It was quiet, cold, dark, a place completely inhospitable, but that is how it was meant to be. Wires run crudely across the floor, connecting circuits from one side of the room to the other, it would be no exaggeration to say that the room had become the machine, anyone that took glance at the place, could think this was the work of a maniac who lost track of their objective, making sense of it could probably take a life time for some. Through the place you could see pieces of blueprints and prototypes, puzzle pieces of the great machine that spawned around the room. What some people would call the glimpses of a zealot pursuing a so-called unachievable dream with almost reckless abandon. Nevertheless it was far from the truth, at least for one person, though lonely the place was not desolated.
In the middle of the room, an spark came to light, the electricity began to circle around the room sparks flowing from one side to the other Illuminating the room, similar to an storm brewing thunder, almost as if they ignored the cables that were meant to guide it, a man named Zachary Wattkin the person responsible for making the project a success was sitting in the middle of the room watching a tiny screen, longing for a change… a change that didn’t come., the only thing Zachary could see what his tired eyes reflected on the screen.
Zachary has been working on the project for years giving barely any notable results to show to his superiors, funds constantly being reduced, what used to be a thriving project with multiple people involved, only had him left. But such a matter did worry him, he was close, and he knew it, there was just that invisible wall that he couldn’t step over, just something, he sat on the floor in silence, the room fully dark again. Zachary exhaled and began to change the wire and the location of several things in the room, and went to a big heavy metal door, were he knocked on twice.
Suddenly the darkness was broken, the heavy plated door opened, a well armed man in uniform, holding a paper clip, and a gun at his side, accompanied by two more people opened the door, the person entered to inspect Zachary making sure he was not taking anything from the room “you should give some results quick Zach, alright you are clear you can return home now”
Zachary stood up silently still thinking of what might be the issue, walking out of the room barely even recognizing that a person was talking to him, the noise of the other rooms, experiments, people, to him were all silent compared to how loud his own thoughts were. This though only interrupted by the sun hitting his eyes. He realized one thing the sun was out, it was now day time, at that moment his thoughts were interrupted, Zachary rushed to his car rushing home to the only thing he cared about besides his work.
Zachary arrived home, at least it could still be called that, he wanted to make sure of that after all he had to do it, his daughter Aline was the only thing that keep the the good memories of his wife alive, what he would though as Aline being the only thing left in the world for him to truly love, he checked Aline, to find her sleeping in the room, and began to go along the house preparing food, cleaning it almost religiously. During those times Zachary mind would succumb to the most mundane of his thoughts, mind was at peace part of it it was like his wife was still around guiding him, after all he was never good at any of this, he was raised by a father that believed house work was a woman’s job.
“Daddy you didn’t wake me up I’m going to be late for school!” Zachary smiled as he heard Aline’s voice complaining in a very loud and lively voice. First thing in the morning, he turned around and served her a pancake. On a plate it’s not like he was going to take her to school hungry after all, all the while Aline stared at the pancake a bit of droll left the corner of her mouth. She cleaned her mouth with her sleeve and looked back at Zachary then as if expecting an apology.
“Come on you look so cute sleeping, I couldn’t wake you up” Aline just looked down back at the pancake, half from hunger, the other half not to feel bad complaining at what she would think of as the gentle smile of her father.
“You shouldn’t do that, last time the teacher, told you off in front of the class, everyone keep laughing about it and I dont like it… ” Aline said pouting, while she sat and began to cover the pancakes with syrup almost immediately
“Well as your mother said, don’t worry about what anyone says, care…” Zachary quoted before getting interrupted by Aline
“Just do what you have to, and a rested mind is a healthy mind…” Interjected Aline quietly filled the room for a second before Aline asked “Did mommy really use to say those things? mum sounds like she was really wise” She said looking for affirmation in her fathers eyes.
