Eggs

@CatholicFox

My name is Amos. I live in a small town called Experiment.

Experiment is located in the state of Georgia. Experiment is located
in the United States of America. I have lived in Experiment my entire
life. Experiment has a population of 2,776.

"Paul?" Crystal whispered tentatively into the half opened

hatch of sleeping pod. The M-811 sleeping pods had been
installed a few months back by the Unknowns.

It was better this way.

"Paul?" She endeavoured again "I have your eggs"

She knew he was work-ready, the REM indicators on the
display panel had long since spiked and his heart rate was
now a steady 80bpm
"Paul, do we have to do this every time?"
"Lights" the monotone voice uttered from the darkness and
almost as quickly as the sound escaped his lips Crystal was
bathed in the neon-blue light of the capsules inner-displays.
"I brought your eggs"

"Yes" he yawned as he slipped feet-first out onto the cold

steel plates that paved the LiWo.

"Thank you."

Everyday was the same. Before the Pods they had bunks, and
before the bunks they had nothing. But everyday was the
same. She would rise with the sun. To the sound of birds
chirping and a nearby brook babbling. Artificial. See-Screens
lined the LiWo on every wall and the ceiling above. Everyday
is Spring.

It was better this way

Once work-ready she would De-Con, apply her Mirage and
prepare the eggs for break-fast. They had an endless supply
of eggs.

She wondered where they came from, which type of bird had
laid them and wether they're as free as she is now.

"They probably have to live outside, poor things"

"What?" Paul grunted without looking up from his perfect

little feet.

"The birds..that laid the eggs, where do you think they are?"

He didn't answer, instead opting to take the glass from her

hand and suck down it's gooey contents despite its
mysterious lineage.
LiWo. LiWo is the designated name for the Live and Work area. The
LiWo is designed for maximum comfort and efficiency. It is not
permitted to vacate the LiWo without proper authoriziation - Amos

It was a while before he finally broke the silence. "What time

is it?"
"It's still pre-work, you have time to DeCon"
"No"
"N-no?"
"No."
This shocked her. More than anything had ever shocked her.
This was how the world worked. You assume work-ready,
you break-fast, you DeCon and then you work. It was the
same everyday.

It was better this way

"What do you mean no? you have to DeCon, you have to!"

"Why?" he asked but without waiting for a response he

thrust the glass back into her hands, kicked back into his pod
and pulled the hatch behind him.

She was lost.

And that's when she saw it. Whatever "It" was. Like the
clouds had shattered in the sky and were falling all around
her. Scintillient. Disney dust. What is it? She felt cold. Colder
than she had ever been.

"PAUL!" she screamed in terrorhouse, leaping to grab the

hatch. Desperately she clawed and pulled, still screaming
"SOMETHING IS HAPPENING"
The blue again. The hatch swinging open. The figure
emerging. The hand grasping her arm. Disconnected, mosaic
images that make up the fragmented memory of the moment
when everything changed.

"Paul, I'm scared. What is it?"

She saw in his face something that she hadn't seen in as long
as she could remember. What was it? She felt sick. She had to
lay down. She was so cold. She was scared. She was not
work-ready.

Paul stood and stared straight above at the See-Screen on the

ceiling "I don't know....but....It's"

"What is it?" She sobbed

"It can't hurt us" he said simply, not taking his eyes off this
new wonder before him. The cloud-fall was covering the
ground now, thick and heavy. The birds had stopped singing,
the brook was no longer babbling. A Cold, white silence.
And that's how it was. Silent. Together they watched their
world turn white.

"Maybe we should work?" That was all she wanted to do was

work. To stick to her routine, to what she knew. The work
must always continue.

It was better this way

"If we were going to be PunExd for not working we would

have by now.. Something has changed"

"Is it..?"

"No. Not that. But I don't think we're meant to work right
now."

"Then what?" she whimpered

"I don't know, but, I think I'm going to try the seal"

"YOU CAN'T!" she let out as her glass disintegrated on the

LiWo's now even colder steel floors.
Standing now she rounded on him "This changes nothing..
this...white stuff, we are still here and we still have the
work..you know we can't leave"

"Why?" was all he said before he too stood, stepped aside

her, and purposefully walked towards the large dilating-door
they called the seal.

Reaching out he placed his palm on the scanner-panel, took

a deep breath and spoke "Irma-Daisy-Keota-Becky"
The green light. Victory. The circular doorway quickly slid
open like a camera lense to reveal a dimly lit cat-walk. He
remembered.

"It's out there" he said.

