Chapter 22 - Exploration
“I suppose I got a little bored of watching you wander around in circles aimlessly. You kept taking all the wrong turns and whatnot and now you’re lost in the facility’s storage and living sector…” He sighs and continues floating forward across the halls as I follow him, trailing behind slowly as my chest begins to ache again. He takes notice of this, gives me a subtle concerned look, and slows his pace a bit.
He awkwardly looks away for a few minutes, thinking of what to say before speaking up again. “Um… this place has a small room full of books you humans call a ‘library’! You seem like you might be, er, a reader… I think?.” “...Well, if you’re interested, I could guide you to it!” I sigh and nod my head, and he gives me a cheerful smile. Well, this should at least buy me some time to see if I can find anymore information about this place…
I follow him for a few minutes until we reach a room full of dusty bookshelves lined across the walls. The room is relatively small, but many books seem to have found their way here, waiting for ages for someone to open them. I cough amidst the dust-filled air as I try and navigate the various genres available. Desperate to make conversation, he speaks up again. “H- hey! Did you know I actually have all of these books stored within my data? So I can read them whenever!” He pulls up a holographic window, scrolling through hundreds of titles.
“...Truthfully, I’ve actually read through every single book thousands of times. They’re, um, quite insightful! …and I was really bored.” I continue browsing through shelves as I barely follow along with what he’s saying. “Wow, that’s, uh, Impressive? I think?” He smiles and floats along the shelves, observing me silently, ready to help if prompted. “What’re you looking for?” “I’m, uh… looking for…. History? Yeah, history books. Or, er, anything else that catches my eye.” I probably shouldn’t tell him I’m searching for more info on this place. “History, hm? Well, there’s plenty of them in this shelf riiight here!” I nod and look through my options. I suppose I’ll just take a few random ones so he doesn’t get suspicious…
I spend a few more minutes looking around until I have a couple of books in my hand. Ell1s notices I appear to be satisfied, and he speaks up again? “All done? Perfect!” He pulls up a holographic map, seemingly thinking of where else he could show me around. “...You’ve been there… seen that… Oh, right! A few hallways down from the medical room, there’s a room full of plenty of clean clothes, water, soap, basically what you call a “laundry” room! I probably should’ve have mentioned this sooner, but I didn’t want you to walk around too much since your wound is still healing.. “Yeah. Thanks a lot for that, moron.” He sighs annoyedly and carries on, floating down the hallway and gesturing me to follow him.
I spend the next few hours sorting through my things and cleaning off the little clothes I had in my torn, makeshift bag. I haven’t worn clean clothes in so long… At least now that Ell1s has decided to leave me alone for a while again, I can finally look through these files in peace. I walk back into the living sector and sit down on the floor, laying out documents in front of me. Let’s see…