Nothing for now.

You feel the fight-or-flight instinct come over you, and you try to decide if you will make a run for it, put up a fight, or try to mentally overpower the man. In the end, you are so frightened and exhausted that you do nothing — for now, anyway.

Dr. Burbank holds up both hands in a gesture of non-combativeness. “Please don’t run, Justin, and please listen and hear me out. I know you’re scared, and I know there is a lot you don’t understand. Please believe me that I only want to help you.”

You look around to see if anyone else is around, waiting for a chance to pounce on you. You see no one, and you back away from Burbank, positioning yourself to be able to escape if you need to.

“What do you want?” you manage to ask.

“It is just as he says,” says another man, entering from the door by which Burbank came. “He just wants to help you. We both do. I’m Dr. Hotstetter.”

You look back and forth between the two men, trying to decide if you can believe anything they say. Seeing they are unarmed and not in any hurry to try to overpower you, you relax just a very little.

“What is going on here?” you ask. “Why are you following me, and what is happening to me?”

“I understand this is all very confusing for you Justin, but I need you to understand this. What happened to you was an accident; it was never meant to be. We don’t fully understand everything that has happened to you, but we do know this: you are dying.”

Dying? What the fuck?

“What do you mean?” you say, looking down at yourself. “I feel fine.”

“Do you really, Justin?” asked Burbank. “Can you truly say that what you have been feeling the last couple of days is normal for you? But I’m talking about more than how you feel, mentally. I’m also talking about your body — your real body — the one that is still back at my laboratory.”

“What about it?” you ask. It seems like so long since you occupied your actual body, that you are struggling to remember what it is really like.

“It is failing,” responded Burbank. “Without your consciousnes In it, it is steadily shutting down. I fear that if we don’t return your mind to your body within a few hours, it will be too late.”

“And I would be trapped in this body forever?” you ask, struggling to make sense of all of this.

“Like I said, there’s so much we do not know,” answered Burbank. “You might be stuck there. You might be able to bounce from host to host. It’s also very possible — and I think quite likely — that if your body dies, your mind will, too.”

The room grows quiet, as this news sinks in.

Dr. Hotstetter speaks up. “Dr. Burbank has been briefing me on the details of your —um — situation, Justin. I think I can help, but we need to hurry, and we will need your full cooperation. Will you let us help you and take you back to the laboratory?”

You look back and forth between the two scientists and try to decide whether you dare believe them or trust them.