"What is? What's out there? Paul please, close the seal and
we can just work today and maybe next-work it will be like it
was before"

"No"

He stepped out into the dim, his footsteps on the grilled

catwalk echoing all around him. The air smelled odd. Sweet
and sickly and with a hint of something he couldn't quite
place. He followed the walkway into darkness his mind
racing, questions forming as the sound of Crystal's sobs
chased after him, as if to try and snare him, to drag him back
to her, to work.

He was running now. The tumultous sound of his footfall like

music to his ears. The clanging and banging and shuddering
of the walkway were his chorus. Moments passed before he
found himself standing before another Seal, this one though,
was already wide open.

Stepping through he squinted into the darkness, his feet now

on slippery, wet squares. As he walked with his hands
outstretched as if to grab hold of the void before him, he felt
the floor slope to his left, sidestepping down into the grove
now he felt a grill beneath his feet. Much smaller than the
catwalks grill, more like the perforated steel floor in his
LiWo's DeCon unit. Just where was he?

He pushed forward, ignorning the regular squelching sludge

now under his feet and between his toes. That overpowering
and queer smell, what is it?

He thought of Crystal, pondering if he should turn back now,

apologise and get back to work. He wondered if he would be
PunExd for this unauthorized excursion. He decided he did
not care.

She raised herself up off the ground where she had collapsed
into a puddle of bitter tears. How could he have just left her.
What was she going to do now? The work takes two. And she
was one. Maybe they will bring him back to her, yes, they'll
find him out there and he will be PunExd but they will bring
him back and things will be like they were before.

It was better this way

He remembered. The circular white room. He remembered
this place. He could see it up ahead, the source of light he'd
been slipping and sliding towards. His heart pounding he
started to run again. Yards away now. Feet. Inches. He was
there.

The flourescant lights that illuminated the circular room

blinded him, holding his hand up to his brow and gazing at his
pretty little feet he saw now what he had been trudging
through. Blood. deep and dark and red. Stuck to it were
countless thick black feathers.

"What!?" he gasped involuntarily as he began to shake his

ankles hoping to relieve himself of his new alien plummage

Hello

He spun. and again. No one. "Who is there? Hello?"

Hello, my name is Amos. I notice you are not in the vicinity of your
LiWo. Do you need assistance?

"Hello?? Where are you?"

Hello, my name is Amos. Do you need assistance?

"Yes.. I... Who am I?"

Looking around the room he saw more seals. 4 in total.

Including the one he just came through. All were dark but for
one, where he could just make out a dim red light eminating
from the other side.
My name is Amos. Your name is Paul. Subject Number 20-15-23-14.
Do you need assistance?

"How do I get out of this place?"

For your own safety please remain calm and do not move.
Assistance is on it's way.

He bolted head on, running straight through the door with

the enticing red glow.

And then he saw it.

The stygian nightmare that unraveled itself before him was

barely comprehnsible even to his pretty little mind. A
cyclopean network of transparent tubes funneled rivers of
frothy pink liquid into mile-long troths. Where gigantic black,
winged creatures where feeding noisily. He wretched.
Coughing and spluttering he fell to his knees grasping at his
shaven head he felt himself descend into madness as the
vomitus poured over his chin and onto the catwalk below.

Subject 20-15-23-14. Do you need assistance?

He looked up and before him was a large glass cylinder, held

on a litter by two tall, shadowy figures flanked at either side.
he could see wisps and swirls of ethereal grey vapor taking
shape and yet non-shape inside the ball. What is this?

Barely clinging to the last threads of sanity he asked "What

are you..?"

I am Amos. I am the Artificial management operating system. I was

from Experiment. I was from Georgia. I was from the United States
of America. You will return to your LiWo to continue the work.

"The work?" "Was?" He was on the brink now, he could feel

himself slipping - ripping apart. A piece broke off inside him.
He felt it and he remembered. He remembered board games,
he remembered iced tea, he remembered crosswalks and
kittycats and books. He remembered.

He raised his head once more, one final shout before

irreversible madness took him. And there they were. The
black sentinels were moving towards him.

You will return to your LiWo to continue the work

He saw them now. hellish, abominable creatures. 7ft tall, jet

black feathers coursed their twisted and misshapen torso's.
Their faces illuminated by the red light sent him screaming
into the abyss. Men's faces, warped and torn. Lifeless black
eyes on either side of their elongated foreheads and cracked,
bleeding lips protruding in a grotesque mockery of a beak.
They reached out for him but he was already gone.
You will return to your LiWo to continue the work. It is better this
way

"Paul? I have your eggs"