"GYAHH," I yell, huffing as I toss my upper body out of my bed.

  Frightened by that nightmare, my heart rate slowly decreases from pounding at mach ten. My situational awareness decides to kick in minutes later when I realize I've been sleeping in what I will assume is a hotel room. Would make the most sense, considering I'm now homeless and managed not to wake up on the side of a road or behind a Denny's.

  The room is rather small for a hotel room. The walls are not decorated and I woke up on a twin bed with a metal frame and a mattress about as thick as a sandwich, like a bunk bed at boot camp. I can rule out a jail cell considering the window is big enough to jump out of. I must have blacked out and got myself a room somewhere really cheap. I'll be honest, I'm more surprised I woke up without a hangover than the fact that I was still coherent enough to buy a hotel room, or even the fact my TV has been left on all night. Nothing's moving on the TV. Just a bit of text and a little picture of something. Once I get the energy, I focus my waking eyes on the TV to read an eerie message.

  'Please press the button on your phone to start orientation.' is displayed on the TV with navy blue text on a white background with a graphic depicting a smartphone.

  I would check my pockets for my phone, but it seems I've been stripped of all my clothes. My underwear is even different. It's become clear that I am not wearing, nor do I know the whereabouts of my clothes. The clothes that had my wallet, car keys, and phone.

  "Shit!" I say to myself.

  How exactly do I get robbed of my clothes and everything that was inside my pockets and still managed to get a room. No, why would someone rob me then change my underwear. I was brought here. Yeah, that makes more sense now that I think of it.

  I hopingly search the room for my belongings, or anyone's for that matter, and I do find a smartphone on the nightstand with the screen on, showing a blue button in the center. However, this isn't my phone. As I am searching the room, I come across a set of clothes hung up in the closet on the other side of the bed. It's a white t-shirt, some black jeans, and a gray sweater with a blue glyph over the left chest. I also found a smartwatch in front of the TV displaying the same glyph. Nothing I had on me before I blacked out is in this room.

  I grab the phone from the nightstand and tap the blue button in the center. The button goes away on the phone and is replaced by the message, 'Please direct your attention to the presentation on the television in your room.' I look up at the TV as it makes a gentle chime, showing a graphic of a rectangular block placed vertically with a square heart above it.

  'Good Morning, Adrian.' shows above the graphic, creeping me out that it knows my name.

  'Welcome to Stratosylum!' replaces the aforementioned good morning message.

  More messages show on screen, each replacing the last.

  'You have met the criteria to take residence at Stratosylum, your new home!'

  "Strat-" I pause as I try to pronounce it. "osylum?"

  'If you are feeling sad, upset, or angry from this transition, please do not worry. Stratosylum is a peaceful community designed to protect its residents and provide the resources for residents to live a prosperous life.'

  'The closet to the right of this television has a set of clothes. Please put them on before leaving this room. More clothes can be obtained from various outfitters marked on your map.'

  A map shows up on my new phone, zooming in on the outfitters locations. I attempted to zoom out on the map but it wont let me. The next message shows on the TV and the map on my phone automatically zoomed out, showing me more buildings on a square map with different markings scattered about.

  'Your map will show you the many facilities, shops, and activities Stratosylum has to offer. Your new domicile will also be marked on your map. Please be sure to find it.'

  New domicile? What even is this place? I can't use my phone now to Google where I am as it's currently showing me a map of what I assume is this Stratosylum place.

  'Any additional information can be found using the global search app on your smartphone or by asking one of the many housekeepers across Stratosylum.'

  My phone then highlights an app with a magnifying glass icon. The phone's operating system looks completely foreign. It's neither Android or iOS. It doesn't appear as if I can download more apps or search the web with this phone. This all seems super sketchy to me and I'm really not liking this.

  'Once you are dressed, please make your way down to the lobby on the first floor for breakfast. Follow the map on your smartphone for directions. And please, enjoy your stay at Stratosylum.'

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  Nothing else comes up on the TV. The last message doesn't go away or change to anything else. I look out the window in my room to see if I can get a clue of where I am. There are other people walking around outside, going from building to building. From my room, I see two buildings, one behind the other. I can't tell what kind of buildings they are; but if I check the map on my phone, I can tell based on where I am that the building across my window is called Building F, and I'm in Building 0. It shows that there are multiple laboratories and offices in that building. This kinda creeps me out even more. It looks like I'm in a small town or a settlement of some kind. So why are there so many laboratories in this one building? This just seems out of place.

  I check my new phone to find the dial pad so I can call Ryan to see if he can come find me, but I don't think he's really a good person to call right now, considering everything that just happened. I'll at least dial 911 to report all my stuff stolen. As I'm scrolling through the phone, looking for the dialer; I eventually found an app that resembles a phone, but there's no dial pad. The phone only gives me a search bar to type in someone's name. I try typing in Ryan's phone number, but nothing shows up. It wont even let me dial 911.

