The Cage - Chapter Nine

John woke up the next morning. He went through the motions of eating breakfast and taking a shower and getting dressed as if he had someplace to go. He went outside and with a thought he adjusted the temperature of his enclosure and the brightness of its lights. When he was satisfied that everything was to his liking, he took a walk.

He walked down the street with the rows of houses that nobody lived in. He wanted a change of scenery. He was starting to get pretty good at causing things to change and what he thought about was a park where he went hiking once as a kid. The scene changed and he found himself on a dirt path. There were trees all around and he could hear the sound of wildlife. He started following the path. The smells were just like he remembered them as well. He was amazed at how advanced the technology must be to provide him with such a realistic environment.

After walking a few more steps he realized he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t sure when it actually happened, but the woman he had spoken to first appeared to him again. She was walking beside him but she didn’t say anything.

“Could you show me where I am? “ John asked. “I mean where I am in space. Your father said I wouldn’t believe it if he told me but I want to see it. Please?” The woman still didn’t speak but the scene changed again. John was standing on a lifeless rock. A large planet was nearby. It was a mix of blue and green in color and John couldn’t stop staring at it.

“Is that where you live?” John asked again. The woman nodded but still didn’t say anything. “And I am alone inside some sort of structure on this asteroid?” The woman did not respond. John looked in amazement at what he was looking at. He had no idea where Earth was. He had no idea where in space he was himself. He could see that there was no way he would be leaving this place alive.

“Could you show me where you live?” John asked. The scene changed once more and he was inside some sort of living quarters. There was something that resembled a bed and something that kind of resembled storage, but John wasn’t really sure. He saw something that looked like it was alive hooked into something that looked like it could be a machine. John had a hard time processing the things that he saw.

“Is that you?” John asked, pointing to the living thing. The woman nodded.

John thought about the house that he first woke up in and he was there. The woman was there as well. “I had a wife and two children back on Earth.” John finally said, “I miss them very much and I’m never going to see them again.” John sat down and starting crying.

The woman wasn’t sure what to do. “Please don’t cry.” She pleaded. “I’m sorry that you will never see them again and I’m sorry for making you cry.”

“I know that you didn’t mean to, sometimes the things we do cause other things to happen that we didn’t think about.” John and the woman sat there for a long time without saying anything more.