FILE 2.8 [Ted Stokes] – The ‘TDC’ Experiment – 01/26/1992

FILE 2.8 [Ted Stokes] – The ‘TDC’ Experiment – 01/26/1992
Note:

The following text was found on a notepad in the now-destroyed ‘AFM’ base in central Idaho, and is presumed to have been written by Ted Stokes, a criminal and former inmate who was declared dead by natural causes in 1984. The note was recovered by a member of the US Forest Service in late 1991, shortly before the site’s destruction by the US Government in January 1992. It was then turned over to [REDACTED], where it was filed and stored.

The notepad forms part of the small collection of files I managed to photocopy during my time working at [REDACTED].

START

19/08/1973

‘OPEN THE FUCKING VAULT!’, Daren barked, whipping out his gun and pointing it at the clerk. The man’s eyes grew wide, and for a moment I sensed his deep, radiating fear. Remembering what I was here for, I quickly pushed that feeling aside and joined Daren in shouting orders.

As we’d planned, the bank was almost empty; only two other people were crouched down behind us. I spun around, wildly waving my shotgun in their direction.

‘YOU TWO BETTER NOT CAUSE ANY ISSUES!’

A wave of adrenaline pumped through my veins as the weight of the moment finally began to settle in. We had been planning this for months; now all that was left was to get it over with.

From behind me, I heard something surprising. The clerk had, in a shaky voice, replied,

‘No’.

‘What did you just say?’ Daren sneered back at him,

‘I said no. The police are on their way.’ His voice cracked, betraying any attempt to appear confident.

At this, I turned back to face the clerk, whose eyes were now the size of dinner plates. Through gritted teeth, I replied,

‘Let’s try it this way, you better open that vault right now, or I will put a hole in your forehead, understood?!’

I pressed the muzzle of the gun against his forehead.

‘I-I don’t know the code’

‘BULLSHIT’,

He scrunched his eyes, causing tears to form and dribble down his face

‘I CAN’T!’

‘OPEN THE VAULT NOW!’

‘I-I-I TOLD YOU I DON’T KNOW THE – ’.

‘LAST FUCKIN’ CHANCE’

‘5!’

‘4!’

‘3!’

‘2!’

The clerk began sobbing violently

‘I can’t. I don’t know the password.’ His voice was feeble and surrenderous.

‘1!’

I heard the crack of a gun… It surprised me at first. I didn’t know where it had come from. Then the man collapsed in front of me; my eyes widened. I couldn’t believe – no, I didn’t want to believe what I’d just done. Blood sprayed toward me as the man’s body slammed onto the counter before flopping to the ground. My anger drained immediately. I couldn’t move; my mind was stuck in a mixture of fear and disbelief.

Daren ran; went straight through the front doors. I, however, stayed, staring ahead at where the clerk had been. In all this time committing crimes, this was a line I never thought I’d cross. In my eyes, it was always for the greater good, whether that meant getting my struggling mother some extra cash or treating my friends and me to a night out. In all my ignorance, I had never realised that my motives for committing crimes had gradually shifted toward greed and power.

One of the people in the bank behind us slammed something blunt into the back of my head. Before I realised what had happened, I was crumpled on the floor. Just staring straight up. The white ceiling was blotched with darkened patches of mould, in those blotches I could almost make out those wide, startled eyes staring straight back into mine.

04/02/1984

That was 10? no, that was many years ago. I was charged with armed robbery resulting in murder, along with several other charges and sentenced to life in prison. The getaway plan must have worked fairly well because Darren was never caught, haven’t heard from him since.

I’d say I’ve changed a lot since then. I’ve learned to live with extreme regret and depression. Living without purpose – knowing that all these years are for nought – I mean, in the eyes of society, I might as well be a dead man living.

I write this now because recently something peculiar happened. I’d just finished a shift of dishwashing and was chatting with Tobi when a guard appeared at the entrance to our cell.

‘Stokes, captain wants you’

He opened the gate and gestured for me to follow him.

‘What the hell does he want from me? Did I do something?’ I retorted

‘Just go, Teddy. I’m sure it’s nothing.’ Tobi replied.

‘C’mon now, he’s a busy man.’

I looked at Tobi,

‘Just go. ’

Reluctantly, I followed the guard. We walked past rows of decrepit cells, long overdue for renovation. I was reminded of how hellish the place I was going to spend the rest of my time in was. Some prisoners catcalled and shouted snarky remarks, others just glanced and gave subtle nods, a silent ‘good luck’.

The correctional captain was known to be especially cruel. He would bark at people for looking at him too long, and if you weren’t careful with your words, you’d find yourself locked up in solitary surprisingly quickly. He’d called me in a number of times, but this time, something felt different.

