Pre * De * Cede: Chapter 3

It was some time during the dark hours that a voice that did not belong to Gamma or myself was heard from the back room. I came across Gamma walking the same direction to the sound of the calls. It seemed frantic and muffled, and as we came closer, it was mixed with a clamor of knocking and pounding.

The back room was as we had left it, save the flashing of the nameplate above the second compartment: Beta. The pounding continued, both against the compartment door and the cabinets behind it. There were panicked calls in an unintelligible cry. The metal of the surface rattled.

“Calm down! We are here to help!” I called out instinctively. The panicked movement did not subside. I heard the faint words ‘help, help,’ come from within. I began to shove my fingers at the cracks around the compartment door, hoping to find my grip upon the smooth surface. Gamma rattled at the opposite edge. Helplessly, I turned back to the computer screen, looking for anything that resembled an emergency override.

The cries turned to sobbing and yelling. I tried and failed to concentrate on either the screen or the compartment door. “Alpha, is there anything?”

My eyes glanced around the screen, hoping fruitlessly to take notice of something I had not seen before on the already simple readout. “I’m trying!” I shouted.

Gamma shook his head and began to run off down the hall. “I’ve got-” I heard his voice trail off before he could speak the rest of his thought.

I turned back to the compartment door. The movement had mostly subsided. I rammed my kneed into the surface, causing it to rattle violently, but still refuse to move. Gamma came rushing back, a large prying instrument in my hand. He pushed me aside with a shove of his shoulder before shoving the wedged end into the crack at the left of the door. The metal on either side crunched and buckled as he shoved at it.

Little by little, he moved it downward, forcefully opening up the crack. With one final push, there was a loud pop, and the door came undone. Another man like us fell forward, landing loudly on his knees. I caught him before he was able to fall farther forward. “Beta!” I called out, shaking him. His eyes refused to look my way, rather dancing about in their sockets.

Gamma tossed down the tool and helped me set him back. His wrists and ankles had scuffs and minute cuts on them from the straps, but no blood was drawn. After a few minutes of trying to steady him, his eyes seemed to finally focus. “Beta?” I asked again.
“Is that… my name?” His first proper words were spoken.

Gamma stood against the wall, looking to the buckled compartment door. “Did something malfunction? What if the others end up like that?”

“Shh-” I stopped him. I looked again to Beta, who was holding his arms tightly. “Beta… let’s get you into uniform. It will be more comfortable.”

I pointed back to the compartment and the cabinets behind. His eyes turned back for a moment, before he leaned back forward, rocking back and forth. “No, no, no, I won’t.” He cried. “I won’t go back.”

“You won’t.” I assured him. “We need to get you dressed.”

“I… can’t go back… to the darkness.”

“Gamma, what should we do?” I looked up to the other man.

Gamma crossed his arms. “I have no idea.” He huffed. “This isn’t anything I know about. Just keep at it, and he’ll come around, I guess.”

Beta was clenching his fingers and toes, rocking back and forth on his bottom while his eyes focused unblinkingly on the patch of floor before him. I glanced at Gamma for more help, but he had already turned to the computer screen to peer at the power readouts.

“Beta…” I mumbled, crouched down beside him.

“Well, Alpha.” Gamma distracted me once again. “At this rate, we may see the others waking up sooner than later.”

I stood and glared back at the other compartments. “It doesn’t stand to reason that we should have any other malfunctions… but if we do, we should have Beta at least out of the way.”

Gamma shrugged and knocked at the metal surface of the battered door, examining the would-be latches, now strained out of place. “I can look these over, but…”

“Do what you need to do.” I nodded at him. “I’ll get him to a better place.”

Gamma turned to his work, and I looked down to Beta, who had inched towards my leg, as if for support. I hunched down and took his hand, lifting with the strength I could muster. Beta held on as if out of reflex as I lifted him to his feet, doing my best to keep his gaze ahead.

