New Short Story - Twenty

I had another dream that I made into a story. This one, unlike A Dance in the Twilight, was not from a daydream, but rather a sleeping dream. Dreams make for interesting short stories, I think. This one happened to be a sci-fi sort of story with a strange ending. Hope you like this sample. Look up the rest on my website.

"TWENTY"

It was like waking up from a bad hangover, times fifty. First, came the headache, brought on mostly by light sensitivity. Even his eyelids seemed too thin to adequately close out the light. He’d not seen light for years, not really. Although, he knew the machines had opened his eyes periodically to flash lights in his eyes to cause his pupils to dilate and keep his eye muscles toned.

Next came the dry mouth. Again, he knew he’d not really drank anything in years, but the mask he wore should have kept him and his mucous membranes well moisturized. Still, theory and practice were often miles apart. Slowly, he lifted his arms and peeled away the mask. That was an epic in and of itself.

His arms were weak. All of his muscles had atrophied despite the electric pulses that had periodically stimulated his body to exercise his body during deep sleep. He pulled the mask off his face in a fit of spasms and flailing. It was the best he could manage after twenty years asleep.

Sitting up was agony. Like in the summer when sticky, sweaty flesh stuck to leather upholstery, he peeled himself away from the machine alcove that had been specially engineered to fit his body and his alone. Each of the deep sleep pods had been fitted to their recipient and could only be adjusted to a different body painstakingly.