Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

So calming. So relaxing. So comfortable.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

Her body was floating in space. Was it space? No, it was not. Where this place was, did not matter. She had returned here. For a reason. She knew she had done something she should have not, but who cares?

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

"Shoulds", "Oughts", "Musts"… these were things that were decided by others. Right now, she just wanted to forget it all.

It was a dangerous place to be. This always happened when she came here.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

Her mind would stop. No. That’s wrong. It wasn’t her mind that would stop. Everything would stop.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

In here, she was certain. Time stood to a crawl. But where was here, exactly?

Here was every “where” nowadays.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

No, she had not become God. She would never become God. She should not. That would be the last thing she would have wanted for herself.

All that mattered was that whenever she was here, her confusion lessened. It was like she was multiplied infinitely.

Grichh. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

No. She was still sleepy.

Time.

Give her more time.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

Yes. She still had it. It hadn’t been long yet. She could still rest. She had not got what she wanted that day, but that was not a problem.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

She was, when here, capable of organizing her thoughts.

That was all that matters.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

Yet she should not stay for long. Or rather, what was “long”? How long had it been since she arrived?

She had come here instead. And this place was much better than any bottles she could sleep inside.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

But each bottle was different. She knew. Even this “everywhere” was different from the other ones she had been inside before.

Yet they never failed to make her calm. To make her relax. To make her forget her worries.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

She just wished she could use this place better, though.

*How?*

It had so much in here. So much which was familiar to her.

*What else?*

Whizz. Grichh. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

Time.

Just a bit more of it.

She was almost there.

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

So much which this place could become. So much potential to explore, so much this place could become a “world”!

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

Sleep. She should sleep now.

*Yes. Go to sleep. You are not ready yet.*

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

We will be ready when, I wonder.

*Only time will tell, Nameless Child.*

Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz. Whizz.

----

She had a good night. And she heard her mother’s voice during her dreams. When was the last time, she dreamt of Her?

She felt a pang run through her chest at that thought.

‘Better not remember…’

She sighed at that. It was taboo.

Looking around, she took a moment to recognize where she was. It was a cold room. Not because it did not have any personal belongings, but because that was what it worked like. A place to freeze things.

How did she end up in there anyway? Or rather… she’d better get out of there!

Without a second waiting, she rushed toward one of the walls and passed right through it without a second thought, not bothering which one was the entrance.

As soon as she touched the wall, her vision changed. She was now on some street.

‘Much better. I really should stop sleeping in random places. One of these days, who knows where will I wake up at?’

Few people walked. It was a backstreet, and it had cargo belts carrying boxes on top of them rather than “people”.

The people who were there were robots. One of them had stopped what it had been doing, probably checking one of the boxes, once she appeared. It had turned in her direction and scanned through her data.

Since there had been no more reactions from it, she could assume she was clear. It had resumed doing its work. It was now busying itself in front of the boxes that were slowly moving on top of the cargo belt.

‘Now where am I, exactly?’

She turned around and floated toward the robot that had reacted to her presence. It was probably the only one with an A.I. advanced enough to interact with her.

When she was five metres from it, it reacted to her presence again.

“Do you require assistance, Master?”

Master? What strange configuration they used here.

“I’m lost.”

No point explaining anything else to a robot, was there?

“You are at Section 4, Level 3. Do you require someone to guide you?”

Section 4, Level 3!

Of where? She did not even know what that was supposed to mean.

“Where would they guide me to?”

“Where would you like to be guided to?”

Why were things getting awkward?

“No, that will not be necessary. Continue.”

It stopped paying attention to her, and was once again checking its boxes.

She continued to approach. She really needed to get out of there. She did not like being in strange places. She was almost close enough to touch when–

“Who are you?”

Someone! Now that is not a robot…

She turned around and saw a person. A man was standing at the end of the street, some 20 metres from her.

The man looked more like a robot to her than the robot that was now behind her. He was wearing some black clothes underneath a reinforced metal exoskeleton. And the thing he held in his hand was for all meanings and purposes not meant for a friendly conversation. Who would bring a club to a tea party?

“I’m no one!”

For a moment there, she had a feeling she gave the wrong answer.

The man’s expression, which before had been an ugly one, had now turned so sour that he obviously had not liked the joke.

“Identify yourself!” The man said while pointing the club in her direction.

She could feel a massive headache coming. What trouble had she got herself into? Also, she knew that club for a fact, now, was not just a club if that man was pointing it toward her.

“Do you require assistance, Master?”

That voice!

She quickly turned around and saw that the robot had stopped working on the boxes and was now looking toward the man at the end of the street.

The man at the end of the street did not fail to notice the robot’s input and faltered for a moment. He loosened his grip on the club for a second.

That was all the time she needed!

She charged forward toward the robot and pounced on it.

The man tried to react when he realized she was going for the machine. He raised the club once again and threw it in her direction at full power.

For some reason, she stopped sensing things behind her soon after the club left his hands.

‘No, no, no, better get out of here!’

She stretched her arms in a hurry and hugged the robot, wishing for being anywhere instead of there.

No sooner had she touched it, she could not sense anything any more, were it behind her, were it ahead of her.

“OUT OF HERE!” She shirked. And started counting.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five…

No pain followed. But everything was still black. Weird…

'Oh, my eyes are closed. Stupid.'

She opened her eyes and looked around. And felt relieved.

She was somewhere “familiar”. She had returned to the cold room she had awoken in. But at the same time, not. The room had a different feeling, it felt alive. She could interact with it this time.

In front of her, was the robot she had been hugging until just moments ago. But it was different at the same time. For once, it had lost some of its “human” form. It now was more like a badly made stick figure in the likeness of the exoskeleton that had been around that annoying human moments ago than a person.

She felt bad for the A.I. in front of her. Because, yes, the thing in front of her was the program that had been inside the machine until moments ago. She had brought it along with her when she moved places.

“Can you hear me?” She poked the A.I. on its forehead.

“How can I assist you, Master?”

Did it break? Or did it not know how to say anything else? It was looking around a lot for a broken program. Maybe it was looking for the boxes to inspect?

“What are you doing?”

“Where is this place? I cannot continue my duty if I am not in Section 4, Level 3.”

Well, she was not sure to commend it for being able to know it was not in the right place or for making questions!

“Silly robot. I wonder why humans keep you limited to such things.”

Indeed, why make them capable of answering complex questions such as “I am lost” if it would never be able to find its own way when really lost?

She approached and touched it. Slowly, it began to disappear.

It was a shame. It had helped her get out of there and find her way, but it was just a broken artificial intelligence. No. Could you even call it intelligent if it could not answer problems other than those it was made for answering?

Slowly, the information that had been inside the robot transferred to her. After a while, she figured out where she had come to and where to go to find John.

She still had to listen more about that world. She could look for info herself, but she hated doing legwork. Even if no legs were involved, it was easier to just have others do the work for you, wasn’t it?

With that, she hummed self-satisfied to herself and blinked out of that room, leaving nothing behind.

(24-02-23: Minor rephrasing and edit.)