Searching
Eddie: "What are you looking for?"
Robin: "Madonna, Blonde, Bowie, Beatles. Music. We need music!"
Eddie: "This. Is. Music!"
*
Nineteen woke up early the next morning. At least, she thought it was morning. She wasn't sure at this point. There were no windows. After another long drink out of the faucet, she was ready to find a way out. But first, food. The water helped give the sensation of being full while she searched. Eventually, she found other rooms. She stepped inside one and was disappointed in learning it just contained a machine, two chairs and a table. Nothing useful.
She hesitated outside the door. Looking in, the scene as it was laid out teased the edges of her memory. Had she been in this room before? Not likely. Drawn back inside, she sat down in the chair, her mind questioning her motive for doing so.
Like clouds parting, she saw clearly, the machine with its dials and buttons in her mind. It had some important function she was sure. The name of the thing was on the tip of her tongue. Nineteen leaned over and touched some of the dials. The machine was unplugged. Curious, she plugged it in and it started with a whirring sound, spitting out reams of paper with squiggly lines.
She ran out of the room more than startled. Frightened. That was the word. She was frightened. Running down the corridor she halted in the junction momentarily confused. All the corridors appeared the same, the fear blotting out the direction to her room. She turned left then right then stopped before a set of double doors. "Wait this is not right," she muttered. "Where are the doors with the numbers?"
Fear twisted in her stomach. Something told her not to go into the room. What could it mean? Why did it matter? It was just another room right? Cautiously, she touched the door, then shrank back as if touching a hot poker. Turning around, she went right, getting quite lost.
It took some time to locate her room. When she did, she sat down on the bed and rested. "I need a map," she said. Some way of knowing where all the rooms were and their purpose. "If I'm to find some answers, I need to know the layout."
She searched the desk drawers and found both paper and crayons. Perfect. Even if the original owners hadn't done so, she decided to color code the corridors and floors. It would save her from getting lost. Plus, it was something to do.
With a box of twenty four crayons, she had plenty of colors to choose from. But first, the map. She started from her room, writing the numbers in her section of the corridor then branching out to include the other numbers.
She couldn't figure out what the numbers were for. Room numbers she supposed so the inhabitants wouldn't get lost either. For what purpose? For kids? The drawings in room nineteen, had two such pictures. Something a kid would draw.
Who would house kids in such an odd place? And why? The place seemed cold and sterile to her. Not for kids at all. When the last room was marked, she assigned the color blue to this corridor.
Red was for the corridor with the machine that spit out paper. Green for the infirmary. Yellow for the testing rooms which were made of larger squared dark gray tiles. One such room had a wheel of metal with light bulbs. She puzzled over the purpose of such
She noted too, that there was another machine with the same kind of cap made out of wires. Nineteen didn't understand the significance. She felt she should but when she probed her mind for the answer, she came up against the same fogged wall.
Further exploration took her to a new room with double doors. She opened them easily, power no longer transmitting to the panel on the side. The panel required some kind of key to get in but without the necessary power to keep it functioning, Nineteen could go inside.
There, a surprise awaited her. The walls were painted with assorted colors in the order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Rainbows. The colors brightened the room, making it cheerful in comparison with the dull white tiles in the corridors.
Toys and games of a sort were scattered about the room. On the right of the double doors, was a bookcase filled with wooden blocks, puzzles and games. On the left, were two benches, white with tan carpeting tacked to it. A table of the same type stood in the corner between the two benches. A lower table with a maze inside of it, covered with glass had been centered in front of the two benches. On the floor next to the maze table was a stack of wooden red blocks.
The painted rainbow colors flowed down from the walls and onto the floor meeting into the shape of a rainbow. On the opposite side of the room, there were two more doors with bookcases on either side of a large mirror. Before the mirror, was a rectangular stand made out of wood and glass. It held pegs in a staggered pattern. Below the pegs were slots into which a flat disc dropped.
To her left were two lighted desks, cups filled with markers, crayons and pencils. Before them was a table set with a chess set. It appeared to be paused in mid game, white rook in the process of capturing the black knight. Next to the table was a book shelf of a sort but filled with boxes of blocks.
Behind the bookshelf was a clear square box that held wooden mazes with silver marbles. Nineteen puzzled over the purpose behind the mazes. There was no opening through which to drop the marbles. Nor was there a way to move them. Not without lifting the wooden mazes themselves. And they were too heavy.
