False Harmony

Coma

I open my eyes and rub my head. Where am I? I seem to be lying on a cold metal floor. I can vaguely remember being in the doctor's office. But... what is this place?
A shadow falls over me. I look up. A man is standing in front of me. He's wearing black pants and a black shirt and a red cloak. Half of his face seems to be made of metal.
"What- what happened to your face?" I ask.
The man scowls and slaps me across the face. I bring a hand to my stinging cheek. Tears come to my eyes. The man growls. "Don't talk about that!" he shouts, grabbing my wrist and yanking me to my feet.
I brush myself off. "Sorry..." I say. "But- where are we?"
"Do you know who I am?"
"No." I frown. I've never seen him before in my life. He seems violent. Violence is not the answer.
"My name is Dr. Marcus Peters. I'm 37 years old. When I was 13, I graduated from college and started my own company. I was an engineer. But I had always aspired to be more... my mother had always told me I was a genius. A prodigy. So I became a chemist. During my short chemistry career, I burned the left half of my face..." He trails off. "But never mind that. I prefer not to dwell on what has happened; instead I dwell on what is possible. After I was injured, I developed a strong hatred for all mankind. It was depression so strong I was placed in psychiatric care. I became insane. They put me in a padded room. I wondered, Am I crazy? But during my time there, I met a man named Henry and we broke out of there together. He showed me his potion - a serum, he called it. And it was an epidemic that could wipe out all of the human population. All of it, that is, except for the ones who were immune. He injected us with the substance that would make us immune. And we let it out." He pauses. "But as you can see, it didn't kill the entire population. Only the country we were in. So we made more of it and tried to kill everyone else. But they resisted. And killed Henry. I, however, managed to fight off all except a handful. I took them to the USA, built walls around the entire country, and separated it into six realms."
"What were the realms?" I ask.
Dr. Peters scowls again and continues without answering my question. "I put a few humans into each realm and they bred. Within years, each realm had its own population. The originals were dead by then, and the new generations had no clue the other realms even existed. Of course, I was the master of these realms. I built an observation tower 300 miles above the ground, with each window holding telescopes powerful enough to see the ground in detail. The tower was where I observed and took notes."
I swallow. I'm terrified of heights. Just the thought of the tower horrifies me. "Where are we now?"
Dr. Peters smiles thinly. "In the observation tower."
I gasp as the floor appears to spread apart. Fortunately, there is a thick panel of glass separating me from the ground. I look down and see the Earth hundreds of miles below me. Dr. Peters shows me the view through the spyglass. I look at each of the realms. One looks familiar. I soon realize why - it's MY realm! Trees, gardens, quaint houses, kids taking walks, a town hall, even Mother and Father. "All this time, there have been other realms - and I didn't even realize it?" I ask.