Facility

6

After one whole night of sleep, Swab finally uttered those words I had been longing to hear:

“Interaction is scheduled at Eleven Forty-five,”

I simply smiled a beautifully horrific smile. No “Good morning precious”, no suppressor? Oh you do spoil me swab. And pretty soon I’ll spoil you. But don’t worry your pretty new pincer head my dear, just call it a special present for all these years you’ve subjected me to mind-wiping drugs and endless incarceration.

Swab’s pincer moved awkwardly “Are you feeling adequate Guest Inferior 4286?”

“Oh, more than adequate Swab. I feel ready.”

It simply twitched. This one didn’t understand me quite yet. My old one had years to work on me. However, a note had been left with the new swab:

“Guest Inferior 4286 has been granted a new 6.2 swab due to psychic breakdown of her former model. Memory has been cleansed and dwelling has been reassigned.”

How kind of them. Who ever them were. Anyway new Swab seemed, in its own words, adequate. It only accompanied me to the door of my Artificial Habitat and allowed me to enter all by myself- I suppose I was a big girl now. So big in fact, it turns out I didn't even need a interaction in an Artificial Habitat. No, I was heading straight for the top.

The pure white door slid open, revealing a room not unlike my own dwelling- except with no furniture and around several times larger. A small figure lay in the middle of the stark floor, dressed in black rags and remaining still.

I edged my way closer to the body, wondering if it was alive. Why have they brought me here? To view this... this thing? My throat was bone dry and my hands shock violently, but my legs carried me towards the centre of the room where it lay. On closer inspection, I was sure it was a man. The shaven head jerked slightly at the sound of my foot steps.

“H-Hel-Hello? Are you okay, can I help?” I stuttered, tentatively nudging the body.

A crooked hand suddenly stretched out and clung to my foot, making me lose balance and topple to the floor. My head collided with ground, ringing an explosion of pain through my mind and welding my eyes shut. The thing was on top of me now, slowly turning me over to face it.

My eyes opened to stare into Kashmir's sunken skeletal face baring down upon me.

The scream never left my lips. A gunshot went off. A bullet flew straight through Kashmir's emaciated head, raining down warm crimson blood onto my petrified body. There was no hint of surprise in her eyes- her pitiless black eyes. Yet her mouth stretched into a terrible snarl, a small trickle of blood flowing from it's cracked corners.

I never moved as her lifeless form hit me. I lay. Waiting for the second bullet to hit me and end it.