Isolation

Awakening

I could feel it, every ounce of strength in my body was just lost. I dropped to my knees, staring at the woman in front of me with sad eyes. What did she just say? No one else exists? That couldn't be. But, what Ann said earlier in the day, we couldn't possibly be the only ones alone here. It's strange...but, for some reason, it feels like what this woman is saying is actually the truth, and Ann was giving the people some sort of false hope. "Get up. I've shown you what I needed to show you. And now that we got that out of the way, we can head back." She said, walking right by me, my face still in shock.

"Hey...That building that we uncovered earlier...what about that place? Why would some AI give us directions?" I asked, my mind currently was desperate for any kind of hook that would answer the lonliness I've dealt with the 2 months I've been awake. The girl looked up at the sky, the light orange tint colored the sky beautifully alongside the blue. "...Well, we'll head there tomorrow." She said, looking back at me then walking back towards me. I was helped back onto my feet and felt a pat on the back.

"I don't know what could be there. But, if that 'Isabelle' gave you those coordinates, it must mean something."

"We'll see what we can do, let's just head back for now."

"We're home, finally." Alice complained, seeing the house we settled into in the distance, a sense of relief seemed to wash over everyone, even the girl whose name I did yet to know. "You're the one who wanted to come along, if you actually wanted to stay home, you could." Ann responded, Alice didn't do much but shoot Ann a dirty look. The woman got out of the van after me, her bored expression hadn't changed since I met her, and I still didn't know her name.

"Ah...Ann. Are you sure it'll be fine?" The girl asked, walking over to Ann, she simply smiled at the girl and gave her a nod. "Yeah, it'll be fine. Sure, it's been about a week since then, but I'm absolutely certain it'll be like as if nothing changed." She responded to Ann's pleads. The girl seemed a bit more at comfort, then we all walked in. "We're back!" Yelled a certian dark brown haired girl. "That didn't take nearly as long as I'd thought." Alphonse lifted his head from the laptop screen he was staring at just a second prior.

Once we were all in and the door shut, everyone seemed to pay a little more attention to the girl who looked like she felt unwelcomed. "Oh, Felicia. You're back." Alphonse looked at the silvery gray haired woman. She didn't really respond to him, but rather just a simple nod of her head.

"Anyways. It's pretty late. I'll make dinner for anyone who hasn't eaten yet, and we'll have Felicia move back into her room. Is that good?" Ann asked, everyone glanced at each other then nodded. "Yeah." I watched the girl - Felicia walk through the living room and down the hall, entering her room and shutting the door. And after an hours wait, we finally got to eat dinner.

After everyone had eaten and gone to their rooms, I stepped down the hallway leading to the living room, seeing Alphonse type away on his laptop, the bright glare from the screen made the lens in the glasses bright, making it so I couldn't see his eyes. "Oh, you're awake Ryan. I figured everyone would've been asleep by now." He said, adjusting his glasses slightly. "Oh, yeah..I guess I couldn't sleep, really.." I nodded my head with a slight chuckle. It was then I noticed that Alphonse looked to be dressed, going somewhere. I could only wonder where though...

"Hey Al, are you rea--" A familiar voice began speaking but was soon cut off, I turned my head over to see Felicia, who was also dressed and ready to go.

"We were heading to the building. The one that AI gave you." Felicia said, her long gray/silver hair was tied into a pony tail and she wore a pair of square rimmed glasses, this look suited her more I thought as she spoke. "You were just gonna go without telling Ann? Alice?" I responded. Currently, we were in the van, driving down the road of the very empty, lifeless streets. "Why would they need to go? The only people who are truly concerned about this, is Alphonse and I." She said, her hazel eyes darting at me then the road again.

"That's not true at all, we're all worried. We all want our lives back, we have every reason to go." I rebutted. She clicked her tongue, she knew I was right about that. "Well we're already taking you, that's about as far as we're willing to go." She responded, her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter, speeding down the streets and eventually heading into a more commercial area. Large buildings and stores covered the majority of our limited view.

"We're in the 20 meter radius of the building, Felicia." Alphonse finally spoke up, only to tell Felicia the target destination, she nodded her head and slowed down some, taking a right down the street. "...15 meters. 10. 5." He shut his laptop and smiled. "We're here."

The van came to a halt and the three of us got out of the van, ahead of us was a large black tower. At least a few hundred floors high, It was so grand I pondered why I never noticed it before now. "Alright, let's go." Felicia said, pulling out a suitcase and before I knew it Felicia and Alphonse were already walking ahead of me, I followed suit eventually, the large sliding doors automatically slid open, allowing entry for us.

I don't know how much time has passed, but we've been traveling downwards rather than up the stairs. I'm not complaining, I just didn't know there was an underground to this place. "How much further?" I asked the two ahead of me, Alphonse shot me a look and smiled. "Not much further. Just a couple more flights." He said with a reassuring nod. After that short conversation ended the only sound remaining to hear and pay attention to was the sound of our shoes against the hard surface.

Finally, we were in a hall, a very long one at that. It was all lit up very dimly, the walls were dark and there was a constant humming, probably from the lights. All three of us stopped once we reached the end of the hall. There was one lock preventing us from moving further, Alphonse put his suitcase down and began digging around, eventually taking out a sort of machine, an electronic lockpick I guessed. He fiddled with it for awhile then pressed a button, the door slid open for entry. "Let's go." He said with a nod of his head.

After awhile of the two hacking away at the machines in the room, he took in a deep breath and looked at me, then Felicia. "We're done." He said simply. He pulled a button forward, wires and a bunch of other things attached to the various machines around us. "...Once I press this button. We'll be ejected from this reality." He said, looking at the button intently. "..What do you mean?" I asked, still very confused about everything. "With Felicia's help..We've deducted that the world we're in, isn't real. You saw the edge right? And the specific coordinate that AI gave you. They were the exact coordinates for this room. This room, holds all the information about this world. All we needed to do was hack into it."

"...So, if you press that button. We'll all be ejected?"

"No, sadly. Only those within this room."

My heart felt heavy for some reason, we were going to leave this world? Where would we go? Where would we wake up to?

"...I'm ready." I said reluctantly, the feeling in my chest only grew heavier as he pressed the button. Suddenly, my entire sight was warped for a second, a burst of colors filled my sight then immediately went dark, I lost consciousness.

.....

.....

.....

It felt cold. Where am I? Who am I?

...I don't care. I feel..really tired.

My sight..doesn't seem right. Everything is blurry.

I blinked as much as I could, my sight eventually came clear.

I was laying stomach down, naked it felt like. And I was cold, like, I'd just gotten out of the swimming pool.

"Ryan."

My eyes widened, I looked up and saw Felicia standing in front of me, naked obviously, though thankfully she was covering herself. "Come on."

"Let's get out of here."