/ Atrophy /

Arufa blinked her eyes open, only half-awake. Her eyelids felt stiff and unresponsive, her vision blurred and doubled. She wasn’t sure of how long she’d slept—most certainly too long, whatever the timescale.

Where am I…?

Blooming with a radiant glow, wires strangled her and pinned her down. She took in a violent gasp of air, probably her first in many years, and began to remember it all: X2, the agents, the moment it all ended. Now, though, she laid at an upward diagonal, bound head to toe in technology she’d never seen.

She jolted upright, ripping a cord behind her. Sparks flew by on either side as she writhed in her cage of neon wires, tearing them slowly but surely from their foundation. She opened her mouth to cry out, but instead she coughed violently, spitting out miscellaneous fluid.

Jesus Christ, everything hurts! What’s happening?! she said to herself. What are these wires? Why do I feel so weak?

In a paroxysm of distress, she snapped herself free from her prison and fell to the floor below, a shower of static falling with her. Her knees and palms hit the tiles with a thud—pain shot through her nerves and echoed through her body.

This feels… different, she thought, bringing herself to a kneel. Oh God, the pain won’t go away. It’s just welling up. Is that how it’s supposed to work? Am I really that hurt?

Arufa struggled to rise to her feet, almost caught off guard by the strength of gravity. Her legs were wobbly, atrophied by disuse; she blindly stumbled forward, unable to see much of anything in the dark room.

Oh, I feel like shit. I might actually puke—ugh, here it comes…

She dry-heaved, flecks of spittle landing on the floor in front of her. Gravity beckoned her to return to her knees; she stubbornly refused.

This room is so damn dark, I can’t even see the walls. The only light’s coming from the weird machine I just ripped out of. She took a few slow steps forward with her hands out, ready to catch a wall before her face did.

When she did run into something, she noticed a very faint reflection, at first only of her bright amber eyes. Tracing the edges with her fingers, she could tell it was a door of some sort, embedded with a window in its center. She leaned in close to the glass to get a better look at her face.

…What the hell…? I look… older, like I’m in my mid-twenties. I’ve got a metal ring around my neck. And my skin is so pale… She took a finger and drew it along her cheek. It’s like I’m a corpse. Jeez.

My hair’s so long now. It goes down to my waist… and it’s silver? My hair’s brown, not silver. When did that happen? Has it always been silver, and I’ve just never known? Just how long was I in that simulation?

And that’s not even it. There’s something over my left eye—it’s that sigil from the simulation! Why is that there? Goddamn, I want answers! Am I even Arufa? I mean, I look kind of similar, but… it’s just all messed up.

Arufa was rapt in the impromptu mirror for some time, studying her reflection’s oddities. She noticed the pitch-black backdrop lightening up little by little, but thought nothing of it—not until she was hit in the face with a blinding flashlight.

“Agh!” she shouted in shock, teetering away from the door. It unlatched and opened inwards, and as her pupils contracted to adjust, she heard the hushed voice of a man.

“Shh! Don’t shout like that!” he hissed, looking her up and down with the light. “If you wake anyone else up, we’re both dead!”

She blinked and blocked out the light with her arm, covered in metal plates and wires. The figure before her came into focus—Arufa winced as she realized who had just found her.

“Ghiles?!”

“Woah, yep, that’s my name. Now please stop yelling.” He set his flashlight on the ground and backed up, holding both his hands above his head. “I’m not going to hurt you, Arufa.”

“Sure as hell didn’t seem that way earlier. You pointed a gun at me!”

“Arufa. Arufa, I’m begging you, just be quiet. I’ll answer everything if you just… lower the volume, okay?”

She gritted her teeth and eventually let down her guard. She found herself fidgeting with the wires on her body and playing with the smooth metal plates on her skull and neck. That’s weird. I don’t remember being the fidgety sort.

“…Fine. Agent Ghiles, or whoever you are. Why do you need me to be quiet?” she asked, her voice softer.

“It’s Dr. Ghiles. I’m a scientist, same as Dr. White down the hall. And she’s why we need to be quiet.”