The guard opened the office door, and I walked in. There sat the captain, scowling at me from behind his desk. Three deep lines formed in his forehead, and he furrowed his brow. This was nothing unusual; the captain hated every inmate in the prison with every ounce of his blood. What was unusual was the man in a black tuxedo, holding a dark briefcase, stood to the left of him. He smelled of some kind of fresh fragrance, and there wasn’t a single strand of dark hair out of place on his head.

‘Sit, ’ snapped the captain.

As I did so, he pushed a small pile of papers toward me.

Before I could ask questions, the man in the suite spoke in a deep and monotone voice, ‘Mr Stokes, we have a proposal for you. We believe you to be the optimal subject for an experiment we have designed. You will spend one month in our facility, where you must adhere to our instructions before returning to prison. Should you wish to accept this offer, you must sign the documents in front of you.’

‘A test subject for what?’

‘That is classified until you sign’’

‘And then? Where will I go? To a lab where you can treat me like a rat?’

‘Given you sign the documents, you will be taken to a facility where the tests will take place, and there you will remain with us for precisely one month. During this time, you will be provided with sleeping quarters, three meals a day, facilities and a daily medical examination.’

A few seconds passed as I attempted to process what the man had just said.

The captain groaned, ‘You gonna sign? Or else get out of here and stop wasting my time.’

I didn’t think about it too hard; I had been yearning to leave this hellhole for years now. In that moment, being a ‘test subject’ sounded like a small cost in comparison to getting out of this prison.

‘Okay, but first I wanna know that I won’t get hurt or changed in any way during this ‘experiment’’

‘If all goes to plan, you will not be hurt or changed in any way. I might add that the conditions in our facility are a bit more… modern than in here.’

At this, the captain snorted, turning his head to look up at the man,

‘Did you just insult my-’

The man returned a stern look; surprisingly, the captain quietened down. As sketchy as this whole thing felt, I needed a change of scenery; this was literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and if I didn’t take it, I would likely never see anything outside those concrete walls again.

‘I’m in, where do I sign?’

‘Very well, Mr Stokes, but first read the agreements in front of you, then if you are still ‘in’ sign at the bottom.’

I looked down at the papers in front of me. The first one was a non-disclosure agreement. I ran my eyes over the paragraphs, and without really having read anything, scribbled my signature at the bottom. The second paper was titled, ‘EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY CLAUSE’, beneath in smaller print was written, ‘No Liability is accepted for any loss, and/or damage suffered’. I skimmed through that page too, and before I could stop myself, I had signed both papers, with an image of the outside world growing in my mind.

‘Thank you, Mr Stokes. We leave in half an hour; you are allowed one bag. I’ll send one of our men to collect you… oh, and before you leave, take this’

He pulled a pamphlet out of his briefcase and handed it to me

‘It contains some information about the test… tear it up once you leave this room, remember the agreement you just signed.’

With that, he walked past me.

I sat dumbfounded, wondering what on earth I’d just signed myself up for. The paper in my hand didn’t give much clarity either; this one was titled, ‘The Quantum Temporal Position Shifting Experiment’. I had barely gotten to the first line of words when suddenly the snap of the captain’s voice slapped me back to reality.

‘Get out! Go pack ya garbage, and don’t you go running ya mouth to anyone! You understand?’,

Before I could respond, he pulled out a small, ragged backpack that barely qualified as a sack and threw it in my direction. It hit me directly in the face, startling me and causing me to stumble backwards out of the chair.

A rusty snigger escaped the captain’s lips,

‘Use it to pack’

‘Yes, sir. ’

I didn’t own many things in prison: a copy of ‘The Great Gatsby’, a half-finished pack of cigarettes and two sets of prison uniform, one of which I was already wearing. I hastily jammed these few belongings into the small bag whilst Tobi began to enquire,

‘Where ya goin?’

‘They’re doing an experiment on me’

‘Who?’

‘Honestly, I have no idea, government people or something’

‘…and you agreed to this? You get a reward or somethin?’

‘Yup, I agreed, and yup, I do, I get the reward of leaving this s***hole’

‘You comin back?’

‘In a month… hopefully’

‘Hopefully? Teddy, what in god’s name have you got yourself into?

‘I have no idea, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be allowed to tell you; they made me sign an NDA’

‘You’re a dumba** you know that Teddy? I’ve been here for half a century, I’ve seen plenty of people randomly packin’ their bags and leavin’, I ain’t seen any of ’em ever again’.

‘I know I’m stupid, but what’s the bet half those people left because they’d done their time?’

‘Jackson was in for life, murdered his wife or somethin, he left just like you 20 years ago, reckoned he got let out on parole and that he’d be back soon, nobody like him ever gets let out on parole. It was bullcrap, never saw him ever again. Point is, we’re lab rats to them, Teddy, they don’t give a d**n about you, they’ll lure you in and then perform whatever sick or twisted experiment they feel like, don’t matter how much pain and suffering it causes ya’.

