ASUNDER (I) : tmr newt

01: I'm Scared

All I know is that we are moving up. How long we have been making our ascent is lost to me, but so is time as a whole. In this dark room, it feels like there is no linear time in the sense of the word, which would explain why I have more memories. There is a theory that states every instance of time to be occurring simultaneously, but we as people only have the ability to move forward through it.

Here it feels as if the universe is stalling, and my brain is trying to get back all the time it has lost, but none of the pieces are falling into place.

If time doesn't exist in here, maybe space doesn't either. I know the thought is ridiculous, but the dark is so dark it feels as if I am being swallowed by the absence of everything around me.

Then I remember the mechanical whirl, and I feel the tight cage beneath me, and I tell myself to stop panicking. Wherever we are, we are fine. Wherever we are going can't be any worse.

I wait for the angry girl to find a voice and answer, but she never does. There aren't enough voices in here to go around between the three of us, and the one she lets go of finds me.

"To state the obvious, we are going up."

Is that what my voice sounds like? As if it is cracking under the pressure of being squeezed out? I don't think I'm shy, I think I am just being scared. Why am I so scared?

I can hear her eyes roll through the dark. "Yeah, thanks."

The angry one sounds more sarcastic than I do, which is good. I don't think I'm a very sarcastic person either. She however, exudes attitude and anger.

"Sorry," I whistles out my throat, and I feel myself grasping at my neck.

There is a crash, and my hands find the walls, pinning myself in against the corner, my feet struggling to push me as far away from the sound as possible. The walls shake, and the metal behind me scrapes against the concrete walls we are rushing past. I can't help the way my spine shivers to the side at the sound.

It seems in my lapse of memory, I have forgotten how to breathe. Rushing, I try to get any shape or form of air into my lungs, but my throat is closing in on itself, and my chest is heaving, and the world is falling apart and I am panicking.

"Would you quit it?" The smooth voice demands, a threat entering her mouth again. It's not even a threat; it's the threat of a threat. So dangerous it makes me sit still and wait for it to pass.

"I don't see you doing anything to help us escape." The angry voice must be the one shaking the cage.

"That's not going to help us escape." The girl groans, and I hear the metal rattle behind her head, where she slams it against the wall. "That's going to help us get headaches."

"It doesn't matter!" My voice sprouts out, shrill and shaking. "We're trapped in a dark room, hurtling up to who knows where, at who knows what speed, and for who knows how long."

"13 minutes." A voice tells us.

My lungs drop to my knees, and suddenly I'm coughing the panic out of my throat. Thankfully there is no bile inside me, leading me to wonder when the last time I ate.

I don't know who I am.

"I'm sorry?" I can hear the surprise in the light voice, as she begins. "What did you just say?"

"I've been awake for 13 minutes." There is a third voice, which is more air than sound as if it is cracking under the pressure of having to speak for the first time in ages.

"Is this everyone in here?" The fire spits out into the room. "Because if there is anyone else hiding out here I swear I will-"

"Enough." I begin. "There isn't any time to waste talking right now."