1 Awakening - Iteration 7,324

Sound... Sound hits like a bullet. How quickly one recognizes it. Steady vibrations, soft ones, loud and sudden... It doesn't matter.. The body will tell you 'Move' or 'Get away'...

In his case it was, 'Wake up'... The steady humming of something indiscernible awoke him from the nothingness...

His brain sparked to life as it struggled to comprehend what it was hearing.. There was no language in his head, no context to apply to the sound.. it was pure, unbridled curiosity mixed with something more urgent, more primal... fear

Sight came second, as heavy eyelids opened on a cold and metallic world. They spotted the glow of a light in a wall nearby, mesmerizing in its brilliance.. They quickly farted to and fro, looking for something more significant: the sound.. the steady vibration.. where was it coming from? Was it a danger to him?

After a minute of frantic searching with his animalistic eyes he pushed himself up. He was naked then, but he had no way of knowing that.. he also didn't know that he was at the far end of a hallway... at the beginning...

The rectangular path was narrow, and had a scant few lights on the walls every twenty feet or so... All the while the vibrating sound made the walls and floors tremble slightly.

He stood looking around, turning in circles. He spent quite a long time actually studying his own hands and body, as if it were a foreign thing entirely. Pale skin.. long brown hair.. muscular legs and arms... and five fingers per hand.. it was like moving his hand was the most magical thing in the world...

He began to walk instinctively.. no thoughts crossed his mind, only the cold of the air on his skin... only the curiosity at the sound.. only the fear of the dim path ahead..

'Step... step....' he moved with an animalistic precision. His feet made a soft pattering on the metal floor below. He was endlessly interested in

The mechanics of it all.. the shock of his foot hitting the hard floor.. the goosebumps on his arms from the cold.. the intense heat of the lights on the wall as he ran his hand along the wall...

An untold amount of time passed in this way.. as the hallway seemed to go on forever.. eventually a new feeling arose: hunger... his stomach growled, and he knew what it meant.. he needed sustenance, food.. in layman's terms he needed to put something in his gullet as soon as possible.

The painful growling of his stomach urged him onward quicker. Frantically he pushed on, his pace increasing to a light jog. He wasn't interested in the wall, the sound, or any of the new experiences.. He wanted to eat.. he HAD to eat...

Voraciousness... that is the best way to describe how he felt when he discovered his next sense: smell... it came like a tsunami, assailing his senses and taking full control. For ahead, in the middle of the endless hall was something lying on the ground...

He dashed forward, snatching it up and putting it into his mouth. He chewed quickly, swallowing hard .. he tore at the flesh of whatever cooked meat it was, not caring what it was he was eating, nor why it was there in the first place.

Minutes passed.. and he had consumed everything but the bones. He tossed these to the side and sat down, feeling very much content. He eyed the pale white scraps as his eyelids grew heavy.. Sleep came... and he returned to the same nothingness from which he came...

...

A familiar vibrating sound stirred him from his slumber. Groggily, he rubbed his eyes with greasy hands.. his body was stiff from how he had slept, and he was very cold. He stood up and rubbed his arms with his hands, as if it would help the chill at all...

Stepping over the small bones he continued on. His brain urged him to continue.. to push forward... so he did.

At least he wasn't hungry. But thirst had replaced it. The meal had filled his stomach but left his

Mouth dry.. like sandpaper, if he had known what that was.

His feet began to hurt alongside the thirst after a while. Light after dim light he passed, and all the while the steady vibration in the walls and floor hummed.

Eventually the setting changed. The path gave way to a large circular room. A hanging chandelier illuminated the area, where far below hundreds upon hundreds of objects lay.

In the center of the room was a large fountain that had water flowing down, making a soft splashing sound.

His eyes fell on the shiny, random things all around, before settling on the fountain. Water.. his eyes grew wide and he smacked his lips. His legs were tired and he shuffled across the floor towards it.

'Clink... clank...' he knocked over all sorts of things... a ceramic pot, a lamp, a tall statue of an eagle, not to mention tons of smaller objects that were too hard to step around so he stepped on them...

'Aah!' He yelled out, before falling into a wooden boat. His foot writhed in pain as he looked down, seeing a little bit of red where blood had started to flow.

He had stepped on a sharp glass sculpture of a dinosaur, no bigger than your finger. He winced and sat up. As he did something caught his eye to his right. He turned and saw it... All at once he forgot about his pain, and his thirst, and turned his curiosity towards the object...

'Tick... tick...' it rang rhythmically. A small crystal clock, the diamond hand sparkled in the light as it moved. It stood out like a gem amongst common stone.. the other things around it seemed so insignificant.. He would have never spotted it though if he hadn't fallen. It was firmly nestled between the boat and a dresser.

Wincing he crawled a couple feet and reached his hand out, picking up the small clock. The ticking was so quiet he would have never heard it if he had just been passing by.. but in his hands it rang true.

His mind searched for answers where there were none. It simply marveled at whatever the object was. It was pure beauty... sure, there were other interesting things around but the way the clock was crafted, the material, the luster and fine detail... all of it lifted it above the other things...

As he brought it in closer to take a look a screeching sound interrupted him. He dropped it and clapped his hands to his ears, to no avail. The screeching grew louder, before all at once it stopped.

He looked up and around, and was shocked to see he was no longer in the circular room. He was in a pure white space, with only the faintest hint of walls on either side of him. It was lit up, but there was no source.. the strangest thing was the odd voice ringing in his ears...

Stranger still was that he understood..

"Initializing Iteration 7,324...

Success..."

He felt like a truck had hit him. All at once he forgot everything he had done up to that point, and other more potent memories started to flood his mind..

He dropped to his knees, and felt an intense vertigo as everything that made him 'him' took hold... memories of childhood, of young adult life, of where he was, who he was, why he was there, and the system.... it stood out above all....

He stood up, and took a deep breath. Looking around he was no longer afraid of the pure white light... he knew it for what it was...

Language filled him a moment later, and something else crept into the forefront. He opened his mouth and spoke out loud,

"My... my name... is Gad..."

Just as soon as he spoke the words out loud the world faded once again, and the dreamless sleep returned, pushing him down, down into the comfort of the dark...