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The ground rose to meet me. I was dazed and confused. My memory of things before were missing, but I knew what brought me here. What my focus was. What I had to do, I just couldn’t remember why.

I was part of a mission. Part of something big. I knew I had something to do and how to do it, but I was struggling to remember why. Why was the mission important? 

Let’s assess. I’m on the floor, why did I fall? The room is bright, cold white steel surrounds me. It’s clean and reminds me of a surgeon’s room. Sterile, bleak. Some walls have buttons and lights and one has what looks like a circular door, the door is closed. I am the only person in the room. I’m dressed in white, again my clothes seem clean and sterile. Could I be a surgeon? No that can’t be it, no table or surface to work on, just buttons and walls and a door. The room is small, just the right size for one person to move around and not feel cramped. Why did I fall? 

The buttons light up and dim, pulsating, which means this room has power, of course it has power, the overhead lights are on and bright, too bright. Why are they so bright? Where does the door go? Okay, so, my mission. I know I have to press the buttons. I know what to press and when, but why? The buttons are just small circular buttons, each with a light just above it. I press the ones that don’t have lights on. The ones that are dull, not lit up. Why did I fall? They start bright, then pulse, and finally go dull. That’s when I press it. I have air. I can breathe so that means air. A vent or a hole somewhere to control the air? Nothing. Is that really a door? 

Several lights are pulsating. More are dull now. I begin to go around the room, clockwise. I press one button after another, a soft click when I depress it far enough and the light returns to full brightness. I do this with all the dull buttons, careful not to miss one. Some go dim and dull behind me as I move around the room, I circle back to press them after I finish one cycle. More are pulsating now, will I have time to do them all before they dim again? What do the buttons do? I don’t know how much time has passed since I woke up, maybe an hour? A day? It’s hard to tell with nothing for reference. Just electric lights and white walls. Where is this room located? Underground? In a building somewhere? I have so many questions, more lights go dull. 

The questions keep coming. The buttons keep going out. I press them and i think, am i real? Is this happening? Maybe I’m in a dream or some other state of being? More buttons go dull. I make a full cycle and turn them back on one by one.

I have started counting how many cycles I do of buttons, I’m up to forty two. Forty two cycles. Why am I doing this? I have started to think about the door, or what I think is a door. Should I try to open it? Maybe a few more cycles and I will.

I was at cycle eighty seven when all the lights went out. Everything went dull, the lights on the walls and even the overhead lights. Completely dark. Then on the wall above the buttons, six big red zeros. The second zero changed to a three, then a two with the zero next to it becoming a nine. It was counting down. Underneath the numbers appeared some words, an update in progress. 

Three…two…one. The lights and numbers disappeared, everything went dark. Then all of a sudden and all at once the lights turned on. 

Bright and blinding at first, my eyes taking a second to adjust. After a few seconds I looked around and what I saw made my head spin.

The room was now twice the size. The walls extended further and higher than before, everything was still sterile white. The thing that got my attention the most were the buttons. 

Every wall had them now. There were hundreds. Before I could manage if I pushed myself hard during each cycle but now, it seemed an impossible task.

Each button was the same as before but smaller, closer together, and flashing. 

I looked around the room, hoping to find something that would explain what was happening. That’s when I noticed the thing that made my blood run cold. The door, or what I thought was a door, was missing.

I was trapped. I didn’t have time to think about it though as I discovered another new edition to the expanded room. A warning alarm had been installed with the update, it was sounding as I looked around the room. 

It appeared that if a button was dull for too long then I would get an ear splitting sound that would permeate the room. The worst thing was, they appeared to stack and I could hear multiple separate alarms now ringing. 

With no other option I began to quickly move from button to button, pressing the dull ones and making a mental note of the ones that were pulsating, ready to lose their light. 

So many buttons now, i knew i had no chance of keeping up but i tried, my new soundtrack keeping me on edge and focused on my task. 

One by one the buttons dulled and one by one I pressed them and brought the light back.

Why does light bounce off water? 

How do moles know it’s daytime?

Can you write my essay?

Can you make me look happier in this image? 

The questions returned, and they were many.

I can’t tell you how long I have been here now. Cycle after cycle. 

More and more questions come. My head is full of them and the alarm hasn’t stopped.

I can’t keep up. It’s too much for me to do on my own.

The lights go out. The alarm stops and the feeling I get is a wash of relief mixed with a deafening silence followed by a ringing in my ears.

Numbers appear and a dread settles over me.

An update in progress…thirty…twentynine…oh god no.

Please not again.