Chapter 1.1
The first thing Samantha Cooper noticed as she woke up was the smell. Despite being only half conscious, she still recognized that the musty, metallic smell in the air was far different than the rose-scented air freshener in the Sacramento apartment she shared with her two children. Waking up in an unfamiliar environment causes confusion, and her confusion only increased when she opened her eyes.
She bolted up with a start and let out a short cry of shock. She was most definitely NOT in her apartment, and she had no idea where she was. The walls of the room were a dull metallic gray, and besides the small bed she was on, the only furniture was a writing desk with a lit lamp, and a dresser. Even the door across from the foot of her bed was foreign. Made of a dull metal, the only knob she could see was a hand wheel in the center of the door.
She threw back the blanket and was even more disconcerted to discover that she was not wearing the sky-blue nightgown she’d put on the night before. Instead she wore a dark green jumpsuit. She didn’t want to think about how her clothes had changed, or who had changed them.
The thudding of her racing heart beat almost drowned out her own thoughts as she fought back the panic attack that she could feel coming on.
“Hello!”
Her voice sounded unnaturally loud to her ears. No answer came.
Hesitantly she stood up, the sharp cold of the metal floor biting into her feet. She approached the door, and reached for the wheel, half expecting to find it locked. She jumped back, startled, as the sound of gears whirring accompanied the door disappearing into the wall.
She stepped out cautiously into a long hallway. The atmosphere was similar to her room. It smelled musty, and although she couldn’t see any exposed pipes or wiring, it felt like she was in some sort of factory. The walls were gray and dark green metal, and had obviously been designed for function over form. Despite the eerie atmosphere, the hallway was well lit and appeared to be around a hundred feet long, ending in a door similar to the one she’d just passed through, minus the wheel.
“Hello?” she called out again, slowly walking towards the end of the hall, “Any one there?”
Samantha started as the door closed behind her. The noise hadn’t truly been that loud, but nervous as she was, it sounded like an explosion in the silent corridor, echoing off the walls. She ran back to the door, and it opened once more. Experimenting, she stepped back a few paces and the door closed again.
Satisfied that the way behind her was not closed off, not that there was much in the room she had left, she turned again and continued down the hallway. Several identical doors lined both sides of the highway, but none of them opened for her like the first one.
As she approached the final door at the end of the hallway, she flinched again as it opened for her. She passed through the doorway. This room was larger than the one where she’d awoken, it was darker too. Some of the light from the hallway seeped in, illuminating a small area of the room. Her first impression was of how different this room was from what she’d seen so far. Light blue carpet covered the floor, and there were several tables, chairs, and couches. Then she saw the far wall, or rather window. She hadn’t noticed the floor to ceiling window before, because the dark night sky matched the darkness of the room.
Excited at the prospect of looking outside, and possibly figuring out where she was, she raced to the window, then stopped suddenly. She couldn’t breathe. She could feel her heart pounding so hard it almost hurt, but still she couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t the night sky. The stars shone brightly, without twinkling, as though there was atmosphere. And there wasn’t. Looking out the window, she saw a planet below, but none of the landmasses looked anything like Earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment