Austin’s arm was numb. As he started to wake, Austin noticed he was sleeping right on top of it. Pins and needles buzzed up his arm as the blurry grey background started to come back into focus. His whole body felt stiff and uncomfortable as he rolled into a sitting position on the dense mattress.

 Just as he was regaining feeling in the one arm, sharp pain spiked up the other as his hand brushed the rough bandage on the other.
 
[color=magenta]“Shit…”[/color] he muttered under his breath. His hand danced delicately over the edge of it as he finally realized what was going on.
 Grey walls and trashed surroundings hit him like a sledgehammer as he shook his head. His eyes went shut.

[i]Three… Two… One…[/i]

 [i]Okay[/i], he thought to himself, [i]Let’s recap.[/i] Physical… Two? Three? No, Two. It wasn’t too bad, just shocking. Mentally… Mentally he was fine. A little confused and disoriented, but that led more into his emotional score – about a three a four.

 Things were fine right now. It could always get worse… but he needed to keep track of himself. Austin hadn’t done all that research into human psychology just to panic the first time he was thrown into an unusual situation. Handle what you could for now, then worry about what’s out of your control later.

 He did a scan of the room, brushing messy hair out of his face before his eyes fell to the beat-up cardboard box in the centre of the room. It was frayed at the edges and dented in several places. There was even packing tape peeled at the edges as though it hadn’t been applied properly. Slowly, he stood up and walked at a slow gait in an attempt to get the blood flowing again through his stiff muscles. Hands found their way to the edges of the box before they tore at the cardboard to reveal the contents inside.

 The soup got stacked to the side of the box, with the bottle of water next. At least survival wasn’t impossible. He didn’t feel like he needed it right now. Instead, his eyes went to the phone plastered to the next of the cardboard box. 
Austin hesitated as it started to buzz. Carefully he removed it from the box, staring at the friendly text waiting for him.

 Find your soulmate? Okay, Austin could admit he wasn’t doing to well in the love department recently, but this was pushing it to ridiculous lengths.

 [color=magenta]“Okay, is this some kind of prank?”[/color] He scoffed, staring around the edges of the room, [color=magenta]“Alright guys, I know I haven’t been the best at hanging out recently, but this is a little absurd isn’t it?”[/color]

 He expected some kind of response, yet nothing came. Austin scrambled for his own phone in his pocket, finding nothing it its stead.
 All he had was this strange little phone with a small half-heart bauble and the strange smiley speaking message.


 Just as he was about to step away, he turned back to the box, seeing there was still something hidden underneath a layer of thin fabric. He pulled it away.

 His reaction ended with his back banging into the metal front of the ugly bed.

 His eyes stared wide at the revolver. It stared back with a menacing gleam.

 Who planted a gun in here? Where the hell did it come from. He’d never seen a gun before, but he approached with morbid curiosity. 

 A few fingers picked it up by the handle. A hand moved towards the trigger, but then it led down to the chambers of the revolver.

 It was empty. Heck, most of them you couldn’t even load a bullet. Breath let out of his chest like a heavy weight release. He put the gun in the box, back with the soup and water as he pushed the cardboard box back under the bed. He might need it later, but it was too much to carry it around.

 The phone took its normal spot in his back pocket as he looked up towards the door.

 His only lead was finding his “soulmate”, whatever that meant. So carefully he opened the door and shut it behind him. He noticed a faded yellow “10” painted on the door. Another door was right across from him, and he heard loud footsteps moving off in the other direction. There wouldn’t be more leads until he could find more people, so he followed after the faceless feet.

[color=magenta]“Hey,”[/color] he shouted, [color=magenta] “Does anybody know what the hell is going on?”[/color]