S.P. 0.3

Hi, third part of my prologue!

Once I reached the top, I raced back through the corridors that I knew as well as the back of my hand. It was strange; I could almost have sworn that I would be able to pick out the slightest change in the minutes that I was underground. I had no recollection of ever being here before today, but I could nearly navigate the turns backwards, with my eyes shut without a second thought. I never tried this of course, but I knew I could do it. My memory was that clear, even though I hadn’t been able to concentrate at the time, it was like I had a video tape playing in my head, recording all the time.

What have they done to me?

I came to a cross road, but passes it without a second thought, it meant only one thing to me; I was nearly free. In fact, I was far from free, I had absolutely no idea where I was, or how many men were outside, but I was almost out of the building, which meant that I was one step closer to meeting up with my other selves and uncover our past, if we had one that was. I rounded the final corner, and let out a huge mental sigh of relief when I saw the fire escape.

Bounding through the door like a bull dog hearing dinner. I almost stopped when I felt the cool air on my skin. It was like heaven, the layers of sweat immediately pointless with the rush of winter breeze bombarding me. I drew in a deep breath, intending to feel the rejuvenation of fresh air heal my body. Instead, I gasped as the icy wind burned my throat, its cold touch poison to my epiglottis. This slowed me down, taking precious meters out of my potential distance.

This knowledge made me push my body, urging my legs to suck up all of the power they had, but no acceleration was possible. I had reached my maximum speed, a feat that I had not thought possible since my last moments in the tunnels.

Where to go? Despite what I had thought; that I would be able to guide myself out of the compound with relative ease, I was stuck. No flashes of inspiration came to me, no powerful sense to take a left turn.

I was on my own.

I glanced around, still running perpendicular from the door. To either side, towering buildings elevated from the ground. I passed multiple blocks; each had one door with a big, bold letter above. Rising up the buildings were more letters, like a cataloguing system for… for what? Were we just experiments in the game that these filthy men were playing? Being thrown around, placed in wards like books in the Dewey decimal system? It didn’t seem fair. I was a person; surely the rights of animals better than they were treating us?

As I ran through the bitter air, feeling the sting of the harsh winds that tossed me around, I finally decided to take a look back. No men were following me, even though I was at least a hundred meters from the door. They had given up.

Why, surely they were urgent in the tunnel.

I saw no sign of the chases that had been before me, but I had a harassing thought that something was wrong. There could be a hoard of police around the corner; it wasn’t safe being in the same town as these people. The others and I have to get out of here fast.

Leaving the city would mean escaping the compound.

I sighed in relief as the exit gate came into view. It was an arm, like the ones that come down in front of rail-way tracks. Disregarding the knowledge, as I knew that it would only be a distraction, I enjoyed the feeling as wind passed through my hair. The watery mist that hung in the air was refreshing to my scalp, as I was boiling hot from all of the running I had done. I was only meters away from the mechanical arm when a thought struck me.

What if someone’s in the booth?

Surely I would be caught, cars sent and I captured within seconds. Perhaps that was why I wasn’t being chased; the men in black could leave it for the next man down the line.

How deep does this go? A place this big wouldn’t be able to hide for very long.

I was nearly at the gate now, and getting captured on the run was far better than no attempt at all. I was now going at an incredible pace; I ran up to the mechanical arm and pushed off with my feet, sneaking a quick glance into the booth. The booth was empty. I cleared the barrier by at least two meters vertically, but more than six distance-wise. The feeling of weightlessness was incredible. All the while, as the ground rushed up to greet me, one thought was running through my head.

What am I?

I had no doubt that I wasn’t human, the speed and accuracy had confirmed that a while back, but if I wasn’t a person, what was I?

The flesh on my hands felt real enough, no rubbery skin, or robot body. I had to be human, the emotions were real. Human intelligence couldn’t yet make something as convincing as me. They couldn’t clone, replicate, or artificially conceive. My incredible knowledge told me that. I couldn’t contradict something that felt so sure, so true that it had to be reality.

Then who were the others? We were all the exact same, I had seen it with my eyes, but they couldn’t be clones, it was impossible. Surely they couldn’t know more than me either. We had to meet up. We had to figure this out.

My feet landed perfectly on the ground, without faltering they resumed the high sprint.

I vaguely wondered why I wasn’t breaking into a sweat with all of this intense running; it would be impossible for even a world class athlete to do this without tiring, but I shrugged it off, thanking then for whatever they had done to me.

The sky was getting dark, and that would mean that there were less people around, more chance of them finding me. I set off down the street, still running without tiring, to find a place to hide for the night.

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