Escape

"You've been asleep too long, open your eyes and come back to me."

I was shaken out of my slumber. The world around me was hazy, distorted, as I tried to grasp at the fleeting images from my sleep. I was in a city. A large, loud, city that glowed a dazzling silver from afar, but the closer it was to me the dingier and more run down it became. I remember the feel of the dirt that covered the once paved road beneath my shoeless feet. Someone might have been calling my name, I couldn't remember exactly what they were saying if they were saying anything at all. I remember being hungry and angry, really angry. Then there was the woman in the blue coat and pencil skirt. She smiled at me and offered her hand. I didn't want to take it, but she grabbed mine. Then I woke up.

I could see her on the other side of my confinement. She wore a long, grey coat with a dim blue stripe down the front with her hair pulled back tightly. Her features were blurry, something around me obscured her, but I knew it was her. As I watched her walk around me while observing the tablet in her hand, I wanted to scream and get her attention. She had to let me out of here. A sizzling jolt of heat assaulted my spine and my eyes shot away from her. The sensation continued until I looked straight at the screen that appeared on the glass wall that confined me. It projected a glinting chrome tower with little vehicles darting from its open hangers high above the ground. The sun was rising from behind the building's peak as the charismatic voice began to speak.

"Zenith is humanity's guide towards the next step in our evolutionary chain. Nothing is impossible with Zenith; together we can make you the Human you've always wanted to be!"

The screen droned incessantly as the picture shifted, and a learning module began. A young man in a white dress shirt and black pants appeared on the screen and spoke slowly, going over the speech lessons from yesterday. I don't know how much more of this guy I could take. Every day he talks to me like I'm some idiot who doesn't know how to speak. I'm tired of this. The screen shifted to show the city with the Zenith tower in the center. Every time I saw that tower, all I could think of was the fact that I was stuck in here, a tube somewhere in that giant tower. In a stupid way, it was kind of funny. It reminded me of something I couldn't really remember.

҉

Edith circled the Augmented Reclamation Tank as she checked the reports on the metallic statpad. She pressed two fingers to her right temple and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the up-close data.

"Bodily functions, normal," she mumbled to herself. "Heart rate, slightly elevated. Neural output, elevated. Well, you just woke up and your module is going so that's normal. Power and pressure look fine . . . and growth rate is steady. This all looks very good, Six. Zenith is proud."

A thunderous thud startled her, and she looked to specimen Six. He continued to pound on the glass tank as his eyes were glued to the telescreen that was projected on the protective barrier. Edith laughed at the thought of him hearing her and focused back on the statpad. She didn't care if he could hear her though she knew he couldn't. That was fine. She wanted someone to just listen to her. She was tired of being the one who listened.

"You've been quite active lately haven't you, Six," Edith swiped from his vitals to his rest analysis. She frowned as the charts that were usually a healthy green were a bloody red today. Six had entered into REM sleep several times over the eight-hour rest cycle. "A little too active," she corrected herself as she looked at the AR tank. Six had his fist balled and pressed against the glass while he focused on the screen that now displayed various words and letters. He lifted his fist to strike the glass again but stopped and convulsed. Edith had expected him to experience a shock sooner or later. The Psuedos aren't supposed to move while their learning modules are active. She always thought the shocks to be a little much; the plexiglass tanks were already several inches thick, even Psuedos with augmented physical capabilities couldn't get out of them with the restrictive fluid holding them back. It was just another safety precaution. Edith shrugged as she continued her pacing around the tank.