Chapter VIII Dark. Almost, at least. There was a green light above him. Without thinking about it at all, he -- at least he assumed it was "he" -- raised his hand to the light and pressed it in. A voice came from the darkness. "Processing." It was female, seductive but definitely a computer. Then his brain started working. Where am I? Who am I? Why am I here? The voice came again. "Complete." Above him, a blinding light appeared. He closed his eyes at the brightness, yet it was still not enough to keep out the pain. His eyes began to adjust slowly. Eventually, he risked opening them to the light. He saw a ceiling. White paint, a few lights, interesting pattern, no tiles. Pretty standard... Standard? For what? The questions he had previously asked himself came back to him. Step one: where am I? He turned his head to the side. It looked like he was in a small room, slightly bigger than his body, made of some gray metal that looked, and felt, pretty cold. There was an opening about a meter by a meter above his head and chest. A casket. Almost a coffin. Next question: who am I? He looked at himself. He was naked (and definitely male, thank you very much), pale skinned, age in his mid-twenties. Interestingly, he had no pubic hair -- and, on further examination, no hair at all. He looked relatively muscular, but pretty thin. Obviously, he couldn't see his face. That doesn't explain much of anything, does it? Ah, well, it's better than nothing. Final question: Why am I here? Answer: I haven't a fucking clue. I'll ignore it for now. Let's go back to this concept of where I am, shall I? He sat up. It was more effort than he expected; his joints were aching, from...disuse? Possibly. After a minute of struggling, though, he was up, and again he looked around. He was definitely sitting in a casket, raised about a meter above the ground. The casket was in the middle of a meticulously clean room, tables in various logical places around the room, shelves and such on all walls, a standard door on the wall furthest away from him. Boring, really. A laboratory? Probably. Most important, though, was that there was another casket about three meters away from him, and this one was closed. He jumped out of his casket, again feeling his sore joints ache. There was no reason to stay in there, and now he had this other casket to look at, and it might have something (someone?) inside. Best to plan for such even...uh, to see what's going on. The new casket looked just like the one he'd woken up in. It was, again, a dull metal gray, two and a half meters by a little more than one meter, about half a meter tall, a meter above the ground, looking like...well, a casket raised a little above the ground. There was one difference, though: in the place where there was a hole on his casket, on this there was a computer panel. Computer? He didn't like computers. Why, back when he was a kid... The thought stopped suddenly. What the hell? The whole thing almost made him stop. It was relatively disturbing. Still, though, he almost felt compelled to go ahead and see what he could do with the computer. The computer panel on the lid of the casket was...well, a voice activated computer. No screen. Strange. There were some buttons, along with the microphone and speakers, and that was it. The buttons were color coded. There were no labels. Damn. He'd have to try pressing random buttons. Well, time to start. Red. Blue. Green... -- Dark. Where am I? He -- at least he assumed it was "he" -- had just opened his eyes, to the sight of nothing but endless black. Turning his head, the darkness continued. That was one question solved. He was somewhere that was very dark. Who am I? Based on his previous assumption, he was male. That was, unfortunately, about all he knew on the issue. He didn't remember _anything_ at all; his memory was darker than his surroundings. Let's try another one: Why am I here? He decided to skip that one. He didn't have a clue. He couldn't even remember who "I" was; there was no way that he would remember anything about how he'd gotten to this endlessly dark place, this...oddly cold endlessly dark place. Am I dead? He didn't _think_ he was dead; he moved his fingers and toes, legs and feet, and yes, he could feel himself. He felt his body to make sure that... Suddenly a blinding light appeared in front of his eyes. Out of instinct, his eyes snapped shut; the brightness diminished, but was not entirely gone. A minute later, he opened his eyes to the brightness. They had adjusted. Apparently is wasn't _that_ bright. He looked up. He saw what looked to be a hairless human's face and torso just above him. Oh shiii... His eyes closed into darkness as he fainted.