‘Look, Tobi, that’s a compelling argument, and I appreciate you tryna’ look out for me, but I already made up my mind. If anything else interesting is going to happen in my life, then this is it. I’m prepared to take the risk’.

‘Well then, there’s nothin’ I can say to change ya mind, is there? I will say this though-’, Tobi’s worried expression grew into a sarcastic smirk,

‘You’re a stupid son of a b**h. Good luck, son, come back and tell me a good story, will ya?’

He said this with a sort of knowing look on his face, as if he doubted what he’d just said

‘No promises’

As if on que a guard turned up at the cell and ushered me out. That would be the last time I’d see Tobi. Since then, I’ve realised that I should have listened to him, but what good is it having that thought now anyway?

After this, my memory becomes a bit blurry; I don’t remember leaving the prison the next thing I do remember is stepping out of a windowless van somewhere in the wilderness. Infront of me there was what looked like a deserted warehouse. They had me cuffed, I was escorted by two large men in black suits, with the man from before leading the way. Faded pink paint was peeling off the exterior, the only window was on the front door and far too covered in grime to see through. You could just barely make out the remanence of three large letters had once been plastered across the front, ‘A.F.M’. A dense wood loomed over all sides of the building, accompanied by the roar of crickets and other night critters. For the first time in many years, I saw the glimmering lights of stars. It was tranquil, I was brought back to a time before jail, a time where I didn’t have a care in the world, roaming freely in the night streets, scanning across front porches looking for my next hit, and coming home far too late to an angry mother.

As we approached the building, the man in front swiped a card and opened the door, holding it open as the two men led me inside. The interior was bland, although it looked a lot more modern than the outside. We were standing in some sort of reception area, the walls were a light grey, white tiles covered the floor, and a ceiling fan spun over my head. It reminded me somewhat of a hospital. There was a counter behind which sat a soldier. After a short and hushed conversation with the guy who was leading us, he handed over a swipe card, and I was led down a hallway to a set of elevators.

I couldn’t quite believe the number of floors indicated in the elevator; this place had floors numbering two to -13. I wanted to ask why this abandoned-looking building had 13 floors, but the look on each of the men’s faces told me I wouldn’t get a response. Nerves kicked in as I tried to fathom the experiments that might be going on in there.

Eventually, I found myself in a room slightly larger than my prison cell on level -2. The whole thing was painted in sterile white, with a neat single bed attached to the wall in a corner, a little desk in the other, a toilet and an indent in the wall covered by a glass door which was apparently a shower. All in white. If I weren’t so tired, I would have been ecstatic. This was a huge upgrade from my previous circumstance. This place was far from what it looked on the outside. It was modern, sleek, maybe a bit bland, but I was just happy to have a comfortable bed and a shower to myself. Before I knew it, I was out cold.

In the morning, I was woken up by a sharp ring coming from a speaker in the corner above my head. A small clock that I hadn’t noticed the previous night indicated 06:00. Ten minutes later, a tray of eggs and toast was pushed through my door along with a carton of juice. At this, I practically flew out of bed. I bathed in the taste of the food, savouring every flavour that greeted my tongue. I had been suffering through 10 years of cold oats for breakfast every morning, and I actually couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten eggs. The weight of being a convicted criminal slipped just a little as I remembered eating eggs with my mum for breakfast as a kid. My juice disappeared far too quickly, and soon enough, my door was opened and one of the large men filled the frame.

He beckoned me over without saying a word, and I obliged. He led me down a hallway with many doors identical to mine. We reached the elevator, where we headed down another two floors. This floor contained an almost identical hallway; however, the room we entered looked more like an interrogation room, with a large one-way glass pane covering most of the wall. There was a small desk and chair in the centre where I sat down. The man disappeared, and eventually, a woman in a lab coat walked through the door with some pencils and a stack of paper. She sat them down on the desk in front of me and spoke in a soft voice,

‘We would like you to complete these cognitive tests’

‘uh, okay’

‘Please answer as best you can’

With that short exchange, she left the room again. The questions covered various topics, ranging from personal questions to math and pattern recognition. It must have taken nearly the entire day to get through the stack, and I honestly found it quite simple. At some point, a tray of fruit and bread was pushed into the room, which quickly entered my stomach. Around this time, I got up needing to use the bathroom, and on cue, a man opened the door and beckoned me towards him,

‘Bathroom?’ he questioned

I nodded, and he led me to a set of cubicles at the end of the hall.

By the end, I was just about dead from boredom. What the hell were they preparing me for? This couldn’t be it, could it? There was no way they pulled me out of jail to answer high school-level questions. I was left quite confused.

Eventually, the same woman returned and took the test results.

‘Why was that necessary?’

