Awake in a New World: When Caroline is awakened from suspended animation fifty years later than expected, she is faced with a new world. Can she cope?

Awake in a New World: Futuristic Romance

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BLURB: Awake in a New World:

Caroline Lewis feels life isn’t worth living when she loses her husband to Covid-19 while on a business trip to China. In order to avoid the coming pandemic, she opts to have her body frozen to be awakened in 2070. In 2120, archaeologists exploring the ruins of Los Angeles, find Caroline’s perfectly preserved body. As she is brought to life, fifty years later than expected, she is forced to learn to live in a world unlike the one she remembers from 2020. Aaron Phillips knows Caroline is special when he hires her as a research volunteer at the library. He hopes she feels the same way about.

EXCERPT: Awake in a New World:

Caroline felt a strange sensation. She was aware of people talking around her, but was still out of it enough that she couldn’t understand what they were saying. It was possible that it was now 2070 and she’d been awakened by the doctors and technicians who ran the cryogenics facility.

Not quite ready to open her eyes just yet, she luxuriated in the warmth which was in direct contrast to the cold of the cryogenics bed when she was first going into a state of suspended animation.

One of the voices sounded vaguely familiar and she thought perhaps it belonged to her sister-in-law, Trudy, but that couldn’t possibly be so. Fifty years in the future, Trudy would be in her late eighties and the voice sounded much younger than that.

She tried to open her eyes but her eyelids refused to do as she wanted them to do. They’ve been closed for so long, maybe they don’t remember how to open.

“I can see eye movement. I think she’s beginning to come around.”

The voice wasn’t the one she thought belonged to Trudy. Maybe that was just part of her befuddled mind playing tricks on her.

“Can you hear us, Aunt Caroline?”

Aunt Caroline? Who would be calling me that?

“If you can hear me, can you lift a finger?”

Caroline wondered if her finger would respond since her eyes refused to open. Using every ounce of strength in her body, she raised the thumb of her right hand. At least she thought she raised it. Her mind told her to raise it, but did the body part respond? She prayed it did.

“Did you see that, Dr. Jamison? She raised her right thumb. She’s coming out of it.”

Caroline felt the compression of a blood pressure cuff on her right arm. How did they know not to use her left arm? Maybe that was in the paperwork she filled out at the facility before they approved her for the procedure.

“Her blood pressure is one forty over seventy. It’s a little high, but for her age it’s not bad. Her temperature has come up in the last hour. It’s almost up to normal. That’s a good sign.”

Dr. Jamison? When did Trudy become a doctor? When did she change her name?

Almost without warning, her eyes opened. The woman dressed in hospital scrubs had a resemblance to Trudy, but she was much younger than the Trudy, Caroline remembered.

“Trudy?” Caroline managed to whisper.

It came as a surprise as to how hoarse her voice sounded.

“Trudy was my great-grandmother. My name is Kirsten Jamison.”

“You can’t be…I mean Trudy might have a great granddaughter but you’re too old to be…”

“The year is 2120. My great-grandmother has been dead for over fifty years. I don’t remember her, since she died before I was born, but my grandmother told me stories about her and when grandma passed away, I found a lot of old pictures in her attic.”

“Did you say 2120? I was supposed to be brought back in 2070. What happened?”

The strength that was returning to her voice came as a surprise. She’d been told when she came around, she would be back to normal within a matter of hours.

“There’s a lot you don’t know. Over seventy years ago there was a major natural disaster. It’s only been in the last five years that’s we’ve been able to get back into any of the areas along the east and west coasts of the United States?”

“How could they have let me sleep that long? I-I was due to wake up fifty years ago,” Caroline protested.

“Please try to stay calm. It’s going to take more than a few minutes to explain everything to you. I can tell you how lucky you are. There were many others who were not as lucky as you are. There were many other bodies that were in various states of decay since they didn’t receive the proper care when they were awakened. To be truthful, although I studied this in medical college, cryogenics were considered nothing more than an urban myth. The discovery of the facility, as well as being able to bring you back, is one of the major archeological finds of the twenty-second century.”

“This is so mind boggling. Is there still a United States?”

“I know you have a lot of questions, but they can wait. For now, there is still a United States, but both the east and west coasts are basically wastelands. The same can be said for all the countries of the world bordering on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. When the disasters hit, they were felt all over the world. We can talk more about this later. For now, I need to have you get up and take a few steps before we bring you some dinner. The information from the binders we retrieved says you need to get your muscles moving first. Once you’re up and mobile it will be time to reintroduce food to keep up your energy.”

Slowly, Caroline sat up, with the assistance of Dr. Jamison and the other woman in the room. At first the room spun, but the longer she sat up, the steadier she became. Within about five minutes, she felt steady enough to allow her feet to touch the floor.

“Not bad for a one hundred-and-forty-something-old gal,” she said.

“To be truthful, no matter how many years have passed, you’re still only forty-two. The ageing processes ended when you entered the chamber and went into suspended animation. According to your papers, you had cancer. I haven’t had time to do a thorough examination, but we’ll be checking all of that when you’re up to having a scan. For that we will have to be flying you to Chicago. The rest of the family will be anxious to meet you.”

The rest of the family? Of course, after one hundred years, Jonathan and Trudy’s kids would have married and had kids of their own. I will miss my brother, but I’ll have a whole new generation to meet and get to know.

With great difficulty, Caroline took one step after another until she walked all the way from the bed where she had awakened to the small table across the room. For taking her first steps, she was rewarded with a plate of food. Although she would have ordered a steak or maybe lobster, she was content with the plate of mashed potatoes, a small grilled chicken breast and a cup of applesauce.

“No wine?” she asked.

“Not until you have had a complete physical. Trust me, once we get back to Chicago and the family, you’ll have all the partying you can handle.”

As good as the food looked, Caroline was only able to eat one or two bites of each thing on the plate.

“I thought I would be hungrier. I feel like I’ve eaten a ten-course meal.”

“You did well for your first meal. I have no doubt that your appetite will come back, but for now, you’ve done great. You need to get some rest. In the morning we’re going to be flying back to Chicago. You’re in for a lot of changes.”

Caroline was surprised as how tired the minimal activity she’d engaged in left her. After sleeping for a hundred years, she thought she would never have to sleep again. She no more than closed her eyes than she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

~ * ~

Kirsten watched as the woman who was so familiar yet at the same time so alien quickly fell into a deep sleep.

One hundred years ago, Caroline went into the world of suspended animation in a world filled with chaos. Before the pandemic of 2020, people traveled freely to all the areas of the globe. It had been a time of plenty that soon became one where people hoarded everyday necessities, making rationing and great shortages the normal at many stores. People were told to not leave their homes and to go into isolation.

Was that the reason Caroline decided to go to the cryogenics facility? If so, it would have been a last-ditch measure that was completely unnecessary. Within a little over a year, a vaccination had been developed and the disease had been eradicated.

If it hadn’t been for the disasters, the world would have gone back to normal, but what was once the norm was no longer what anyone remembered from the past.

“Oh, Aunt Caroline, I hope you can adjust to this world where you have awakened,” she whispered. “I can hardly wait to have you tell me what your life was like before the pandemic and disasters changed everything.”

KEYWORDS

Covid-19, Sci-Fi, Aliens, Romance, Cryogenics

LINKS

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WFLMXM4

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/awake-in-a-new-world-sherry-derr-wille/1138808403?ean=2940162190615

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/awake-in-a-new-world/id1553368900?itsct=books_toolbox&itscg=30200&ct=books_awake_in_a_new_world&ls=1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/awake-in-a-new-world

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uBEcEAAAQBAJ

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