Nineteen gave in trying to figure them out. Instead, she opted to try the peg board game with the flat discs. She felt she knew the name of the game, but it eluded her. The memory teased her mind, she felt she had played this game before. She knew this room then it all faded leaving a blank fog.
She picked up a flat disc and inserted it into the slot at the top. It dropped down in a zig zag pattern finally ending where she least expected. Bored already, she tried building a tower with the red blocks. She stacked them as high as they could go, then they toppled over with a satisfying crash.
The sound echoed in the empty room, reminding her of her solitude. What she really ought to do is to find a way out of this building. Go where the people are. But she held fast in the room, feeling safer here than out there. This room felt familiar, comfortable. She knew nothing of the outside world. The thought of leaving, frightened her.
She moved over to the desks and drew several pictures then she put together a puzzle with only white pieces. Hunger drove her to distraction. She'd been awake for nearly twelve hours. Her survival depended upon food. Thus far, the rooms yielded none.
The lights suddenly switched off causing her to jump out of the chair. Peering cautiously in the dim corridor outside the room of rainbows, she saw nothing that would have caused the reduction in power. Yet, they turned off. Left in the dark, she trembled from head to feet.
Darkness created fear within. She hated the dark. She went back inside the room of rainbows. Without light, she would never find her way back to her room. Stumbled into the blocks, tripping over them. She landed flat on the floor, renewing the pain in her hands and knees. With both hands, she reached out for objects or tables not caring to repeat the experience. Her hand collided with the low wooden maze table. She crawled around it, knowing the benches were nearby.
She climbed onto one and curled up into a tight ball, afraid. She hoped the lights would turn back on soon. Until then, she did not dare move. With the lights out and no sound coming into her ears she was both blind and deaf, a sensation that came too close to the room she woke up in.
Her heartbeat thrummed in her ears. Her head made crackling noises and high pitched whistling sounds. All was not as quiet as she had thought. When she had been occupied with her tasks, she hadn't noticed the sounds her brain made. Now, it was all she heard.
It had the effect of driving her quite mad. She got up and felt her way to the double doors. She couldn't stay still, especially in the dark. Movement was best. She opened the doors and stepped into the corridor. She was determined to go in search of a source of light, even if it meant wandering through the entire complex.
But Nineteen had no idea which way to go. Following her instincts, she made a left turn and walked down the corridor. Another right then left and she found the stairway. It too, was dark. She descended them one flight at a time, trying every door as she went. She lost track of the levels she passed.
To her surprise, the door on the next level opened easily. How was that possible? She had been certain none of the doors would open, just as they did when she ascended up from the sub levels.
Down a short corridor was a room with lights faintly blinking. All the power had been shunted here. She explored the room thoroughly, not caring about the purpose of the machines. What she really wanted was food. Off to the side, next to the door was little room could be termed as an office but really was little more than the size of a broom closet. Filing cabinets stood inside. A single chair and desk were squeezed in the corner. But what Nineteen noticed the most was the mini fridge. Eagerly, she opened it.
A musty smell of molded food rushed into her nose. She took out the offensive items, tossing them onto the floor. In the very back was one pack of juice boxes and a package of saltine crackers.
She drank the juice, apple flavored, and ate ten crackers. The rest, she saved for later. Content for the time being, she searched through the filing cabinets but everything of importance had been cleared out. Disappointed, she went back into the machine room. Across from the tiny office was another closed door she hadn't noticed.
Inside, was a room full of tapes. Some had numbers, others had dates. She searched for her number, nineteen and found ten tapes with the number. She took them all unsure how she would be able to access them.
She set them down on a chair and studied the machines. Some had blank consoles that turned on when she flicked switches. All displayed static. Then they cleared, revealing the empty corridors and the room of rainbows. Cameras, she thought. They recorded everything.
She touched the screen showing the room of rainbows and electricity sparked through her fingers activating the machines. They increased to full power all lights working.
Frightened, she backed away from the machines and they powered down again. Her mind, swift to notice the correlation between her touch and the machines response, tentatively touched the console. Instantly, it responded. She closed her eyes and more power escaped her fingertips. The corridors lit up and stayed lit this time even when she let go.
Nineteen continued to test the range of her powers, blissfully unaware of the signal being sent from the room to another location.
*
Can anyone guess the season the above dialogue is from?
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