  "You've got to be shitting me." I tell the phone, knowing it won't actually listen or do anything.

  I really don't want to waste any more time here. I grab the clothes I found in the closet earlier and the smartwatch in front of the TV and put them on. The clothes fit surprisingly well.

  I make my way to the door and I place my eye up against the peephole. There doesn't seem to be anything or anyone on the other side of the door. Just an empty hallway with doors across from mine. This looks just like any normal apartment complex or hotel. I open the door to find the same thing I saw through the peephole. I look down the hallway to the right of my room to see absolutely no one. I then look to the left to see a young fox with long, brown hair, walking down the hallway away from me. The fox is six-ish doors down from where I'm at, dragging their feet and looking down towards the floor. Their tail is dragging along the floor like a bag full of sand. They are wearing the same clothes I am. Surprised to see another person after waking up, I started jogging towards the fox.

  "Hey, wait up!" I called out, trying to get his attention.

  The fox didn't so much as flinch to my voice. They kept walking at the same pace. My jog turns into a run so that I can meet this fox quicker, believing they might know something about this place. As soon as I catch up to them, I start tapping them on the shoulder for their attention.

  "Excuse me, sir, miss, hello"-I cut in front of the fox so that I am now face to face with them-"hi. I'm sorry to ask this but can you tell me where I am? This might sound strange but I got blackout drunk last night and I magically woke up here with all my stuff stolen. Do you think you can call the police for me please?"

  The fox slowly raises his head to look at me. His expression radiates a deep gloom under long, dark, messy bangs. His fur is red like autumn leaves with snowy white accents. His paws and arms are black like charcoal dust. He holds his phone up showing me the same map on my phone and points to the blue dot indicating his location. He spoke with sadness in his voice and sounded like he would begin sobbing after every word.

  "I found this phone in my room... And the phone is telling me I'm in Building 0... Since you are standing in front of me, not letting me move until I make you happy, I think you are also in Building 0... You probably want to be somewhere else... Or you are here because you want to hurt me... Right?" the fox asks me.

  Did I upset him that bad? I'm not trying to hurt the guy. I just want to know what's going on. He's got the same clothes as I do, even his phone is the same. Did he also get brought here by someone?

  "No No, it's not like that." I tried calmly telling him. "Let me try this again. My name is Adrian, I was recently kicked out of my apartment in Lansing. Next thing I know, I woke up in the room right down the hall here. The TV in my room told me I'm somewhere called Stratosylum, but I don't know what or where that is."

  "My TV did that too. Did you also try to kill yourself?" the fox asks me.

  "No, I-" I paused, realizing what he just implied. "No, I blacked out from drinking. Are you okay? Do you want to talk or something?"

  He really caught me off guard with that one. I knew the kid seemed gloomy, but I just assumed he had a bad day or something. I didn't think he was suicidal.

  The fox replies, "Perhaps someone should ask you the same. Drinking enough alcohol can kill you."

  I can't think of a response to that, growing the silence between us, but he is right. I wouldn't say I'm on top of the world making good decisions either. Before I can reflect back on last night, the fox breaks the silence, thankfully.

  "I'm sorry. I was out of line. I can never say anything right... I really wish I was dead." the fox says with a voice more broken than before.

  I really wish I could say something to make him feel better, but it's probably best if I don't talk to him. What if we just talk about something else? No, that would make it look like I'm changing the subject on him. Oh wait, the TV said there would be breakfast in the lobby. Hopefully that will make him feel better. Plus, there should be an exit down there.

  "Hey, maybe we just need a little breakfast. The TV said there was breakfast in the lobby." I tell him with a smile as I move to his side so we can walk together. "Whad'ya say?"

  He makes a gentle groan as he continues the path to the stairs going down to the first floor, navigating with the phone in his paw like a sad pirate looking for buried treasure. The layout of Building 0 doesn't seem very complicated. It's the shape of an 'L' where both sides are of equal length with a block on the inside corner where the sides join. We are currently walking down the vertical end of the building to where both sides meet. The staircase is right on the inside corner of the building. Before we walked into the staircase, I noticed something odd on the floor, right in the center of where the two sides join. A flat, blue vinyl ring sticking on the floor. That same blue ring appears to be right above it on the ceiling too. I'm not sure if that's just design, but it seems really out of place.

  The fox had already begun walking down the stairs while I was fixated on the ring. I should probably catch up to him. I don't think he even told me his name.

  "By the way, I don't think you mentioned your name." I tell the fox as I catch up to him.

  "Dante." he says with hesitation. "My name is Dante. You said yours was Adrian. Is that right?"

  "Yes. Adrian Stripes." I told him. "It's very good to meet you."

  Dante turns his head towards me and replies, "Likewise."