I woke with a beam blasting my eyes full of white, I wished the day hadn’t come already. I turned away from the light to face a blank wall, eyes shut again and buried my head under my only pillow so I could rest as long as I possibly could.


    I wish I could pause time, my rest passes by too fast - I want to rest forever. I curled up in my cot, legs pressed close to my chest underneath my white covers. I stayed there for a while, wanting to forget the daily routine.


    As much as I tried to ignore the approaching footsteps, I couldn’t. A constant pound echoed its way into my ears over and over as heavy feet met hard metal.


    More pounds and dings and other noises I never wished I had to hear rang quickly and closer until finally, it seemed to stop right outside my impenetrable white door. I wish it kept them out rather than me in. With no knocks, the door swung open to reveal the usual company: two white mechanical droids and three sleek black ones decked with fancy military gear.


    They didn’t look like me. They were tall and lifeless, their faces held an electronic screen that would sometimes display text, and their bodies were full of pipes and tubes. I could even see through the gaps in the pipes of their torso - if that is what you would call it for a machine like them.


    I also thought their protection was overkill, and I guess some of them were beginning to think so as well; the ones with their large dark guns that radiated liquid death held them lazily, much more lazily than they had been when they had first met me.


    I do not doubt that back then the operators had told them of me and what I could do, not that I know. They cared a ton for their artificial bodies.


    They do not cuff me and do not restrain me in any way, rather, after opening the door, they wait outside my room; they know I will follow them. How could I not when I know what happens when I don’t?


    Yet, I still dream.


    As I find myself walking with them, two of the military bots towering behind me and one in front, my mind stays behind, picturing that I am still there, alone and in relative peace.


    They brought me to the room that was once full of many robots but now held few. For every second of their testing, I always imagine I am home, not what my home was here, not a blank room, but the glimpses in my memory from years I can barely remember and a family I have long forgotten.


    Most of my memory was like this: scattered, vague, and lost.


    But I won’t speak much of what I’ve undergone, and today they ran the usual things, none of which made me feel more fear than the others; I am used to it at this point, even the needles as they silently entered and left my body.


    I could only hear soft mechanical whirs, which is the only thing that kept me tethered in that lab and not completely hidden in my mind of dreams.


    I am in the black metal chair in the large white room surrounded by the many machines and mechanical arms and electronics, and behind one of the walls, behind a large glass window, there were the droids watching lifelessly. Their empty dark black screens always stared at me in the chair. It used to get on my nerves but not anymore.


    They were always expecting some unusual result to come up on the monitors that they watched, but I always disappointed them – or at least I assume so because there has never been a change in my days. It has been a constant droning for a length of time that I do not know.


    I do not want this to be my life.


    After various other operations, including physicals and ones where I sit and they observe, they led me back to my private solace, and then I fell into thought and sleep.


    They do not let me be entertained, such that I would obtain unnecessary ideas of happiness or escape or passion. I am always left alone with my mind and my mind only - what the robotic fiends have called my greatest asset. Though, of course, the other parts of me I call great as well.


    I have my imagination, and in there I find all I want: my friends, my life, and the small troubles I wish I had. Yet, imagination is imagination, I cannot grasp these figments, but I see them, and maybe then they are as real as you and I.


    I wish I could hold real things.


    And so, after my sleep, I wake again, out of my peace and into the silence of my room, and I lay there for a while. But this time, there are no footsteps.


    <hr>


    Strangely the desire for me to get as much rest as possible was gone. I was nervous. I didn’t know where they were, why they weren’t at my door at all this morning, and when - or if - they were going to come. It was way past the time that I had been conditioned to.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    As I stayed there, still but mind restlessly wondering, I began to feel it - faint trembles from above that had reached my cot... and me. At first, they were dispersed and rare and I thought I was imagining it, then it became more and more frequent.


    It continued until the point where my entire room began to croak, and my white cot screeched as the metal in it scratched the white metal floor. At the rate this was going, it would start to wildly shake. To prepare for what was coming, I propped up and scrambled off my cot, and then stood ready; legs bent and bracing myself for any further ramping up in the tremors. It did.


    It was like the room was being shaken by someone’s hands. Every couple of seconds, my light cot seemed to muster the strength to float off the ground and get time in the air. My legs could barely handle the vibrations on the floor and my entire body, especially my back and legs, were buckling heavily under the stress. I got some hang time as well.


    Before the ground mustered enough vibrations or whatever to send me up again, I carefully moved to press my back up against a wall for support and kept on holding the sturdiest position that I could. I hoped that it would end already, and I was sure I couldn’t handle it for much longer; but I continued, lest I lay on the ground and the cot hit me in its wild movements.


    I wasn’t exactly in peak physical shape and all, but stabilization was taxing, and my breath became staggered. Especially after I was sent up in the air because I would have to bend my knees to fall smoothly.


    After a time that seemed to last way longer than it should have, I could not physically go longer. It was past the point of deciding whether to stand or not; my legs were shaking more than the room and cot, and then my back slid down the wall, tearing a hole in my loose white shirt, and I slumped hard onto the ground.


    The fall wasn’t that bad but stung for a minute or two. In my fear, I do not recall how long I sat there on the ground bumping up and down and warily glaring at the cot and the ground; but then the shaking eased, and everything slowly returned to normal. The one trace of the event was my misplaced cot and the marks on my clothing.


