[Glow]

[GLÖW]

She woke up on a cold floor. Her head swam with blurred memories, shifting and shimmering into each other until it was an unintelligible mess. She stretched out. The smooth concrete was unpleasant. She slightly opened her eyes. The room around her was fully concrete. A heavy steel door hid in the shadows in the far corner besides a large viewing window, which lay mostly shattered on the floor in front.

She pushed herself up to sit. A Loose set of clothes hung off of her. She looked down at her hand and gasped. Her cyan veins shone brightly through her translucent skin. The regular pulse fluctuated, sending subtle waves of light over her immediate surroundings. She felt like this was something unfamiliar, although she could not remember how or why she knew this.

She looked around the dim cell, her own glow making the room barely visible. The ceiling fixture, a single light ingrained into the roof, waited unpowered. The furniture in the room was predominantly a large steel cot which lay overturned in the corner with the thin mattress and covering trapped beneath it. Besides this, a closet stood open with its identical garments strewn across the floor.

She felt uneasy in the darkness, her own glow doing little to comfort her. The door stood steadfast, not budging when pushed but the viewing window led to an easy and obvious escape route. The glass shards were unpleasant to walk around with bare feet but eventually, with much caution, she edged out of the cell.

The corridor behind the viewing panel stretched out for at least dozen similar windows before culminating in a set of double doors, complete with enticing green exit signs. The corridor showed many signs of carnage in the shape of gashes, stretching along the walls and floors like canyons, gaping into the darkness. Most of the other cells had been smashed open, leaving a minefield of glittering splinters.

She slowly picked her way towards the glowing signs of freedom, ignoring the pangs in her feet whenever she mis-stepped. She left glowing beacons behind but she carried on. No good could come of staying in this place. She was almost there.

A large bang followed by a crunch startled her. She hopped back, sending fresh waves of anguish up her legs. The penultimate pane was hummed, still fixed into its frame. She waited in silence, staring into the darkness, but the pane stood still. Eventually she cautiously crept towards the glass, giving in to curiosity.

The darkness behind the glass did not yield its secrets as she grew nearer. She squinted through for a time but, upon not discerning anything there, she placed her palm against the glass. The glow revealed a mass of mechanisms and cogs formed into a humanoid form, softly ticking and clicking.

The figures two ornate, cog eyes were fixed on her own. It stood still, besides the methodical workings of its many parts, which continued spinning regardless. With much hesitation, it placed its own equivalent of a hand on the glass, in reflection of her own. Its deep mumbling voice caused the pane to vibrate slightly. She couldn't understand what it was saying and, upon trying to reply, found she couldn't speak either. Upon not receiving a reply, the machine lowered its stump of a hand and looked as frustrated as it could, before slinking into the darkness at the back of the cell, almost completely out view.

The girl lowered her palm too, plunging the cell back into complete darkness. She slowly picked her way down the rest of the hall and pushed the unexpectedly heavy doors open.

Before her sprawled an expansive office-like room. The vaulted ceilings seemed to stretch ever upwards, out of reach by any light remaining on the floor below. Battery powered lamps lay abandoned on stacks of paper or dashed against the carpeted floor, clearly left in a rush to leave. The state of the area mirrored the wreckage of the hallway. Chairs, desks and wall partitions lay in every direction, upturned and flattened.