“Can you tell me anything about the person in that Building who looks like me? Is he being mistreated?”, he asked, bowing down to meet her height at face level.
“Are you two related?” He even wore the same wardrobe, down to the twin coattails dangling ‘round the back.
“I’m a family member. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble just finding this place. I’ve asked around, and no one’ll give me any answers. You’re the only one I’ve met so far who’s gotten close. How’s he doing? Is he happy?”
“I couldn’t really tell.” She couldn’t determine how the Patient felt. His impassive facial reactions were impossible to gauge, and his monotone tone gave no hints.
“Does he talk... in a... halting... manner... like this?”
“Yes, you’ve captured his cadence exactly!”
“I thought so! Could you do me a favour? I have something that might help. Follow me.”
She trailed behind the Tall Stranger despite all evidence from past experience that should’ve been ringing voluminous alarm bells, yet she didn’t feel threatened. He was kind of cute in an ugly kind of way. “How do you know the Patient?”
“We were together and then one day, we weren’t.”
“What did you say you did again?”
“I didn’t. I’m a bit of a Scientist.”
Those vague answers were the only questionable conversation pieces that came up. After making their way through a series of winding paths, the two of them stood in front of a derelict building with a solitary sturdy door standing guard. The Scientist rapidly punched in a complicated pattern of strokes on the nearby keyboard before opening the door. But before the Girl could even step through, the Scientist held a disjointed arm back saying,
“I’m going to need an urine and stool sample. Use this container if necessary.”
“Why?”
“Security reasons. Each human registers a different fecal function. The system won’t recognize you if your internal chemicals don’t match any previously registered patterns.”
Her face wrinkled in disgust. “That’s...” then softened in admiration. “...pretty clever, actually.”
“Normally, I shock visitors to loosen the ol’ bowels, but you can use that private toilet over there.”
“What’ll happen if I don’t do this?”
“Any spies and saboteurs not entered properly will find themselves suddenly flung into my reject pile.”
She looked around, looking for any potential spies or saboteurs nearby. “Should I be worried?”
“Short of dousing themselves via using your chamber pot as a hat, any peekers will find themselves stymied by my defenses.”
The bathroom business was less troublesome than expected, and the Girl had little trouble fitting the waste inside, having had practice aiming in a small receptacles while homeless. Once finished, she showed her repulsive expulsive results to the Scientist who leaned close to the container, clapped his hands, fingers pointing forward, rubbing his palms in an excited manner. “Ooh, that’s quality substance!”, the Scientist remarked, enthusiastically snatching the putrid container and bounding inside. The Girl followed closely behind, curious as to what all this was leading up to. She was instantly smitten by the sights held within.
“Now THIS is what a Mad Science Lab should look like! Electronic pulsing gizmos sparking in the corner! Potentially hazardous experiments running wild! Crumbling architecture! And tubes of colourful... bubbling... stuff.”
“Don’t get too close,” the Scientist warned, and placed the putrid container containing the Girl’s waste in a doorway before coming out again, wiping his hands with a towel. “There, it’s safe to come in. Now, what can you tell me about the Patient?”
“Not much. He just stays in his room all day. He doesn’t do much, he doesn’t talk much, he doesn’t have any opinion about anything. He seems pretty content to me.”
“Complacency is just another cage. You can be imprisoned even without wearing any prison garb. Take my word for it - he’s not as happy as you think.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Getting any information in that place was an exercise in futility, and judging by the Scientist’s account, he didn’t fare much better. She counted herself lucky enough to even have anyone willing to explain anything without appealing to their ego.
“Did he complain about a rumbling noise, even though there wasn’t any transportation services nearby?”
“He seemed more distracted than anything.”
The Scientist thought about this. “I think I know what his problem is,” and rummaged in a nearby bag. “I have something that may make his stay more comfortable.” He handed over a set of rubbery ear mufflers with twin receivers sticking way up over each end that looked like antennas.
“Headphones?” She held them up to her ear to see what music they played, only to be met with silence.
“They’re tuned to a specific frequency only he can hear. Once they’re on, he’ll be much calmer.”
“He seems pretty calm to me.”
“I don’t mean comatose.”
“What are these supposed to do?”
“They’ll help dampen the cause of his distress. There’s a prevalent noise that’s making him uneasy.”
“What noise? It’s pretty quiet in there.” When she heard the probable cause, she was incredulous. “Are you serious??”
“You’ll understand once you see it. If you’re successful, I have some more items he can use.”
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.”
When the Girl got back to her apartment, she was giddy with anticipation. Despite appearing apprehensive in transferring questionable merchandise, she was actually excited. A chance to be involved in potentially illegal activity! This was the most exciting thing that had happened to her in a long time. Even so, she still ate the slice of Rarebit before going to bed. In addition to helping her fall asleep, she wanted to know what’d happen next in her dreams.
There was an unfortunate clicking sound as the floor gave way underneath, the ramp ratcheting downwards at rapid speed until it reached the bottom with a deafening THUD. Gathering her senses, she craned her neck upwards to the minuscule speck of light from outside shining inwards, and cried: “Watch for that first step. It’s a doozy.”
“No kidding,” the Archeologist remarked, standing right next to her, looking only slightly perturbed.
“When did you - weren’t you waiting outside?”
“And deprive me of all the glory?”
Before the Girl could even fire off a snappy comeback, the Archeologist was already waving a torch lighting the ancient ruins. “According to these markings, there are three chambers that need to be passed before we can enter the central room.”
“So we should approach these in rising order of difficulty?”
“Nuts to that! Let’s take care of the scariest one first! And that’s the Chamber of the Unknown.”
“What’s in there?”
“No one knows. That what makes it so scary. Everybody’s who’s ventured there has been driven mad by the sights within.”
“Am I supposed to go in blindfolded?”
“That’s not a bad idea!” And the Archeologist started binding up the Girl’s face tightly. When finished, it was so dark that she could hardly see a thing. “How am I supposed to find anything like this?”
“Just follow everything I say! Step on the sandy floor and pay no attention to how much they sound like crunching teeth. Feel around for a warm pillar that smells like muscular bone and trace your path along the walls that feel like growling intestines.”
“These aren’t very helpful descriptions!”
“Are you able to get around?”
“.......yes.” she grudgingly admitted, making her way further in.
After several more anatomical equivalences of architecture that felt disturbingly alive, the Archeologist shouted from his secure hiding place, “According to these instructions, you should be near the control mechanism. Pull the third ball from the right that feels like a peeled grape. It’s right next to the sphere that feels like an eyeball.”
“How would I know what an eyeball feels like?”
“You’ve lived a sheltered life, haven’t you? Just pull your eye out and compare!”
She sarcastically felt up to her covered face, and wished she hadn’t, for her hand brushed against something that moved away from gnawing at her concealments. There were all kinds of critters surrounding her with a light deft touch that was almost imperceptible unless otherwise noticed.
“Have you found it yet?”
“My strap’s loosening! I’m surrounded!”
“Get out of there! Keep your eyes closed until you get back out!”
Even though there were no obstacles preventing her from moving, the Girl still had a hard time retracing her steps in reverse. She figured it’d be simpler to make her way back by moving backwards, and was making good progress until she bumped against one of the fleshy moving walls and fell downwards backwards headfirst.
And then she woke up. There was a stream of light shining through the window that struck at just the right angle through numerous reflections to stream underneath her tangled blankets. These dreams were incentives for motivating her to get up and moving, but today was going to be different. This was a rare day when she actually looked forward to going to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment