The light blinked off. With a sigh, Leo raised his hand and tried to wave it over the divider of the toilet. For all of humanity’s great achievements, he would never understand why this was considered a good thing. He took stock of his position, closing his eyes and waiting for them to adjust before looking around at the three plastic walls around him. The scrawling writing that was amusing him moments before now looked alien. The symbols easily meshed with each other as his eyes lost and regained focal points. There was a clicking of heels as someone walked by the bathroom entrance. Click. Click. Click. The steps grew fainter as he sat, and soon they evaporated into the sound of his own breathing. His skin began to prickle as his hair stood up on his arms. The air felt colder, heavier as if it was blanketing him to inhibit any desire to move from this spot.
But Leo did stand and ventured out of the cubicle. Dressed and washed, he stared at the ceiling, trying to turn the lights on before giving up and leaving. The sound of his every action had its own effect on the quality of the air around him. The faucet started its torrent, playing like a movie’s opening blast—shattering the silence with vicious and unwavering hissing. At the water’s completion, there was a click as the knob returned to its shut position, signaling the quiet to ready its invasion. Sound’s presence sucked in, creating a power vacuum that absorbed the invader with welcoming arms, isolating Leo with himself again. The previous symphony of the food court’s patrons had left no trace that it ever existed.
Leo walked through the tables of abandoned food and shopping bags—a voyeuristic delight for his anthropologist's heart. Trinkets of real human lives were scattered around him. Just like an archaeologist, Leo took agonizing care opening the bright red purse nearest him. He thought there might be some clues to its owner, maybe a cell phone to contact his family. Lipstick, tampon, condom, wallet, Texas driver’s license, and a prepaid phone chip emptied from his treasure onto the table. Chipping in the phone, his augs blinked with a ‘no funds’ warning. Connecting the phone’s data to his own caused it to start. The new phone’s data offered all its contents to Leo. Texts from clients assumed lovers, and politicians with emojis next to the names all accumulated into some code to be deciphered.
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The next bag was a large shopping bag full of treasures from multiple other stores. Tiff’s, Big 4, Game Go, and Virgin Mobile’s logos splashed across the bags, nesting like dolls inside each other. But before Leo could explore their contents, the sound of metal slamming on glass erupted in the distance, only to be followed by the intercom starting its low buzzing. The buzzing was numbing, constant, and filling the emptiness of the air.
Disregarding the once-coveted bags, Leo flung them aside and sprinted with complete dedication toward the sign of life. Leo navigated the mall’s turns on instinct as left and right corners cut within inches of labyrinthian walls. With the burning in Leo’s lungs challenging his desire for something behind the next turn, his sprint only intensified. The corridors seemed to narrow with his vision, and his limbs grew heavy, refusing to complete the swings stabilizing his movements.
Leo’s lungs gave out before he found his answer. He collapsed in a heap, raspy breaths brawling with inflamed muscles for the attention of his brain. His peripheral vision had already faded as his tunneled sight revealed the cause of the sound. His body came to rest in front of the exotic animal store, complete with its glass dividers broken and its stock emptied. that can’t be good. Adrenaline tried to pump through his system.
The cool, wet feeling of a watery, viscous liquid was soothing over Leo’s neck as he closed his eyes. The warmth of blood flowing under the pierced skin, rushing out, was the last thing to grace Leo’s consciousness.
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The Pod flashed red before turning back to its normal green. Two researchers unplugged the table in front of them and began to scrawl on notepads.
--Experiment 6258 Log--
Humans resort to infantile curiosity when their norm is challenged. More tests are requested. Use of nightmare reprogramming permitted. Lethal consequences for choices are pending.