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<h1> Wake Up! </h1>
<p>
<span class="quote speech">Awh fuck!</span> Jack exclaims in pain as he
wakes up. He has a terrible headache. While moving his hands up to hold
his head, he realizes that his entire body hurts.
<span class="quote speech">Owowowww... Ouch!</span><br />
An automated voice announces: <span class="quote speech">Emergency
defrost complete. Entering low power mode.</span><br />
Jack thinks: <span class="quote non-speech">Get it together, Jack!
You knew this was gonna happen. You have trained for this. Where are the
meds again? ...</span>
</p>
<p>
Waiting for the painkillers to kick in, he stays in his preservation
chamber until he is fully awake. As he stands there, looking out of the
small window in the door, he notices something off. The bunker looks
different from yesterday - not yesterday! That was years ago, probably
decades... Besides the point. It looks different. Not just
<span class="quote non-speech">things have moved around</span> different,
it has the vibe of a full-on lost place. Unexpected but whatever...
</p>
<p>
The pressurized air hisses in the lines as the door of the preservation
chamber swings aside. Jack steps out into the bunker, breathes the musty
air, and looks around. The light shining out of his chamber reveals a
dirty floor. The table and chairs in front of him as well as the kitchen
across the room are covered in dust and all exposed bits of metal have
rust. The red night lights on the ceiling are dimly illuminating the rest
of the bunker. He looks to the left: The wall is lined with other
preservation chambers, all but one of them being powered down.
In the corner is the minicomputer controlling the bunker, a half-height
rack filled to the brim with devices, and next to it a teleprinter, a
computer-controlled typewriter. Along the rear wall are desks holding a
radio and a terminal, a device with a keyboard and a screen, and above
them a phone on the wall – nothing out of the ordinary here.
He looks to the right: More preservation chambers. Instead of a wall,
there's the bunker door – door is a bit of an understatement,
it's a massive gate. A small slither of light passes under it.
<span class="quote speech">These fucking idiots... They didn't
reseal it properly.</span>
</p>
<p>
He walks over to the door's control panel. The paint is flaking off
revealing the rust underneath. Jack attempts to press a couple buttons
but they get stuck and nothing happens. A couple expletives and banging
on the panel later, he turns back to the inside of the bunker looking
for tools, contemplating the tradeoff between waking up a couple years
too soon and getting slowly poisoned by the air, and being locked inside
a bunker due to a bunch of apparent troglodytes unable to close a door
properly... Doesn't matter, too late now.
</p>
<p>
As he passes each of the presevation chambers, he looks into them. Empty,
empty, empty - nothing unexpected here. His own chamber... He presses a
few buttons to fully shut it down. The lamp in the ceiling turns off,
the door closes, the status lights turn off. After passing two other
empty preservaton chambers, he reaches the one that remains active.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Hello Michelle.</span><br />
He checks the status lights of her chamber.<br />
<span class="quote speech">I think I'm gonna leave you in there
until I find a way out of here — should be fine...</span><br />
He continues past the remaining empty chambers to the back of the bunker.
</p>
<p class="comment">
Jack notices the toolbox is missing.
Jack opens the drawers on the desks looking for tools. He also rummages
through the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen area.
After finding some object that he could use as a screwdriver, he returns
to the door, taking off the control panel. He realizes that he has no
idea what he's doing so he attempts (and fails) to get the manual from
the computer.
</p>
<p>
Jack returns to the desk with the terminal. He flips the switch on the
desk lamp. The lamp flickers for a moment and turns off again. He flips
the switch back and leans over the terminal to turn it on –
Bonk! At least this seems to work. While waiting for the picture tube to
warm up, he walks over to the rack and sits down on the floor in front
of it. He inspects the status lights on the various devices, thinking
aloud: <span class="quote speech">CPU is idle, serials are idle,
cryogenics control unit sees one active chamber, primary hard drive is
powered up – all good. Secondary hard drive is powered down,
let's change that...</span> He pushes the power button and hears
the spindle motor kick on. The power button blinks. There is some
intermittent rattling from the drive, probably a shot bearing.
He hears the platters inside accelerate for an unusually long time.
Impatiently sitting there, Jack waits for the drive to be ready.
Clicking from the mechanism unlocking the heads followed by a ringing
scratching noise. <span class="quote speech">Of course.</span> He
quickly presses the power button again. The scratching stops and the
spindle motor turns off, followed by the platters slowly decelerating.
<span class="quote speech">That's gonna be an ugly head crash.
No manuals for me, I guess...</span>
</p>
<p>
He gets up and walks over to the phone. Maybe, the lines to
<dome city> still work. Not exactly excited by the prospect of
calling random people, but not seeing another option, he reaches for
the receiver. It lifts off the wall with a quiet click and Jack begins
to dial. He holds the receiver to his ear - silence.
<span class="quote speech">Welp, that's that.</span> He puts it
back on the wall.
</p>
<p>
In an attempt to find anything useful, he sits down at the terminal and
logs on.
</p>
<pre class="terminal">
Tue, 2106-06-01, 18:01
EARTH-53 Login: jack
Password:
Welcome to INUX!
$ █
</pre>
<p>
<span class="quote speech">So it's been over a hundred years,
hm...</span> He starts going through the files, hoping he misremembered
where the manuals were stored, but to no avail, they are gone.
</p>
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