Chapter 07

The darkness of restfulness receded and her vision came into focus.

Where was she now? A place unlike the dull, perpetually raining wasteland. But instead, she found herself in a lush field of green. The wind against her skin, devoid of the faint smell of rust, felt nice. Over the hill, and past the golden sandbank, she saw an incomprehensibly large body of water and the faint scent of salt in the air tickled her nostrils. She looked up to the crystal clear blue and took a breath, taking in the serenity of this mysterious world.

“Where is this place?” It didn’t look remotely like anything she’d seen already. This place didn’t even seem real. Well, obviously it wasn’t. Last she remembered, she was being worked on by a technician to correct her factory settings and get her combat-ready.

She looked up to see a holographic window with a message being displayed: “Standby Mode Engaged… Maintenance In Progress.” What followed was a long message about how to break out of this place that it referred to as her neural-field.

She jumped down from the hill, onto the sandy beach. She cautiously stepped towards the water, and allowed it to lap around her ankles. She shuddered at the sudden coldness, but she quickly adapted. She pushed her hair behind her ear as the winds of the sea blew past her.

‘Is this also a memory echo? Or was this something that was already preloaded onto my software?’

The chime of a bell behind her caused her to spin around, and right there, embedded in the sand was an old wooden door that looked out of place. She turned to face it, eyes locked onto the doorknob, yet felt hesitant to open it. Like it was something that she knew would be bad.

Even so, like a siren’s call, the contents behind the door called to her. With shaking hands, she reached out. What would she find behind it? So many possibilities.

Unfortunately, it would have to wait. A window popped up between her and the door. The message read:

“Sparrow Regiment activated, please report to your CO for assignments as soon as possible.”