The feeling of a sharp pain in my temple aids in helping me recognize consciousness. My eyes slowly creak open to a bleak, dark orange sky with gray clouds through a gaping hole in the ceiling. I tense up as I try to lift my nimble arms. I look at my hands. Pale white skin with few wrinkles. Where am I? It appears to be some kind of shell casing. I grab the sides to lift myself up but feel tethered to this carcass. I look down. Connected to my stomach is a red tendril with wires that's attached to this pod. I grab the cord and begin to pull. It hurts. I muster what little strength I have until the frail tendril pops out from my stomach. A sanguine fluid spills out of the tip of the torn tendril as I toss it aside. Blood? The pain from the severed tendril was excruciating. Looking down at my body I only see my own torso. A strange pattern adorns my torso. It lacks any skin, comprised of artificial organ and bone structure. There seems to be symmetrical engravings and etchings within my arms and hands. The hole of skin in my stomach where the tendril was connected has sealed up. Why am I here?

I lifted myself up once again to step out of the shell. My bare feet hit the cold steel floor. I feel... Alive? I stretched my fingers out. Followed with my arms and finally my legs. I raised a hand to touch my head. It's surface is smooth. I have a nose but no ears or mouth. What am I? No matter. I have awakened now. I checked my surroundings. I'm in some sort of room. There are tubes on the parts of the wall connecting to the ceiling as well as the floor. Oval shaped glass windows. I turned around only to be greeted with more of those pods. I counted at least eight of them. Examining the pods, almost every single one was empty. They all had tendrils inside attached into the apparatuses on top of the shells; Cylindrical devices with a red substance housed inside connected to the ceiling. Was that pod keeping me alive? One pod was different however. Another similar to me lay inside of it but with the tendril disconnected and covering their body in blood. Seems they did not make it to the awakening stage such as I have. I felt nothing for them. Before I should leave I decided to peer outside the nearest window. A desolate wasteland was all that I saw. But visibility was limited. A dense fog lingered. Now was not the time for theorizing my situation. I had to get out of here. To my left was a door. I approached the rusted steel door, left cracked halfway and slid my thin body through it. Ahead of me was another room lined with pods while in the center just to my left was some sort of mechanism with a switch inside of a cylindrical device large enough for me to stand in. Curious I stepped into the mechanism. The switch apparatus was fleshy, with five holes and a small red light. Out of instinct, I stuck my fingers into the holes and turned the switch to the right. The red light flashed green. Suddenly a door descended to seal me inside the mechanism and began to descend. 

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Once the mechanism had come to a stop, the door ascended upwards. I was greeted with a sharp wind blowing against my sensitive exposed skin. The wasteland I had seen laid out bare in front of my eyes. I began to move ahead into this wasteland. The grounds were gray and dull. The landscape was vivid in it's structure. Masses of rock and stone stood out amongst the flat grounds. I could even see some hills. I was so blown away by the imagery that I failed to notice what I had stepped on. Beneath my foot was an arm. A corpse laid out on the ground. It looked eerily similar to me just as the one in that pod did. No signs of the sanguine fluids about. It's as if this one had just collapsed and never awoken. I just marched on, stepping over the corpse. Once I had gained some distance from the mechanism I was in, I turned around and looked up. A tall, metal rectangular-shaped structure with a round rooftop loomed over me. Four steel beams supported the structure. Looking both ways I could see more of these structures though they were hard to see through the fog. Clearly these structures are here for a reason. But why? Since they faced in my way, I figured I would keep heading in my current direction away from the structures.

As I walked these dead fields I started to see more corpses. Each of them looked exactly like myself. Who are they? Just ahead of me perched atop a hill was a worn steel construct. It was oval-shaped. Cracks were forming in it's foundation. An intricate pattern of circular lines was weaved into it and a bronze circle bearing a symbol too faded to recognize was etched on the front. What was this? This construct would not be the only one I see. More of them were laid out all over this wasteland I walked. What was their purpose here? Regardless I pressed on. Sometimes tiny pebbles could be felt underneath my feet. It was quiet aside from the howling of the winds. I was the only one of these things walking and, living? Breathing? Every other one I would come across laid lifeless on the ground or up against the rocky formations. One was even hunched over a round piece of metal. I soon came upon a corpse leaning against a battered construct, it's hand pressed to the cold steel. What a strange pose it laid in. Now I was beginning to question how much longer must I walk these barren wastes before finding something. Anything. I was walking slowly so maybe I wasn't covering that much ground. Before I knew it something in the distance caught my eye. Through the dense fog and brutal winds I saw the silhouette of what appeared to be tall structures. Many of them. And a seemingly endless wall stretching on for miles and miles. I braced myself for the journey ahead. Wherever I was heading... There had to be something there for me.