The driver who picked him up at the airport told him it was a bit of a drive to the job site! He told him to feel free to use the headphones to tune out but the setting was stuck on Rock, so as long as he is ok with rock, they may help him relax on the journey.
Hunter put on the headphones and grabbed the complimentary bottle of water and quickly drank it down.
At first the music was a strange sounding rock music! But soon it turned into a humming vibrating noise. Hunter tried to lift his arms to pull the headphones off but his arms were heavy and he felt so relaxed! He couldn’t move. He could see the driver looking at him in the rear view mirror with a smile! Trying to speak, Hunter could only seem to mumble. He was wondering if he was having a stroke. The humming remained constant as he felt his skin getting colder. He couldn’t move see clearly but no couldn’t even move his mouth or head. He felt heavier and heavier as each moment passed.
It seemed like forever the driver kept driving and looking at him. Finally after what seemed to be hours, the car stopped. Hunter could feel movement and it appeared he was being pulled from the car and seated on what looked like a bench. The driver drove off and several men surrounded him. He was being moved on a type of platform on wheels apparently but he could not move at all. Finally the movement stopped as he was being backed into an elevator type lift. The door shut in front of him and that is when he saw his reflection in the mirror on the door. He was looking at a stone statue created in his image. The entire body was seated and constructed by solid stone! But his eyes and mouth seemed to be flesh. It took a moment for Hunter to realize it was a reflection as he stared at his new form.
The elevator door opened and he was pushed through a room full of stone statues, all in different poses but all of them had real eyes that followed him as he passed.
The humming in the headphones stopped and the headphones removed as his bench was remove from the rolling platform and positioned amount the many other statues, each frozen in a moment and each eternally aware but silent. Eyes staring back into his eyes, each of them almost communicating the years of helpless awareness ahead of him.