I wake up with a sharp pain in my head and a startled yell.
Where am I? My eyes are clouded and sore. Everything is sore. I was … what was I doing? I can’t remember anything. I try to remember. I feel lost, like I’ve been lost for a long time. Alone. Am I alone? My eyes are clear enough to see that I’m in some kind of windowless room with a door. I’m on a bed with leather straps and medical equipment nearby. I am alone.
The medical stuff is on a counter. There’s also some clothes on it, and somethnig on top. I get off the bed and stumble, barely catching myself on the counter. Why am I so sore? Was I asleep? The clothes have a nametag on top. “Sol”. Dad called me Sol, I hated it. Wait, I remember my dad. My name is Solomon, but he called me Sol. I hated it. I toss the nametag and the hospital gown I’m wearing and put on the clothes. The boots feel good, like they’ve already been broken in by me. These are my clothes, I think. Why does it hurt to think?
Suddenly the counter is all messed up, I look around the room and everything’s broken or smashed. Medical equipment is scattered all over the floor and the bed is on it’s side near the door, which has a cracked window. Everything looks old. Wait, no it’s fine. Everything looks normal. I look back at the counter and everything is still in it’s place, except my stupid nametag.
I clutch my head. What is going on? I pat down my clothes and find a red keycard with “Station Four” on it with some circular logo. The door. The door isn’t broken, and there’s a keycard slot beside it. I look through the window to see a bare hallway. I try my keycard, and hear a beep and the door unlocks. As I’m pulling the door, I can hear light footsteps in the distance, and I take my first look outside the door. My body is sore, but my head is pounding. The hallway now looks like it went through a war. The floor is broken and bits of the walls and ceiling are missing. Half the lights are out, and there’s a dead end one way and an intersection the other.
But everything looks normal now. Plain floors and walls like in a hospital. No damage, all the lights are fine and everything looks normal. On the opposite side of the intersection, there’s a dead end, and another door against one of the walls. I see a dark skinned man’s face duck back into the door. I reach out an arm to try to get his attention, but the door closes silently.
Suddenly there’s a voice. My ears feel a sharp pain as if the voice was screaming, but it was a very calm and reassuring woman’s voice. “I’m sorry. All four members of the Station must insert their keycards simultaneously to utilize this elevator.” What? Four members? My card says Station Four on it. Does that mean I’m supposed to … what elevator. I rush to the intersection as the voice stops and see a short brown-skinned woman with dark hair and eyes, wearing the same clothes as me. There’s a nametag slot that I didn’t notice I had too, and hers says “Erin”. She seems to back away from me.
I reach out with my hands open to try to reassure her that I’m no threat, but I don’t know if she is, so I don’t move. Yet.
Berghammer's Forge 