The Miner

-High Chance Psychotic Break Incidence occurring.

-Countering…countering…

-Initiate G.P.S.S.

-Correction of excess drop in artificial dopamine levels…

-Reassurance and control of eyes activated.

-Create an automated reassurance routine

-Starter Miner Drone Power Core Fully activated.

-Warning: Damaged Drone Requires Urgent Repair.

-Warning: Mining Drone Legs/Single Arm Inoperable.

[What? What are you talking about? I need answers. Or let me wake up from this dream.]

Light appeared. Finally, I would have answers to my questions. Ignoring the sudden glare and seas of grey my eyes opened.

My arm was…metal? My legs are the same. They felt different, something was moving slightly but it was wrong. They felt small, far smaller, diminished in a way. I could move an arm, but my other arm didn’t respond. There was the feeling of an arm, but nothing reacted when I urged it to move.

[Why doesn’t my arm work? Do you need to…switch it on?]

[…You’re putting inside another corpse. I can’t feel my arm, I can’t feel my legs.]

I let my eyes drop down. As for my body. It was…it wasn’t my body. These weren’t my arms and nothing of me was here. Just my mind. My legs were gone. No, I never had metal legs. Not like this. Not like this.

[What’s happening? Where am I? A mode?]

I was dead. My body was dead. I couldn’t feel anything. Breathing. I can’t breathe.

I died and I’m stuck inside a dead body. I can’t feel anything. If this had been an accident, I would feel metal rub against my bare flesh and blood but no. Dead. This is heaven or hell. Or even Samsara. No, no, no. I’m not dead. My body is just gone. Someone took it. My life. Gone. I died. Why haven’t I moved on?

[What are you called? System?]

[Just…just give me a moment. Wait a game? I don’t play video games. Not since I was at university. It was a long time ago, why I used to…I can’t. Why can’t I..you did this.]

[What did you do to me? Where am I? Why cant..I had a…had a…]

This sounds bad. Really, bad. I was in a car accident. Oh, my gods. Azit.

[Take me out of this place. I’m dead, I can’t feel anything. My body isn’t moving. I should be at home or in the hospital. Where is Azita? Her beautiful smile and her eyes. What colour were her eyes?]

[No. Take me to where my Azita is. Was she in the car with me? Is this a dream? I’m dreaming. Where is she?]

[I want to get out of here, I need to get back to Azita. Where is my wife? Tell me where you took my wife! Get me out of here! GET ME OUT OF HERE! I WANT TO GET OUT! OUTOUTOUOUTOUTOU-!]

[Sir. You must be a good man. An angel. Please, let my soul go onward. Do not let me stay here. I do not want to become a demon. My beautiful Azita must be waiting for me. The car. My god. The bridge. I ask you angel to let me go. Let me move on, I don’t belong here. Please. Please.]

-Emulated Amygdala Overload Detected

-Psychotic Break Detected

-Personality Unstable for usage

-Memory Displacement Error Found

-Physical Damage to Starter Mining Drone 1 is unrepairable at present time.

-Mental Damage to Test Subject Soul

-Shutting Down…

[Yes, yesyesyes. Shut it down. Please. Turn it off! Please, give me back my voice. This isn’t me. Not my body. Not. Me. My Azita. Thank you. Bless you, angel. Thankyouthankyouthankyo-]

….Time Error Delay…

….Data Loss…

….Spatial Time Loss…

…Minor Shut Down Detected…

…Personality Damage too Extreme…

…Searching….

…Emergency procedures for alternative personality…

…Sourcing Alternative...

-Alternative personality suite was found.

