A chamber opens and liquid spills out onto the floor, a murky dark green color. A lifeless critter hangs crudely from the chamber, connected through wires in it’s back. Suddenly, it’s heart beats and it’s eyes flash open.
The creature snaps off from the wires as it steps down to the stairs of the chamber. Suddenly, something screeches and the creature covers its ears as a message broadcasts on speakers hidden out of sight.
- Loud Speaker: Presumably, you're awake. Good. I don't know if you can understand me or not, or if you're even there, but if you are, welcome. It's been a long time coming. I understand you might have some questions. Questions are good. How about you make your way down here so we can talk? Go south until you reach the storage corridors, then go left and take the left path. But before you do that, you've gotta turn on the lights. There should be four generators nearby, each with white plugs in or near them. If any need to be plugged back in, do so. The door should open after that. Remember, south, storage corridors, left, left path. Hopefully you could comprehend all of that. Good luck.
The creature says nothing. It looks to the south, suddenly “understanding” basic cardinal directions. It notes a unplugged generator and plugs it back in, like the nice man on the loud speaker asked. It doesn’t ask questions and soon enough the red light turns green. Loud mechanical echoing sounds within the room and then a door noisily opened with a sputter and wheeze.
Welcome to the new age.
It was given a task but it did not stop it from asking itself questions. How did the machines work? How big is the lab? It asked a lot but didn’t bother stick around for answers, as the task at hand had more of his curiosity.
It kept walking in this new world far beyond the expanse of his dead mind could ever possibly imagine, eventually getting to a corridor of doors. Left. The lights strobed as he went left again into the left path. In the room where it ended was a screen that roared to life. Fuzzy videos and images were projected onto the screen as a young man with blond hair and glasses appeared.
- Loud Speaker Man: Good job.
The creature is excited.
- Loud Speaker Man: Now, I want you to listen to me very carefully. Your name is YE. You are a male member of the species Procyon lotor, or a "raccoon", as we refer to it. I am a human, and I'm your friend. I'm here to help you out. This lab, this whole facility really, I work here. It's basically mine.
YE looks at his hands for the first time.
- Loud Speaker Man: You've been, um, developing in that machine for a while. Now that I think about it, that technically makes today your birthday as far as science goes.
Confetti sprinkles down from the ceiling.
- Loud Speaker Man: I apologize for the awkward silence there if the confetti didn't fall. Like you understand the concept of confetti.
The man laughs as YE picks at the confetti with strange and unfamiliar colors.
- Loud Speaker Man: Anyway, right now, above us is... well, I honestly don't really know what's up there. I haven't been up there in quite some time. It won't seem bad to you, probably. But to me, and others like me, up there is... it's bad. I know for certain that it will absolutely not be good. That was the world I lived in, up there. Now it's down here, for the time being at least. And by the time you've woken up, it'll be a very different world up there. A broken world. You don't understand that now; you have no reference point. But it's bad, YE.
YE begins to “understand” more and more of the concepts that the man talks about, but they also confuse him as new knowledge continues to flow in his brain.
- Loud Speaker Man: I know this is confusing. I know you have a lot of questions. If I could tell you more right now, I would. But there's too much at stake and not enough time. I know you, YE. Better than you think. Bottom line is that you're special. World hasn't seen anything like you before. Most of it never will. But the part of it that's left, its desperate. Hanging on one fleeting, fucking stupid thread. And at this point, I don't even know if they still are. I don't know anything. But they need you, and they need you now. And that's all there is to it. Do you understand, YE?
YE nods.
- Loud Speaker Man: God, I hope you do. Otherwise I’m gonna look real silly.
Next Chapter: Chapter 8