"I might die, but I must find out!"

Joseph shocked himself with a special device.

He awakened, twisted, pushed, and yanked until he was free of the straps, sensors, tubes that fed, and hoses that extracted.

The room he sat in smelled musty. Passing through a hallway, he turned on lights, then observed two elders strapped in.

"My parents … I didn't remember them. Do we forget everything while inside?"

He opened curtains and a sliding glass door to a high-rise balcony.

The silence was deafening while he stared at the lifeless cityscape outside.

"Oh my! What are we doing?"