Facility

3

.... Burning, crisp all consuming burning... Eyes pierced with heat... A door... A door and screaming.... Pure inhibitionless screeching....

“Good morning Guest Inferior 4286, I hope your rest was adequate,”

The light again, it was as if nothing had happened. However the dream was stronger than ever. A door... There had never been a door there before. Maybe Kashmir was right, human presence helps bring back the long forgotten. Today I couldn’t stand the sight of Swab. Today I wanted to start thinking again, but I needed Swab. I needed answers.

“Yeah, yeah... It was good,” I fixed my face into a smile, I wouldn’t mention my dream. But Swab seemed to read my thoughts.

“Have you experienced your recurring dream during your rest Guest Inferior 4286?”

I pondered my response, if I said the dream had vanished after complaining about it every day since... well since my mind allows me to remember, it wouldn’t sound plausible. However if I told the truth, I would end up with a suppressor handed to me. I don’t think I would be able to turn it down, these things had become addictive- my only form of a ‘high’. So I decided upon:

“Yes I have Swab, but it doesn’t seem to be as realistic as it once was, perhaps it’s starting to fade,” This was the best answer, a little from column A and a little from column B. Swab paused, seemly at a loss of what to do.

“Very well Guest Inferior 4286, may I offer you a suppressor as a precaution?” Swab had asked but not actually presented me with a suppressor, this gave me the strength to say no. Knowing that I should at least wait until after Feeding Two to ask swab some questions without causing alarm, I simply sat down at my table and waited for Feeding One.

It was One Twenty, I had sat apparently working out a brain puzzle for an hour- whilst actually planning my questions in my head. Now was the time.

“We had a strange day yesterday, didn’t we Swab?” I asked, trying to sound conversational.

“Interaction is always a peculiar day Guest Inferior 4286,” Swab replied.

"It was also strange that Kash... I mean Guest Inferior 3197, wasn’t travelling with a swab. Don’t you think?”

“I do not think, I am only programmed to attend Guest Inferior 4286,” Swab replied. Damn thing, I must choose my words carefully.

“So, you only report to me then?”

“That is correct,”

“So whatever I speak to you about is confidential,” I hadn’t comprehended this, maybe I could just ask my questions out right.

“Yes, to a certain degree,” Swab replied, its pincher unmoving.

“Oh okay, well... Do you have access to data files of Guest Inferiors?”

“They are classified,”

"Well, can you search for Guest Inferior 3197?”

Swab made several noises before reaching its conclusion.

“There is no data file,”

“No data file, there must be,” How can this be? Where was Kashmir’s data, unless... “There’s one for every Guest Inferior isn’t there?”

“Correct, there is one for every Guest Inferior who resides in the Facility,”

“So Kashmir has been removed, or was she even in the Facility?” I hadn’t really thought of the possibility that Kashmir either wasn’t real or had been.... No she wasn’t... But they said Extinguished.

“Swab, what exactly do The Resolvers do?” I asked timidly.

“The Resolvers are called to rectify any wrong doing or illicit activity and eliminate the problem. In simple terms: they resolve,”

 “Do they kill?”

“They resolve,”

“Yes but do they kill?”

“They resolve,”

I sighed; I would get no joy out of arguing with a machine.

“By any means possible?” I asked.

“In the best way to guarantee that the perpetrator cannot commit their crime again,”

This still didn’t answer my question, but I knew this the closest Thing to an answer that I was going to get with Swab. But there still was the matter of the data files.

“Can I access my own file Swab?

“You have limited access to your own file, this file is marked #1 priority,” Swab answered, limited is better than nothing I thought, Swab beeped for several moments and then printed out a short strip of file paper

.................................................................

IDENTITY: GUEST INFERIOR 4286

BIRTH NAME:￭ ￭￭￭￭￭￭￭ ￭￭￭￭

DATE OF ENTRANCE INTO FACILITY: ￭￭￭￭

REASON:￭ ￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭ ￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭￭

FILE MARKING: RATED HIGHLY CLASSIFIED

TRACKING: SWAB AT ALL TIMES AND TEAM OF RESOLVERS AT CLOSE PROXIMITY TO GUEST INFERIOR *AT ALL TIMES*.

SWAB MODEL: RS41 LOW PSYCHIC CORE

DWELLING NUMBER: 1

INTERACTION CAPASITY:￭￭￭

................................................................

So, they had blanked any meaningful information out then. But they had left some clues, low psychic core then, eh? Well that explains how Swab can sense my dreams, it probably can analyse my brain patterns. Kashmir was right though, I must be under strict observation. What the hell had I done? In other interactions I had never really discussed much with the other guest inferiors, those 6 interactions are the only ones I remember- Kashmir said that our interaction was only the third one she had experienced in 13 years. I feel sure my interactions are only a month apart. Why am I different? More to the point why am I here?

“Swab, why am I in The Facility?” I asked, the question haven risen to my mouth before I could prevent it.

“You are in here to be saved,” Swab answered, it was moving over to my bed and plumping the pillows. Its informationless answers to my queries were starting to anger me.

“From what?” I said, with a hint of sarcasm.

“Yourself,”