Into the Eternity Vault Chapter Three

A mysterious man awakens to find himself trapped in a dark room.

Chapter 3

The crying man collapsed to his knees and sobbed into the darkness. There was no thought behind his weeping. No thought besides one, the only one, the only thing that could possibly matter. He didn't care about the woman in the torn jeans standing over him, with her friendly-yet-cautious hand on his shoulder. He hadn't even looked at her yet, although he could feel her eyes scouring him, almost with disgust. He wasn't in the best state, it was true. The big, bushy, un-groomed beard that framed a dirty unwashed face was his most notable feature. That being said, the hollowness in his eyes wasn't to be ignored.

The lady looked around, her sharp eyes squinting through the darkness.

"It hasn't worked," she gasped. Every word that came from her mouth so far sounded like a gasp. "We're still here." 

The man snorted wetly. He didn't care.

"What if we're stuck in here?" She began to pace, even in the small space that they had. "I don't have anyone out there to let us out." She waited for a moment, still pacing and biting her nails. "I don't like this." Another second passed. Then she stamped her foot impatiently. "Say something d****t!"

The man forced his head upwards and cursed at her. Finally looking at her properly as his eyes began to dry somewhat, he saw she had a gun over her shoulder. He cursed her again. Maybe she'd shoot him if he annoyed her enough.

But she just shrugged.

"Better than nothing."

The entire room suddenly lit up with a stunning white glare. Labelled crates of chemicals and fuel cells flashed into visibility, as well as tanks of water. The woman shrieked with terror and brandished a knife from her belt.

And yet they remained the only two occupants of the room.

The young woman wheezed for breath, and sheepishly stowed her weapon away.

The man muttered something.

"What was that?" She asked.

"You seem jumpy," he replied, not looking at her. She shrugged, and continued her snooping.

"What were you doing here anyway?" She asked, waiting a few seconds before, repeating the question with emphasis.

He shrugged.

"Aren't you going to ask what I was doing here?" She continued.

"No."

She scowled, and inspected a nearby crate.

"ASATA-brand hydrogen fuel-cell size E," the woman read out loud. She swivelled her head. "ASATA," she repeated, tasting the word on her tongue, "they owned this place, this, this compound, right?"

"Yeah," the man disinterestedly nodded.

"And we still do," came a voice over the loudspeaker. Whilst the armed woman's voice was rough and suspicious, the new voice was shrill and feminine with a slight Scandinavian accent.

Both the man and the woman looked up and around.

"Who are you?" The woman asked, her eyes shooting from place to place.

"My name is Gallia Zanderson," the voice introduced herself, "please excuse the lasers. We aren't quite familiar with the peculiars of these machines." Her voice had a slightly snotty undertone that would set anyone's teeth on edge. "But we're trying to use only the technology we found in here. We don't want to... Overwhelm you."

"Overwhelm..." The woman began, "so the thingy worked? Oh my god, oh my god, how long have we been in here?" She paced faster, and bit off what little shards of fingernails she had left. "Have we been in here for decades? Oh god," she bumped the man's head with her hand, "what if we've been in here for fifty years? Everyone we know... They'll be dead! All of them!"

The man remained silent.

"Excuse me, Miss." Interjected the voice, "We were quite unaware of your presence within the containment zone. The records showed only one human, an adult male."

"Is this a problem?" The woman asked, finally stopping in her tracks.

"This is even better," said the voice, "now excuse the lasers. We will be scanning the contents of the room for diseases, both genetic and pathogen."

The floor was suddenly a red grid of lines.

"I assure you, this will only take a few seconds. Hold still."

The woman froze, and the man remained motionless. The red beams slowly crept upwards, projecting lines onto every surface. The woman shivered as the lasers passed over her. They went up to the ceiling and disappeared.

"One moment," a pause, "the room is mostly sterile. Male, healthy aside from a high blood alcohol content. Female, you appear to be infected with an inactive form of tuberculosis mycobacterium, as well as minor infections on your skin. We can cure these later. For now, you are both free to move onto the next room."

The armed lady began to shake.

"Tuberculosis," she shivered, "oh god, what if I die, I survived all that s**t, and now I learn I have..." She trailed off. "When do you think we are?"

The man shrugged.

"Gate opening," said the voice, "Please proceed."

The oily door slid upwards, revealing a black nothingness beyond. The lady cautiously stepped into the darkness, her hand slipping over her shoulder to rest on the butt of her gun. Then she turned back to the man.

"Are you coming?"

