“Name, Sandy, A.K.A, Mr. Sandman. Age, 26. Height, 7’5. Eye color, blue. Hair color, brown. Muscle tone, over average,” the computer stated. That’s me alright. “You may begin the final test when we say begin, you can only…” Boy was I nervous; I can’t even pay attention to the rules. “BEGIN,” the robot exclaimed, and I was already scaling the wall, trying to reach the first point. The final test is a ten story tower that has ledges and obstacles that I have to overcome. Not only that, but there are nightmares at certain points (Nightmares are robots that are used for training, and they are scary as crap). First point, easy peasy livin’ greasy. Next point, only one nightmare? By the next few points, I’m starting to slow down a bit, and the test is mainly based on performance, so I need to step it up! Here we are, the final point, just have to finish this nightmare off.
“Finished!” I yelled, completely overwhelmed to find out how I did.
“Calculating score…” the computer announced. “Final score is 98%.”
“No. NO! PLEASE NO! I HAVE A FAMILY! I KNOW I DID A LITTLE BAD BUT I-I MADE UP FOR- I-“
“It is time for recalibration,” the computer said in an empty voice. Recalibration. The word hit me like a nuke.
“NO, PLEASE NO, NO, NAAAGH” I said as I became surrounded with pain. The pain is so intense that I lose feeling in my body, and I start hurdling towards the ground. I see my life flash before my eyes, and then I-
“GHAAAA”! I yell, trying to catch my breath. I look around seeing my room. Getting over my confusion, I realize… it was all a dream.
“You okay”? I hear someone ask.
“Meledi!” I turn around to see my wife standing there.
“You have a meeting to go to, and from the looks of it, you’re gonna be late.” she says in the way that makes me want to leave.
Back when we were dating, we thought we had something, but recently, we have been fighting a lot. We have been to marriage counselors, but this marriage just doesn’t work. We will be getting into a divorce soon, but I don’t want to tell my little girls. It will break their heart, but just leaving will, too. I get out of bed and get ready to leave, and as soon as I walk to the door, both Zelda and Saria run up to my legs and hold on to them for dear life.
“Daddy, please don’t go!” Saria begged, in tears.
“Daddy No!” Zelda pleaded with fear.
All I could muster to say as I choked up was a weak, “Bye.” I try not to cry, but my tears were like an over flowing dam, about to break at any second. I hurry to my Chevy 2027, listening to my little girls’ cry, when I started off.  I drive outside of the doughnut shop, and let the pain of tears flow.
I pull myself together and drive to the B.E.D. (Biological Enhancement Department). I walk through what appears to be titanium doors, and see I a vault of some sort, and an entrance to two hallways. The vault door is humongous, and obviously locked. Above it are the words, “FINAL TEST.” I wonder what the final test is.
“Good morning,” I hear an automated voice express.
“Uh… hi,” I reply awkwardly, not knowing how to address a robot.
“State your identity,” it commands.
“It’s, uh, Sandy Trask”.
Why in the world, or, how in the world did I forget my own name. Oh, that’s right.  I left my family, donating my body, my life, to be tested on. You might as well say, I got nothing better to do.
“Um, are there any human beings around ?” I ask, confused.
“Well who else would control the robot?” A man in a green turtleneck and military garb asked.
He’s tall, but no taller than me, he has black hair and a beard. He’s older than me, yet still young, and has decent muscle tone.
“Howdy, my name is Captain “fierce” Pierce and you must be…”
“Sandy Trask”
“So you’re the new subject, or, should I say Dreamer?”
He said the word dreamer, and I felt this voice telling me that this is wrong. Not only wrong, but like I’ve felt this before, a long, time ago.
I say trying to ignore the mystic feeling, “Whatever floats your goat!”
“My… goat?” he said, confused.
“Don’t worry about it, I just, I used to say that to my… it’s a long story,” I say trying to forget my family.
“Well, let’s not waste any more time,” He said.
We walk into a room that has many scientists and what appears to be a man fused with metal, and he looked un-living, and partially decaying.
“What is that?” I ask as my curiosity lingers within my brain.
“That was actually the previous model of the dreamer, but we call it the sleeper now”
“What was his name?”
“The Dreamer, I just told you that.”
“His real name.”
“Caleb, Caleb Williams,” he said the name in a cold, depressed voice.
What was wrong with Caleb? I wonder if he had failed.
We walk for a few steps, and there it was, the dreamer suit, my new tech. I look up at the metallic black armor and the carbon fiber pull over, and I come to the question, “How do I put it on?”
“It is a Surgery, and it will hurt. There’s nothing we can do to numb it, and you have no recovery days. We need to finish this pronto,” He said tersely.
“Then let’s get to it,” I say completely ignoring the words it will hurt.
Next thing I know, I’m walking to a dark, eerie room, and my heart is beating out of my chest. The anxious feeling. This was the feeling where you’re riding a roller coaster, going up the giant hill, and waiting for it to drop you. The roller coaster that gives you nightmares. On the way to the room I see a horrific machine that looked as if blood were on its finger tips.
“What in the world is that monstrosity?” I ask a little terrified.
“That is a Nightmare, a machine we use for training. Right now they are almost impossible to destroy, but the suit makes it more do-able,” Peirce says easing my nerves slightly.
