[You have requested assistance from the Helper Screen.]
[Your First Ordeal is commencing.]
[Prepare yourself…]
[You are the fourth prospect to seek assistance.]
[Reward for fourth prospect: Clarified objectives.]
"Damn. Fourth?" Lucas muttered to himself as he read the screen.
Two people had clicked yes in the time between him telling Arlene to do so, and him doing it himself.
'Tch.' he clicked his tongue. 'They sure are quick.'
He looked away from the screen, staring around.
The red had long receded. And all that was left was black.
A pitch dark black.
Then, the black glitched.
A sharp, geometric grid tore through the darkness, pixelating the emptiness into a swarm of tiny squares.
The blocky shapes expanded, building a view of reality. Floors stacked like digital bricks. Walls materialized in blocky chunks. Suddenly, the resolution dragged upwards.
The rough edges dissolved, the pixels shrunk to infinity, and a wave of raw color swept across the room, locking the world into a sharp, breathless reality.
For a moment he forgot to breathe.
Everything seemed too loud, too bright, too textured, all at the same time.
'I don't get it—is this tech or magic?'
He was sitting alone on a wooden bench across from a hospital.
The sign in front of the hospital read 'The Big City Hospital'.
'How redundant.'
The air was chilly, so he placed his hands into the pockets of his jacket.
He sat for twenty minutes, barely moving.
Cars passed along the road. Nurses came and went through the hospital entrance. An ambulance waited beneath the emergency lights, its engine humming quietly.
To anyone watching, he looked like someone waiting for a patient.
Lucas stared at the hospital.
'Why here?'
He knew this hospital.
He looked at the sign once more, as if expecting the words contained within them to shift.
They didn't.
'Is this some sort of jamais vu?'
'This isn't how I remember the name.'
Lucas wondered what this 'Ordeal' was. Had he been transported into the actual city, or was this crafted by the Helper Screen.
Why bring me to this hospital?
He clenched his jaw.
'What day is it?'
Lucas noticed the movements of the ambulance were familiar. He recognised the way it struggled to park after the driver bent it to a curve.
A nurse shouted from the back.
The driver shouted back at her.
He couldn't hear their words. He did not have to.
"Park the fuck properly." The nurse said.
"What's the use? The boy is already dead." The driver fired back.
'Ah'
Lucas felt a weight in his stomach.
"This is my memory?"
He looked towards the signboard.
'The Big City Hospital' was still on display.
'This isn't the name though—it's….'
He paused.
'I can't remember.
Years of living in the slums had erased most of his memories from the city.
Lucas knew he once lived in the city, he remembered a few places at most. Including names of a few streets.
But had only ever been to the hospital once.
'I'm sure as hell, the name is not Big City Hospital. Even this city's name isn't Big City.'
Why would the name be something it wasn't?
Was it because he couldn't recall?
Inside his pockets, he curled and uncurled his fists.
The back door of the ambulance was kicked open, and a burly woman stepped out of it.
She took a deep breath before turning back to the ambulance and pulling out a stretcher with the help of another nurse.
Lying on the stretcher was a burnt child. Loose blankets were draped over his skin.
The two nurses went straight for the hospital's entrance.
The larger nurse screamed obscenities at anyone blocking her path.
The last person to come out from behind the ambulance was a thin, wiry woman.
Her gaze was blank as she shuffled her feet towards the entrance.
But she stood there, refusing to enter.
She was tattered. With soot covering her neatly permed hair and clothes. Her arms were wrapped around her chest.
Then she turned, staring across the street.
Lucas felt her gaze rest on him.
"No…"
He stood up, moving away from the bench.
The bench creaked in response, just as his weight left it.
But something caught Lucas's eye.
Sitting in the same area he did a few seconds ago, was a boy.
The boy had wavy black hair covered with soot.
He smelled like smoke and sweat, and his eyes were blank.
The boy was staring at the woman. No, they were both staring at one another.
"No…"
Lucas whispered.
"This is my memory."
[Reward: Clarified objectives.]
[First Objective: City Hall.]
[Clarification: The Bees are coming.]
The screen materialised in front of him. Lucas spent a few moments looking at the boy, before reading the words on the screen.
Bees are coming?
'That's strange.'
The woman standing in front of the entrance raised her hands forward, beckoning to the boy.
'Come.' She mouthed.
The boy shook his head.
'Come!ʼ
The boy shook his head harder, his hair dancing atop his head.
Ash fell on his face.
The woman made to cross the road.
Lucas knew what would happen next.
The boy, him, stood up from the bench, turned.
And ran away.
He saw the woman still standing at the hospital's entrance. She did not run after the boy. She watched his figure bend into a corner.
Lucas closed his eyes.
"Fuck."
[Objective: City Hall]
He turned away as well.
He remembered the road to city hall, all the city's inhabitants would go there on the first of every month. To pay and renew their residence permit.
It was mandatory. Ensuring that there weren't any moochers leaching of the tax of those who paid.
Lucas had always found it funny.
'Moochers.'
It was still hilarious now. But he wasn't in the mood to laugh.
He willed himself to move. Taking the path he knew was the quickest to city hall.
And since there was no specified time limit, Lucas chose to walk.
That was until the screen flashed again.
[The Bees are coming]
"This again?"
Then he heard it.
A very loud buzzing.