He grunted, and slowly clambered to his feet. His knees parted to reveal a reasonably fit body. Only his stained uniform and filthy face reduced his appearance. The man staggered forwards, struggling to find his feet.

They stepped into the black together, groping around at the nothingness. Behind them, the door slowly lowered, sealing them out.

Then the darkness slowly became less and less crushing. The room stopped being black, and lit up into a light-grey. Varnished wooden floors, painted concrete walls, a tiled ceiling with a single light bulb. In the middle, two metal chairs and a table sat alone. There were no visible doors. There wasn't even evidence of an opening behind them, not even a crack. By all appearances, they were sealed within a stone prison, plain wall on all sides.

The lady immediately clawed at the wall behind her, making noises like a struggling cat, but the man just stood there, breathing raspy breaths.

"Remain calm. I assure you, you will be released momentarily. This room is merely a space to relax you into our period. For now, please take a seat."

Suspiciously, the woman sat down, perching on the edge of her chair, ready to pounce. The man just slumped down into the back of his seat. Ready for nothing, and caring about as much.

A small hatch opened in the wall, only two inches in size. From this, a tiny shard of shrapnel shot, just small enough to fit through. Instead of smashing to the ground, the tiny thing floated like a bubble, flitting around in a circle before drifting down to eye level with no visible propulsion.

"Hello," said the little scrap of circuitry and metal.

"What are you?" Asked the woman, her pupils whizzing back and forth to follow the tiny thing like an irritating fly.

"I assure you that this is not all of me," the scrap said, cryptically. "Everything will be explained momentarily. But first..." It drifted over to the man, whose unfocused eyes weren't even trying to keep track. "I know who you are," it said and then it shot over to the lady's face, making her go cross-eyed, "but you are undocumented." It drifted around her head like a mosquito. "And the presence of your weapon is worrying. If you wouldn't mind... Could you please explain who you are, and how you came to be within an ASATA storage room."

"Sure," said the woman. It was impossible by this point to tell if she ever said anything without a suspicious tone.

"Name. Date. Reason," insisted the scrap.

"My name is Telisa," the woman started. Her voice was strained, as though she wasn't used to handing out this information.

"Welcome Telisa," said Gallia.

"Yeah," she fidgeted in her chair, "so, uh, the year... It was twenty-four-three-four. I think."

"I see," said the scrap, with a new empathetic edge to its voice, "you were alive during the outbreaks of the early twenty-fifth century. That must have been hard."

"You just call it the outbreaks," Telisa scowled, suddenly stuffing her rough voice with emotion and pain, "I lost so many people, my friends, family, you don't even know, you little pencil sharpener," there were angry tears in her eyes. 

"I apologise," Gallia stopped talking for a moment, and hovered completely motionless in the air. "Please try to understand that you have both been in suspension for many years... Things have changed, Miss Telisa. I really am sorry if I seem insensitive." Gallia floated back from Telisa's face slightly, allowing her to angrily wipe the moisture from her eyes. "Correct me if I'm wrong. Would I be right in assuming that you entered the stasis field as an attempt to escape? To escape a threat, and hope for someone to eventually let you out?"

"Eventually!" Telisa exclaimed angrily, jutting an angry finger out in front of her, "alright, your turn, you little razorblade, how long have we been frozen? Tell me! Now!" She was basically begging, unable to restrain herself any longer, "tell me now!"

"Yes, yes, alright," huffed Gallia, "you clearly do not care for this attempt to ease you into our time. You wish to know how long has passed. Very well. I am sorry to tell you that you have been in suspended animation for over five hundred years."

Telisa was finally shocked into silence, much to the intoxicated man's relief.

"No way," she managed.

"And you," the scrap moved sideways towards the man, bobbing up and down as it spoke, "I'm afraid you've been in suspension for over eight hundred years."

The man nodded, his eyes flickering slightly.

"Your unreactive expression worries me," Said Gallia, concerned.

"You know why I'm here," he spoke, his words slurred from the alcohol, "you know I don't give a bloody damn whether I," he hiccoughed, "whatever happens."

Now Gallia was the silent one.

"We assumed," she whispered.

"You know what it is," said Jaydon, suddenly slamming his fist down into the flimsy table, "however many years ago - eight hundred? Whatever. However many bloody years," and now there were tears pouring from his eyes as if they'd always been there. "It won't change the fact that she just disappeared like that... Just gone. It won't change the fact that Maddy disappeared, that she's dead. That I'll never ever… ever, see her again."