We walk into the room, and I see the suit on one table. The other table is empty, and next to it is a bus load of surgery gizmos. I lay down on the table, and no one says a word. A doctor hands me a foamy, rubbery stick. I don’t know what it’s for. Then another doctor straps me down, and uses a needle on me, and it HURTS, but not excruciatingly unbearable.
“Okay, that wasn’t so bad.”
“We were just marking where we will cut you. Get ready to brace yourself.”
If you find torture repugnant, than you are not going to like this segment. Let’s just say that during the surgery, I discovered what the stick was for. Turns out I was supposed to put it in my mouth so I don’t break my teeth, clenching the crap out of them, trying to ignore the pain. Too late for that I suppose. At least my hand had the privilege of holding that for me. They cut me, going over the lines that they made. I look at my body, as I see inky blood start to emerge from me. I felt as if I was in a dream. They clean the blood, and I feel the skin of my chest begin to come peeled of, as I look at my heart beating. I see a man with a… a welding tool. They start welding parts of the suit to my body, and the pain becomes unreal…
I wake up, realizing that I blacked out. I look at my body, and see the suit is on me. The most unbelievable part is that I don’t feel any pain.
“The suit reduces pain,” and I hear over the speaker, as if they could read my mind.
The walls start to disappear, I and jump up looking around me. I see that I’m in a training room. Suddenly a Nightmare runs towards me. I stand there, not knowing what to do, When suddenly, Caleb, the sleeper runs up and uses electrical whips that emerge from his hands to lash out on it. It collapses, and then Caleb stops, and walks to me.
“Trust no one” he says in a terse way.
“What, what just happened, what do you mean?”
“Search deeper,” he says, then bounds away off the walls of the tower.
Suddenly, the whole place fades away and…
“AHHGGG!!!” I say waking up to the bad dream… but, what if it were a message?
I get out of my bed, and look at the suit. It looked amazing, and I really did feel no pain. I walk down the hall, and just about go into the training room, but I decide to… explore. I see a lot of rooms, and while I’m walking, I mess with my suit until something useful happens.
I find a map of the area, and discover a room labeled memory. I walk into the room and-
“What are you doing in here?” I hear a scientist say.
“Looking for the training hall. Sorry I got lost. It’s just so big here.”
I guess I have to explore after a few weeks of training. I walk to the training hall, and I see tons of Nightmares, obstacles, and no place to rest or eat. I’m told the rules of the training court, and they start me off right away. There are training sections to hone my suit, weapons for practice, obstacle courses, and fist fighting. I train for months on end, but I finally get a break. As soon as I leave, I walk to the memory room and lock the door.
I open the huge, 4’5” computer and look into files. There’s nothing there. How can that be, I look all around the computer, and come across the deleted section. I open, and find a video, showing a robot being made, with millions of cords in its head. It shows them talking to it.  Then a video appears on my H.U.D., saying “download complete,” and I open it.
It’s the same video, but from the robot’s perspective, and I see Peirce talking to me.
“So this it, the robot that is apparently going to change the world. I think I’m going to name him…”
“WHAT!!!”I yell completely disregarding the fact that I was sneaking, except it didn’t matter. “They named the robot after me!?”
“No. We didn’t,” Peirce said scaring me to death.
“But,”
“You’re the robot,” He continued
“That’s impossible, h-how, I don’t have these memories! THAT’S NOT ME!!!”
He walks up to me, and presses the side of my head, and gives me a mirror.
My face is… the same as the robots.
“We gave you these fake memories, and your world was all in the B.E.D. You have been living a lie. We erased your earlier memories of you first waking up.”
I break into tears, if you could call them tears. How can this be a lie, it felt so… real, but it was all, a dream.
It all made sense now. The dream I had, the dream of me taking the final test, it really happened. The feeling was a warning telling me not to do this.
“The final test is coming up, and we don’t have time for you to sulk. So get ready,” he stated with no emotions. He started to leave, but I spoke up.
“ If I don’t?”
“Than you will fail, and you will be recalibrated”.
I sit there for hours, compensating the fact that my “life” was worthless.
Months pass, and the final test has come. Fate has been cruel to so many, yet none have endured what I have.
“Name, Sandy. Age, 26. Height, 7’5. Eye color, blue. Hair color, brown. Muscle tone, over average. “You may begin the final test when we say begin, you can only…”
Why Am I doing this? Why don’t I just kill myself? Because I have a plan to escape. Once I get to the top, I yell “done” and keep climbing. Not the best plan, but that’s all I got. “BEGIN,” the robot exclaimed, and I’m already scaling the wall, trying to reach the first point. First point, nothing I haven’t dealt with. Next point, only one Nightmare? By the next few points, I’m starting to slow down a bit, and the test is mainly based on performance, so I need to step it up if I want to escape! Here we are, the final point, and I just have to finish this Nightmare off.
“Finished!” I yelled, completely overwhelmed, but I keep climbing.
“Calculating score…” the computer announced. “Final score is 98%.”
That meant I failed, but I couldn’t give up.
“It is time for recalibration,” the computer said in an empty voice. Recalibration. The word hit me like a nuke. I almost get to the top, but I wasn’t fast enough.
“NO, PLEASE NO, NO, NAAAGH” I said as I become surrounded with pain. The pain is so intense that I lose feeling in my body, but the worst pain, was the pain of loss. How could I go through this again? I can’t. I start hurdling towards the ground. I see my life flash before my eyes, and then I-
“GHAAAA!” I yell, trying to catch my breath. I look around seeing my room. Getting over my confusion, I realize… it was all a dream.