A mannequin woke up in stunned silence, on the floor. The already stiff body stilled. Its eyes wide open, not daring to look around in the darkness it must have already been accustomed to. Yet somewhere in the recess of the consciousness in it knows, there is something wrong that felt right at the moment.

It knows that it could finally move.

I'm a mannequin, but I could finally move, It told itself. Although, it does not know how that is happening.

The dummy still laid frozen, waiting and thinking, maybe it was a dream and it would wake up to the sound of store employee's break time chatter. It would listen in as the manager tries to motivate the teen part-timers with awkward slang that kids uses these days. The soul inside it would cringe herself, if she could.

Three hours passed as she drifted off into the dark recluse of her own mind, still unmoving. Only then, she had realized that her ability to move is, in fact, a reality. And so, Chang QinFei, the mannequin sat up for the very first time in a long time.

...

How long has it been since her death?

Her death! Ai ya! She was sure she had died! Why does her body still ...around and alive?

That's right! How is it still around —and alive— when the soul is ...here?

She needed to know. It was her body after all, and it is surely in her rights to find out. And so, the mannequin rise onto its feet. Or so it attempted to.

Chang QinFei soon find out that she have yet to learn how to maneuver in this vessel, while swaying wildly trying to balance herself on its knees. She pushed too hard against the floor and fell backwards because she could not feel how much pressure is used and how much is too much. There wasn't much feeling on the surface of the humanoid body it was just a simple sensation of coldness wherever that patch of surface touches the floor. So she decide to just get used to it first and figure out how much of a strength to use.

Easier said than done. Her new arms were too flexible in places it shouldn't be—or rather, in places a normal human's body shouldn't be—and it was too stiff in places it shouldn't be, especially the palms and fingers. She lamented at the inability to straighten these elegantly curled fingers. This also meant that she could not grip or hold onto objects. Ai! This is an abuse! However, such is the present, therefore Chang QinFei would have to deal with it one way or another to take the next step. And so, the mannequin began to find its own balance on the knees.

Now that that is done, next step is to get onto the two feet.

Searching subconsciously for a leverage, the mannequin began to swivel its head around. To its shock, its own head turned too far and now it has the full view of smooth curved rigid back. The dummy almost fell again, but amazingly, due to it's natural stiffness, the body wobbled back to balance. Chang QinFei calmed herself but the strange imagery, of what she currently look like, scared her some more. If she was in her previous body, she would feel goosebumps prickling. Since she was aware of the natural responses, that she was used to, not being triggered, it gave her the faux sensation of nausea.

Of course, mannequins do not have inner organs. So, there was nothing to support the nausea. Which results in faster recovery of her own sane state of mind. She finally truly felt calm, and began to try test swivel her new head slowly. It felt cooler this time round as she scanned the room to see the placement of all the objects and began to formulate a plan in her mind. QinFei thought she would need something like a cane to temporarily provide stability as she try to get used to this body.

She did spotted a few good qualified such  objects, and encouraged herself to get on its feet. And so, the mannequin slowly put its feet under its knees and rise.

The dummy was swaying dangerously, due to the inflexibility of the feet, and the already bent left shin. Chang QinFei was bitterly considering herself disabled, for the way it is, both in this vessel as well as her real, original body. At lest, as far as she could tell from the cover of the magazine she had glimpsed at. Her mind began to wonder what would her 'fiance' think of her current appearance, which lead another train of thoughts. What does the mannequin look like anyways?

She had caught a glance of herself on mirror before, when someone re-positioned her, but it was a very brief glance. She could tell the coloring is definitely white as a wall, and ...bald, like most mannequin should obviously be. Perhaps the perfection of a average mannequin may over-shine the fact that it is bald and stiff, and plastic, and ... is she immortal now?! Because plastic don't exactly 'die', right?

Her excitement got better of her that she fell onto her back once again.

This time, with much practice, QinFei finally got the hang of slowly rocking herself, borrowing the created momentum, into various positions leading her to stand on its feet. Though, it wasn't fast as she'd like it to be.

***

It has been five weeks, and Chang QinFei is going crazy within the four walls. She cannot leave the room!

Her fingers, they are too smooth, they could not properly grip onto the spherical doorknob and twist it open! Ai ya! She may have an eternity, but she is to spend it here until someone rescues her.

