The room is empty, it’s walls bage, floor dark and the celling white.

Two rectangular holes open in the floor and a sleeping person is lifted from below, their travel is quite and smooth enough that they don’t wake when they are left laying on the floor.

After a moment, the room becomes lighter, the celling brithening uniformly.

The woman stirs first, they are both dressed in the same grey one piece uniform, but they look very different. The man looks older with shaggy unkempt hair, he looks like it’s been days since his whiskers have felt a razor. The woman, has short cut blonde hair.

She blinks at the new room for a moment, then a smile breaks out on her face.

“Chosen”. She wisphers in awe.

Then her gaze falls on the man as he starts to awake. He smile fades a little.

The man sits up, just as surprised as the woman. He takes in the room with a look of panic. He looks at, but doesn’t see the woman at first.

“Relax, you have been chosen”, she still can’t help but smile.

The man sighs, deeply then looks at her.

“Yeah, I can see that”.

The woman shakes her head. “But this is the greatest day of your life! How…how can…”

“Greatest day of my life! Why would I want this?” He holds up his hands.

“You’ve been chosen”, she stands. “How can you not, be…” She runs out of words.

“Chosen! Great”.

“But I’ve tried to be chosen, worked at it for as long as a can remember, it’s been my life and now…” she looks up to the bright celling, batheing in its warm light.

“You wanted to be chosen?” He crosses his legs.

“Yes! And…and…well what makes you qualified?” For the first time the woman loses her air of clam.

“Qulified? Who knows? I don’t see how you could prepare for this, no one knows what being chosen”, he makes air quotes as he says chosen. “Means, I mean no one that is comes back knowing what they did. Some never come back, ever!”

“To serve the System completely, to give your heart, mind and…” The woman places her hands on her chest, she has said these words so many times.

“Yes I know what the manual says, but what does it mean?”

“You will find out”. The woman’s calm is back. Her voice is certain.

The man stands. “Well maybe I have other plans for my life, maybe I didn’t want to give up the next 5 years of it”.

She looks him up and down, and her look says she isn’t impressed.

“You have plans? What are they, sleep in till midday, then do an afternoon of nothing before falling in bed after midnight?”

The man seems taken a back for a moment. “What do you know about me? Nothing, you’ve never seen me till 2 minutes ago and now you are passing judgement on me. What gives you the right?”

“I know your type, sliding through life, doing the last that you can. Wasting your potential .”

“Oh you think I have some potential?” He grins. “Well that’s something I gues, but from someone like you…”

“Now whose passing judgment?”

The woman opens her mouth to reply but can find no words. She takes a breath and smiles again.

“There must be a reason, the System never does anything without a reason. We were both picked because we were the only possible choice given the situation”. She sounds like she is reading from the Manual again, but the man doesn’t know this section.

With a click a door way opens in the far wall, there was nothing there before, now a dark space lurks beyond the opening section of wall.

“We are going to find out what it means to to serve the System completely”. Her smile is one of purse t happiness. She walks to the doorway.

“Wait” the man calls out, but the darkness has already engulfed her.

He looks around the empty room again, then with a shrug follows her thought.