Plain Mike's Writing Prompt Challenge - "The Forgotten One"

"The Forgotten One"

The alarm clock went off again and it was time to start a new day. The same old routine FG-07, called just Seven by her peers, had been living for the past 23 years of life.

She stretched her back for better posture, knowing her body was going to thank her for it later. Her experience working in the machine had taught her to always maintain a good health for better perfomance. After all, she was one of the thousand and counting cyborgs in charge of providing energy to the Earth.

As all lifeforms came to an end nearly 50 years ago, the survivors were forced to build an underground structure big enough to replicate the old world and protect what was left of the humankind. After years of developement, cyborgs were created, in attempt to extend the lifespan of the remaining people that were barely reaching young adulthood.

Humans on the inside, robots on the outside.

Fast-forward to the present and cyborgs such as Seven soon became a crucial part of the planet since it was all thanks to them that the world was able to function in the first place.

Her job was simple, it only implied standing beside the machine, a gigantic domo containing the new civilization, while remaining plugged to it for the rest of her life. The machine did all the rest.

And she was okay with it, for the most part.

Her parents had been workers as well, so her grandparents before them. The second she was old enough to embrace her identity, she was plugged into the machine and that was all she had known ever since.

She stood straight as her day was just about to begin, her eyes meeting finally the scenary before her but in an instant, regretting it completely. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

The machine was turned off.

No cyborgs working along Seven, no sound, no nothing. She was utterly alone. Her own voice resonated through the monstrous structure as she shouted for help.

Her mind began racing, what the hell was she supposed to do? She did her best to remain calmed. Maybe it was temporary, she said to herself, maybe she hadn’t been forgotten.

Ten hours later and her clock started ringing again, only this time warning her it was time to recharge. If this were a normal day in her life, she would have been off two hours ago but now, she couldn’t afford that.

For as far as she could remember, the machine had always worked properly in an ever ending loop of energy provided by her own kind but now, there was no sign of life whatsoever. She didn’t know what to do, no one had ever taught her how to act in the face of adversity.

What at first seemed to be just a crazy idea, soon became a fact. She needed to get out of there and soon, otherwise she was going to die.

Unplugging.

Her father’s words resonated in her mind as she remembered the time she innocently suggested unplugging the machine in order to live a life on her own. Just quitting the job and never looking back. The amount of anger in his voice was something that still ringed in her ears. A simple no would’ve been enough.

But unplugging seemed the only choice she really had.

The wires started moving not after an hour and half of pulling her body to the opposite direction of the machine, with the little strength she had left. Her back weakened, her insides were hurting, she was shutting down.

Minutes later, it finally happened.

She unplugged herself.

Lights unexpectedly went on, the characteristic sound of a gate opening caught Seven’s attention almost instantly as she recomposed herself. A group of five men wearing white robes walked over to her with odd smiles on each of their faces. Notes were being taken.

“Congratulations, miss. You have passed the test correctly” the man that seemed to be in charge said out of nowhere.

Silence. Words wanted to come out but it was no use, Seven had just spent over 11 hours fearing for her life and it had been all a part of… a test? She needed, no, she deserved a better explanation than that.

The rest of the men walked over to her with tools and wires in order to fix whatever it is that she broke in the process of releasing herself from the machine.

“You have rewired yourself” he smiled through.

“R-rewired? Wh-what? What are you talking about?” she questioned confused, gathering thoughts as fast as she could. “Could you please stop?!” she then yelled at the technicians fixing her back who were not helping at all.

“Miss FG-07, you were part of an experiment. Your life itself, until now, has been a part of an experiment. You’ll see, we needed to be sure you were qualified to live in the machine”.

“What are you talking about? I-I work in the machine, I can't possibly live in...“.

“The actual machine”.

“What have I been doing all this time then?” she asked now angered, she had spend half of her young age, in the peak of her life, confined into a cubicle for absolutely nothing. “You forced me into wasting my life for some stupid experiment?”.

“No one forced you to do anything you did not want to do, miss”.

“Yeah, you did” she threw her arms on the air in pure outrage.

“You could have unplugged yourself a long time ago”. Her jaw slightly dropped in surprise. “You were not, and neither was any of your fellow peers, forced to do anything. You were told at a very young age this is what you were born to do but you could have walked away from it”.

“Yeah, right. That’s suicide and you know it” she scoffed, crossing her arms, not believing a single word this man was saying. “Look at what happened to TS-13, the second she unplugged herself, she fell lifeless in the cold, hard ground”.

The name sounded familiar to the man as he run over his paperwork in silence.

“Ah yes, here it is. TS-13, one of our happiest citizens ever since she joined the machine”.

“What?” she took the papers right out of his hands “Thirteen is alive?”.

“The thing you need to understand, FG-07, the machine is not the enemy. It needs your kind to function at higher performance but it does not need you to live. It keeps you plugged in until your time of death, or until you choose to unplug but you had to do that yourself”.

Seven only then realized she had been lied to all her life. This was not her purpose, life was more than this, as she once suspected it when she was just a kid but was harshly shut down by her own family. She hadn't been created with the mere purpose of serving superior species, as she was once told.

She had a life of her own that deserved to be lived the way she wanted.

The man walked her over another gate, one she hadn't notice its existence until now. As it was opened, a warm breeze soon hit her face, her hair waving carelessly in the air. She took a deep breath, an unexpected smile escaping her lips as a peaceful sensation took over her almost instantly.

A sense of fulfillment, if you will.

“Miss FG-07, welcome to life”.

To enter the contest please check on @mikepm74
Art by @svdsdragunov