Cannibalism of the Machine
"C'mon now, wake up! A productive worker is a living worker, don't you know?" A voice crackled through the intercom, inside a small brass room. Today, in the voices opinion, was a good day for work. Not for him, but for everyone else. A man, in his late teens, relatively handsome, woke up from a restless sleep on a concrete block. He looked to his left hand. It stung, and in certain positions, a dull ache shot up to his elbow. He frowned, and moved a finger across his lips, they stung too, and in a few seconds of inspection, he found his lips were sewn together, with metal wire.
"Ooh, yes, be sure not to drool while you sleep, those have a tendency to get a bit rusty!"
In the best way of communication he could find, the man used his ever present left arm to flip off the intercom.
"…"
"Rude."
The door was opened, and in there was a few parts, various screws and metal bars and hinges, all placed in a clear box, about the size of one's arm.
"Beautiful! You can walk! That rather off gaze you have on you made me wonder if you could or not. Now, do me a favor and stick your hand in the box, grab a screw for me?"
The man did so reluctantly, and a metal brace shot up, locking the arm in the box. His eyes widened as he registered what happened, and he began to pull as a screw rose up and dug into his flesh, keeping the brace on there. For two hours, machinery found its way into his arm, and the lock was removed. He slowly pulled what was left of his hand out, moving the joints carefully.
His arm was replaced, no flesh remained. Instead, cold mechanics replaced skin, valves and steam replacing nerves. The main oddity, however, was a bright orange light and two small switches, each one activated by just bending his index and ring finger.
One turned on the device, and rather amusingly, the very box that destroyed his arm broke apart, the metal screws tearing off the glass to stick to the light. In an appeal to curiosity, he flipped the second switch, a red light appearing, and the screws repelled, with a loud bang firing off and indenting themselves into the wall.
"The flesh is weak, the spirit is strong, but good steel is better than both combined, my friend!"
Laughter echoed through the microphone, and it went to silence yet again.
It was going to be a long, long day, he could tell.
"Now, now, allow me to tell you something about love. Love, is, in my opinion, a beautiful thing. It is so wonderful, in fact, It hurts to see it. So, I have decided to create a relationship that could never last." At that moment, another walked in. He was in the same state as our own man, except instead of a single limb, two mechanical legs, made of springs and leather, ending on sharp tipped points made themselves apparent.
He walked, actually rather easily for someone of his current state, and smiled.
His lips were far from sealed.
"Hello, love. I'm Jack, good to meet another human in this entire mess. Not sure what happened to my legs here, or your mouth and arm, but we'll be certain to get out of this soon." Jack offered his hand, and he shook it.
Once again, the microphone crackled to life,
"Alright, to explain, love is the name of the game here. But, only you can hear me, thanks to a frequency modulation device that may or may not be hammered into your left temple. Jack here? Completely oblivious, and you can't tell him the various dangers I've set up ahead.
Basically, 32 couples, 64 people each, have been placed in a little game room, a little thing I call the cube.
Sixteen rooms by Sixteen rooms, makes for 256 rooms total, each room has a specific trap, or gimmick, or puzzle that you must deal with. Now, all players have been given a mechanical prosthetic to give them a leg, or in your case, arm up above their competition.
Some of these players, hell, even you, I don't read the psych records, are completely and utterly dangerous megalomaniacs, trust no one.
Not even yourself.
Or him, actually.
Really, I put you and him together because he's too stupid to be with anyone else but a lonely old sap like you.
So, that's the name of the game, don't trip on a landmine, and to win, be the first person to live, or you find me. Deal?"
The microphone died again, and a door, which was previously mistaken to be a wall, opened up, revealing a shiny white room, smelling almost clinical.
Jack almost walked without a care, until he stopped him, fear in his eyes. Jack was almost confused, until another couple walked in, two boys, covered in piercing and dyed hair, one of them kissed the other on the cheek, the other smiled bashfully, walking in with him.
Almost instantly, the trap itself sprang to life.
A panel on the floor slid open, revealing a grid, spikes dotting every intersection. It slammed down on the two, dragging the smaller one into the panel, kicking and screaming, while the taller one was in shock, both legs broken and shattered.
Jack backed up, screaming and crying, but he had no problem, and to him, that was the most unsettling thing about it.
Finally, something came in, it was once a dog, clearly, it's skin barely hanging on to clockwork mechanics. Brass jaws bit down on the taller ones shirt, dragging him out of the room and leaving a blood trail.
Finally, he took a step in.