#steamyhog

How to find water in space? Search for neon signs "bar" or "market".

How to find food in space? Search for signs with fork and knife. I suggest that you avoid big m-s.

Yes, I'm a hedgehog. My real life story has begun in the year 2137 when I was 15 years old. I escaped from high security research facility where I was born, genetically modified to exceed my lifespan by factor 10. My intelligence in fact isn't so much above the average of the hedgehog. The only difference is, I had a chance to learn and evolve over the years. You see, most of the other representatives of my species live to an age of 6 if lucky and they spend all their time searching for food and sleeping. Human babies aren't considered competent enough to go to school by the age of 7 for that matter.

First years were horrible. As a "lab rat" I had zero experiences in finding the food and shelter. I remember, when I first saw a daylight in the morning I escaped. Cold breeze touched my spikes and it almost made me to return back to the laboratory. But the craving for exploring this strange world, you call outside, was too strong.

I spent my first week under a bench in a nearby park, feeding on the bread chunks that old ladies were throwing to the pigeons. Sometimes I fested on apple leftovers that people threw in the bushes. If someone failed to score a bin. The third day I found an apple tree about a hundred feet away from my bench with a a couple of apples still on it. "Great," I thought to myself:"now I only have to find a way up there." Of course, that was impossible for me at that time. The days went by and it was becoming colder and colder. I heard from the people sitting above me, that the snow is going to fall. It was freezing that night. I decided to crawl back to my warm cage with fresh water and food.

Approaching the building I took one last look over the white park, or so I thought. I entered through the same air vent, I came out just a week ago. I felt immediate relief as the hatch closed behind me. But something went wrong. I felt a sharp pain on the back of my had and everything went black. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see anything. Slowly the objects began to take shapes. I was outside again.

I must have stepped on a mouse trap.