Five Senses

Chapter 2 - The Imagination

I get up from my bed and start heading out of my habit. I start making my way through the hallway system. I get out of the habits section then turn right, left, and another right. After that, I end up in the old Maintenance system. I say old because they have upgraded these and moved the upgraded system to the other side of the "ship". I start opening the rusty door, very slowly so that I don't make a sound. When I open the door I get in and then slowly close it again. These old systems aren't that dirty. Mrs. Locket cleans them, I mean they clean them. The old maintenance system is a bunch of corridors that are built inside the walls of the "ship". Before, you could get anywhere on the ship trough these, but then once they upgraded, they sealed the corridors. I squeeze through the small hole in the wall and enter a room that is about the size of mine. There, on a rocking chair, I see Mrs. Locket.

-"Hello, sweetie. How are you today?"- she asks politely
-"I am, okay."- I stop for a second and then say-"Actually I am pretty bad. I failed my test for the 5th time. No offense, but I don't want to stay on this ship forever. I want to see the world, breathe fresh air, talk to people who have actual feelings."
-"Yeah sweetie, I cannot help you. As you know you are the only one who can feel, I still have the limiter. But, I hhhhaavvevvevhvev...v.e.vv.e.."

Mrs. Locket falls from the chair onto the ground. I get worried, this has never happened before. I take her wrist and look at her watch. At first, it seemed as though the watch had no battery, but then it turned on and displayed something that gave me a lot of fear: FEELING DETECTED... PUTTING SUBJECT 3451 TO SLEEP. It seems that the commander has added a new feature to the watch some kind of felling detector which puts you to sleep when you feel something. But I thought that I am the only one who can feel things. I quickly run out of the room through the hole back into the habit. But because of so much fear building up, my watch vibrates and displays: FEELING DETECTED...PUTTING SUBJECT 1001 TO SLEEP. Then everything stops, my body collapses to the ground, and I feel a little dizzy... and slowly everything fades to black.

I wake up in a room. I feel the ground beneath me and think: "How, what, am I dreaming, no that is impossible."The limiters stop our minds from being creative, they don't allow them to drift away into dreams. I get up, still confused, and then I see her-my mother. I start going toward her, but right about a meter away from her an invisible barrier stops me from getting to her.

-"Mum!"- I exclaim.
-"It is okay sweetie, don't be afraid, one day this barrier will disappear."-she says, calm.
-"Please, tell me what is going on!"- I say in a quiet, yet strong voice.
-"This is what we call, imagination, a place where everything is possible but yet trapped inside your mind. The only way something can get out of imagination and in the real world is:
1. If it exists and 2. If you have the power of believing anything is possible and are dedicated to complete it. The first rule can be broken when someone makes something that can help you get a thing out of your imagination. Do you understand now?"-she asks in her happy voice.
-"Yeah, but, how did I get here? I taught that the limiter is. .."-she cuts me off.
-"You always had the power to break simple rules. It was only a matter of time before you found out about this."-a crashing sound in the distance cuts her off-"Listen, we don't have much time. The only way you will be able to destroy the limiter and go to Earth is if you get your senses back. And to do that, you need to get access to the recovery machine, and to do that you need to use your imagination. Next time you come here, bring me a piece of wood. You can come here by feeling something and then letting the watch put you to sleep. And one mo..."

Just as she starts telling me the last thing the ground beneath us opens and swallows me whole, again I see darkness. As I fall I think about the many things I will ask her next time we meet. I feel cold and then reach the end of the hole.