The Monster Machine

The Work

Tova woke up the next morning.

Of course, since there's no way to simulate real daylight, most people just sleep for however long they want and assume that it's tomorrow when you wake up again. Most people don't have working clocks either, so keeping track of time is almost irrelevant.

Tova rubbed her eyes and looked up at the door, expecting the woman to request her presence for the day. But nothing happened. Tova rolled over on her side and closed her eyes for a while. She didn't go back to sleep, she just didn't want to get up yet. But it wasn't long until she heard footsteps coming towards her room. The man from before opened her door and set a plate of food down on the floor.

"Eat. Then hurry up and get ready. I'll meet you downstairs." he said to Tova before closing the door. The food she was offered looked more like scraps of leftovers. But Tova didn't complain. To her understanding, food was scarse down here, so there was no use complaining.

Tova picked and ate all the food on the plate before setting it by the door and getting up to open the door. She stepped through it and walked down the hallway, where she descended the stairs to see the man waiting for her at the bottom.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Tova nodded silently.

"Good. Let's go then."

The man opened the front door and they left the building. Tova followed closely behind whilst looking down. The city before them wasn't as pretty as you'd imagine. In fact, it looked more like it was all built in a rush. Not everything was carefully thought through and style was left behind. Making as many buildings as possible seemed to be the more important objective.

All the people living in this city were dressed in old clothes and rage, usually bundled up to conserve heat or to be unrecognizable to others. The buildings were always lit with any light source that could be connected to an electrical system until they stopped working. Sometimes, if you looked up from the street, you could see giant floodlights that lit up an entire area. There weren't enough to light the whole city, so some areas looked dimmer than others. And most were shrouded in complete darkness.

Tova didn't have to follow the man for very long to get where they needed to go. It was more like they went around the corner and down the street. Tova didn't look up at anything, not even daring to glance at the shady people that passed her by. They reached an old building and the man opened the door to let them inside. The entire building was dilapidated. In fact it almost looked close to collapsing. It was dark and... slightly damp. It seemed no one had been here for a very long time.

Tova carefully closed the door behind them while the man went to the far side of the room and flicked a heavy switch. After a moment of silence, there was a strange banging noise coming from the other end of the room. One of the walls rattled before moving out of the way to reveal an elevator. Tova followed the man as he pressed a button on the panel next to it and the doors opened with a squeak. They stepped inside and the doors closed in front of them, slowly descending with a low rumble. When they reached the bottom, the doors opened again to reveal a larger room. The man walked out, knowing exactly where he wanted to go, as Tova stepped to the side and flicked another switch. There was a loud click and a couple lights on the ceiling flicked on, illuminating the room.

There was a large machine in the corner of the room with wires and pipes and a large glass tube that stuck out from the rest of the machinery. But it hadn't been used in a long time. On the right side of the room stood a couple desks that held a lot of scattered papers, some slightly worn books, and some folders that looked like they were about to fall apart. But behind those desks, stood a long table and a computer sat on top of it. There were a couple more monitors suspended on the wall above the computer and Tova watched the man turn them all on. Each one came to life with a flicker and a hum. Tova walked over to a stool sitting in the middle of the room and there she sat, watching the man from a distance.

He spent practically all day at that table, staring at his monitors and typing furiously. He clicked on different model sheets, overlooking them before writing something down on a piece of paper with an old pen. Occasionally he stops and stares at it for a moment before pushing it aside to a small mound of papers or stuffing it into an old folder to look at later. He leaned forward and stared at an image on his computer. Tova continued to watch him, but she couldn't see much from where she sat.

"Tova, go ahead and pull the sheet down." the man instructed. Tova got up immediately and walked over to the other side of the room. Towering above her was something large that took up the rest of the space in the room, covered by a sheet that was carelessly thrown over it. Tova pulled it down in one quick pull and gathered it up quickly, throwing the pile of cloth against the other side of the wall.

Behind the sheet was another large machine. Much larger than the other machine they saw when they first walked in. From the left, there stood a large tank and a few pipes that ran all the way up into the ceiling, as well as a few other wires that draped over the machine and threaded into the walls. You couldn't see into the tank itself, but it was also connected to other large pipes and wires that all seemed to be connected into each other. There were a couple levers that stuck out from the machine and a few gears and wheels that seemed to all be intertwined with each other.

"Tova, come here." the man demanded. Tova did so and looked over the man's shoulders. He didn't look up at her.

"I need you to take this. There's a loose pipe that needs to be fixed. Can you get in there and reach it?" the man directed, holding a small wrench towards her.

