A silent facility stood in the middle of a great field, dark clouds looming over the horizon is the common view these days, No sun hangs in the sky anymore, the air does not feel clean since a long time a go; the amount of polution in the atmosphere is enough to kill any human without protection in seconds, and the ones with protection would last minutes at most.

A sickly pale color permeated the once rich lands, the dusty earth unfertile as the matrix of a mule; once a land filled with diverse flora and fauna, full of life and death; a complete cycle, now only an arid land.

Years pass by in the now forgotten facility, days no longer called as such, nobody remembers numbers anymore, weeks, months of years a memory long forgotten; all that remains are mere cycles, and like in any other cycles, the loud chime marked the start of n°8's labor, and as in any other cycle, procedure demanded to a review the basic functions and marking of the approximate working parameters.

"No oxygen level problems 96% fluid saturation with 33 points of energy input, as good as it could get with the current conditions" reported Nº8; thanfully he never had problems with toxicity even though 9 out of the 16 numbers where fatal victims to it. "The base pump is running at 75 cycles per minute and the concentration tank is at 56%" Nº8 keep reviewing, he could keep going for a few days with the new energy saving system implemented 12 years ago. 

N°8 came out of the capsule; he consulted the T-gear on his left wrist, “starting record 07:03 16 July 2076 according to the old calendar, all parameters are within functional rates, starting procedures, will review the communications room, maintenance room, and Laboratories”; sure, nobody counted days anymore, no real need for it, but N°8's job is to record and keep count of everything that happened in the facility and all camps around it, and there is a need to keep a temporal line to make a logical report distribution. 

The capsule room looks the same as always, 16 capsules with green displays in front of them keep a record of the 16 numbers inside them; though this was long ago, now most of the capsules no longer functional, only N°8 and N°12 keep that common green tint; the 2 last numbers still making shifts,  recording status of the capsule room is the last stop, so Nº8 still had a long way before coming back to make sure everything is running fine, as always, duty comes first.

Even though they never see each other, N°8 found great solace in the company that the small traces of N°12 existence left behind and hopes it would find company in his too; even though there are 10 cycles that separated N°12 recordings from N°8 he could still find those small traces around, once he found unprocessed organic matter in the room titled as "Diner" where N°8 goes 20min before ending every cycle to recharge the concentration tank. Or the time when...

A loud sound and a woman’s voice announced it is time for N°8 to star his cycle. The First stop is the communications room in the west wing of the building; The long halls are full of closed doors, most of them inaccessible because of forced lock down to prevent outside contamination to enter the facility, 30 long years have this facility been standing in the lonely northern fields and even though the most basic parts were still running most of it was lost to the environmental hazards of the new world.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Nº8 stood in front of the communications room, a bright green panel monitored the inside atmosphere, temperature, air toxicity, humidity, and the integrity of the infrastructure. “The communications room seems to be running without issues, though the room is a bit colder than usual, at 23ºc, it usually was 24ºc by the time my cycle starts, the standard set by N°12 lasted 6 cycles so the temperature started dropping after Cycle 4, in a rather constant 0,5 degrees per cycle though the temp lost is not linear. Maybe the outside was colder these days making the facility lose more heat per cycle. 

N°8 went into the room to check the outside temp, -37°C came out of the external readings, and there was no variation to previous readings, "This is strange" thinking to himself "We could be losing heat to structure failure but there are no reading in the outside panel, it´s important to keep a record of the temperature of these room in future cycles to start preventive measures".

Leaving the communications room, N°8 made his way to the supply and maintenance room; the room's door panel marked 11 Cycles without incidents. N°8 went inside and started the scanning protocols, there were no heat leaks, the toxic levels were ok, and the water supply was the same as he left it in his last cycle. "Start maintenance procedures" N°8 exclaimed to the main frame. The panel marked 1 hour ETA, enough time for N°8 to go to the lab and record the evolution of the 29 projects. 

If there was one place N°8 liked about his job was the research lab, it was the beacon of hope this facility gave to humanity. The UHM67 Reactor, the main project of the facility was capable of converting the toxic air and water into clean breathable air and drinkable water, the problem was the size, it would take too long to build enough prototypes to make a significant change, so the facility is still upgrading the prototype to make it more effective.

The Labs were the farthest location of the facility, according to the engineers, the isolation would make it safe if any of the projects went out of control, a big door separated the labs from the rest of the facility with 29 panels monitoring each room. The corridor was darker than usual, there was a dim red light at the end, a sends of dread ran through Nº8, he ran to the labs door making his worst fears come to reality, all 29 panels marked a red lockdown status. The labs were gone and there was nothing he could do about it.

“12:13 16 July 2076 according to the old calendar, I find myself in front of the labs facility door, a general lock down in every panel marks the ending of the progress we have been making for the last 30 years, the labs have been lost in an unknown cycle.” A sense of loss overcame Nº8, the only reason the numbers were established was to keep the science facility running, to keep looking for an answer, for hope to regain the lost planet and now it was all gone.

“Today marks the day that ends all the efforts made by the creators, so as Nº8 and as the standard procedures claim, I start the lock and shut down of the advent facility”

A female voice started speaking, but Nº8 had no room in his mind to pay attention to anything this machine could tell him, he knew what he had to do, but there was no rush anymore, there was no task to achieve, no order to keep, no record to record. With his head down he approached the “Diner”, as a secondary room it did not get much maintenance, and even less power supply, 8ºC marked the panel outside of the room. He ate a power bar and drank a coke, leaving the trash in the empty bin, this made him feel something weird, but he quickly forgot about it.

Back in the pods room, he counted 16 pods, for 16 numbers, 15 red, one green, 15 red… So that was it, Nº12 was not here anymore, that was the reason he no longer found any traces around. Grieving solitude made its way into his pump, Nº8 got into his pod, with a wish to enter sleep and no longer return as the cycles were already complete.