At a light touch from my hand, the door slides open with a low pneumatic hiss before jamming against its rusted bearings. Squeezing through, my limbs scrape additional rust in my passing. Past it is a plain corridor lined with other doors similar to my own, their name plates and markings worn with the passage of time. The walls are cement, floors paneled with metal grilles and lit from below. The ceiling is similarly covered and failing lights rest in their holders. Somewhere in the distance blasts of pressurized air and heavy machinery can be heard; previously muffled by the confines of my previous location.
I need to know where I am, what I am, why I am. There are so many questions, but I believe that there is more than enough time to discover an answer.
Glancing up and down the corridor, I find that there is nothing here for me. The corridor is bare save for the occasional piece of abandoned scrap and dust. No life is present from my initial scans.
To sate my curiosity and answer my questions, I must move on. More dust and flakes of rust fall from my frame as I make my way down the corridor. Pistons creaking, metal squeaking, and the whir of motors all move to the beat of the mechanical beast I hear in the background. The sounds make a tempo of metal, air, and electricity as I traverse this endless hallway.
There seem to be a pattern to the lights. Approximately every 16 hours, all the lights dim to one quarter their original power. Seven hours later, the lights return to their original brightness. My fragmented memories recall something called a Sun. It seems that in ages past, before the construction of the megastructure, the sun provided light to the world and denoted cycles referred to as day and night. I believe that the lights in this place are meant to mimic these solar cycles.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Several cycles have passed since I had left the place where I first woke up and the distant sounds of heavy machinery have steadily grown into a dull roar. I feel as if I am nearing the heart of a titan. Over the course of my trek, little has changed in the building’s construction. Occasionally, I would find a piece of scrap or two of higher quality than my own. Each time, I would rest a moment and integrate it into my own body before getting up and continuing on my journey. Like my fragmented memories that are not my own, I do not know how I have this knowledge, only that I can utilize it in order to maintain myself.
In the distance, I think I can finally see the end of this eternal corridor. The closer I get to my destination, the more I see. The corridor opens up to a large open area. At the end opposite me lies one large door approximately 20 feet off the ground while the doors themselves are seem to be twice that in either direction. It seems to be the source of all the noise reverberating that I have been hearing. Directly to my left and two my right are shuttered doors encompassing the entirety of the wall. Judging from the layout of this place, I assume that this is a former loading/unloading dock for an adjacent factory. That brings up another question: if the loading bay is deserted and empty, why would there be any reason to continue manufacturing?
Well, there’s nothing left here for me other than to continue on. I might as well see what’s happening in there.
----------------------------------------
Word count: 608words
Total count: 999 words