    The silence was louder than the shaking had been, and I was left in an agonizing state of not knowing what was going on.


    I remained sitting, but I felt an energy to explode at any moment, especially in response to any more of that annoying quake. I never took my angry eyes off the door which unfortunately was still in good shape.


    I was sure half the day had passed and by now, I would have gone through a ton of tests. I felt the opposite of relief and was driven with intense worry.


    My bottom was still on the ground when I heard something, a small click coming from my door. Warily, I tip-toed towards the door and slowly reached my hand out to touch it. My fingers felt its hard and rough texture, and then I raised my other hand and pressed it against the door. With both hands, I pushed with all the strength I could muster, and the door groaned almost as loud as my room had been during the shake; I was struck with a realization: the door was moving.


    I pushed with my arms and drove into it with the added power of my legs, and the door began to open albeit slowly. Eventually, it was open just enough for me to slide my body sideways through it.


    However, I have not started to leave yet. I stood still in my room thinking of the many things that could happen: the black robots were merely delayed and coming, or they were waiting for me and expecting this. Maybe this was all just a test.


    My heart was pounding, and my mind was at work as I looked through the gap in the door. I yearned to leave, and I felt a terrible feeling as my mind and heart conflicted. My heart won. I could not forsake the deepest wish I had ever had, for freedom. This was a chance, and I had to take it.


    I turned my body sideways and squeezed through the opening. I popped out smoothly in the hallway I had always gone through, but this time I looked in the opposite direction of the lab. With a mad grin on my face, I sprinted down the hallway, feet stomping on the floor as if I were leaving a mark to say goodbye.


    A great goodbye to this lifeless little place and a warm welcome to whatever was at the end of the long hallway.


    <hr>


    I had been searching for an exit for what seemed like ages. The hallways and corners were like a grand labyrinth and kept turning into one another. I had lost my vigor, and my way an innumerable number of times. My enthusiasm remained, but I questioned whether I would be able to get out.


    The entire place was desensitizing, and it was hard to tell if I had been somewhere before because of the all-white color scheme that ran through. The hallways were even illuminated by soft-white lights evenly dispersed in the ceiling.


    I was this close to escape, yet the gap between freedom and I was still so far. Any plan for mapping the maze out I deemed nearly impossible, so I was just stumbling around, half-heartedly moving but fully hoping for an exit to be around the corner.


    It was in this state, when I had my head down looking at the unchanging floor in hopelessness, that I saw some tiny brown chunks of dried dirt, and then some more, and then even more leading in a trail down a hallway that I hadn’t been in yet (I would have noticed this if I had seen it before).


    My hopeless heart instantly surged into the opposite emotion as I recognized what it meant. I jumped up in excitement and sprinted in corner after corner, following the path. At some times, it was more infrequent than others, but I figured it had to be a bunch of droids, I assume, moving together and leaving this gigantic track.


    Eventually, I reached an end. The dirt trail stopped, and I brought my head up to see the largest two doors I’ve ever seen in my life (it’s also the second pair I’ve ever seen): nearly triple my size and could fit about ten of me side-by-side across.


    I knew it was an exit, but I had no clue as to where it went. That didn’t worry me however, it was undeniably still an escape from the trapped hole I had been in for who knows how long.


    The two doors – gates were above a steep stony staircase, one that I had to climb to reach this exit. I hurried to the base of the stairs and began my steps going up two at a time. My elation seemed to fuel my body limitlessly as I kept leaping up.


    And then, the doors were at the touch of my fingertips; they seemed wider and taller up here and were far sturdier than my cell’s door if that was even possible.


    I was panting but I was not tired. I was the most alive I had ever felt.


    I shakily gathered my hands together, as I did to escape my room, and I pressed against the door. It didn’t budge. I pushed again and again with even more force. Still no answer. My heartbeat, already fast, started to bump through my entire body as I frantically searched my surroundings for anything; my head rapidly moving in all directions.


    That was when I noticed a large lever in a corner on my left, hidden in the shadow of the wall. Letting out a sigh of relief, I hurried towards it, grasped it with both hands, set my legs, and began my pull. It was extremely stiff, and my body bent to support the strength that I was putting into my pull.


    I kept pouring more and more into it until finally, I had put my all. It wasn’t enough. It was almost there, almost. It remained still, the lever’s mechanisms fighting against my body. I let out a cry and willed it to move just the tiny bit that I needed it to in my direction, for the wishes I wanted to achieve. My voice gradually transformed into a sharp piercing scream as I pulled my hardest… and then it clicked as the lever reached its destination.


    I fell backward off my feet, unexpecting the sudden shift in force. I didn’t react to the fall; my eyes were focused on the doors. I could hear the rumbling as large gears moved to operate and do what I hoped they would.


    The gates groaned and began to open slowly – too slowly for my patience. I got up on my feet and stood straight in front of the doors, waiting for it to open again just enough for me to walk through.


    The gates didn’t open outwards or inwards, they slid out of sight and into the walls. As soon as I could go through them, I did. I marched through like I was the guest of a parade and held the broadest smile ever on my face.


    I took one step outside, and then another. The cool wind hit me, and I took a deep breath and spread my arms out to catch all I could.


    My mind was swimming with joy. A new feeling.


    I sighed. I was out, and I was the happiest boy alive.