Chapter 3:

I must have unconsciously expected pain from using my voice but there was none. I sounded normal– or at least the way my voice resonated in my head sounded normal. Even with my tongue underneath the solid obstruction of the tube, I was able to speak without difficulty. Something about the contraption seemed to have also mechanically helped me speak, as I had only intended to whisper but my reply ended up louder than expected.

“Oh thank god!” the woman replied. Upon hearing my voice, the boy hurriedly walked back to where she was. “Please, please help us. I promise you, we’re not dangerous. We’re not bad people. And we’ve got food with us and items we’re willing to trade. So just please open the door,” she begged.

Distracted as I was by the thing, I hadn’t even considered how I didn’t know anything about what kind of people these two were. Yeah, they could be dangerous. And what did she mean by trading for food? Had things really gotten that bad all over? I needed more information about what it was I should do, what it was that was expected of me to do, and what was actually safe to do but there were so many gaps in what I knew about freaking anything.

I looked for some more buttons to push in front of me, all the while keeping a good eye on the two as well on the creature outside. It was still rolling around bumping into walls and various junk. There must have been some method in how it was moving around if it managed to get here ostensibly on the trail of the two.

The tube, my tube, obviously, was part of some interface that allowed access to various camera feeds in this place. But so far, aside from the door, I was only able to see video displaying outside locations. If there hadn’t actually been some monumental mistake in rerouting these things to me, maybe this was what it was made for. Some sort of strange defense system? Was that my job here?

Again, I tried to remember how it was I actually got inside this tube and again, the brain came up empty. Well, I could remember some images, snatches of conversations, instances of waking up in the middle of a medical operation, then falling asleep, then waking up again, then falling asleep, then waking. Nothing gelled.

“They told us you accept people, so long as they can contribute. ” the woman said.

“Who are you?” I finally replied. I wanted to ask them so much more but I didn’t want to advertise my lack of knowledge. Of course, they could be in on all of this. Maybe they were working with whoever stuck me here and it was all some kind of test.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I’m Margaret Barish. And this is my son, Jeremy.”

“Where are you from?” I asked. I was just stalling, continuing to look for something to push from my side.

“Please, we don’t have the time! One of the anomalies is after us. It’s…” she paused, then looked back as if to check for their pursuer. “Look, we’re sorry we led it here. We thought we’d lost it but our de-assimilator died. We’re from another settlement. And we can’t tell you where–”

At that moment I clicked on the triangle icon beside Margaret’s image on the screen, hoping it would give me some additional options. The boy looked up, saw something and immediately flinched. “No, no, no, please, don’t! Don’t shoot! We haven’t done you any wrong, Mister!” he shouted in a panic.

Right after, Margaret hugged her son, causing the two of them to fall to the floor. What the hell was going on now?

The two stayed very still on the floor, trying not to move, and then very gradually, started to back off.

“We don’t want any trouble,” she said in a whimper. The boy seemed to be shaking and soon, I heard him start to cry. “Don’t kill us, please.” she added.

Oh shit. I hadn’t noticed how another screen had popped up, partly covered by the clutter from the others. This one had a crosshair in the middle and no matter how the two moved, the camera readjusted itself, panning and zooming to follow them with the crosshair keeping itself targeted to the middle of her chest.

I couldn’t see what exactly happened from their side but it was very likely I’d activated some kind of weapons system and they’d been threatened by it. The triangle icon is NOT good.

“I’m sorry!” I shouted. “Don’t be alarmed, I’m NOT trying to threaten you! There’s been a misunderstanding. I’m going to turn it off… or retract it or something. Please, don’t panic. Again, I mean you no harm.”

A dozen long seconds passed as I tried to solve this puzzle. On the crosshair screen, I could see two floating semi-transparent gray icons. Two triangle icons. What the hell? Who designed this interface? One of the triangles pointed up. The other triangle pointed to the left. I thought it more than likely it was the left-pointing triangle icon that would cause the defense mechanism to deactivate. But then, what if I was wrong and I ended up killing the two in a hail of gunfire.

“We’re not thieves. We’re not spies! They told us it was safe here. That we’d be protected here! If you don’t want us here, we’re going to leave, just please don’t shoot,” Margaret said. Very slowly, she stood up and motioned for Jeremy to also get on his feet. All the while, she kept her body positioned to shield the boy from the perceived threat.

I couldn’t decide if clicking on anything was going to make things worse so I went with my other plan.

“Okay. Hey. If anybody’s listening in, I don’t know what the fuck is going on, I don’t know why I’m here or what the hell is happening. I don’t know if this is a fucking joke or some psychological experiment or maybe even a real honest-to-goodness post-apocalypse but whoever is listening, please, let’s not start shooting these folks here. Okay? Okay?”

As I waited for a response from whoever was in charge, the two just stood there and whispered to each other.

“Sir, I don’t know what you’re talking about but first, can you please not point your guns at us?” Margaret said.

“Yeah. It’s not me. I’m not the one doing that. There’s an automated defense system here and something must have triggered it. Please stay very still as I try to deacti–”

BANG!

I flinched at the sound of the explosion, worried that I’d caused one or both of them to be shot.

My relief was short-lived as I saw how the pair had turned around and were now gazing at the spherical monster at the far end of the room.

The creature had found its prey.