Storage

A loud but distant THOOM jars me awake. My eyes are open, but there’s nothing but inky black in my vision. I can’t see my hands or anything else, so I look around, hoping for some light slicing through.

There.

A pinpoint of green light.

It had to be an LED because of how small and concentrated it was, not illuminating anything else around it. I stood, feeling the sleeping bag under me.

Not knowing where I was or what was around me, a slowly shuffled my feet and moved toward the light, hoping not to bump into anything that might cause me harm. Thankfully, the trip was successful and quick, which meant I had to be in a smallish room. I reached my hand out toward the LED, grasping for the wall or some kind of light panel that would ease the growing anxiety.

As my hand moved across it, I heard BEEP and a soft whirring sound. It had to be a servo, maybe something connected to—

FLICK FLICK FLICK

One by one panels about my head came on until the room was entirely illuminated. My eyes burned with the drastic change, but I was thankful. I rubbed them, and squinted as they finished adjusting.

Looking around, it was clear that I was in a storage unit. Flat gray walls all around me and a blast door. No control panel in sight, unfortunately. I was stuck here, but why?

I noticed the black sleeping bag on the floor from where I came. Wait. That wasn’t a sleeping bag. It was a… body bag? Was I dead and don’t remember dying? Why else would I have been in one? I moved back over to it and inspected it closer. Yeah, no markings or any indication of who might have collected me. I leaned over and picked it up, looking inside. A small powder blue envelope, maybe only a couple of inches long and half as wide, slid around the bottom and I picked it up and set down the bag, eyeing the little card curiously.

There was no text on the envelope but I could feel something g embossed on it. Rotating it just right, I made out a symbol that looked like a circle with a line crossed through it diagonally. There were three dots underneath this symbol. I didn’t recognize it. Or at least I didn’t remember recognizing it.

I flipped it over and carefully slid my thumb across the sealed paper, making sure I didn’t accidentally give myself a paper cut. That’s all I needed—to bleed out alone. At least I’d officially be dead then, right? I shook my head at my own dumb, dark humor.

Inside the envelop was a card, the same powered blue color on one side, the other blank. No embossing, no text, absolutely no idea what it could be.

I hadn’t noticed it running before, but because it was so quiet in here, I immediately noticed the air unit stop running. I looked up, waiting for something to happen, but then started looking for security cameras or something that indicated I was being monitored. Nothing stood out.

I slipped the card in my pocket and realized I hadn’t really given myself a once-over. Looking down, I saw that I was wearing very simple, beige pants, a matching long sleeve shirt, no socks, and nondescript loafers. Good thing I wasn’t going anywhere for a while, right.

I pulled my sleeves up to make myself comfortable. I was already feeling the temperature rise a couple of degrees in just the short time the fan had stopped. That’s when I saw something on my left arm.

It seems whoever left me here had taken the liberty of slicing my arm open and stitching me back up. They’d done a good job and had to have medicated me because it didn’t hurt, even if I poked at it. When I did, though, I felt something hard under my skin.

Ah. So it’s like that. They implanted me with some kind of tracking device or a monitor. Or…

I pulled the blue card from my pocket and waved it over the hard spot. I expected a beep or some kind of confirmation that it had activated something in the room, but no, nothing. I tapped it and still nothing. Well shit. I slipped the card back in my pocket and resumed taking in the room.

They hadn’t left me with anything other than the bag I assume I arrived in, the envelope, the card, and the stitch job. No bed, no chair, no food or anything. I was literally in a blank box. But they had to have assumed I was going to wake up. The bag was already unzipped and I had the card in there with me. Right?

To at least make myself feel like I was doing something I zipped up the bag, squeezed the air out of it and folded it as nicely and as thick as possible to make an improvised chair, then sat on it.

I guess I just waited now?

I pulled the card from my pocket so I had something to fidget with while I racked my brain.

The biggest question to answer was “Who am I?” If I can’t figure that out, there’s no way I’ll be able to create any dots to connect and answer the big question: “Why am I here?”

Sure, knowing where “here” was is an important piece of the puzzle, but it was less important to me right now because I had no idea why I would have (maybe) died, been brought back to life, and then dumped at this place… for whatever reason.

I tapped the card on my arm again, hoping for something, then I had a thought: Was there another place that they might have implanted me? I’d seen enough movies and read enough books to know it could be a possibility, so why not look?

I started stripping off my clothes. I slid my shoes off and I checked the bottoms of my feet. Damn. They must have bathed me before stuffing me in the bag because my tootsies were as clean enough to eat off of, if you were into that sort of thing. No stitches or cuts, though.

I pulled my pants down, letting everything hang out and only had a momentary worry about anyone seeing me in the buff. They’d probably already seen all I had to offer, so who cared? My legs seemed clear. I checked my intimate areas because, again, it could be a possibility. Nothing. My shirt was last, but nothing made itself known. Damn it.

I pulled everything back on. Maybe I just needed to sit and wait for someone to come and get me. I was being too impatient. It wasn’t like I had plans that I’d be late to, so it wasn’t time to just sit and think. Maybe something would come to me… or someone would.

I settled back into my little corner and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Time didn’t exist here. Not one bit and I could feel every single second go by.

FLICK FLICK FLICK

The lights went off. Must be motion activated or something. With a grunt I stood up and made my way to my little green LED friend and turned them back on.

When I turned around there was something in the middle of the floor. A plain gray box.

I made my way to it, leaned down, and picked it up. No markings, just a very simple box two-part box that was just bigger than my open palm, which meant I had to nestle it in my arm to pull it apart. When I did, there was a small circular yellow tag nested inside black foam. I pulled the tag out and examined it. I turned it in the light and saw the same O shape with three dots under it engraved. Palming the tag, I pulled the black foam out and a compact laser blade fell out and onto the floor.

What the hell?

I set the box back in the floor as I picked up the blade. I sure didn’t expect something like this. And it definitely added another dot that I was going to need to connect. I pocketed the blade and pulled out the card, tapping it against the yellow tag.

This time there was a beep, but it didn’t come from the tag or somewhere on my body, but from across the room by the green LED. I made my way over and heard what sounded like a printer whir.

Sticking out of the wall under the light was a slip of beige paper. It stopped and I pulled it.

It read: NOT YET

Involuntarily, I chuckled. What? Not yet for what? For the first time since I woke up I heard my own voice.

“What are we doing here, people? Is this some kind of game? Let’s get going then! Apparently I don’t have anything to lose if I was already dead! Come on!”

I looked up as I said this, expecting someone’s voice to boom from hidden speakers.

Nothing happened.

“OK. Fine.” I tossed my hands in the air and chuckled. “OK. Not yet then.”

I returned to my makeshift seat and plopped down a little too hard. I guess I’d have to wait for whatever was next.

More time went by. I had fidgeted with the blade but wanted to make sure I didn’t burn up the power cell. I’d probably need it. Then the lights went out again. I wanted to turn them back on, but I also wanted to know if doing nothing prompted them—whoever “them” was—to force me.

After what may have been several minutes the green light blinked on and off across the way. It was a steady on off on off. No secret code that so could tell. I waited more. It continued with the same unchanging pattern then I heard the printer whirring. Just what I thought. Nice.

I stood up and walked over. I snatched the paper and turned the lights back on. There was nothing on the paper. I looked around and nothing new had magically appeared. Hm. I tapped the tag again with my card and nothing. This was getting so old so fast.

“Ha ha. Funny.” I looked up at the lights again, waiting.

[to be continued]