Ch 2 Anywhere (7)

These questions chased each other around my head while I tried not to feel trapped. Humans were just not meant for small areas for any length of time. I wasn't claustrophobic I wasn't afraid of the small space, it felt safe, I was just bored.

With a sigh I sat down on the foot locker and leaned back against the bed. I held my side as my breathing slowed again and started up at the ceiling. I wished there was a clock but that might not help much. Will he bring me lunch or just dinner? Wait where do I go?

My nanites were good at waste control, I could hold it for almost three days, but I did have to go as long as I ate. Still had to eat and drink still had the bathroom problem, just not as bad as people before me did. It wasn't great to go more than a day without going but the nineties would reclaim and reuse what they could.

I got up and looked around again. The walls were all metal panels, even the doors, which made them blend almost perfectly. I only know where the main door and the closet are because I had seen them open. Their control panels even blended in. Goliath had said he was second in command here. Could he have a private bath or was that too much? He had said we are on a ship. I wondered what type of ship, I didn't feel any rocking but that didn't mean much.

I studied the wall that hadn't had a door open on it yet. Was there a panel? I wished I had thought of this problem last time Goliath was here. That might be one. I set my hand against what might be a panel and part of the wall slid open.

With a sigh I looked at what I had found. It was another closet just about. There was a toilet and a sink and that was it. You could wash your hands and not stand up from the toilet. Well, at least there was also a source of freshwater. It was also functional for my original problem and helped me make up my mind on another problem I had made for myself.

I washed my hands and face in the sink. Then I let out another sigh and went back out into the room. It could be worse, but that wasn't saying much. I sat back down on the footlocker and leaned back looking at the ceiling. Do I have any reason to want to go back?

That was a dangerous thought, I wanted net time to learn what had happened to my friends. I doubted the terrorists knew, about two specific students out of the thousands that had gone to my school. The net would though. But either way did I want to go back?

I wanted out of this room, but it wasn't urgent just annoying cramped for some who was used to having the run of modern high-rise buildings which had multi floor parks and green spaces planned into them. I didn't even spend that much time plugged into normal VR like my friends because I wasn't fooled by the movements of the avatars, my body wasn't moving. Which is why I preferred aug and did most of my work through my phone and it's head piece.

My phone was probably well dismantled and gone now. It was a net device that didn't like not getting a signal and broadcast its location regularly even more so if not connected. It was an always on device as well that could charge from active nanites or even just movement. That it charged on movement worked well for me. I don't think I had ever seen the battery read below 50% even when I was working with high res high power games.

I frowned at the ceiling as I thought of my games. Poor Eevee without the interface I couldn't feed or brush it. Well, it had Meowth to virtually play with, the data wouldn't be gone just stored until I logged on again. I never did figure out how Gamefreak made such long-lasting fake animals that you just had to play with, guess it helped that they kept up with the platforms people use.

Games were hardly a good reason to want to return though. My friends, maybe, but they didn't need me around. They had their own gilded futures planned out for them, even more so since they were tubers. I had no family to return to. Siblings were rare any more, well ones you knew about. The stored did a DNA check before giving a new parent a list of other half choices. It prevented genetic defects due to inbreeding while still allowing some natural selection.

Before that families had been in decline as people put what they wanted a head of having kids or settling down with someone else. With birth control and feminine products women weren't going to put up with being told to stay home. So even before the artificial womb siblings were becoming rare. Neither of my parents had them. My mother had died with my father in the bombing.

Mother's parents had died in a sky car accident 3 years before the bombing. Which was part of the reason father let me go to see his parents even though I was so young. Time was fleeting and life precious to him. It was hard being raised by my grandparents after the bombing and their strong beliefs in family, with only me still living. Did I want to go back to a world that expected so much of me?

Pulling my legs up I wrapped my arms around my knees. I couldn't cry here, it wasn't that safe, and there was work to do. Anywhere was home and everyone could be family, just solve the problems at hand one at a time. With a steadying breath I looked over at the door as it opened. "Is that dinner or lunch?"