Our Manufactured Reality

Chapter 4: Answers

My hands slipped down the ladder rungs in anticipation of what was below me.  I felt a slight decrease in temperature as I drifted to the floor, but there was no sign of a draft.  My heart sank a little in noticing this feature.

Soon enough I stood at the base of the ladder, examining the ground-floor as Charlie followed me down.

"See anything?"  He asked from above.

"Um..."  I observed the wide-expanse in search of a door or gate, "Not really... But you might have more luck than me."  Complex machinery of unknown nature encircled me and blocked some of my view.

"Hey."  He dropped down next to me with a sigh and followed my gaze, "Oh man.  Yeah, there's definitely not much here."  I nodded.

"Let's just give it a closer look,"  I recommended.

"Okay.  Tell me if you see anything."  Charlie and I broke apart in different directions to search.

I passed various control panels, charging stations, and old robots, but never anything resembling a way out of this facility.  The exit seemed like it would never show itself.  Every now and then, a blinking console or reflective strip of metal caught my eye.  I'd examine it for a few minutes only to put my theory to rest further than before:  There is nothing here.

My hand brushed against an old caution sign before hearing Charlie call out.

"Harper!  Come here!  I think I found something!"  I rushed over to the sound of his voice and skidded to a stop in front of his discovery.

"A door,"  I stated, turning to face him, "Do you think it's the way out?"

"Maybe...  Only one way to find out."  He stared back at me and grasped the handle, rotating it.

A wave of dust enveloped our figures as the door flung open.  Charlie and I both coughed several times and almost dropped to the ground from the cloud of powder that surged forward.

From the sudden dust blizzard, my mood dropped in the implication that this could not be a wide-open expanse such as the exit we longed for.  This was a room.  And no one had been in this room for a long time.

Facing us now, was an area the size of the pods' room that contained something other than capsules.

"More robots."  My words confirmed my eyes and Charlie nodded in defeat.  He started to walk back to the ladder in the warehouse, but I found myself grabbing his shoulder.

"Wait."  Something had caught my eye, "There's something else here."  We turned around slowly, and I recognized the thing that had captured my attention.

It was a blinking charging station.  Sure, I'd seen many of these before, there were lots of them around the facility, but this one was different.  Instead of an empty or cracked case, this one housed a robot inside of it.  To connect the dots, this robot seemed relatively unharmed or marred by time.  It looked functional, and... it... was... charging.

"You see that?"  I pointed to the robot behind the glass case.

"Whoa, yeah.  Do you think it still works?"  He approached the machine and I followed.

"I don't know.  It kinda looks like it might..."  I brushed away some dust.

"Well, do you know how to activate it?  How to get it out of the case?"  He asked, still fixed on the metal prize as I located a stray metal bar.

"I have an idea..."  My fingers grasped the hard, steel object and I raced toward the contraption before Charlie knew what was happening.  I brought the mass of hardware down and the impact knocked me into Charlie's flabbergasted body.

"Oof!"  I exclaimed, realizing I'd hit him, "Sorry, Charlie."  He was gritting his teeth.

"It's okay, Harper."  His pain quickly subsided and changed to a different expression altogether...  It was a look of being shocked yet impressed.  He could've said something about it, but I watched him shake off the thought.

Then is when I took the time to realize I was still in his lap.  I shot up with embarrassment and tried to return to the investigation as if nothing had happened.  Both of us had shaken off awkward thoughts.

Once again, our attention was back on the robot.  Now that I'd broken the glass casing, it was easy to locate the activation switch and pull the bar up.

The gears in the robot began whirring and it's full form presented itself to us:  A large, circular body with lights for eyes jutting out of the top.  Three spindly legs protruded from the lower half of the torso and hung at it's sides.  The whole contraption stood hovering an inch or two from the ground as it's eyes flickered awake.

"Greetings lifeforms.  I am an Artificial Intelligence Messenger here to assist you in your troubling times.  If you require information, communication, or a traveling companion, I am willing to help.  And please, for your convenience, refer to me as simply, A.I.M."

"Wow,"  I whispered to Charlie before addressing the robot, "Hi, A.I.M.  I'm Harper, and this is Charlie.  Um, we woke up here a few hours ago, and unfortunately can't remember a thing.  Do you know where we are?"

"That is unfortunate."  He paused before speaking in his monotone voice again, "You are inside one of the camps intended for experiment number 23."

"What's experiment 23?"  I asked.

"Experiment 23 is the attempt to maintain human life through cryo-stasis pods or the freezing of human forms."

"Yikes.  Okay then..."  I tried to think of another question, but Charlie spoke up.

"Hey, there were other pods with people in them back there.  Why didn't they wake up?  Why just us?"  I was beginning to notice a kind, caring nature in Charles Daily.

"That is curious..."  I imagined A.I.M. scratching his head as he thought, "Perhaps there was a malfunction.  What are your ID numbers?"

"Well, that's the thing..."  I looked at Charlie and we repeated the answer in unison.

"We both have the same number."

"Oh my.  Yes that- that seems to be the problem.  Because of this error, a chain reaction must have woken you two up early and possibly even triggered the loss-of-memory you encountered."

"Yeah, that sounds about right..."  I nodded, "Hey, by the way, A.I.M... How long were we in those pods?"

He calculated the time and responded nonchalantly.

"You were in those pods for over 200 years...  It is 2287."