Augmented Earth

Augmented Earth - Chapter 6 - The Device

Prince thought he had spent most of the night tossing and turning in the bed, haunted by strange dreams featuring the woman from the toilets, but he must have drifted off to sleep at some point.

As he slowly came to his senses he had a feeling he was being watched so he cracked one eye, only to find himself looking into the patient face of Wizcroft. Prince jumped out of the bed on the opposite side from Wizcroft and tried to look indignant. "What are you doing in here?" he shouted.

A look of offense crossed Wizcroft's face. "Mr Fairfield, we rang your bell multiple times, but you didn't answer so we had to come in to see if you were OK. I guess you were simply so tired from your busy day yesterday that you didn't hear it."

Prince relaxed a little. He had to admit that he had been pretty tired, although he had to wonder what kind of prison cell had a doorbell and how he would have been expected to open the door for them when he hadn't been able to open it for himself.

Wizcroft started to walk out of the room. "Follow me Mr Fairfield, we had instructions to perform your medical check-up as soon as you arrived yesterday, but Eric put a stop to that. Now we need to get the check-up completed straight away so you can get on with your first day in office."

Prince looked down at his rumpled clothes that he had slept in and was about to suggest that he get showered and changed before he went anywhere, but Wizcroft didn't seem to be in a mood to negotiate procedure so Prince simply plodded after him.

Wizcroft poked at a blank piece of wall beside the front door and the door slid open, revealing the same four guards he had seen the day before.

Prince allowed himself to be led down to the floor below his. He expected to see some sort of medical style facility when he left the stairwell, something like the hospitals they had out in the Country which were all clean white tiles and bustling staff, but all he saw were more grey corridors.

Wizcroft led him past a number of doors that all looked the same and then opened one before ushering Prince inside.

Prince found himself in yet another blank, grey room. How on earth did anyone navigate around these buildings when everything looks the same? Wizcroft gestured at a large medical chair so Prince went and sat in it. Another door opened and some other grey clad people walked in, one of them pushing a small steel trolley in front of him. Prince nervously eyed the devices on the table and saw the usual medical instruments for testing his blood pressure and measuring his pulse etc., along with some more high-tech looking devices that he didn't recognise.

The medical check-up proved to be unremarkable and pretty much the same as the periodic check-ups they had in the Country, that is until Wizcroft picked up one of the devices that looked like a large gun and turned to Prince.

"This is nothing to worry about Mr Fairfield, it is a simple genetic tester which takes a small sample of your DNA for the System, you will just feel a small prick."

Prince tried to lean away from the gun, but Wizcroft deftly placed it against the side of Prince's neck and pushed a button. Prince heard a k'thunk noise and felt a small prick on his neck before Wizcroft returned the gun to the trolley.

Wizcroft turned to regard Prince. "There may be a small amount of disorientation, but that will pass soon," he said.

Prince thought that he didn't feel anything, then he began to notice a tingling sensation in his feet. This slowly moved up his legs, then up his back before flowing up over the top of his head, down his arms and throughout his whole body. Next, he noticed a feeling of strength and energy flooding into his limbs. Then he started to hear a ringing in his ears. The ringing slowly started to abate, but then his eyesight blurred and he felt the panic beginning to rise. His eyesight narrowed down to a single point of light, which then dimmed to blackness and he realised he was blind.