Chapter 2 - Emergence

The metal wall rose away from him, tilting to the right as though on a hinge. Bright light now filled his eyes, much more powerful than the faint blue glow he had grown accustomed to.

Instinctively he sat up and gulped in air as if he had been holding his breath under water, glad to no longer be face to face with a metal wall. He was temporarily blind as his retinas struggled to adapt to the sudden change in brightness.

His headache was still there, burning in the centre of his head, although he momentarily forgot about it through the overwhelming sense of relief he felt at no longer being imprisoned in that claustrophobic space.

His eyes began to adjust and his breathing returned to normal. Blinking into the light, he looked around him as shapes slowly came into focus. The first thing he saw was a computer console sitting on a desk pushed up against a wall to his left. He looked around and saw only a solid wall of grey concrete directly in front of him past his feet, and the same unwelcoming grey wall to his right and behind him.

His gaze drifted down to where he was sitting, or rather what he was sitting in. It was a metallic box very similar in shape to a coffin, meaning in retrospect his early panicked thought was not that far from the mark. The metal surface that was previously only inches from his eyes appeared to be some sort of door or cover, now resting upright against the concrete wall. The box was only marginally bigger than he was, and took up the entire space from one wall to the other in what seemed to be a very thin room.

He glanced up to the ceiling which must have been about eight feet off the floor, where several thin, industrial lights hung in strips at the edges where the ceiling joined the walls. The effect was total illumination of the room in a light that somehow made everything seem whiter than it ought to be.

He looked back around to his left as more objects drifted into focus. To the right of the desk was a large, shiny grey cupboard with three doors and a single small handle on each one. Spanning from the floor to the ceiling, it dominated the room and drew the eye immediately. Its cold exterior gave it the look of a meat locker, or some other large industrial appliance.

Further along the wall after the metal giant was another, smaller cupboard, also appearing to be made of steel but considerably less shiny, as though it had dulled with age. A little over half the size of its more impressive neighbour, it only had two doors with what appeared to be a single drawer at the bottom. The most intriguing feature of what seemed otherwise a rather bland piece of furniture was the chain that linked the two doors, held together in the middle with a solid-looking padlock.

The cupboard with the padlock was the last furnishing on this wall; next to at the opposite end of the room to the metal box, was another wall, consisting mainly of yet more solid grey concrete surrounding a large door. At roughly chest height on the door was an electronic keypad, presumably a security lock to open the door as there did not appear to be a handle anywhere.

The wall opposite the desk and the cupboards was almost empty apart from a single door, seemingly made from wood with a conventional handle, giving an entirely different look from the solid, keypad-protected door at the end of the room. The only other items on this side of the room were a small, two-seater sofa above which hung a poster of a kitten hanging from a piece of wire, adorned with the words “Hang in there kitty”, and what looked from distance to be a calendar.

He didn’t recognise anything in the room, or the room itself. It all seemed completely foreign, and he had no idea where he was. He still couldn’t remember who he was either. In the relief of being freed from his box he had forgotten his lack of memory.

Although the temperature in the room was comfortable, he felt a shiver go down his spine, most likely because he had once again realised that he was naked. He glanced around once more but couldn’t see any clothes.

Slowly he swung his legs up and over the side of the box he was still sitting in, and began to push himself up. The headache returned with a vengeance, forcing him to wince and stop moving. He composed himself and pushed up once more, ignoring the throbbing in his brain long enough to let his feet touch the cold floor. He pushed away from the box and promptly collapsed on the floor.

His legs felt like jelly, unable to support his own weight.

“How long have I been in there?” he wondered, as he struggled into a sitting position and began rubbing his legs at the prickly sensation of blood pumping around for the first time in a while. He looked up at the desk and noticed a leather office chair on wheels tucked under it.

He dragged his body over to the chair and with some difficulty managed to hoist himself up until he was sitting with his legs under the desk. Unfortunately the rushed lifting manoeuvre resulted in his testicles being squashed underneath him as he sat down, causing him to groan in pain and curse his luck. At least it took his mind off his headache.

Through gritted teeth he looked at the computer on the desk. The monitor, a flat screen model, was blank but a small LED indicated it had power. Next to the monitor was a keyboard, a mouse and the base unit for the computer itself. Aside from this, the desk was barren, and a quick inspection revealed it had no drawers underneath it either.

Out of curiosity he pressed a key on the keyboard, and the monitor slowly flickered to life. When it had come into focus, the screen was dark apart from a single line at the top:

PROGRAM TERMINATED