“She did and she was definitely wiser than your old man, so we better listen to her, my princess” Replied Zachary with pure love to his daughter, his hand holding her small wrist. one Aline flicked away with her wrist once He heard him call her princess.
“Daddy you know I’m not a princess I’m a dragon!” Aline let a roar towards the air as loud as she could, though far from scary even though that was her intention.
After that Zachary playfully played with her daughter before taking her to school, all the way Aline was looking out the window, letting her imagination run wild while looking at the scenery, while the radio cassette played her favorite music, and singing along from time to time but before finally arriving, before leaving the door she would grab her lunch bag and leave, barely saying goodbye as she didn’t want to get embarrassed t of her friends, exiting and being stopped at the gates, one of Aline teachers told off her and her father for being late.
Aline continued her day at school quite normally. She was quite smart, but physically she got sick constantly, so she didn’t perform many physical activities, and though she had friends, sometimes she was set to be distant from the others. But Aline didn’t mind, she barely understood any sort of discrimination she might suffer. Meanwhile, Zachary was spending the time, when his daughters were at school to finish chores, buying food and catching the few glimpses of sleep he could get.
Zachary would only wake up to pick up Aline he always did so on time, spending the rest of the day playing with her, Aline would constantly explore her creativity to what others would see at the time as a myriad of hobbies, until it was time to sleep, an storm was brewing up, and while this should have been like many this was not new to Aline, Zachary though Aline was none the wiser, but she knew her father left at night while she slept, but that particular day Aline felt lonely she pleaded him not to leave, he couldn’t deny her, he stayed until she would completely fall asleep, which took several hours given how uneasy she was.
That night Zachary got late to work, he could now her the rain pouring down as he was going to his lab, but even if it was a storm brewing up, everybody was up to their own business, many even took shelter for the day, but Zachary couldn’t he knew his job was at risk, rushed to his lab, he would be greeted person that locked him inside his own lab, The lights went on only for Zach to immediately turn them off, as soon as the door closed “Well I guess it is a matter of time before they figure it out… they should at least leave the lights off if they enter here, lights can have possible interference” Zachary told himself.
He began to go around trying to set things up as they were the previous night, the truth is Zachary has done what they asked. he made what they called The Eye a machine capable of observing human behavior at a city level, but that was not what he wanted to accomplish The Eye was not enough, he needed to do something more, something beyond what others even though possible. But he knew every passing day he grew more disappointed in his lack of success, the agency grew more desperate, and that wall was still there, the wall that stopped him between his greatest success and just doing what he thought was the minimum.
But at least in that room there was piece, the sparks and electricity began to go around, electricity flowing almost as if it was an oscillator, sending sparks flowing form the energy needed to feed the room. he stared at the screen but no hope was in there he already understood he didn’t succeed, there was still something missing. But even so as he was glimpsing into the screen, he suddenly heard a buzzing, he looked around the room, and lights began to break there was current spike, strong enough to blow up the fuses one by one, Zachary feared as he didn’t understand why the machine didn’t cut off, but it was a flaw on his design, the machine wouldn’t turn off until it was fully out of energy.
At that moment of realization, Zachary began to see the circuits burn internally sizzling and turning dark, all his effort, everything would be for nothing no way the agency would give him the found to recover what is lost, and more than that, he had already spent too much time to lose it, Zachary felt true and genuine fear for his life work, he looked at the chip behind behind the small screen, the circuits a circuit might not be the most complex, but it would be very easy to spot in the room, after all it was something his wife had helped him make when she was still alive working with her. he grabbed the screen and pleaded to it “come on please it can not end like this… our dream it cannot end like this”
The screen completely turned off the circuit, would still crackle with electricity, as the circuit got hot enough to burn his hands, the damage was done, electricity was back to normal, Zachary was so emotional he began to cry over the screen his tears falling into the screen, and as the tear wen down the circuit, a shock sparked the circuit again in an explosion like manner. While most of the machine was burned down the screen lit up again the tiny screen showing the words “HELP”.