Arufa stared him down. His blue eyes cut through the darkness, darting in every direction. He only ever made eye contact with her when she spoke.

“So what does Dr. White have to do with it?” she questioned.

“As far as she’s concerned, the four of you are still dead asleep. But she’s been a little off her rocker lately, and to be honest with you, I’m not trying to get myself killed.”

“What you’re saying is, if I shout and all that, it wakes up the others?”

“No, not… you know what? We’ve lied to you enough. It would certainly wake them up.”

“Hey, thanks for telling me the truth, doctor. Now give me one good reason I shouldn’t scream at the top of my lungs.”

Ghiles grimaced and adjusted his glasses. “Easily. If you do that, White will come and shoot ‘em all dead. That includes you, and very probably me.”

“…”

“Lucky for you, she assigned me over here. And from what I can tell, I’m a lot more gracious than she is. So—and I guess I’ve already said this before—I’m here to give you a choice.”

A low fog hung on the floor surrounding the flashlight. The white glow filled the room, revealing its walls as rather constrictive. Arufa felt a shiver run down her spine. Claustrophobia…! I don’t have claustrophobia… do I?

Ghiles stepped forward cautiously and kicked the flashlight towards her. It clattered and spun, rotating like a spotlight in the dark, and arrived at her feet. She looked up at him—he maintained eye contact.

“You can choose to get back in that pod and let me rewire you,” he said. “It’d make things a lot easier. I wouldn’t be in trouble with Dr. White, and you’d be back in X2 with your friends. But I know you’re not going to choose that, so here’s what’s going to happen.

“There’s a system of air ducts that connect all of these rooms to each other. They’re real cramped, and having read your profile, you’re not going to like it at all. But if you take this flashlight and start climbing, I’ll go tell Dr. White that you’re still asleep. It’s a win-win.”

Arufa tilted her head, the weight of her new hair uncomfortable. “What do you get out of it?”

“I’ll tell you. When White inevitably finds out that you escaped, I’m not going to get the blame for it.”

She took in a breath of the cold laboratory air and exhaled, feeling it move against the walls of her trachea. It had never felt like that inside the simulation; same as the pain still radiating from her palms and knees.

With trepidation, Arufa knelt down and gently took the steel flashlight into her hand. It was frigid to the touch. “So you’re just gonna let me go?”

“I am. Under the pretense, of course, that I believe you’ll be back in the simulation eventually.”

“We’ll see about that, Dr. Ghiles.”

“I think we will, Miss Arufa. Good luck.”

Ghiles turned around, the blue reflectors on his lab coat shimmering, his coat tails following at a delay. He walked out the door and sunk into the shadows of the laboratory outside. The last she saw of him was the tip of his index finger, closing the door behind him.

This is… SO weird. I look different than I remember, I’m all fidgety all of a sudden—I hate tight spaces now, for some reason?—there’s all this electronic bullshit on me, and Ghiles just told me to… run? Like, genuinely?

The one thing that hasn’t changed is that I still just want answers. I thought breaking out would fix that, but now I’m even more confused. And I definitely can’t ask the scientists who put me here, especially if Dr. White’s as crazy as he said she was.

Arufa slowly turned around to the pod she’d broken out of—-the air vent laid slightly askew above it. A strange feeling circled in her gut as she approached it, noticing it was really quite small.

I don’t have claustrophobia. I’ve never been scared about something like this. So why am I so finicky now?!

With a grunt, she stepped up onto the pod and ripped off the vent cover. The cold metal stung her fingertips in a way she had never felt before—she set it lightly inside the pod, avoiding the sparks.

I don’t know where I’m going, that vent is creeping me the hell out, and honestly, I’m not sure I’d rather be here than back in X2. There was a little comfort in knowing it was all a lie, and I just don’t have that here.

But I know the others are still here. I know, if I navigate these tunnels right, I can wake them up without a sound. And I know there’s a chance we might all make it out alive—I have to hold on to that.

Arufa took another icy breath, steeled herself, and crawled into the vent flashlight-first. She took one last look at the room she’d spent too many years within, one more glance at the wires that had connected her to the false reality of X2.

And then she turned and slipped into the darkness.