Part 4

I opened my eyes to a screen.

Not my phone. Not my laptop.
My headset.

My brain refused to process what it was seeing. The interface hovered inches from my face, familiar and wrong all at once. I felt the tight pull on the back of my head, my hair already pulled into the pony tail I usually wore at work. My eyes jerked wildly, darting across the interface as panic surged up my spine.

“What…?”

My stomach dropped.

I didn’t remember putting it on.

Didn’t remember getting dressed.

Didn’t remember driving.

“H-how?”

My heart rate spiked instantly. The diagnostic program sounding an alarm.

BPM UNSTABLE

NEURAL ACTIVITY ERRATIC.

My world smeared in slow motion as my headset was removed by my supervisor. Cool air hit my eyes. The slick wire still sticking out of my nose, the other burning faintly where it slipped free from my eye.

I couldn’t catch my breath.

My supervisor’s face hovered in front of me,  “Nat! Natalie!” she was looking at me with a worried expression that I barely could process.

I dropped to the floor before realizing my legs had buckled. 

“I’m not… I’m not supposed to be here.” My voice came out thin and broken.

My hands still twitched and moved, phantom gripping the welding gun, cycling motions my body knew too well. I wasn’t holding anything but the rhythm continued anyway. 

My supervisor didn’t know what to do. Her hands reacted and grabbed mine. Snapping me out of the trance phantom movements.

I sucked in air as she finished disconnecting the remaining wire. My pulse pounding so hard I could feel it in my feet, heavy inside my steel toe boots like I was anchored to the floor.

She helped me up and started walking me toward the offices. As we passed the line, I caught a glimpse of Aren at their station. Their headset on, body moving perfectly in time with the conveyor.

I wanted to call out.

But the words didn’t come. 

My mind scrambled backward. Searching for an answer about how I had ended up at work. I thought to last night, but it slipped away. Blurred. Smudged. Like a memory that had been handled too many times by someone else.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The screen on my computer was still open.

D&D notes. Half written encounter ideas. Dice probabilities I hadn’t finished calculating.

An email notification blinked in the bottom corner of my screen.
–
From: yXX Industries

Natalie,
As part of the ongoing optimization program, we request your participation in a brief reaction test at home.
Estimated time: 7 minutes
Compensation will be provided. 

Thank you,
yXX the future of employment™
–
I snorted softly.

Hopefully it’s not some $5 gift card.

And downloaded the file.

The program opened at soon as I clicked the exe. No splash screen. Just a white window and a countdown.

EYE TRACKING TEST

I sat close to the white screen, the light reflecting off of my face. While following the moving dot with my eye. The program used my webcam to track my eye movements. .

FOLLOW THE DOT

Left.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Easy.

In the video feed on the top right corner of the screen, I saw a flicker of movement behind me. As I turned my head, the screen flashed a message

EYE TRACKING LOST

RESTARTING TEST

“Ugh,” I muttered.

The countdown started again. 

Following the dot on screen. 

Left, right, up, down.

A feeling crept slowly, like a pressure at the base of my skull. The unmistakable sense of being watched.

I didn’t turn around. The webcam showed me.

A tall, black figure standing behind me.

Waiting.