10 Minute Tales

May 2 - Lab Rat

He awoke with a gasp, suddenly sitting up to look around. The area he was in seemed... sterile. White tiles adorned the walls, the floor, even the ceiling - only the occasional strip of a light fixture wasn't tiled. He groaned as he shakily got to his feet. Something didn't feel right.

"Test subject 53." a voice echoed. It startled him and he looked around; the speaker was hidden behind a wall. "Proceed to complete the obstacle course."

"What... what's going on?" he looked at himself again. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit he didn't recognise, the only contrast being a pair of solid, black boots.

"Proceed." the voice insisted, a little louder. He flinched but obeyed, walking forward hesitantly. Something about this didn't feel right either. He looked himself over again, and yelped in surprise when he realised. He was floating a foot off of the ground! He wobbled a bit, arms flailing as he somehow managed to keep himself upright. How was he floating?! He wobbled a little more as he ducked through a doorway. He had walked into a sort of maze, glass walls showing him everything. There was a door on the opposite wall and a button on a plinth to his right. Still wobbling a little, he navigated the maze slowly, hesitantly. "A-G boots appear to be functioning nominally." the voice dictated, making him jump. "Subject has avoided trigger plates 1 through 12." He blinked, turning around and looking at the floor. Now he knew they were there, he could see a couple of raised tiles, barely a millimetre or two above the rest.

"How the hell was I supposed to see that?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling. The voice had to come from somewhere, after all, but it didn't seem to reply to him - or, he decided, it was ignoring him. He grumbled and carried on, wobbling through the maze. He navigated the maze slowly, wobbling, noticing more and more of these trigger plates. How many were there? A hundred? Two hundred? Too many, for sure. He looked at the button. It was big and red, illuminated from within to glow. He could imagine it whispering to him, begging for him to press it, so he obliged. An alarm blared loudly, making him flinch again.

"Halfway button has been pressed." the voice announced. "Ten seconds until phase two." The subject panicked; whatever phase two was, he was sure he wouldn't like it. He ran as quick as he could, stumbling and slamming into more than one wall, but it was far too slow. The floor rumbled open beneath him, tile after tile sliding away into the wall, revealing the area beneath was drowned by a caustic, foul-smelling sludge. He couldn't see the bottom of this container. He tried to retreat to the button for something to hold on to, but it too had already slid into the wall. The tiles beneath his shoes slid apart too.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!" he cursed, bracing himself. The fall was brief, as was his last moment. The boots needed a solid to hover.

"Test failed." the voice announced. "Preparing test subject 54."