Beta dragged his feet as I pulled him down the hallway. I felt a sudden resistance in my pull, as the sheepish man caught sight of the growing sunlight on the horizon outside. He ran his hand across the clear surface, his eyes locked intently to it. “Beta?” I relented my grasp on his other arm.

“The light…”

“It is almost morning.”

Beta nodded slowly, allowing himself to slide down the surface, his legs falling beneath him. “That is the sun.”

“I guess, it is, yes.”

“We’re so far away, aren’t we?” His voice wavered, but in turn, he managed to make eye contact with me for the first time. I nodded in response.

“I’ll bring your suit for you. I will be more comfortable.” Beta didn’t return any gesture, keeping his eyes locked to the glow. I slid behind him and returned to the room.

Gamma looked up at me from the interior of the faulty compartment as I entered. “How is he?”

I attempted to get a look at what Gamma’s work as I came closer. “He is calm now.”

“See, you are just fine at this whole person-to-person thing.”

“I’m going to grab his gear.” I pointed behind Gamma to the compartment.

He nodded and shifted outward. “Nothing I can see out of the ordinary here.” He said with a shrug. “I can take a look around for the breakers or the main wiring harness for this compartment.”

“You are reliable, Gamma.” I smiled at him.

“I suppose that is what I am here for.” He rolled his eyes and parted ways out of the room. I flipped open the hatch to find, predictably, the gear embroidered with the patch displaying the name of the third man. I swung it over my shoulder and grabbed at the boots next, wedging them between my fingers.

Continue reading “The Third Day”

Pre * De * Cede: Chapter 1

My first memory was of coming awake. My surroundings were cramped and dark. There was a faint high-pitched beeping somewhere before me. I was unable to move my legs or arms. The first feeling to return to me was that of my feet. They were bare, and underneath was a cold, hard material. It was in a moment that the instruments binding my limbs came undone. I shuffled my feet for balance, and pushed out before me with the palms of my hands. The surface facing me shifted easily under a delicate touch. The pale, colorless light poured in around the edges, and the beeping stopped.

The door moved outward before folding back on itself out of the way. The exterior was as cold and lonely as the light suggested. I glanced at my newly freed limbs. My body was covered in a tight fitting polyester material, down to my ankles, up around my neck, and down back again to my wrists, all in the color brown. Before me, a different light stood out to me.

It was the matte finish of a computer screen. It had likely flickered on some time between me exiting the chamber and looking myself over. I stepped towards it, examining the features. It displayed a collection of bolded words, describing likely what was my surroundings. I pushed my finger onto the circular pie graph labeled ‘atmosphere.’ My finger made a slightly discoloring mark upon the tiny flecks of dust on the touch surface. The graphic reformed itself in the center of the screen, and the percentages appeared, bearing their labels: 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% other. I stared at the numbers for longer than seemed necessary, debating whether or not they were as they should be.

A row of lights to my left flickered for a brief moment, pulling my attention away. There was a fine hallway leading away from the room. There was collection of metallic boxes taking up some of the space, piled up two and three high, just short of my eye level. More lights before me flickered on as I approached. I decided that the lights were a result of some sort of motion sensor, and not in correlation to me coming awake.

My thoughts were pushed to the side as I encountered a new source of light. This one was warm, unlike the neat, round, blinding fixtures above. I stepped before the clear material, placing my hand upon it. The exterior was of vast contrast to what was inside- rough and misshapen, unlike the clean lines and measured angles of the confining walls. I found myself needing to shield my eyes from the bright light. It seemed to emanate from a far-off source, somewhere beyond the rocks and hills and sand and dust and clouds of the landscape outside. The palm of my hand, which had been resting on the clear material, caught a sudden warmth. My toes crinkled from the cold beneath them.

I turned back in the direction of the room from which I had come. The lights were still illuminated, and the screen had gone back to its default view. The compartment from which I had exited was still open, the door folded back to the side as if inviting me. My eyes wandered up to the room’s header, where a faint red light glowed from beneath a plate inscribed with a single word: Alpha.

Continue reading “The First Day”