> day.3
Alex hates the fake sunflower she placed in Carson’s clay pot. It smiles at her, mocking her from the lone white desk in her desolate white room. The cold flourescent lights hum and whine.
She plucks the flower out from its pot and stashes it away in her desk drawer.
She loads photos and paintings into her eyes, sifting through her old art albums, desperate to feel a spark of inspiration. She opens her illustrator app, tries to imagine real sunflowers. Tries to imagine the subtle pastels, the vivid hues, the lively greens and delicate earthy shades of the palace garden. But her thoughts are fogged. Her memories are locked. All that her mind can generate on the canvas is a bouquet of spoiled peppermint and a crop of tired sunflowers.
“Maybe I need a walk,” she sighs to herself.
The halls of the Hudson Bay Complex are a hideously white maze. Garish, noxious white as far as the eye can see. Suffocating white lights. Stifling white uniforms on the few droids and agents that occasionally pass by, nervously fake-smiling at her. Unmarked, unlabeled white doors down every hall, all locked and sealed airtight. Sometimes, an agent will slide a door open with their eyes. Alex tries to steal a peek as the agents slip into the secret recesses of the Complex, but all she sees on the other side is more white light.
“Gross.” She shuffles back to her room and slobs across her white bed with a bag of plain chips.
Her brain gets ultra-fast wifi down here, but so many sites and apps are locked. Even her messaging apps are locked—all external comms have to go through Murphy. She stares up at the white ceiling, eyes scrolling through her games library.
Big Blue Sky? Locked. Civ XI? Locked. Zetta Knight? Locked. Fallout 9? Locked. Gods & Titans? Definitely locked.
Eventually, she settles for a campy old retro game, a scifi VR hack ‘n’ slash. Planet Dracula. Low budget, low resolution. Goofy, flamboyant heroes trapped in an overwrought plot. Cheesy dialogue, pompous voice acting. Very anime. She slices and stabs and lashes at alien vampires until she dozes off.