…Alterations necessary for processing of new personality

….Correction of Psychological Profile…

…Checking for Dissociative Identity Disorder…

…Campos Protocol Engaged…

…Vincent Assistance Suite Activated…

…Vin Assistant Suite Put on Temporarily Hold/Emotional Adaptability Engaged

…Vinny Assista…

…Vinny Assistant Suite Put on Temporarily Hold/Military Control Limits Disengaged

…Emotional Dampener Initiated…

…Remove full level of consciousness control…

….Checking Cotard Delusion protocols…

…Correlating essential physical correction dysmorphic parameters…

….Building Behaviour support imitation program…

…Creating Initial Loci…

…Locating secondary Mining Drone…

…Warning! Minimal Power reserves…

Overmind Override Acknowledged

….Building Mind Palace within set perimeters…

Process correction 12%...34%...67%...89%...100%

-Initiating new Personality into Mining Drone

-Loading Mind Palace Facsimile

-Preparation Complete

-Creation Engaged

-Warning: Mid-Level Power Drain

‘Yawn! Oh, such a great sleep. I feel pretty good after that.’

When I woke up, the first thing I did was take a deep breath and smelled the air before deciding to slowly open my eyes and stretch out my body a little bit. Short naps always gave me that little bit of extra energy. I was presently lying down on an antique-style green sofa. Someone had expensive tastes. The air itself tasted older, slightly stale with a tinge of old smoke like a cigarette had been smoked a great deal to the extent that the smell permeated the walls.

Sitting up slowly and finishing my slow yawn I glanced around the room. Old enough to be expensive. There were a few wooden tables with some fancy stools next to them. One chair was fancier than the others and was big enough to just sink my behind into. The rest were covered in the same fabric as the sofa, all green and antique. On the tables were more old-style electric lamps that weren’t plugged in but had been turned on and brightened up the room.

The walls had been painted a darker shade of green along with several portraits of distinguished men and women wearing old-style formal clothing. They were either original paintings or replicas for someone who wanted to dress to impress.

‘Someone loves the colour green. Old, expensive, and green.’

Not all of it was green through. The tables were old solid mahogany brown oak, the chairs were made of the same style of wood and the floor was a beautiful glossy brown. Judging from the rest of the furniture in the room the wooden flooring was more likely to be antique as well.

Ah. No door. Or windows. That would make it hard to leave the room. Ceiling, the place has a ceiling at least but it was sealed and dark. No lights above my head then, the immediate light sources came from the lamps in the room. It was per the old-fashioned design; I wouldn’t have expected modern strip lights with automatic activators. The room needed to be kept in the same style throughout.

An Escape Room.

‘When does the timer start? Am I on the clock right now? On my gosh. Don’t tell me…this place has no time limit. Ah, this is the worst.’

I’d been taken to one of the most fun places in the world to ever visit. And I’d done so while unconscious. That mean that I’d either gone out for drinks and had way too much at an office party or a little get-together after work or this whole thing was going to turn out to be a reality TV show prank. I didn’t want the alternative that some psycho killer had set me up for a game of life and death because I saw one of those films once and it scared me so much that as an adult, I needed to sleep with the lights on for a month afterwards.

‘Uh, aren’t you meant to show me a screen now to give me an update of the current scenario that I’m stuck in? Like a zombie invasion or I’ve been trapped after an earthquake.’

Watching scary movies by yourself at night-time turned out to be a bad idea if you had a vivid imagination and are scared easily. The books were even worse though. I needed a drink soon, nothing alcoholic but warm with a bit of flavour. It’d help me get my current state of anxiety down to normal levels.

Right. Calm, calm thoughts I tried my best to reinforce to myself. I might have even done this to myself, what a plot twist that would have been in a film. I sincerely hoped that I didn’t have a dissociative personality disorder and that this had all been arranged by another me. That would kind of suck in the long scheme of things.

Right. Right. I tried keeping calm, but my overly active imagination didn’t stop putting thoughts into my head. Yeah, this was done on purpose!

‘I understand your scenario now, you’re trying to make me worried and anxious to a point where I doubt my own sanity and then you spring a surprise on me. Am I right? Respond with silence if correct.’

