Sunday, December 5, 2010

Story: Mac's Mad World: Awake

Bleep Bloop...Bleep Bloop...Bleep Bloop.
An alarm was going off somewhere; it had been for a while.
Light flared into existence as a pair of eyes opened for the first time. Blurred vision slowly adapted to the light. The owner of the eyes became aware of liquid surrounding his entire body.
Panic set in, he was drowning. Lungs burned as he sucked for air, met only by a thick, gooey liquid. He reached out for something to grab hold of. He could see a room just out of reach. Fingers met the side of a smooth surface...glass.
His fists beat on the glass, fearing he would die soon, and then the world tipped. Glass smashed on the ground, green liquid flooded the ground, oozing across the floor.
Standing up for the first time, his legs shook unsteadily.
“Finally” came a strange voice “You’re up”
Looking around, a cold, metal table occupied the room, machinery beeped and flashed along the wall, a screen in the wall was cracked. The man was alone.
“Hello? You can hear me right?” came the voice again.
Confusion entered the man’s brain, the voice was strange, he couldn’t understand what it was saying.
“Oh, right” The voice said again “Hang on, loading language module”
Pain seared through his head, he let out a scream, and then it stopped.
“What the hell was that!” he screamed, his voice cracked slightly.
“You can speak, good. It still works” the disembodied voice replied, he could understand it now, and by its tone it was slightly amused.
His eyes stung as he turned to the light hanging above the table. It began flickering.
“Alright, you have to out of here, go through the door to your right” The voice emanated from all around him.
“What? I don’t know who you are or what’s going on, where am I?” He asked to the empty room, his voice was weak but he was getting used to it.
The voice sighed “We don’t have time, this whole place is about to come down” the room shook violently as if on cue “Now go!” it seemed panicked.
He stumbled across the room, his legs wobbled as he put weight on them. His foot came down on something hard and rolled away; grabbing the table in mid fall, he clung to it as if it was a life raft.
“Who are you?” he called out “Can you help me?” he looked around trying to spot a person who was not there.
“My name’s Aidrian, I don’t have time to explain, this place is going to explode, real soon”
He pushed himself back up right, his hand landed on a small, thumb sized object. Picking it up, the words “Macazai Robotics” was visibly imprinted on the side.
“But” He was cut off.
“MOVE!” the voice screamed in his head.
The room shook again, throwing him off balance; plaster hit the floor with a dull thud.
“The door, now!” shouted Aidrian, he sounded more panicked with every passing moment.
Stumbling towards the door, he grabbed the frame and pulled himself forward and out into a corridor. Lights flickered on and off here, doors lined the walls and an open door at the end of the hallway showed darkness ahead.
“Take the door at the end of the hallway, and head up the stairs. Go!”
Unsteady feet shuffled along the length of the hall. Doors branched off to the sides, dull light came out of a few, others were dark.
He stumbled through the door and began climbing the stairs slowly, the whole building shook.
“Almost there” Aidrian was sounding calmer “Left, Last dor, hurry”
He picked up speed; his legs were becoming accustomed to moving.
Flinging the door open he felt a breeze of fresh air flow around him. Moving through the door he felt sand and coarse dirt underneath his foot. It provided a different feel to the cold tiles and fallen plaster that was inside. Moonlight lit the area but he could feel the warmth of the earth beneath his feet.
The facility seemed to have been built in the middle of a desert.
Pin points of light could be seen in the distance, blasting a trailing of dust through the desert floor. As it got closer he slid down the side of a dune and headed towards the fast approaching lights. The rumble of the engine grew louder as it got closer. The truck stopped, the door clicked and swung open.
Another man approached him, wrinkles lined his face, grey hair could be seen from under a red hat.
“What the hell are you doing out here? Who are you?” the older man asked, curiosity showed in his face. He hadn’t seen anyone out this far before.
Before He could answer a loud explosion erupted from the direction of the facility he had just escaped, flames licked the sky.
The driver looked over at it.
“Bloody hell, hope you didn’t come from there” he looked back “What’s your name boy?”
The man shook his head, he didn’t know “My name...I...”
“Your name, what do people call you?” the driver stuck a thumb towards himself “They call me Jim, I’m a transporter”
The man thought for a moment, and then a name came to his mind.
“Macazai?” he said, nodding, he felt the small object still in his hand.
Jim looked at him, his face grew stern.
“I see...Mac it is” he looked at his truck, then back at Mac “Might wanna just stick with Mac”
Mac nodded again “Why?” he asked.
“Long story...long story” Jim sucked at his teeth “Know you’re naked Mac?”
Mac looked down and shivered, he hadn’t realised before because of the adrenalin, but now he was cold.
“Yes” replied Mac.
“Know why?” Jim asked
“No”
Jim laughed “Ha...well alright, jump in...I got spare clothes in the truck for the long hauls, I’ll give you a lift back to the farms, dunno how you got out or where you’re from but that’s the best I got”
Mac was confused, he wasn’t entirely aware of where he was from either, but he climbed in to the truck.
The engine rumbled to life again as the truck started moving.

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