Chapter One : A Rude Awakening
Somewhere in an unknown location at an unknown time...
... *Click!*
It was a simple sound, nothing of note... but for some reason... it mattered a lot...
The sound was followed by cold, a cold that spread through the body like a jolt of electricity. it forced consciousness back to the mind, as limbs began to move and organs began to flow.
Mechanical sounds, gears turning, bolts slotting out of place, and an ever present breeze seeping its way inside. The blood travelled, flooding the brain as with a gasp, the body moved, and a head rose from the cold, a young man, draped in cold and confusion as his eyes rapidly opened and closed, trying to adjust to the shock.
Where was he? What was happening? Why couldn't he remember anything? His head hurt, but why? So many questions, so little time to focus.
... Okay... think... start from the beginning...
He took deep breaths as he tried to clear his mind, hazy from the unknown situation he was in.
Okay... his name... his name was Jake... Jake... Sullivan... He had been an assistant for a... what was it? What had he been a part of?
He shook his head, trying to make sense of all the confusion, of the broken fragments of memory he had. It was all too sudden, he needed to focus on the now. He opened his eyes for real, light pouring in as he hissed, covering his face as he tried to adjust. He was so cold, so damn cold, shivering as the thoughts trailed his mind. The light slowly became less harmful, his eyes clearing as he took in his... very strange surroundings.
He was in a dark room, with walls of rusted metal and dilapidated pillars, as for his cold feeling, well... he was currently sitting in some sort of pod, broken and damaged with age. What had he been doing here?
He tried to think of anything to tie to this, but he just couldn't, drawing up blank after blank. He just had to deal with it for now... somehow...
His hands met the cold metal sides of the pod as he attempted to move out of it, limbs rigid from the strain after an unknown amount of dormancy. It took some time, but he managed to get out of the pod's grasp with a grunt, trying and failing to catch himself against the floor.
"Oof!" He let out, air leaving his lungs from the impact. He'd never felt so weak before, pushing himself up onto his knees. He looked at himself, finding that he wasn't naked... but only really wearing the shortest shorts possible. He wasn't the most agile guy in the world... at least, he assumed so from how he looked, but he was pretty sure that he shouldn't be so thin as to be able to see his own ribcage.
... Talk about depressingly unhealthy. He managed to plant his feet on the ground after some struggle, hearing his bones click and snap back into place, letting out a sigh of relief when the feeling finally came back to him in something that wasn't cold. He reached for his shoulders, rolling them as he heard audible cracks. A relief, but not something that would really help with his current situation.
"... What to do now?..." He muttered, searching for an exit in the room.
His eyes eventually landed on a gap in the room, connecting to one of the broken pillars. Perhaps he should search around before scaling dangerously unmaintained metal structures. Choosing to put his attention on the pod. The pod was anything but ordinary, rusted and damaged from both the musty environment and the encroaching aging that the rest of the room suffered from. He reached for the elevated lid on top, pulling it down with difficulty as it let out metal shrieks.
The lid snapped back into place with a loud slam, giving him a show of what was on top. It was a simple piece of metal, a section of glass in the middle that was slightly cracked. However, what caught his interest was... well, unknown symbols written across the glass, alongside the typical drawing of a heart. He didn't know why it was there, and frankly, he could focus on that later... he had more important business to attend to.
He searched high and low, finding nothing of interest as he was left with only really one choice, scale the pillar. He could only hope it didn't collapse under his weight as he made his way to it. He steeled himself, climbing along the metal as he felt the rust brush against his skin on his way up, grabbing a section of concrete to pull himself up.
He stuck his head into the room above, finding it to be a sort of hallway, collapsed sections of the room blocking one direction. He pulled himself up and into the hallway, turning to the only available direction. Taking one final look at the hole he came from, he began moving down the hall. The smell of decay hung in the air, the walls showing the sad and aged state of the very infrastructure of wherever he was, damages present in almost every direction as he explored the unknown facility.
What was this place? He wondered, reaching a large opening that led into an even larger section, peering out into a large coliseum sized sector, multiple catwalks leading between different rooms hovering in the air. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie...
"... What the fuck?..." He muttered, even more confused than before. He walked out and observed the rest of his surroundings, trying to seek out a way for him to hopefully climb to the top.
He searched around, moving towards the connecting point of a catwalk to climb onto it, avoiding the sharpened and rusted metal to avoid any more discomfort. If the poor state of the hallways were bad, the catwalks were practically on their last place, reeking of abandonment, some missing entirely while others were leaning on lower ones for failing support. He charged forward nonetheless, climbing up the many rusted walkways with great difficulty.
It was a long, painful, and arduous climb, his hands finally meeting the highest gap in the roof that he could find as he pulled himself up, placing himself in a smaller, less widespread room that was less aged, rust covering some of the metal in the room. Yet, it felt almost like he was climbing through an unending set of chambers.
He slumped onto a nearby set of stairs, catching his breath. This place was so goddam rusty, and the smell was overbearing... He couldn't take it anymore, he needed rest.
He leaned back, trying his best to stay awake for just a little longer as the world around him began to fade, eyes slowly shutting from exhaustion... He'd find a way out... hopefully...
And that's a wrap! This is my first time doing this specific type of fic, feel free to lay on the criticism if you have any, I'll be planning out the rest of these chapters now. Adios.