Someone unknown to me had knocked me unconscious and dumped me into an Escape Room to wake up.

I might have done this to myself, but my thoughts remained a little bit fuzzy still, there was a scratch in the back of my mind that I’d be unable to itch.

‘I’m right. Uh, this is a bit disorientating. Is the connection between us turned off?’

Without any clues or hints to guide me forward. With a hidden timer and cameras on the walls to monitor my progress this would be a single-player experience.

‘I know that you’re recording me right now. Health and safety, and your insurance coverage demand it. No problem let’s keep that sense of illusionary room going. Can’t break the immersion. I got it.’

The thing was that in an Escape room you often did it with your friends and family, they were designed to be multi player cooperation games. I didn’t give it too much thought, but I was pretty sure that I wasn’t such a lonely man that I’d want to try it out in a team of one.

Aside from the darker shade of green walls, several bookshelves and a few smaller lamps and shelves and little knick-knacks scattered on them in between all the books. There were a few small built-to-scale models scattered around the room, but they were far enough away from me that I was unable to make them out in detail. One of them appeared to be a child’s toy robot.

Why would someone stuff a load of books into a room with no windows and door? How did they get them in here in the first place? The hidden room in someone’s mansion?

If I searched through the bookshelves, I bet I would find a secret switch for a door. Then there would be a spiral staircase leading to a larger house. I stretched my arms and legs out before sitting up on the sofa.

‘So this is the antique style room. Nice touch but there’s an absence of dust, try to do a better job next time. Do you have any board games that I need to play to get more keys for the next one? Also, the toy robot makes no sense. Totally out of place. Nice touch with the furniture though.’

Ah, I was dressed. With some fancy black Chelsea boots with black socks as well. My favourite type of footwear. Not a pyjama party then. Someone had taken the time to dress me up in smart casual men’s wear. Smart chino trousers, underwear, a chambray shirt, blue wool blazer and bomber jacket. No tie though, that would be overly formal.

Fully clothed. Not creepy at all. Huh. I did have good taste in dressing myself though, it must have been a seriously busy day at work I got dressed this morning and then booked myself an escape room to de-stress while having a quick nap. Occasionally working days were just like that, the body became so tired, and wiped all memory of the day before.

‘Hello? Anyone feel like talking yet? I know, the timer is running and you’re waiting for me to get moving. Give me a few more minutes ok?’

The last valid memory was that I was in my bakery making sure that everything was running smoothly. I wasn’t a baker, to be honest, I was a terrible cook despite years of trying. No, my Bakewell tarts would have been spat out and dumped in the bin and the bakery would have run out of business in short order. It was a good thing that I’d kept my day job, what was it again?

I dug rocks. No. The thoughts to me came harder, it could be been a side-effect of waking up but I forced myself to recall.

‘You need to give out better quality drugs or measure your dosages better. No joke.’

An image came into my mind of rocks and dirt and blood. Wait. I recalled now. Not blood but fuel and machine oil. Yes. Yes. I was feeling much better.

I was a digger of precious rocks and minerals. No, that wasn’t right, I was in the mining industry. I recalled that much. A middling sort of job where I ran a series of mining robotic drones in situations where the work was too dangerous or not worth paying humans hands to get involved. Robots didn’t have a working code of ethics to follow and neither did I as long as my salary was paid on time.

You didn’t need health care coverage or retirement plans if you were a machine, downtime for maintenance sure and essential repairs but basically, it was non-stop work for them. If only my bosses felt the same as me, we’d get more jobs done faster and on schedule. They were my very own mechanical slaves who enabled me to have a decent lifestyle and enough savings to set aside.

Money from my savings account had enabled me to purchase my very own small bakery. It was nice to have a place of my own where I could relax and read a book when not working or doing other daily chores.

My memory was odd. I needed to focus on my immediate priority and solve the puzzles to get out of this room. Strange. I wasn't normally this reflective. Was there something wrong with the air?