0 & 1

print("Thirteen")

Ari

Everything was really blurry.

And hazy.

I had been given a sedative so I wouldn't move or be worried about what was happening while I was being treated.

Despite that fact, I had gotten a few glimpses here and there of the treatment.

I remembered seeing tubes in my arms and lights in my face. John and Raven were doing some medical stuff that I wasn't educated in, but whatever they had done worked like magic. I felt as good as new.

I woke up in a bed - not the medical chair I was put in before, but an actual bed.

The thing was, the bed wasn't like one of those beds you'd have in your room or something. It was hard, and it had a thin sheet as a blanket. It was something out of a jail cell.

However, I had a feeling that this is what they slept on around here.

To be honest, it was kind of a miracle that they had beds at all. From what I imagined, it would be incredibly hard to find materials in this kind of world, and those terrifying monsters out there to be on your tail at every step when you're just trying to survive would make it ten times harder.

Then again, Summer had said that their ancestors had "carved this place with their bare hands" or something like that. I guess they had some kind of way to cycle clean bed sheets without going out and potentially getting killed.

A thought occurred to me. I wondered if my ancestors - and Lena's - had also been here. Did they make their own bases? Were there more of them? Were there more people like Summer and her family?

I had so many questions. I wanted to sit down with them around a table and just blurt them all out.

I got up out of the bed and rubbed my eyes, exhaling. There was no one else in the room, which bothered me. I wanted to find Lena and group up with the rest of them, but I had no idea of the layout of this place. I'd probably get lost and find myself face-to-face with one of those monster-robots. What were those called, anyway?

I walked out of the room, and started looking for the others0.

"Summer?" I called. No response.

I cleared my throat. I didn't feel comfortable asking other people for help - after all, in my company, everyone was asking me the things and I was merely ordering them - but it'd be more embarrassing to run into a wall than to ask for help, so I did it anyway.

"Uh, John?" I raised my voice. "Raven? Paris? Lena? Hello?"

I didn't get a reply. The corners of my mouth turned down. What, did they think it'd be okay to just leave me in there, alone? I don't know this place!

I sighed, and walked back to the concrete bed I had woken up in. My eyes were still heavy, lingering with the residue of sleep.

I entered the room and shut the door behind me. Oh well. Might as well go back to sleep.

I did my best to make myself comfortable in the bed that was anything but comfortable and let myself drift.

I'm inviting you to a company...our company.

...two million dollars to shut their mouths!

How....how....I just lost my best friend. My one person. Gone.

They found out! I'm gonna be set on trial!

I'm going to fix it.

Every single owner of the recent Tele-

It's already done. You'll be so happy-

I shot up my bed, shuddering and panting.

What the actual hell was that.

I swore. I couldn't remember anything. The dream was already slipping away. Shit, why couldn't I remember? It was all in small fragments, missing pieces to a puzzle.

In the dream, I was talking to someone but who. But I wasn't exactly talking. It felt like I just couldn't control my actions or words.

I put my hand to my head, a pounding starting in my temples. How long was I out for?

I left the room, still confused about what I had just experienced. I should go find everyone else, but holy shit this place is really confusing.

It pulled at my mind to call my assistant out to help me and go fetch me a blueprint of the facility, but it was merely a habit. I waved it away and looked around the walls for a map.

After ten minutes or so I did find one. I gave a sigh of relief, and wiped sweat off my brow. I squinted at it. On it was a white outline of an irregular polygon, with certain points stemming out into a language I didn't understand, with even smaller white diagrams sitting next to the labels. I rolled my eyes, concluding that it was of no use to me, and started looking for someone.

Luckily, I ran into Raven, and she led me back to everyone else.

"You should make navigating through here easier," I told her. She didn't reply, but she knew I was right.

end

End