Chapter 2
When I woke up, everything was fuzzy. My head was swimming, and my vision was blurry. My lungs burned as though I had been holding in breath, and my hands were shaky. Above me was a dull grey ceiling, but I noticed streams of purple cut through the boring colour, and the streams seemed to throb with life. I sat up slowly, shaking my head to try relieve the pressure, and I looked around. Around me, the same boring grey adorned tall walls, but still the purple veins ran through them. At one end was a giant opening, but it wasn't sealed with a window. Instead, the purple veins ended there and projected some sort of shield across the space, and they elicited a low buzz. The room, or rather, bunker, was so familiar, but I couldn't seem to quite put my finger on where I was. Panic started to set in as I realised I had no idea where the hell I was.
A few metres away, I spotted a sleeping form on a bed similar to the one I had woken up on. I ran over and started to shake the figure, desperate for answers. The person was definitely male, and he groaned as he rolled over - grabbing the small pillow and burying his face in it, sleepily asking for five more minutes of sleep. Letting my panic take over, I ripped the pillow away from him and pushed him off the bed onto the hard floor.
"Bitch! What the hell was that for?" he demanded in a creepily familiar voice. The man rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stood up, and I couldn't help but notice how attractive he actually was. He was wearing a tight black T-Shirt with grey jeans, and whilst he wasn't extremely muscly, his arms still displayed toned muscles that rippled when he stretched. He looked up at me with blue eyes, and swept his almost shoulder length honey coloured hair out of his face. I was broken out of my trance when he cleared his throat.
"See something you like, Sweetheart?" he smirked, and I wanted to be mad at him but I couldn't find it in myself to be so - however, I did scowl at his nickname for me.
"Who are you? Where the hell are we?" I asked, remembering my panic from earlier. I just wanted to go home. An introvert like myself wasn't meant for adventures like this.
"Well Princess, my name is Jake for starters," he said, slipping a hand into his pocket. "And I have no clue where the hell we are, but quite frankly I'm intrigued, even though i'm sure I would rather be back home playing xbox. Who may you be?"
"My name is Beth," I answered, the cogs in my mind turning. If he said his name was Jake, his voice was familiar, and he mentioned playing xbox, could he be my best friend? "Is your online name Insomniac by any chance?"
He perked up hearing his gamertag, and he nodded slowly. "I'm sorry but your voice seems familiar, is that you Crystal?"
Relief and excitement flooded through me. It was my best friend! After so long knowing him online, I finally got to meet him! Sure the circumstances weren't ideal, but at least I wasn't stuck in god knows where with some stranger. I ran towards him, and jumped into his arms to hug him close.
"I'm so happy I finally found you," I said into his neck. I felt him chuckle, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. We held each other closely for a moment, then stepped back with an awkward giggle between us.
"Wow, can I just say, you're so much more beautiful than I imagined you to be," he said to me dreamily, then he snapped out of it and began apologising for being so blunt. I felt a blush creep up onto my cheeks, but cleared my throat and looked away hoping he wouldn't see.
"Same goes for you," I replied. "But, we really should figure out where we are, because I don't know about you, but this situation isn't exactly ideal."
He agreed and we started looking around. On one side of the room I noticed the outline of a door that I hadn't seen there before, and so we started to walk towards it. Before we got very far, two beeps came across what seemed to be a comm line, then a silvery female voice followed.
"Human life form: Bethany Classified, and Human life form: Jake Classified, welcome. I am an Artificial Intelligence life form, otherwise known as an A.I. My name is Auntie Dot. The year is 2550, and you are on the planet Reach."