The trip down to the Infirmary was surprisingly simple. We only passed through two keycard doors, that Kas had to take me through cause I hadn't been issued one yet. The Infirmary was attached to the large gymnasium and down a very small flight of stairs. It was a small door that had a red light above the door, which was off.

  Inside, I saw a bunch of people in their black tactical gear laying on hospital style beds, waiting to be seen or treated. There was a cacophany of moans and groans as typical every day first aid was applied. It wasn't until one of the nurse's hands lit up with a soft green light, and I watched an open cut close, that I realized this was not a typical nurse's office. Kas walked me passed all of that and knocked on a closed office door.

  "Doctor, I have a new patient that needs some healing. Progenitor Lancelot sent us." She said, knocking again obnoxiously, like she had at my door. The door swung open and a thin pale man with a grotesque series of visible scars appeared. He looked between Kas and I with uncaring eyes.

  "Lancelot sent you?" His voice was as neutral and uncaring as his eyes.

  "Yes, John needs his leg fixed." Kas explained. The Doctor's eyes moved lazily to my cane.

  "He starts training in the morning." Kas added.

  The Doctor sighed and motioned for us to follow him, as we made our way back through the triage area to a set of double doors. He had to bring out a keycard to unlock them, and let us to a dark hallway. He didn't wait for us, moving forward, the flourescent lights flickering on as he passed.

  I found it hard to place his accent, something like a mix between Swiss and Italian. He was fast, and only turned back once to open a door at the end of the hallway.

  "I don't have a lot of time, please hurry." He called back to us. Kas picked up the pace, but I couldn't move any faster than what I was going. Soon, hopefully, that would come to an end.

  When we finally caught up, he held the door for us. It felt like walking inside a sauna. The room was uncomfortably warm and I felt the sweat building on my forehead. I looked at Kas who was clad in leather and could see she was visibly uncomfortable.

  The Doctor pointed to an empty pool in the middle of the room. There were several, shallow pools, that looked like graves.

  "Get in." He said, before moving to a series of valves on the far wall. I looked at Kas, hesitantly. She smiled, trying to be disarming, but it came across as clumsy, like she wasn't sure if I was about to throw myself into a shallow grave in the basement of an underground secret organization.

  The Doctor huffed and made a clicking sound, forcefully gesturing to the nearest pool. Reluctantly, I crouched and put my legs over the edge. It was only a little deeper than the jacuzzi tub in my room.

  "Take off your clothes." He snapped at me. I turned around quickly, glaring at him. He snapped his fingers at me like I was a dog, and dramatically checked his watch. I looked at Kas with pleading eyes, but she didn't intervene.

  "I feel like I'm missing something." I said, but the Doctor shouted over me, "Get in the pool!"

  So, I did what he said. I took off my clothes, folded them into a neat pile, and got into the empty pool, painfully moving to lay on my back. I heard him turn the valves and a loud rushing sound rattled along the pipes towards my pool. Kas peeked over the edge and I covered my manly bits.

  "You're gonna be okay. Just remember not to hold your breath." She told me.

  "Wait, don't hold my breath?" I asked as liquid began to rush into the pool. It was an opalescent, viscous fluid, that reminded me of the consistency of blood. It began to fill up the pool as it surged around me. To my surprise, I wasn't floating as it closed in around me; it was quite the opposite. My heart began to race as I felt like I was sinking in quick sand.

  "Hey wait!" I yelled as the fluid threatened to engulf me entirely. I tried to sit up, but could only go part way. It was like trying to push through thick mud.

  As it came up around my neck, I could feel my heart pounding in my head. Panic over took my sense and I began to gulp in air to hold my breath. I looked at Kas, feeling betrayed. She looked like she pitied me, trying to motion for me to relax. To give in. To surrender.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I tried to flail, to claw my way out of the fluid, but I couldn't bring my hands above the surface. I tilted my head as far back as I could to avoid the inevitable. I felt the fluid clog my ears and I was deaf. I saw Kas trying to motion to me not to hold my breath, then she moved out of my view, presumably to stand by the Doctor.

  As the fluid filled up around my face, I tried to hold my breath. I could feel it creeping up my the sides of my face, tickling at my lips; inching toward my eyes. My senses began to fail me and an all too familiar sensation took over.

  I stared at the ceiling helplessly, as the featureless face of The Guilt peered over the edge of the pool, its freakishly long fingers drumming the edge. It tilted its jittering head as if to regard my predicament, even though it had no eyes.

