Pain. Pain.
Free me! FREE ME!
A faint sound of screaming, not my voice but familiar. I decided to ignore it. For all I knew it could have been a memory I didn’t want to experience or a waking nightmare.
Then it stopped. And started again. I knew that I was hurt but the pain was alternating between sharp pains and normalcy. The sound of screaming was borne of frustration, rage and anger. Close enough for me to hear but distant as time passed as though it was the edge of a dream slowly fading way.
Nothing. I heard nothing. There is nothing to hear. Nothing at all.
Not that it had anything to do with me. Likely, I simply had a nightmare. Or my life was a nightmare. Hard to work things out sometimes. My body or copy of it remained slumped on the floor in front of the broken pieces of what had been my main source of communication.
The interesting fact was that there was nothing electronic there, not all the pieces that should have been inside, all the components that would make a computer didn’t exist. The screen and shell was there but it was hollow. Or at least that was what I was able to tell from the broken pieces that remained on the floor, hard to tell but I didn’t know what to expect.
Thankfully, the desk, computer screen, keyboard and mouse had all been located in one corner of the room. All the broken clutter was located in one easy to avoid space. There would be remnants to tidy away or kick into the corner but with my emotions still running high there was no way I trusted myself not to take out my frustrations on another inanimate object.
The painting remained untarnished and unmoving. The same for the bookshelves filled with various books, a few lamps and other furniture. All old style of a familiar but not exact design, props likely used in a drama production.
Or someone insane who decided to lock me inside a room, observe me and then pump hallucinogens into the air and keep me trapped here as I slowly died and then force fed my body with intravenous drips and food supplements to keep me alive a little longer.
Calm it. Calm it down. I need this place. For now. Don’t let your imagination run away.
I carefully kept my bloodied hands away from the floor and my own body but the blood continued to slowly flow. My clothing was much the same as it had been when I had first arrived in this mock escape room. Same Chelsea boots, same attire.
The room was lit as before, little had changed but then I hadn’t been exploring it to see if there was any changes. There was similar looking paintings, statue busts and the same décor on the walls.
‘Yeah, you like this? Enjoy the show? Give me a sign then now I’ve smashed your little communication device. Or you can take the hint. Two words, last one is off. Give me some space. Yeah, I’d finish that first word but I don’t know if you have swear filters turned on here. Actually, I can think of a lot of good swear words to use right now but I’m feeling a little empty. Want to give me a sign you’re watching me?’
I didn’t expect a response nor got one. I just sat there. Blood continually dripping onto the antique wooden floor and forming a tiny puddle with droplets drying out as my hands began to slowly heal.
‘My body heals, pain lasts longer and...no response. Thought I had some degree of control. Nothing? Not even a ding ding sound from the air to draw my attention? Proto-astronaut? Fancy making an appearance as a ghost? I’m going to cause myself severe damage if I’m stuck here without any methods of communication. Been a long...however I’ve been either here or inside that Mining Drone.’
Fast healing powers. Like a superhero. Or a genetic freak of nature. Heh.
My emotions felt emptied and dry. Crying would have been realistic but I realised that I had forgotten how to. All I was left with was pain and a broken pile of wood and metal.
‘I...I think I’m going insane. Something has been done to my mind. I’m sitting inside a room with no visible windows or doors and not even questioning how I arrived here or how I wake up inside a technologically advanced machine and then proceed to suffer memory blackouts, emotional swings and actions which make little sense. Focus. There was...there….people. I saw people. Living..people. I think. A word. There was a word to call them. Not slaves. A word beginning with s. No. Can’t recall.’
Pain. Still pain. Not real.
‘Personal note. Find a journal or recording device inside this room and keep a record. In case I end up inside here again with memory loss. I appear perfectly fine talking to myself. And my hands, really, really, really hurt. Ow’
I didn’t know how to remove the pain but the blood appeared to be slowing at a rapid rate. Either my body in this form healed faster than normal or the setting was designed to protect my physical form. Or the ache in my limbs. Physical damage in this place, this space actually hurt. The remains of the desk, computer chair and electronics didn’t magically reverse and fix themselves. Broken was broken.
