Chapter 18 - Discovery

I step out into the halls, taking advantage of the newfound peace and quiet. My footsteps echo across the long hallways, the walls made of thick metal and lined with doors. The only thing I can hear is faint mechanical humming in the distance and my own quiet heartbeat. It’s strangely peaceful.

Exploring the vicinity, I peek into different rooms, most of which are other vacant living spaces. This place is huge… judging by the amount of supplies and equipment stocked up, it must’ve been meant to sustain hundreds of people for years to come. I guess I can see why you’d need some sort of AI to assist them, knowing this whole facility is practically a maze you could get lost in for hours.

After walking for a few minutes, I find a large room full of file cabinets and a meeting table. I immediately cough and sputter, the amount of dust filling my lungs unbearable. This room hasn’t been touched in so long… I hope all of them aren’t like this. Papers are scattered across the floor, most of them being documents or some sort of data. There’s a whiteboard in the front with faded marks across it, and a few empty shelves in the back.

Curious, I dig through a few file cabinets, finding blueprints of the facility, construction plans, materials, and more. Nothing out of the ordinary, just some things to keep in mind. I place a select few of them in a pile to read later once I’m done exploring. I’m sure this could help me find a way out of here, but none of them mention that hologram, though…

Exhausted and about to give up, I rummage through one last file cabinet on the floor, and that’s when I find it. A file full of documents that list details on the facility’s security system and the purpose of the AI. I immediately skim through what’s inside, hoping He won’t suddenly appear and find me snooping around for any info I can get.

The documents within the file are full of brief information about the creation of Ell1s – the basic data he was trained off of, his purpose, capabilities, etc. What catches my eye especially is how his coding is strictly wired to not display any emotion, to act only as an assistant and nothing more. A tool, nothing more but lines of code. Drastic security measures were only to be used in case of imminent danger to any humans occupying the facility, to ensure safety.

At least that’s what I could make out. Most of it is full of big professional words I don’t entirely understand. I close the file and place it into the pile of documents I’ve created, saving it for the future. It’s strange, though… everything listed in that document is almost completely unlike him. What changed..?

Ell1s still hasn’t returned, so I place the files I’ve collected in my room and venture off into other parts of the facility. There’s no map, so I aimlessly explore the winding hallways of this place that mostly lead to more vacant rooms or dusty machinery. Nothing too interesting, really. Just the same old metal hallways and the sound of my footsteps echoing across the walls, the noise reverberating until it slowly fades away. There’s gotta be at least something of interest here, besides the files…

Looking around, I realize I’ve completely lost track of where I was going. There’s no map, either. I try to sidetrack my previous steps but end up in a completely different one I haven’t been in yet. I grumble in frustration, hesitant to ask the AI for help. Nothing in this hallway piques my interest either, except a strange metal door at the end of it, slightly ajar. A faint green glow emits from the opening.

I peek inside, expecting to find Ell1s, only to find a small, messy room scattered with papers, a familiar green glow emitted from multiple monitors, screens littered with binary code. A desk surrounds them, also cluttered with papers. A few of the screens also display camera footage of the facility’s entrance. I assume he was here watching, waiting, desperately for a human to stroll in. I suppose that would explain his sudden, ecstatic appearance from when I first entered. It’s all strangely a blur now…

I skim through the papers, but they’re also in strange, obfuscated lines of code. Unfortunately I’m not a programmer, so I toss them back aside. There doesn’t seem to be anything else of note in here. It is strange, though… where even is he?

“Yknow, when I said you could explore the place, I didn’t exactly mean snoop around my own belongings.” He suddenly speaks up behind me, leaning against the doorway, and I jump in surprise as I quickly turn to look at him. He taps his chin, thinking. “Hmmmm, I guess I can’t blame you for being curious. Interesting place, is it not? Maybe you wanted to know more about me? Am I really that interesting?” He obnoxiously beams with pride.

“What? Hell no. When did you even get here?” “Well, I noticed you got lost and I decided to follow you. I was planning to help you out, maybe direct you to a few more interesting locations, but it was quite amusing watching you wander in circles.” He smiles innocently, adjusting his tie and gesturing to me to leave the room.

We both stand idly in the hallway for a moment until I decide to speak up.

“So. How’s your ‘magically fix everything’ plan going.”

“Ah… well… I have a few ideas in mind! Here, why don’t you follow me? There’s a few interesting rooms here that you easily missed during your little solo adventure.”

“Sure………..”