Tova nodded, taking the wrench from his hand and went straight to work. On the far side of the machine, there was a small red lever. Tova pulled it and a little door revealed itself and opened with a hiss. She took the little wrench and crawled inside. This little tunnel was designed specifically for her to crawl into. Because she was the only one who was small enough to crawl inside without getting hurt. It was dark inside, but the light from the tunnel opening was enough for her to see. She crawled through all the tiny wires and pipes until she found herself inside the large tank. She looked around to see if she could find the loose pipe. But there were a couple pipes in there that looked nearly identical.

"Which one is the loose pipe?" Tova shouted through the tunnel.

"It should be a skinny silver pipe! There's a loose bolt in there that could make everything unstable!"

Tova understood and began looking around for a skinny, silver pipe. She eventually spotted it up above her, but it was a little too far for her to reach. She carefully pulled herself up on a loose cable that hung from the top of the tank and stepped on a thicker pipe, hoisting herself up. She was able to reach her arm up with the wrench in her hand and tap on the bolts to see which one was loose. It was actually the one nearest to her and she tightened it quickly. She tapped on it again and it made a sound that let her know it was perfectly tight. She loosened her grip on the cable and let herself slip down, crawling back into the tunnel and back out into the large room. She pushed the little red lever up and the door disappeared with a slam.

"Did you get it?" the man asked.

"Yes, I got it." Tova confirmed. She set the wrench down on the table and sat back down on her stool. She didn't pay attention to anything else for a long time until she tried looking around the room. Her attention first turned to the table with the old books and scattered papers. She leaned towards them, trying to get a better look at what they were. She didn't understand what they were, but there were a few little drawings and sketches of gears, mechanisms and writing next to it. The writing was tiny and a little sloppy. She couldn't read it very well, but it seemed important. She noticed one of the gears in the papers closely resembled one of the gears she once saw inside the machine. She looked up at the man who was still busy with his work. But this time, Tova found the courage to say something.

"What's the machine for?" she asked. The man stopped typing on his computer and glanced over at Tova. Tova became nervous, she almost thought she'd done something wrong. The man fixed the glasses on his face and turned back to his computer.

"You'll get to see it when it's finished." the man said before he started typing away at his computer. Tova let out a quiet sigh and went back to her doings.

Which was nothing.

She never bothered to do anything by herself because the man would always need her for something, so the only thing she could do was wait for further instructions. It seemed like there was always something that needed to be done, but as time went on, the man did most of the work and Tova was only needed for small repairs, tests and whatever other tasks that needed to be completed. Eventually, all Tova could do was sit on her stool in wait in case she was needed. Just sit and wait.

She sat on the stool for what seemed like forever. She didn't bother to ask any more questions. But besides waiting for new commands, there wasn't anything for her to do. She couldn't think of anything she could do.

Much later, when she was thinking about moving to a different spot to sit in the room, the man sighed and leaned over his desk. He took off his glasses and set them aside.

"Tova... I don't think I'll need you for anything else so..... why don't you just go home and go back to your room?"

Tova looked at him in surprise. He had never asked her to go anywhere by herself. Or go anywhere in general. She was only allowed to follow the man wherever he needed her to be. The man looked back at her.

"Can you do that?" he asked tiredly. Tova stiffened.

"Uh- yeah, I can do that."

The man stared at her before turning back to his computer.

"Good. Just go straight home."

Tova slowly got up and made her way towards the elevator, pulling the lever on the side to open the doors. She took one last glance at the man before stepping inside and pressing a button on the panel beside her. It felt weird to go somewhere by herself. When the elevator stopped at the top, she stepped out and slowly walked towards the door. It opened with a groan and she stepped out into the musty air of the underground city. She looked up.

There was no sky. Just faint bright lights and stacked buildings as far as she could see, as well as the darkness of the carved cave walls. She looked up and down the street. It was empty. Nothing but trash and scrap metal on a dirty walkway. A flickering lamppost lit the corner of the street, but not very well. She walked towards it and stopped underneath the light. There was a low hum coming from all the machinery that kept the entire city alive. It was all around her. And it was closest to the quietest thing you'll ever hear.

It felt really strange to Tova to walk home all by herself. Without the man to lead her anywhere. She could almost do anything she wanted without being spotted. She could walk down to the other end of the street and walk all the way back without the man telling her where to go.

But she had her instructions. She had to go home. And so she did.

When she reached the old wooden doors, she stopped just as she reached for the handle. She looked back towards the city. It felt... nice to be outside. Instead of looking through a window that doesn't look out to anything. She continued to stare at everything around her. It was dark, it was dirty, and there was a strange musty odor that lingured everywhere. But the lights above her almost seemed comforting.

She turned away and headed inside.