Gears (NaNoWriMo 2017) (#1 Below the Machines)

Chapter 21

I woke up to the sound of silence. It was strange, I found, as I shook herself out of my daze. The room was pitch black, as they were underground after all. The fact that there weren't any natural lights down here always bothered me.

My breathing was ragged, uneven. Even though I had surprisingly no nightmares while I slept, I still felt uncomfortable, and my lungs grasped desperately for air that they thought wasn't there. After a while, my hyperventilation calmed down, evening out into long, quiet breaths. I sat in the dark for a couple of minutes, then decided to turn on the lamp on the bedside table, which I had now become accustomed to reaching over. My fingers pressed the button, letting the small, dim, light flood through the room once more.

I always preferred this to the lights on the ceiling, as I found it more appealing to have a small, contained light on rather than one that blinded your eyes as though there wasn't enough space in a room for the light to go.

I blinked my eyes again, using the back of my hand to rub out the sleep, trying to figure out why this felt so weird for me, trying to point out the missing puzzle piece. There was something nagging at me, but I just didn't know what. The feeling grew stronger, as I gently nudged the digital clock resting on the wooden table, so that it would turn to face me with its glowing neon lights.

11:34am Blinked back at me, telling me the time of the day. I brushed it off, my brain still feeling sluggish and slow, snuggling back underneath my covers until it clicked. Panicked, I scrambled back up into my sitting position again, and double - checked the clock. It was three in the afternoon! I scratched my head in confusion, realising that normally, it was Maid 27's job to help me wake, as she would walk into the room with a tray of food, turning the lights on in the process. No wonder something had felt off about all of this. Waking up in total darkness should've been a dead hint to what was happening around me.

I paused, giving myself a couple more seconds to try and comprehend my life and pull myself back together, trying to wake up fully. Once I did, I got up and got dressed, heading of to the washroom to splash some water on my face. As I stared in the mirror, water droplets dripping down my face, I realised that I had been sleeping for around 13 hours. I guess all this drama had taken its toll on me.

I was just buttoning up the last clasps, walking out of the bathroom archway, when the knocks came. Three taps, short and sharp, recognisably Major Hart's, as I've come to know it as. Turning around, I opened the door, being greeted by that familiar scarred face. I set to fingers to my brow in a half - hearted salut — more casual and joking rather than serious. He smiled and took it in his stride, acting as he normally would, but still I noticed something... off about it. I wasn't even sure what it was, but there was just something different about the way he approached me now.

"I was expecting your Maid, but having you in front of me just makes things easier for me." He said, raising an eyebrow at the absence of 27. "Here, come with me. We're going to make a stop at my office for a second, then continue on with training."

I nodded, and he started to walk away from me, which was the cue for me to follow.

After a couple of bends and turns in the corridors, we reached a part of the military base that I seemed vaguely familiar, and when I thought it through, I recognised that the ordering and placing of the doorways reminded me of the route we had taken to get to the Lieutenant - General's office. I felt like as if there were little gears and cogs turning in my head as digital computers organised certain images I had seen in memories and matched them up to what I was trying to find, flashing across my eyes. I always found that extremely strange, and I knew it was just another part of me that wasn't human — wasn't natural.