Chapter 9 - Error

In the pitch black of my capsule, at some point my mind began to dissociate. Whether that could be qualified as sleep or not was beyond me. In that state of sensory deprivation the contours of time and space blurred.

I heard waves lapping gently against a distant shore. A rhythmic, steady sound. Peaceful and amniotic.

But then something white broke the endless darkness above my resting head. Something white and ferocious, spreading out like the expanding cosmos itself. A mouth. Or rather, teeth, and pointed at that. Gleaming white teeth stretched into a rictus, cheshire grin.

And a sound as deep as rolling thunder.

III kNoW wHaT yOu DiDDD

I lay paralyzed, frozen in place. My eyes shot open, perceiving this all-engulfing smile and nothing else. The invisible storm clouds rumbled again.

iiI KnOw WhAt YoU dIdddd

I strained with all my might, trying to force–to will my body to move. But I was completely immobilized. Tears formed at the corners of my eyes and dripped helplessly down the side of my face. Every nerve and vein within me protested.

Then–a pain like an orbitoclast slipping into my brain through the edge of my eye socket overwhelmed me, but I could not scream or resist. An unfathomable helpless piercing. A migraine to end all migraines.

]ERROR ||||lllIIII ERROR |IIIllll||| 01110011 01100001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100100 01100001 01101101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101001 01101110 01100101 01100100 -1%[

Gaaaaaahhhh!!!!!

At last–I broke free and lunged for the dial on the wall of the capsule, twisting it to full brightness.

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The room was empty.

No haunting smile. No disembodied voice.

The capsule was as bare as ever, with only my sparse clothing stacked against the side wall where I had left them. My head throbbed.

I shuddered, trying to bring my racing pulse under control. I felt as if I had awoken in a cold sweat, perhaps even pissed myself. Yet these were only phantom sensations. Bright spots swam in my vision.

Even then the unfathomable phenomenon spilled down into some hole in my memory, and after several minutes I sat staring at my unfamiliar hands, unsure of what I was doing, aware of only a dull ache in my head.

A menu notification flashed in my vision.

[Refresh complete.

Essence restored.

Energy at full.

Neutralized status ailment removed.]

Refresh. Had I truly slept? Had I dreamt? How long had I been in this cramped room? How long had I been sitting, staring at the tan, featureless skin of my palms?

The notification hung persistently in front of me.

Shaking the last bits of disorientation and pain away, I started to sort through my menus. My Essence had returned to 20, up from 10. My Energy, whatever that was for, remained at 10. Obviously ‘resting’ restored both of these statistical categories or resources. I had not had an opportunity to use Energy and did not know exactly what it was for.

The restored Essence also meant that my total Storage was up to 197.7 metabytes out of 210. I recalled the unusual notification the Concierge had given me at the end of my orientation. Something about a sign-on bonus.

Searching into my Status submenu, I also confirmed that the Infernal Burn was gone. Totally gone. I wondered if neutralized conditions were removed upon a refresh.

I got dressed and climbed out into the hall, closing the hatch to my capsule behind me. The hall was dim and empty. Not a sight or sound of another resident in either direction. I walked down the hall to the waiting metal cage of the elevator and scanned my code, feeling the contraption crank to life as the creaking mechanism lowered me to the ground floor.

I stepped out. The air felt brisk. It was still dark out, and I began to wonder if any equivalent to a sun existed in this world. The streets were dry. The flooding water, the deep pools, the torrent of colorful rainfall–all gone, as if it had been nothing more than a hallucination.

I looked around to see if I might spy Camel or another Volunteer, but I was alone.

I smoothed out my black coveralls and walked in the direction of the Information Kiosk. It was time to get some answers.