Lost Change

Chapter 5

I yawned and stretched my arms out in front of me, feeling rested and alert for the first time in... well, in the last two or three days I could remember. I tried to think back to anything beyond waking up here, but aside from a few random memories and a headache that got even worse, I came up empty. I still had no idea what I had been doing even a week before I had been brought here.

Whatever 'here' was.

I glanced around the room once again. The generator was still on, so the heat lamp was glowing and providing a pleasant warmth, and the rest of the machines in the room were making their own various noises. I wasn't sure how long the generator would keep them running this time, but I didn't think soaking up more heat would be that helpful - what I really needed were answers.

I dug up all the information the 'encyclopedia' in my head had on how to land, and once I was sure I had a good idea of how to do it, I hopped off the counter and glided over to the chair.

I felt a happy pride when I landed right where I had planned. It had only been a slow glide, but I had only had wings for what amounted to a few hours of consciousness. It felt like a big accomplishment and I took a moment to appreciate it.

Once I finished patting myself on the back I took a closer look at the equipment around me.

The machines didn't offer me any more clues as to what was going on, so I unplugged the ones I could get to. They weren't in use anyways, and turning them off would give the generator more time to run the heat lamp. I looked at the trays beside the bed, but being close to the instruments on the various trays was... uncomfortable. It had been impossible to make out the details before, in the dim light with the electricity out, but with the light from the heat lamp I could see stains on most of the tools here. The light turned everything a reddish color, but I still got the nasty suspicion that some of those stains were of blood.

Maybe even my blood. There was still so much I couldn't remember... but with the memories I did have, of being human... I could have been in that chair at some point. Those blades could have been cutting into me.

I tried not to think too much about that as I skimmed over the instruments, then fanned my wings in excitement as I caught sight of something half hidden by a cloth. A tape recorder! Hopefully that would have some answers.

I grabbed the recorder and turned it over in my hands. It was a simple dictation recorder, the kind doctors would use to take notes while their hands were messy, which... made sense, given that this room was for... the type of activities that would leave behind blood-splattered instruments.

I eyed the instruments once more and wondered why they hadn't been cleaned. Whatever had left the building deserted must have happened before they had gotten a chance to clean up.

The recorder was digital, but it looked like it still had plenty of charge to it. It didn't seem the type of thing to use much battery power when it was off, so that didn't really give me a clue as to how long ago it had been abandoned, but maybe something in the playback would. I hit the rewind button on it and took another look around the room.

Nothing else in the room looked interesting. I clutched the recorder to my side and spread out my wings, then launched into the air to flitter down the hallway, passing by the can of peaches I had left at the door.

With sources of food and warmth now much less of a concern I decided to focus on answering some of the questions that were bugging me. My earlier exploration of the building had been focused on finding food, so I had ignored a lot of areas that didn't seem helpful in that search, and I hadn't tried to actually open any of the doors that had been closed... but now that I could easily get up to the door handles I was a little curious what I might find behind them. And more practice at flying certainly wouldn't hurt.