Saylee awoke. She found herself waking up on top of the sheets.

She stared at the ceiling for a few moments, at a loss of words. She hit her right fist against the wall. Frustrated that she was still in this nightmare. She still prayed that one day she’ll wake up back in her old comfy bed, with Dalmon lying by her side.

She let out a long sigh before turning to her side. She then sat up and pushed a button on the wall. A medium sized wall panel on the slid down within the wall, revealing a built in shelf within the wall. On one of the shelves, lay a handheld tablet, a little bigger than a standard cell phone. The tablet was hovering about an inch off the shelf. Lifting the tablet off the shelf, she saw a circle with a lightning bolt icon inside of it, indicating a wireless charging area. She then focused on the tablet. Externally, she saw no inputs, and no speakers. She taped the screen with her thumb.

It read 0600 UTC.

“Whatever UTC means”, she grumbled.

Saylee wondered what to do. She couldn’t fall back asleep.

Is it early in the morning? Is it morning?

She regretted not checking the time before she fell asleep. She had no idea how long she’d slept nor how long shes been been here on the ship.

How long have I been dead?

How long have I been life since…my new body? Reincarnation? I don’t know

Thinking about her new body, she noticed the cotton mouth.

She went to the sink, looked at the cabinet underneath, and pulled out a brush and a tiny tube of toothpaste.

Saylee opened her mouth and was startled to see perfect teeth.

No amalgam fillings and no teeth stains.

She couldn’t look away at the impossibly perfect and aligned her new teeth were.

She caught herself smiling.

This is so surreal. I guess having a new body ain’t too bad.

A thought crossed her mind.

Saylee slowly lifted her right arm. Using her left hand, she lifted her sleeve slowly.

Her arm tattoo was gone.

She frowned, her sick-ass panther tattoo was gone.

That’s several hundred dollars down the drain, she thought grimly.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Saylee finished getting freshened up.

She needed a distraction soon to keep pushing back the thoughts of her family to the furthest and deepest parts of her mind.

She wanted to keep thinking of them, but she knew she needed to keep her mind clear. Deep down, she was certain she was going to figure out a way to get back to her family, and if she didn’t keep calm, it was only delaying her return home.

I can’t let negative thoughts slow me down

The pulsing ache in her knuckles from punching the steel wall in the shower was a painful reminder.

She stepped out into the hall. To the right of her, at the end of the hall was the elevator. At the hall, the fork of directions was to the left of her. She headed down the left hall.

At the end of the hall, she saw three open doors. The door on the left side was the library. She used the world library loosely, as it wasn’t much of a library as much as it was a small closet-sized waiting room. It had one bookshelf, and it was only half full of books. There were two pieces of furniture next to it, a worn-in recliner, and one severely broken-in couch.

The middle door had a small room that contained two vending machines.

She walked in, observing the machines with their large touch screens. One of the vending machines sold hygiene products. She browsed through the items, and they all were…free.

Which made sense since she realized the new arrivals had no money.

Saylee didn’t need anything so she browsed the other machine. Which to her delight, contained a variety of snacks, ranging from chips and candy to-

Wait

She did a double take. The brands in the machine were unrecognizable. They looked similar to the brands she was accustomed to seeing in her old life, but they were a little off with different brand names and color themes.

“Hmm, some corn chips sound good”

She tried to select Brito’s brand of corn chips, which prompted a “Machine Out Of Service, Please Try Again Later” popup in response.

She selected another snack.

“Machine Out of Service, Please Try Again Later” error message popped up once again.

She tried to make another selection. Same response.

Her frustration grew, her first constantly bashing the X on the popup notifications.

I believe I’m now taking my frustrations out on a vending machine.

Saylee kicked the bottom of the machine.

All I want is some damn junk food.

Something started to brew up inside her. Clenching her fists, she left the room before she ended up punching in the screen.

She walked over to the remaining room. Looking inside, she saw that the size of this room was very large, it could easily fit at least forty people comfortably. It contained half a dozen arcade machines. She glanced around, each machine was flashing a message, “Unlimited Free Play”. She was not particularly interested in playing anything at the moment, as her irritable mood still lurked inside her.

As she strode in and lazily looked around at the arcade games, she remembered Gabe.

She felt a pang of disappointment that Gabe wasn’t here, as she imagined he would’ve liked this room.

She wondered if she’d ever see him again. Even though she barely him, Gabe was the only one who would talk to her and do would do his best to answer her questions. He felt more approachable, as he wasn’t an employee of this surreal afterlife nonsense.

She was the only one in the recreational room.

There was no one around.

She felt so along.

Saylee, feeling like the walk out of her room hadn’t helped calm her down at all. She decided it was probably best to just head back into bed.

She paused.

An idea struck her.

Saylee glanced around, double-checking that she was the only one around.

She noticed that there were no visible cameras.

She smirked.

I’m alone.

She walked down the other far end of the hallway, her back towards the elevator. She broke into a smile before running full speed into the middle room.

Using the momentum, she turned in her shoulder before colliding with the machine.

She heard a bag of chips fall.

Saylee reached out and pulled out a bag of Spicy Hot Cosmics. She couldn’t help but laugh at the terrible off-brand name.