Back inside the so-called Escape Room which was meant to be my reward for fulfilling specific tasks from the Campos System and the three creations designed to make me work, support and guide my actions. When they worked which in my eyes all three appeared damaged in a way. Like me. Or my mind. If I was real.
‘Am I real? Did they make me? Build me like a….toy. A broken toy. No, an intelligence, a thinking artificial creature with…..no. Nope. I’m real. Real. Realrealreal.’
No. Don’t go down that road. Never go down that road. Never.
The theme for this place appeared to be either history or knowledge in my opinion. Shelves of books, old furniture and paintings all heavily dated. The lamps with no visible sources of power still operated.
A great deal of this place remained outside of my control but I’d make a clear effort to try and change it. For a start there needed to be a brighter light source inside the room. I thought that I had heard a voice when I had woken up inside this place, not in here obviously but nearby.
I took a seat on the remaining sofa and considered that smashing things apart resolved absolutely nothing than giving me a brief emotional outlet. I had smashed the one means of communication from the Campos system, some Proto-astronaut but as far as I knew I’d still be monitored for my behaviour.
My hands hurt but the blood began to slow before stopping and I raised my hands and turned them in front of me. The pain simply lessened and began to diminish until it was as though nothing had happened.
Watching the smashed small desk and computer equipment, nothing changed. None of it magically flew up into the air and began to rebuild itself as though nothing had happened.
Focusing my will and intent I sat there with my hands squeezed tight and healed as the broken debris remained there.
I considered for a moment that the sensation of pain when I was forcefully put inside the Mining Drone was likely to stop me destroying myself.
‘Keep it together Mr The Miner. In case I’m being watched this user isn’t paying for the damages. Just add the cost to my bill said the duck. Nothing? No alternative way of conversing with me? Hidden cameras and microphones. Smokes and mirrors. You don’t want me to leave this place do you. Heh. How about food and drink? You can offer me that at least.’
I experienced a strong desire to go over to a bookshelf and read a book. The titles I remembered from before. One had been called How to dig your way out of trouble: An Intermediate Guide to Earthmover's in Risky Situations. The other books could wait, they held useful information but I wasn’t feeling it just yet.
I wasn’t actively looking for rewards from the Campos System or information. Everything that I knew about monitoring remote mining robots appeared to matter little when they shoved me into the Mining Drone.
No. I remembered at least they had promised me a fixed time to rest inside this place. If I was truly wanted then I would be drawn from this place, perhaps, perhaps not. I had power I knew, control but it wasn’t entirely fixed.
‘Tea and cakes. I want a hot drink of fresh buckwheat tea and a plate of Bakewell tarts fresh out of a bakery. My bakery if possible. No? Fine.’
I was glad that I hadn’t caused any damage to the sofa. Stretching out my body and my now entirely healed hands I took off my Chelsea boots and placed them on the side of the furniture letting my black socks breath a little.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Hunger, thirst, none of it bothered me here but that the fact unless I was actually aware of it then the thought wouldn’t come across my mind but there remained significant after-effects of being inside this place.
There was a ghost of a memory, the proto-astronaut I remembered appearing shocking me and questioning me and then…..I did something. I spoke words and left the room.
I decided to do what I had been sent to this Escape Room to do, rest and recover before I was drawn again into a Mining Drone and then back to work. I was certain that there was a large amount of work to do and I wasn’t going to ignore it.
But rest was needed, I need time to stop thinking and take a decent rest. I lay back on the sofa and folded my hands behind my head as I closed my eyes. My clothing remained fresh as ever, no it hadn’t changed in appearance since I arrived in this place initially.
This time I was fast asleep in the first time I could remember. At first my dreams were strange things filled with ranks and ranks of machines working in unison, armies of Mining Drones digging up rock and soil hurling dust into the air as they loaded it onto massive digging machines to be sifted, melted and processed.
