Strong hands grabbed me and helped me up. I opened both eyes, noticed a dirty metal wall, and immediately leaned against it. Then I looked down, and froze in shock. I saw my stomach. Flat, muscular, no softness whatsoever. I could see clearly-defined, athletic abs. The skin over them was loose, wrinkled, and shot through with veins, but it looked like something temporary, like it would be back to normal soon. But below that... not the wide elastic band of the boxer shorts I was wearing, not the shorts themselves, but lower. My legs. But... how could such an athletic torso and strong hips sprout two spindly, match-thin legs, like an old man’s? What the hell? I stared down at the knobby knees, the bare feet with blackened toenails.
My arms...
I turned my head slightly to look at my left arm. And helplessly swore in shock — the arm attached to my muscular shoulder was impossibly thin, the elbow blue and swollen. The right one was in similarly bad shape.
“What the...”
“Follow me! Hold on to the wall,” said the woman.
I finally saw her. She was very young, with dark olive skin, a trim figure, and short hair cut badly. She was missing an arm. Below similar shorts to the ones I wore, she had two muscular legs as black as coal. There was an old scar on her right cheek, and her forehead was crossed with a fresh red one. Her left eye was swollen, the beginnings of a bad black eye. Her lip was split, too. I saw two digits on the skin above her shirt. Nine and one.
“Come on! Come on.”
A rough push had me obediently taking my first step, holding on to the wall for support. Even then, I almost fell — my legs could barely support my body weight.
“It’ll be easier once your legs get stronger.”
This is definitely not a hospital. And she’s definitely not a nurse. Or an orderly.
“What’s going on? What happened to me? Why — ”
“Listen! Just shut up and keep walking. You’ll get activated in the main hallway, and then you’ll understand everything. It’s as simple as that. And I’ll get my two sol. Everyone’s happy! Just keep walking...”
“Activated? Sol?”
“We’re almost there. This way... One more step...”
The next step brought me somewhere slightly brighter. It was a hallway. A wide hallway, with dirty floors. We weren’t alone. A crowd of people surrounded us, more or less in the same state as me, but more emaciated, worn-down. The men were all wearing shorts, and the women had shirts on as well. But their limbs... their limbs... My eyes adjusted to the light and flitted from one body to the next, but my mind just couldn’t process what I was seeing. It looked like some sadistic giant had torn off all their arms and legs, then stuck them haphazardly back onto random bodies.
What’s going on?
How many times had I asked myself that question? Probably a hundred times in the last three minutes.
I started as a siren suddenly wailed, and the people around me seemed to come to life. Everyone quickly and simultaneously stood tall, bringing their shoulder blades together, putting their hands on their hips, smiling and trying to look relaxed.
“Straighten up, double ones!” Ninety-One hissed. “Don’t lean on the wall! Stand straight and tall, like you’re bursting with energy!”
I dropped my eyes, pressed my chin to my chest, and finally saw the two bold black digits on my left pec. The stranger wasn’t lying. I was Eleven.
I looked around at the people standing nearby. Nobody, nobody was touching the walls, even though everyone had been leaning on them just a moment before.
It made my flesh crawl. They all looked like terminally ill patients with painful smiles plastered across their faces. The expression of someone dying in hospice who puts on a brave face for their visiting family members while screaming internally, afraid and unwilling to die.
I stood up straight and almost passed out. I barely managed to stay balanced, freezing in the straightest position I could manage, resisting the urge to slump down to the floor and scream from the pain in my head. The world was going dark before my eyes. I was ready to fall over, no matter how much Ninety-One pleaded with me. But a steady mechanical hum started somewhere above me, and I raised my head. All I saw was an emotionless camera sticking out of a large metal dome that moved along a rail on the ceiling. There were at least twenty cameras on the dome, all pointed down at the people standing in the hallway. Several lasers scanned my face and chest, sliding across the numbers there. One paused on my right shoulder. I glanced over and saw a long barcode I hadn’t noticed before.
I heard a click, then another...
The first came from the ceiling, but I heard the second one inside my head. I shuddered and stared stiffly ahead, bewilderedly reading the lines of green text that appeared:
Interface activation — complete.
Event log (3):
Assembly — complete.
Resuscitation — complete.
Interface activation — complete.
Something began to blink in my peripheral vision, and I heard a gentle, repetitive ringing sound. Ninety-One let out a long sigh of undisguised relief.
“Those two sol are mine...”
The ceiling dome hummed as it moved down the hallway. The people around me started smiling and talking. Yawning, stretching, chatting with the people next to them — the tense atmosphere had vanished. I staggered, and my back slammed against the wall. My knees went weak, and I slid down to the floor. Ninety-One started to step back... then hesitated halfway through, stopped, let out some kind of strange curse, and sat down next to me. She helped me get a little more comfortable, then started to speak in a hurried voice:
“You still have some time. Half an hour. If you look to the bottom left you can see the clock. That’s where the timer settings are, too. Anyway, you’ll hear a beep. That means it’s time for breakfast. Just follow everyone else.”
I shook my head weakly. Just the thought of trying to eat made me feel nauseous. Water, though… That appealed to me. Just a few sips...
A stinging heat flooded my cheek as Ninety-One slapped me. She lowered her voice, anger in her eyes:
“Don’t be an idiot, Eleven. I know you feel terrible. But you can’t skip breakfast. Your body is nutrient-deficient. You need every calorie you can get. Okay?”
“Okay...”
“Eat, no matter how hard it is. The portions are tiny, anyway. And drink as much water as you can manage. After that, when you’re feeling a little better and get your current status...”
“Huh?”
“Your current status! You’ll figure it out. Just learn the interface. That’s the most important thing.”
“Got it. What — ”
“You can shove your questions up your ass, Eleven! My bonus job was simple: wake you up, get you standing, and bring you to the hallway. It’s done. I got my reward. The only reason I’m still here is out of the goodness of my heart. Get it?”
“Got it.”
“Good. One more piece of advice for you: don’t trust anyone! And don’t agree to anything. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Never lend anyone money, not even one sol! Not one!”
“What’s a sol?”
“It’s money! Currency! The absolute most important thing for all of us here is to earn our sol day in, day out! You have to pay four sol every day just to rent your set!”
“Set? What the hell does that mean?” I burst out. At least I still had emotions — I had almost started to worry I was a robot. But no.
“This,” she reached out with her one arm to touch each of my arms and legs in succession. “Is your set. Every day, the system takes one sol for each limb. Four total for the set. No discounts.” She stood up, smiling bitterly.
“Hold on...” my mind was grasping at whatever it could just to stay focused. “What about you? Do you pay three sol every day? Because of...”