[ WP ] In the near future , the reanimation of the recently deceased becomes scientifically possible . Despite being illegal in the United States , underground scientists reanimate someone that committed suicide .

The clock ticked past 12. Three days now we'd been locked in this lab. 
 
 Our research into re-animation had been funded by Oliver White, a Texan billionaire. His only child had abandoned the family business for a foreign lover, and he had come to the conclusion that for his name to live forever, he would have to remain attached to it. For 2 years he'd supplied us with a research facility, materials and a steady supply of corpses, all accompanied with a detailed'death report'. It was an awful way to make a living, but I was morbidly curious, and the pay was obscenely high. It had become my obsession. 
 
 Within 8 months we had discovered that a watered down cocktail of sodium thiopental and potassium chloride, with a healthy measure of glucose, could stimulate electrical impulses in the brain and heart. From then on, it was a case of finding the right dosage. Most of the bodies twitched for couple of minutes, before resting once more. A couple had bolted upright, and locked eyes with me, before the drugs which had given them another life swiftly took it back. 
 
 After 18 months, we could maintain life for around 5 minutes. Entering uncharted waters as we were, we found an unexpected quirk to our work. We were always curious to know how much of their deaths our subjects remembered, and using the reports, we realised that it was directly related to the trauma of their demise. Those who had slipped away suddenly simply resurfaced on our cold steel operating table. Almost all thought that they were dreaming. Some unfortunate souls re-entered the world at the moment they had left; gasping for air, begging for mercy, or clawing frantically at an intangible assailant. Andrews, my partner, suffered a nasty flesh wound from a foolishly close test tube, inflicted by a hulk of a man who tore the leather restraints like tissue paper. It was the only time our emergency firearm was needed. 
 
 After two years, we had finally drained our benefactor's vast resources. The government had been tolerating our research purely on the understanding that White kept the donations flowing, and as they dried up, the Feds swooped in. All of our notes were confiscated. Two men, in matching black suits, told us through the door that we would die with our twisted games, as they locked us in the facility and cut the power. We were utterly cut off from the world. A younger me would have found the irony of dying in a death research lab hilarious. 
 
 There was only one body left. # 835. A 24-year old. He was last seen falling from the Golden Gate Bridge. He had screamed before he hit the water. We were n't looking forward to this one. For the 835th time, I prepared the solution. I was alone this time. Andrews sat on the other side of the room. He had n't talked to me in almost exactly 27 hours. As I slid the needle into the boy's skinny arm, my mind was numb. 
 
 I stared at # 835's face for two minutes. Two minutes more. I turned to check the needle, before he awoke, eyes and mouth wide, gasping for the air he had given up on. I scanned his eyes, trying to take an early evaluation of his condition. I realised he had calmed down quickly, and was taking similar mental notes of me. He took one more slow breath. 
 
 `` Is this... is this what's next?'' 
 
 I'd given up trying to answer that question at around # 200. I ignored him for now, and kept watching his eyes. Blue and bloodshot, they watched me back. 
 
 `` What is this? Did you save me?'' 
 
 `` Yes. I suppose so. Stay still for me.'' 
 
 His cheeks had flushed pink, and his breathing seemed normal. My ears strained for the now-absent tone of the heart rate monitor which they'd disconnected. # 835 lunged for me. 
 
 I was not shocked. Of course he was pissed. He had tried to take his own miserable life, and I was the bastard who'd stopped him. I reached to the shelf on my right for the emergency firearm. 
 
 Which the feds had taken. 
 
 As I paused to realise this, his arms were around my neck. I did n't have the strength to fight him off. 
 
 `` Thank you.'' 
 
 
 
 
 

