Edinburgh Napier University).

My heart was beating furiously, my lungs filled with air for the first time. I sprang to my feet, like a hunted animal, out of fear than any form of confidence. My immediate sensations of sight and sound were full of discomfort and I struggled to focus on the world around me. My legs were heavy and my eyes burned from the artificial light. I recall crashing around the laboratory looking for a way out. The other beasts were not so fortunate and the primal rage that coursed through their poisoned veins was their weakness against the steel bars that enclosed them. I was free from my restraints. Amidst the screams and rattling of cages, I looked for an escape route from this madness and fled. An opening in the room led me out into a steep gradient cut into the ground at sharp obtrusive angles. Blind with fury, I fell trying to negotiate this obstacle.

The feeling of pain and liquid seeping out of a gash on my face, sent me into a frenzy. Blood and spittle sprayed from my mouth as I screamed out against my inability to control my surroundings. I returned to my feet and smashed through an invisible wall, on which at first glance, appeared to be an unobstructed opening. Again I bled and felt pain. I cried out as my fellow captives had done in the laboratory. The light that had guided me had gone and my eyes adjusted accordingly. The ground was cold and wet. I began to shiver. Small shards of the invisible wall I had encountered had embedded themselves into my skin. This discomfort ceased as I plucked the sharp objects from my face.

A light appeared in the distance and as I tried to focus on this object, I was struck from behind. There was an unusual piercing sound before the impact that resonated through my bones. My naked and trembling body was thrown through the air. I recall the light becoming brighter and a pleasing sensation of warmth. As I descended, more lights appeared in the distance, each moving at a tremendous speed. My face hit the solid ground as I landed. Before I could protect myself, a thundering roar approached me. As I looked up, the lights exploded against my weak body, the impact crushing every bone in my reanimated cells. I was no longer in a world of pain. No colours, no sound, no feelings, just a dark void and a sense of release.