A Soldier's Duty

Night 2231

The old atrox leans back against the door, and with the toe of his boot slides his weapon further into the dwindling stream of sunlight. The solar powered rifle beeps quietly, blinking a half-charged indicator. On the other side of the door, the soldier can hear the soft whirl and scrape as machines start up their nightly movement through the halls. To the left of the door he scrapes out another mark, 2231. When he first took the job it seemed so simple, he never expected it to last this long.


Day 2232

The first streams of light angling through the window wake him. He rubs sleep out of his eyes, listening for sounds on the other side of the door. Silence. He stands, stretching with a pop of stiff joints before garbing his rifle and carefully opening up the door to peer into the hall. The floors of the empty Omni facility gleam, freshly polished over night while peeling paint continues to flake and crumble of the walls.


Day 2233

He brushes a thumb over the marks on the wall, 2233. Another day, another round. He sits in the silence waiting till his HUD flicks over to 11:30 RK-ST before slowly making his way down the hall. He has to go the long way now, part of the ceiling collapsed making his usual route impassible but that will never stop him. No, he has a duty, he was hired to do one thing and he'll continue on with his task till they tell him otherwise.


Day 2234

The trox squeezes carefully through the doors, eyes scanning the room beyond. At some point in time the door mechanism stopped working properly, now it barely opens enough for his bulk. He walks around the dusty counter and towards the back of the lunch room. Inside the refrigerator he can still see the rectangular shapes, standing undisturbed in neat rows. Mold slowly creeps over the contents, the labels barely visible show Slo---e, Mina--, Da-bl-s, E-od.


Night 2235

He lowers his bulk to the ground again, bracing his back against the door to keep it shut through the night. His duty done for the day, lunch room refrigerator inspected. He can still remember the voices that went with the names on those little boxes. If he ever sees them again, he can tell them their lunches are still in the fridge, undisturbed. It's what they hired him for. He still remembers the little engineer, Eeod, as the nanomage walked him into the lunch room, pointed out the refrigerator and asked "Ok, can you watch those boxes and make sure no one takes a lunch from someone else's box?" Sometimes he imagines hearing voices in the halways, but there is never anyone there. How long has it been since he's seen any of the other RUR staff? They would't have left without telling him would they? No, no one said anything to him. Maybe this is a test, to see if he'll work hard at the one task assigned to him. Tomorrow, he'll go inspect the lunch room refrigerator again.