章 10: Disenchantment

The floor turns from concrete-grey to soft white. My feet touch the cold glowing floor and I follow the illuminated path. Gold artificial rays of budding sunshine slowly fan across my room. Momentarily casting shadows on the faces of my 3D synthetic sculptures before returning them to the dark. I tap a wall tile with the letter S glowing from it and watch as a sink and a mirror emerge from it. With a yawn, I grip the sink with both hands and stare at my reflection. The ring light that lines the mirror emits a soft glow and highlights my sharp features and indifferent expression. I run the tap and splash the cold water onto my face but slowly trammel as a high-pitched hum slowly begins ringing in my ears. My expression twists as a sharp pain follows and begins thumping in my head. The sound of the tap becomes less and less as the hum fills my ears. I rub my temples to gently ease the pain and grip the sink. The hum slowly dies down and I stare at my reflection again. A look of concern stares back at me before disappearing as quickly as it came.

I expose my teeth and a laser scans my face. A beam shoots out and begins cleaning my teeth. I tilt it in several directions as I follow the cleaning voice prompts. I grab a colorful bottle and gaggle its contents before spitting it down the drain and rinsing my mouth. I tap a button and the sink and mirror retreat into the wall. I quickly back away from the sink and I gesture for the lights to come on. I take a deep breath and press a wall tile labeled 'T' causing the water jets spurt to life - preparing my bath.

***

A hiss in the wind can be heard from the distant as it echoes through the slow-moving grey mist. Ahead, I catch a glimpse of Rosa; she's nothing but a ghostly mirage with her black raincoat contrasting her off-white canvas. She slowly shifts in and out of my focus as the mist drifts past. I begin towards her. Boots trampling over weed-choked grass and mud. I bring my head up again and wait to spot her white and black braids through the mist. My head pans left and right and with only the sound of my soft breathing being the only thing familiar. I call out to Rosa, accepting that I am finally lost, and hear nothing back. Through the mist I notice a large silhouette in the distant and continue towards it as more beads of rain begin padding my raincoat and face. The silhouette grows larger before revealing itself to be a moss-covered boulder and the hissing in the wind has become a loud waning broken pipe. I feel my gloves over the boulder to find leverage but rub across sharp lines. I step back and feel the lines run across the boulder. Claw marks.

I take a step back and scale the boulder before heaving myself over it. From on top of it I can make out the unnerving white room. Large trees peak out the ocean of mist and moss covers the walls. Rosa's black and white braids carefully whip around as she glances at me for a beat before staring down at a monitor on her forearm, a wry smile on her lips.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

"When was the last time a maintenance crew visited this simulation room?"

"Impossible, the room experienced an error in its Behavorial code. Corrupted the synthetic animals...turned them frenzy." She says as she heaves a few drones in the air and taps commands into her monitor. "I'm mapping the room now to try get a better picture as to what happened and to try find the remaining active predators."

I frown. "Active, as in, still roaming the premises?"

"Don't worry your 'Sovereignty', all their power cells are all low by now. Besides," she smiles as she approaches me and gently grips my chin, "I would have protected you."

I stare down to see her brandishing a pistol on her utility belt. I remove her hand from my chin. "I'm still upset you didn't show up to my birthday banquet." She rolls her eyes and lets out a chuckle. "I told you I'd make up for it, and this is it." She says gesturing to the room.

"Me helping you run Health and Environment Ministry errands isn't an apology."

She lays down some sort of mine down before backing away and detonating it. It sends out a strong concussive force that whips the mist back. I turn away as a strong gust of wind hits us. I look back and notice that the boulder we're on is part of a broken pillar - the rest of it lying before us.

"Come on before the mist settles, an old maintenance room should be up ahead." She says as she continues on the pillar towards a crack in the wall from where it dislodged.

I carefully follow her on the rocky path towards the opening and at the entrance we slide down into the dark room. We stay in the light created by the opening as Rosa takes out a torch and scans the room. The room has broken pipes and wiring that hang from the ceiling, broken exo-suits lying in broken glass and a control panel. Rosa gestures for me to follow her and we proceed toward the panel. She connects her monitor to the panel and it comes to life before flashing red. She looks at the panel before letting out a curse as she points to a chewed-up power cable. "Some animal must've got in here. Try help me find another cable. There should be another somewhere here." She says and hands me a flashlight.

I nod and look back at the opening as mist weaves into the black room before focusing my attention. I scan the floor with the flashlight and come across more glass and debris. In the corner of the room, I find a dead bird. I bend down and stare at its black dead eyes – its power cell depleted. "Birds, why aren't they in the dome?" I ask.

"As you can see, they're in development," She says as she removes a slab of broken concrete from an exo-suit rack station, "Come help with this."

I make my way to her and help her push the rack station from the wall. She goes behind it and pulls out a cable. We head back to the station and she instructs me to hold the control panel cable as she slices the faulty part off and begins wielding the new one in its place.

"What about dogs, cats, fishes?"

"All in development," she clears her voice before saying, "'here at the Health and Environment Ministry we focus and pride ourselves on tending to the health and environment needs of the citizens of The Union'. Sound familiar?" I let out a dry chuckle as she tries to imitate her father, Chancellor Bressel, "He's right though. Pets, birds, and the like are eclipsed by service delivery of things like radiation poisoning relivers and food for the dome. But you knew that."

I nod. "Just testing you."

She analyzes the freshly wielded cable before trying the monitor again. It whirs and boats up displaying controls for the simulation room. Rosa exclaims before typing various commands. I stare at the opening as a metalic sound of gears grinding echo through. "That should solve the ventilation problem."

We head back out. The wailing from broken rain pipes stops and huge ventilators above begin clearing the room of mist. We climb down the pillar and once we reach the bottom, the drones return.

"I've mapped the place. The room was simulating a rainforest. The predators here got corrupted and started killing everything. There's two more left. They're located at a stream not too far from here."

I follow Rosa as she leads the way guided by her tracker. Greenery slowly begins to fill our surroundings as the fog dies down, enabling us to make sense of our surroundings. The airs damp with trees choking the stark white sky. With vines, overgrown ferns, orchids and large tree roots lacing the wet ground. As we go deeper, more claw marks line the trees.

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