Sprawled on it's back, the mannequin's limbs spread like a starfish in the middle of the room, singing a meaningless, guttural melody. It has been too long since anyone had come into this room. It felt so surreal, and there was no explanation left in any reasonable mind for this predicament except that this whole country has been abandoned! Ai! What is happening out there?

Chang QinFei was dying of burning curiosity, and cold abandonment. She cannot accept this reality. Someone, please, come here! QinFei will do anything for freedom! Freedom, ah! She have just gained mobility but lost the freedom of wandering! This is too lamentable la!

Chang QinFei had waited in this manner for past three days, after a month of testing the limits of her new vessels as much as she could with this boredom.

She had also discovered that she could speak. QinFei have no idea how or what was the mechanics of it. And so, the mannequin sang as much as it wanted.

Weeks prior, the dummy also found out that its strength lacking, it couldn't break the door when she tried to ram into it. Its own right shoulder received an ugly flat dent. It doesn't feel any pain, but it felt the discomfort. The dent's presence being more of an annoying reminder, the kind that did not fade one bit.

Additionally, the dummy's range of hearing is quite exceptional. QinFei have been hearing scurrying mice outside these doors and occasional meows of cats. Once, she called out in strange throaty mewls and heard fleeing feet. The dummy had inadvertently chased away her only anonymous companions. Apart from the calls of rodents, it could also hear distant loud bangs on multiple occasions and constant subtle buzzing of electricity. Chang QinFei was unsure of how this mechanic of hearing works as a mannequin.

The most mysterious question of all, is that, how in the world was a Chang QinFei able to move and manipulate this plastic vessel? Is this the so-called ghost possession? Or somehow, she is now an A.I.¹Artificial Intelligence with humanoid mind algorithm implanted in the mannequin itself? Did someone stole the original Chang QinFei's brain activity, put her consciousness here, and hijacked her actual body with someone else malicious?

That must be it!

QinFei was about to raise the dummy's hands to cover her face to mock-cry, and stopped midway when she detected a torrent of footsteps.

Wu wu²sound of crying... She is about to be saved!

The mannequin quickly rock itself up and tentatively shout, "Hello?!"

A pause in the footsteps. And then, "Good evening, this is a peaceful reach out. Please do not attack the incoming troops. We are here to recall all existing lifeforms without ill intentions. Asking a question: Will you co-operate?"

The waiting silence was deafening, and QinFei's mind blanked. the mannequin blinked and leaned onto a broken counter. She clearly didn't expect such response.

The silence still continued until QinFei finally replied, "huh?"

"Repeating statements and a question: Good evening, this is a peaceful reach out. Please do not attack the incoming troops. We are here to recall all existing lifeforms without ill intentions. Will you co-operate?"

Chang QingFei paused again, unsure if this was some sort of prank or sci-fi hallucination she might have had. Eventually the dummy called out an agreement, with no other viable option left.

"Stating an info: Please take a step back, if you are positioned within half a meter radius of the entrance. We will be reaching you shortly."

Since the dummy was already away from the door, Chang QinFei remained seated as she wondered if she had transmigrated into some sort of parallel tech-world, and thought it was possible as she thought back on the experience of how current development came to be. And so, the mannequin waited for help to come.

Whirr. Thud. Whirrr, whirr. Click. And the doorknob turns.

Were those robots resorting to lock-picking to open the door? The dummy looked on with fascinated laughter, and eagerness to meet her saviors, only to find out it was a single machine of some sort. It has got three pairs of insect-like appendages that looked like they function as legs, like a spider, extending from a streamlined fat ovoid shaped smooth metal housing. On the middle of that shiny metal housing, there was a hole with raised housing, a size of an tennis ball, with moving shutters that a tendril of spiral-like tentacles had retreated into. Hah.

Chang QinFei have never seen this type of robots in her life. Did the A.I waged a war on humanity and won, all the while she was indisposed, and decide to mobilized a hoard of secret robots? The mannequin started hobbling towards the robot with curious mind, but it might as well looked like an attack that the egg-shaped robot shot out something from the 'nuzzle' that had been gaping the whole time. The lame dummy fell back due to the force and heard a buzz of electric current.

Did they just tazed her? She was innocent! This is discrimination, ah!

The defeated dummy was about to cry in grievance when another mechanical figure dashed into the room, from behind the egg-spider bot, and waved something that looked like an electronic entry card over her. That was the last thing QinFei see as she lost consciousness.