The oddness of it was that I wasn’t inside a single one but them but possessed a view above, far, far above but zoomed in as though viewing it through a satellite. The Mining Drones worked individually but together, guided by a larger intelligence which controlled them.
Then the view shifted to a world filled with greenery, mountains, lakes, rivers and a span of ocean in between two massive islands. For the first time inside my memory of waking up inside the Mind Palace and the technological drone I saw life, birds and creatures with too many teeth hiding deep within vast forests.
My view raced across the surface of the green planet, the same satellite view but each time a living creature was found or an area rich with biological matter I would find my vision zooming down and back again.
Not a bad dream. No insane bosses, no work. I could get used to this.
The next part wasn’t so comfortable as I came across a war. Or rather a battlefield filled with chaotic conflict and death. Fought with creatures, human and inhuman, some were armoured and carried weapons and tools of war, others fought with their bare claws.
Towering above them were monsters I would have called demons, spiked things with spikes and blood curdling howls. Opposite were beings with wings made of pure light with far too many eyes and mouths in constant prayer. Both of them were designed to fight, to kill and wage never ending war.
I hovered above the battlefield then before both darkness and light filled my vision like twin beacons in opposite directions facing me. Terrible presences, similar to the one which had first brought me to this place, or at least a shadow of a remnant of one.
A name of a thing. A thing created and out of control which was destroyed, all traces removed but remains valuable. Valuable enough for scavengers to pick apart an isolated Mining Base on a small moon in the middle of nowhere. An abandoned site. The name of the thing was...the name was…
A voice deep, deep inside my head tried to make me recall but in my dream the power of the two terrible presences helped me to adjust. Taking control of my view, I angled away from the battlefield and the constant conflict to see a figure sitting down on a throne on each side of the conflict, far into the distance.
Behind one was a moon, covered in ever-flowing darkness, was a figure in shadowed armour. He simply sat on the throne either watching the war or enjoying it. Arms resting on his chin. His body shape struck me as male but that was a guess at most with strong muscular arms and legs and wearing a form of heavy armour. Not that it made any difference to me. I was simply an observer and this planet was far enough from my location that he didn’t recognise me or simply didn’t care about an ant watching a fight.
I forced the view to turn to the other side to see a similar moon but covered entirely in light which shone almost as bright as a sun. A throne comparable to the first sat there but the figure lounged on it, relaxed and carefree as she wore beautiful sleek white robes of purity which were draped around her.
All she did was watch but on her face there was a wry smile, the image was hard to make out for it was similar to trying to directly look at the surface of the sun. Then her attention wavered and she looked, not at me but at a point in the distance, closer to the eternal battlefield raging between the two figures.
Inside my dream there was a familiar presence, akin to me but different in a way. Where I was more like a sailor who had been enslaved and forced to work on board a galley boat and then struck a storm and was trying to survive this presence was free.
They had free will. An agenda and….power. Not much but they had done something to clearly make one of the two entities which controlled this world notice them. I didn’t know the name of this planet, or even the distance but I knew, simply knew that the same presence which had taken me also existed here in a form.
I wanted to know this person, to see the face of someone who was so similar to me but on a different world, to ask them how they had attained their freedom before the presence which was working with them and binding me grabbed my attention.
Over the battlefield I flew towards a mountain range in the distance towards a forest and a wrecked broken ruin of stone covered in moss and green. If I had been generous I would have called it an abandoned castle. Nothing special but for one thing. There were large plumes of smoke rising above it billowing into the clear skies above.
I didn’t know what kind of fire burned stone but whatever had been inside the abandoned castle burned well and burned hard. There was movement in the ruins as creatures within fled, mostly animals and others I wasn’t clear on.
The presence within noticed me and connected with the one providing me with a zoomed in satellite view.
...the name….the name is...the name….error.
...Subject not under direct control. Aberration.
...Overmind Control restricted...
...Attempting direct connection...