Project A.L. (BFB AU) (COMPLETED)

Eight - Back to the Beginning

I can hear liquid bubbling in my ears, wherever those are. Opening my eyes allows me to see much less than I expected. Suspended in glass, unable to move much as I float in some form of bluish-white liquid. I see blurry figures looking at me, before they move and I hear muffled voices as the top of whatever I'm in opens up.

Floating up to the surface, the bright white of the world around me hurts my eyes, as I look up to see two numbers.

"This is the fourth to wake up from stasis, sir," a dark grey, almost black seven reports to a peacock blue one on the other side of the tube.

"What's your name, zero?" The seven asks as they kneel down to meet my eyes. I think about it for a moment, before deciding.

"Four."

I'm led through a series of halls, so many I can't count, before landing at a set of metal doors. They're very slightly spaced from each other, implying two separate rooms as we go into the right door.

My suspicions are correct as the wall where the door's room would be is covered in a giant mirror. The rest of the room is a large square of a place, no decoration aside from the mirror, just gray, metal walls.

The door slams behind me, and I am plunged into the darkness. I should be used to it, but I'm not. I am scared. The dark void around me makes me fearful of what could be waiting for me in the dark. I curl up into a ball and waited for somebody to get me out of here.

It isn't long before my waiting achieved results. They come for me, tell me to follow them. They look down on me like I am a small child. I can tell these people never cared for me, even from the start.

The horrors that followed that day changed me in ways I can't explain. They scratch numbers into my arm as I scream in pain. They inject me with something and my arms tingle. I haven't seen any of the others yet, didn't they say I was the fourth? Where are the people like me, and when could I meet them?

I see none of them as I am sent back to the metal room, and I am alone in there again. My thoughts tell me to run away and never come back. But I think a bit more. Can the door even open from the inside?

In a small experiment, I test the doors by attempting to squeeze my fingers between the door and the wall. Even though my fingers won't fit, it somehow still works. I try not to question it as I pull the door into the room and escape from certain pain and death.

The shining lights in the hallway blind me as I step out. I can't remember which way I should go, I don't even know where the exit is. It's all just identical hallways, so I go in the direction my mind decides to take me in.

Alarms start to blare as I turn left, directly into a number. I know I've been caught before I look up and see a familiar face. It's the seven who asked me my name.

"Hello there, Four. Are you lost?" They ask me. "I'm guessing these alarms are for you. How did you even manage to get out?" They tilt their head at me, slightly confused.

"I...don't know." I am in my own state of confusion as I hear footsteps flooding my ears from behind me.

"Let's go." The seven suddenly gets a stern look as they grab my hand, leading me down hallways as the footsteps fade away. We get to a door and they open it to reveal a mostly white room with a glass partition down the middle.

"I promise you, they won't look for you here." The seven smiles warmly at me as they flip through the papers laying on their desk. "So, are you going to tell me what you're doing out in the halls, Four?"

"My mind told me to," I mumble.

"Well, our minds seem to think quite alike." The seven laughs. "Sometimes I want to run away from my problems, too, yet here we both are." I nod in agreement, it's only been a few hours, and I'd already racked up an escape attempt.