Kat stepped outside her mobile home and looked up, smiling as she closed her eyes and felt the warm, nurturing sun on her face. Another perfect day here, another beautiful and wonderful day. Her face twisted into a rueful expression as she sighed, the days were always perfect, sunlight and warm, but not hot temperatures. Rain came, as it needed too, but almost always at night, the darkness and rain giving the earth a drink, but by dawn, the rain clouds clear away and the sun was back with it's life giving warmth.
For more years than her fragile human brain could remember, Kat had lived here, in this perfect, wonderful, magnificent and DULL world. Once, she remembered, she'd had a life…a life in a not perfect, and never understandable world with family and friends and places to be that weren't a creation of some machine's imagination. At some point that had changed, and Kat was not certain when it had happened. Sometime past, she began to realize that her world had become perfect, exact and unchanging. The people who came and went in her life were always polite, friendly and open, her pets never grew sick or died and her world was define by one perfect day after the other. Eventually, Kat realized that nothing changed, least of all her. The transition of days was so mild, that Kat couldn't comprehend when it started. Always Spring, never summer; always Fall, never Winter. Perfect.
And one day, the truth became too hard to ignore. A trip to town to purchase supplies for her home far from civilization and in the line to check out, she reached into her pocket nad drew out the exact amount needed. It made her remember, that happened so often, too often to be coincidence. And so Kat sought answers from the people who lived in this perfect world with her, but she soon discovered that the people around her were nothing more than programs, artificial, intelligent and very real, but not humans, nor anything familiar to her. Some constructs that were intended to make her feel that she was living a normal life, but not allowed to tell her anything she needed to know. In a fit of temper, she'd demanded that the Deity, or whoever was responsible for her plight remove all those beings that weren't real in any sense of the word.…and found herself alone. For a time she lived it, alone, not even bird songs to keep her sane, unable to tell the days apart, unable to keep time straight. Eventually, she begged, tears and recriminations pouring from her in equal measures to give her something to love, to interact with, even if only an artificial being. Her animals were given back to her, creatures to love and be loved by, to care for and be immersed in. Humans too came back, but only in a passing way. A trip to town yielded stores with constructs designed to give her something familiar to look at, but she knew the truth. Not the reasons behind it, but she knew the truth…and it was ugly to see.
Eventually she made peace with her captivity, and eventually began to try and contact her captor. She discovered that if she went outside and asked for something, it was given to her. A special food, an animal, a chance of any sort, even if it was a day of rain or snow instead of perfect weather….all would be given to her. To her own mind, she began to think of the invisible captor as the deity she had worshipped for many years. And she found that like the deity she resembled, she had a warped sense of humor. Gradually, over a period of time that Kat was unable to gauge, she became comfortable. And eventually, her captor became closer to her, giving her actual interaction and answering some questions, while leaving others to weigh on her mind or be forgotten, as the importance dictated.
Sighing, Kat descended her stairs and went toward the horse corrals, intending to feed her horses, but instead found herself staring at a very strange sight. There, in the path to her horses was a man. He lay on his back, eyes closed, in a patch of sunlight and as she watched, he raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose . Frowning, Kat glared up at the perfectly blue sky and murmured,
"You've given me a MAN? Have you lost your mind? Of all the things that might make this world easier, a man was not in my top 10!"
As though he heard her, though Kat was sure she hadn't spoken that loud enough to be overheard, the man sat up suddenly and reached for his waist, frowning as he searched the area and finally rested his eyes on her, glaring. Taken aback, Kat cocked her head and said, loudly enough to carry to him,
"Hello there…are you hurt?"