  I tried to scream, and the fluid crept into my mouth, filling my throat and lungs. It burned, and the sensation of drowning caused my heart to feel like it was going to rupture. As it covered over my eyes, the last thing I saw was the pale face of The Guilt looking back at me, its thousands of lamprey teeth gleaming, as it smiled at me.

  ~*~

  I remembered the feeling of being consumed, of drowning. But after everything went dark, it was consumed by a comforting, wet feeling. Like being cradled in a womb; like I was supposed to be there. I could breathe, albeit slowly. It was like the whole world had slowed. I had peace for what felt like only moments, but would be told later that I had been in the Rejuvenation Pool for hours.

  I came back to the world with a start, gasping and thrashing. I was laying in a hospital bed, in a small curtained off section of the Infirmary. Kas was sitting at the bed side, reading a large dusty looking book.

  "Finally!" She exclaimed, putting the book down. "How are you feel..."

  "You could have warned me!" I croaked out, finding my throat very dry. Kas gave me a sly smile and shook her head.

  "Naw, everyone's first time in the Pool is like that. No amount of warning would have readied you for that." She said, clapping me on the shoulder.

  "Why am I in the Infirmary?" I asked.

  "Well, normally, there is a chemical that is added to the Pool after you've been in their a while. It makes it turn back into a liquid and slowly dissolves it out of your system. You puke the rest up, and your body is healed. Take a couple hours, but it is the most effective way to keep agents in the field." She explained. I looked down and found that I was dressed, which means someone had taken care to move me.

  "You tried to reject the healing fluid, so you had a bit of a rough time. Technically you drowned. The Doctor was able to get you in the recovery position and purge what was left inside of you. We brought you here as a precaution." She finished.

  "What is that stuff?" I said, coughing on instinct. The thought of having that liquid still inside me made me want to gag. The curtain pulled back and the grim looking Doctor, with all his facial scars stared at me.

  "It is a combination of liquid concentrated ambrosia, mixed with the chemicals I use to reanimate the dead. The ambrosia fruit is not as effective in its berry form. However, liquified, it is easier to pour into a person's throat when they are dying on the battlefield. Mixed with the fluids necessary to replace blood in corpses for reanimation, it can be an effective combination for fully rejuvenating those with severe or fatal injuries." He told me. It was the first time I had seen him be expressive since meeting him; he seemed proud.

  "Wait, corpse reanimation?" I stuttered. The man chuckled and extended his hand to shake, before moving to check my vitals.

  "Doctor Victor Frankenstein, at your service." He said. I stared at the man for a moment before looking to Kas.

  "You're kidding right? That's a joke. Frankenstein was a story written by Mary Shelley." I looked between the two of them, my eyes pleading for someone to make it make sense.

  "Ms. Shelley was a wonderful woman and a brilliant novelist. She was deeply obesessed with the macabre and the occult. We became very good friends." Victor said cheerfully. There was a twinkle in his eye, like an old man thinking back on his youth. It occured to me that he must be just that.

  "So does that make you..." I started.

  "Several hundred years old, yes. Don't ask me exactly, because I don't remember." He continued going over me to make sure there were no residual issues from the Rejuvenation Pool. When he was satisfied, he nodded at Kas and I, and left the curtained space.

  I threw my legs over the side of the bed and reached for my cane. That was when I noticed that my knee no longer hurt. Wide eyed, I looked down at my leg. Without thinking, I pulled my track pants down and stared at the scars around my kneecap.

  "Hey! Warn a girl before you just rip your pants off!" Kas shouted, laughing. I hopped off the bed and onto my feet. Nothing hurt.

  And it wasn't just my knee that was healed; decades of wear and tear on my old body was suddenly gone. I had no back ache, no joint pain, no nothing. I felt thirty years younger.

  "This is incredible!" I shouted. Kas waved her arms at me to calm down, but I kept hopping around, kicking my legs out. I had never felt this good before, phyiscally.

  "You're welcome." I heard Victor call out from somewhere in the Infirmary. I looked to Kas, my eyes filled with determination and excitement.

  "I'm ready to start my training." I told her. She smirked at me, and pointed downward, to where my pants still sat around my ankles.

  "Not like that you're not." She said, laughing. I quickly pulled up my old track pants and shook my head. Tomorrow they would mix me in with the others; people who had trained their whole lives to be here. I only hoped that my time in the military and police services would be enough here.

  This whole world was something different, something new, and I felt revitalized and prepared to take it on.