The Kid from Hell Chapter 2 - Waking Up on a New World
Naked in a Strange Room
So here’s what happened. Gack wakes up completely naked on a hospital bed. Two men are sitting next to him. One is a rosy-faced doctor beaming at him like a saint from an old icon. The other is a skinny, tanned guy with grey hair and a straw sticking out of his mouth. He says nothing. Just watches.
Gack sits up and notices new scars on his chest and side. He remembers burning. A flamethrower. Then getting shot. The doctor tells him he’s been out for only five days.
Five days. From fatal wounds.
The Fighting Cat Won’t Quit
Gack doesn’t care about the miracle healing. He wants to know one thing - when can he get back to his unit? He’s a Fighting Cat, third training level, commendations from His Excellency himself. He shows them his tattoo, recites his credentials like a soldier reporting for duty.
And here’s the thing. Nobody cares. The doctor actually laughs at him. The skinny man finally speaks, voice deep and metallic. He tells Gack he could be sent back, but he’d never serve in a Fighting Cat unit again.
Gack panics. Thinks he’s crippled. But no, his body is fine. It’s his “psyche” they’re testing.
The Truth That Doesn’t Land
The doctor quizzes Gack about planets and stars. Could life exist near other stars? Gack answers like a decent student. Yes, if there’s an atmosphere, life is possible.
Then the skinny man drops the bomb. You know the Beetle constellation? The seventh star? There’s a planet orbiting it with an advanced civilization. You’re on that planet right now.
Silence. Long silence.
And Gack just says: “I understand, sir. Please continue.”
He thinks it’s a test. Some kind of psychological evaluation before a special mission. The skinny man, who introduces himself as Kornei, tries again. He explains that he worked on Giganda, found Gack burning and dying on a battlefield, and brought him to Earth in a starship.
Gack still doesn’t buy it. He figures this is preparation for a spy operation. He’s actually flattered. “I would be proud, sir. I will make every effort to justify the trust.”
This is where the Strugatsky brothers are brilliant. Gack literally cannot process the truth because his worldview has no room for it. He’s not stupid. He’s just so deeply programmed by military culture that every new fact gets filtered through that framework. Someone tells you you’re on another planet? Must be a training exercise.
Chairs That Grow from the Floor
Kornei gives up on words and decides to show instead. They walk through the hospital, cream-colored walls with no visible doors, a ceiling with glowing colored squares, a floor that feels like a warm animal under your feet.
They reach a hall with a transparent wall overlooking a park. Enormous trees, golden paths, purple flowers. And then a zebrogiraffe walks out of the shadows. All neck and legs, staring at Gack with huge velvety eyes. Gack whispers “Fantastic. Marvelous.” For a moment, the soldier cracks and the human comes through.
An earless alien casually strolls past the animal and enters the hall. That detail hits different when you’re trying to convince yourself this is all a training simulation.
Then Kornei takes Gack into a round booth, pushes some buttons, and the floor disappears for a split second. They’ve moved twenty kilometers in an instant. A teleporter. Gack’s reaction? “For the army, a machine like that would be invaluable.” Still a soldier. Still thinking in military terms.
They reach Kornei’s hotel room. Completely empty. Kornei sits down, and a chair grows out of the floor to catch him. Right in front of Gack’s eyes.
Honesty Over Hypnosis
Then Kornei explains something important. He tells Gack that people argued about what to do with him. Some wanted to keep him unconscious for months. Some suggested hypnosis. Kornei refused all of it. He chose honesty.
His reasons: he trusts Gack, he wants Gack to see Earth with his own eyes, and honestly, Gack might be useful to him somehow.
Gack stands there, legs turning to wood, fists clenched behind his back. Kornei leans forward: “Nothing terrible has happened to you. Nothing terrible will happen to you. You are safe. You’re simply taking a trip.”
Gack turns around, walks toward what he thought was a wall, and sees open blue sky. He backs up against the opposite wall. White knuckles.
“You mean… I’m already there?”
“I mean you’re already here.”
And Gack asks the only question a Fighting Cat knows how to ask: “What’s my assignment?”
One More Thing
There’s a brief moment I almost skipped but shouldn’t. While they’re in the hospital hall, Kornei suddenly freezes. He’s staring past Gack with an expression of sadness, pain, and anticipation. Gack turns around and catches a glimpse of a woman. Red clothes, black hair, very white face, dark blue eyes. She vanishes within seconds. Kornei pretends nothing happened.
But something happened. We don’t know what yet. The Strugatsky brothers planted a seed here, and if you know their writing, you know it’ll come back.
Previous: Chapter 1 - Welcome to the War Zone