Spoiler! :
Chapter 2
Markus woke later, his eyes opening to the same dusty room he fell asleep in earlier. ‘So it wasn’t a dream,’ he thought. Yawning, he sat up and looked down at himself. His body was still unhealthily thin, the results of his disease slowly eating away at his heart. His body had started breaking down everything it could for energy to fight the rot eating at his heart. He had lost more calories and fat then he could put in, and the pain had gotten to the point to where he could barely get out of bed. Now the pain was gone. His chest felt sore and empty, but the pain was gone. The dark purple bruise that had spread itself over his heart was gone as well. In its place was a single scar, about an inch wide, which stretched over his heart. He took a large breath, exhaled, and began laughing as no pain assaulted his brain. He swung his legs over the side of the table, and lowered himself to the ground. He grinned in excitement as he stood up. He stood there for a minute, beaming with happiness, before taking a step. He took another, thrilled with the thought of never having that pain again, and was soon walking around. He walked from that end of the room back over to where the screen was, and looked up. The picture of the grandmother was still displayed on the screen, and her voice rang out,
“Oh my, look at you, walking around! It is such a change from the boy who stumbled out from the cyro-chamber. Now don’t overexert yourself, don’t want you collapsing again.”
Markus grinned again, and then blinked as a sudden wave of exhaustion hit. His body may not have the disease anymore, but he still was weak from the cyro-chamber. He looked around and found a small office chair in front of one of the dead computers. Walking over, he grabbed it, and then wheeled it back to the screen. He sighed as he sank into it, suddenly grateful for the rest. After a minute, he looked over at the screen and said,
“Thank you. I mean, I know you are computer, but still, thank you. You don’t know what you’ve done for me.”
G.R.A.N’s voice replied “Aw, you’re welcome dearie. Though if we are doing this, then I have to thank you as well. ”
Markus blinked, surprised, “What do you mean?”
“Well, the last doctor to sign in put me in a low power state. I was essentially in sleep mode, and would have remained in that till all power died if you hadn’t woke me up. The problem was that instead of letting me shut non-essential services down based on the situation, he did just a general shutdown.”
Markus frowned, “Do you know why?”
“Well, he was dying. There wasn’t anything I could do for him; his body just started shutting down according to the scanners. And since he was the only person to sign in for years, I guess he figured that the best thing he could do was shut everything down with the time he had left. So that if anyone in the cyro-chambers woke, there would be enough power to take care of them.”
“What? Why was he the only one working here? What happened to everyone?”
“I don’t know. I’m not able to access the outdoor security cameras; they’re tied to the main building system. . All I know is that on May 12th, 2096, the hospital staff stopped signing in. Dr. Lawrence had stayed overnight to compile some data, so he wasn’t outside. However, the morning of May 13th, he signed out and left the building and didn’t sign back in for…..twenty years. On October 16th, 2115, he signed back in, looking much older. He had some kind sickness, something I wasn’t familiar with. He tried scanning himself, and when he realized he was close to dying, he made his way to the central system and put everything on sleep and store. Now, when he did that, he started the internal battery system for your chamber, the only one that still was receiving energy from a solar panel. This means that if your chamber only just now ran out of power, then he shut everything down about 15 years ago. That puts today’s date at….October 17th, 2130.”
Markus stared in disbelief. “2130…you mean I’ve been in that thing for over a hundred years?”
G.R.A.N’s tone grew sorrowfully quiet as she replied “Yes, I’m afraid so.”
Markus let out a sob as he buried his head in his hands. He began breathing shakily as he let out a soft cry. The knowledge that everyone he knew had been dead for years. It was too much for him. He sat there, crying for several minutes. After a few minutes of this outburst, he raised his tearstained face, staring at G.R.A.N’s picture. Her voice came on again, a comforting tone in attempt to sooth him. “I’m so sorry Markus.”
He buried his head in his hands again, thinking ‘Everyone. Everyone is gone. I don’t have anybody. Everyone is gone. My dad, my friends, everyone, they’re all gone. What’s the point? I don’t have any reason why I should stay. I should just kill myself. At least then I wouldn’t be alone.’ He sat there for a minute, silent. Eventually he looked up, not at anything, just up. ‘Why would you let this happen? There can’t be any reason for this, can there?’ His face fell, looking at the wall in front of him. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
His thoughts were interrupted by G.R.A.N’s voice filling the room, “Listen, I don’t know what’s going through your head dearie, but please, don’t give up. I need you now as much as you needed me earlier. Without you, there’s no point for me being here. Please, don’t leave me the way everyone else did.”
Markus looked at the old woman on the screen, her blank unchanging face staring back. He had no idea what the A.I. had gone through. He couldn’t imagine being awake and alone for years, not being able to do anything. He sighed, cleared his throat, and nodded hoping the voice would understand.
G.R.A.N’s voice answered “Oh I’m sorry dearie; I shouldn’t have lost control like that. Listen, is there anything you need? I imagine you must be hungry or thirsty? And I can’t imagine you are very warm, sitting on that old relic without a stitch. Here, let me light the way for you”
A bright yellow strip of light appeared, replacing one of the blue ones. It led from the screen to the far end of the room, leading toward the door.
“Just follow the light; it will lead you to the employee lounge. There should be some vending machines, and one of the lockers should have some clothes for you, dearie.”
Markus looked down, embarrassed at the computer’s frankness. Her words made him realize his stomach was growling intensely, and his mouth suddenly felt like desert. The temperature in the room wasn’t all that cold but he felt embarrassed at not wearing anything this entire time. His voice was quiet as he replied,
“I uh…thank you.”
G.R.A.N’s voice innocently replied “Oh, not a problem dearie” He nodded again and stood up, hurrying towards the door.
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