I asked

‘We need to test you, you’ll find out more soon’,

The woman turned and left again.

I cursed myself for not reading the information pamphlet that was giving to me.

After a while, I was led back to my room by another man in a tight black suit.

Whilst I indulged in a serving of chicken breast and potato mash, a monotone, gender nuetral voice came through the speaker.

‘Number 4783, we would like to welcome you to our facility. Over the coming weeks, we will perform a variety of mental and physical tests to confirm you are a suitable subject for the experiment. These will take place from 7 am until 4 pm each day. You will be served three meals per day and granted 10 minutes of bathroom breaks per day. Sleep well 4783’.

With that, the voice abruptly cut off.

This was pretty much my life for the next few weeks, sometimes they’d get me to run on treadmills and lift weights, other times I’d be doing math and reading tests. A couple of times, I walked into that same room to find some sort of device. It was like a chair but with an arm reaching over the back, dangling a head cover with small wires attached to it; it was something you would see in a sci-fi movie. Someone in a lab coat would walk in and attach this device to my head. I was told to just sit there and record any and all sensations on a notepad in front of me.

At first, I wouldn’t feel anything, but after around 15 minutes, I would begin to feel a dull vibration in my skull. Eventually, it would begin to buzz, sounding like an annoying mosquito right next to your ear as you try to sleep. The longer I sat at the machine, the stronger this buzz got; my vision would blur, and a headache would set in, gradually getting stronger and stronger.

It turned into a consistent pain pressing my head from all sides. It felt like there was a large concrete block compressing my brain. It became almost intolerable, but I found myself unable to scream or even react. I would just sit there and stare at my reflection in the one-way glass as if nothing were wrong, but on the inside… I was writhing in pain. It got to a point where I couldn’t think at all. It was just pure pain; it felt like I was in hell. After what felt like an eternity, a person in a lab coat would walk in and calmly disconnect the thing from my head as if I hadn’t just had the worst experience in my life. As soon as it was off my head, all the pain would subside, and I felt like nothing had happened.

The first time I yelled at the man,

‘What on earth just happened? Do you have any idea how painful that shit is?’

A bald guy in the same lab coat had come in. He shrugged me off, saying.

‘Don’t worry, it doesn’t actually hurt. Did you write down what you felt?’

This infuriated me, as quite clearly it did actually hurt me.

‘What do you mean it doesn’t actually hurt? How bout’ I strap that thing on your chrome dome, see how you like it, eh?’

‘Calm down, sir, the device will do no actual damage’

With that, he turned and left the room. I was left bewildered.

At some time during the fourth week, I walked in to find a women I haden’t seen before standing over the table. The woman was around her 40’s, with straight dark hair and small round spectacles. Unlike the previous people who wore lab coats, she was wearing a sleek black suite. Her posh British voice broke the silence.

‘Number 4783, after vigorous testing and much analysis, we believe you are a suitable candidate for the experiment. This will take place on Thursday at 3 pm. As we realise how confidential it has all been up until now, we would like to speak with you about the experiment and answer any questions you may have to the best of our ability.’,

She paused before continuing,

‘I am Doctor Freyyman, lead scientest for the experiment’

Silenced followed as I failed to find a response.

‘…You have been brought you here to test a device we have developed, it’s a temporal digitalisation chip, it will digitalise your physical form and then shift your digitalised self through space time at light speed to a specific point, where you will be rematerialised’

I was taken aback by this. This was what it was all about. I was to be the first person to travel through time. I didn’t really know how to feel nor what to say; the words she spoke felt like consecutive freight train carriages rattling through my head.

I managed a feeble, ‘huh? h-how?’

‘Well, understanding how exactly the device works would require extensive knowledge of physics along with several other fields of science. To put it simply, like I said before, it will digitalise you and then rematerialise you in a different time’

‘Will I be able to return?’, I asked, my voice beginning to shake.

‘Yes, as long as you don’t remove the chip, we should be able to bring you back’.

Her voice quivered as she said this which unnerved me. The word ‘should’ didn’t sound very convincing either.

‘should? or will?’

At this, she hesitated, ‘We ca-

She paused

‘Let me rephrase, we will be able to bring you back, and you will not be harmed’

My brain filled with a big jumble of words and questions. ‘How long would I be there?’ ‘What would I see?’ ‘Where would I be?’ .

Eventually, I settled on, ‘And what if I refuse?’

‘Ted’, she began in a soft voice, ‘you signed a contract, you are legally bound to us, and to this experiment. We have treated you well in this facility and wouldn’t go through with this if we thought it might put you in any danger. ‘

My thoughts flicked back to the pain that machine had caused me

‘Will it hurt?’

‘Yes, but only for a few seconds at most’

‘And how long will I be gone?’

‘For you it will be anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute and for us, it will be more like a few days’.

‘Uh huh’

I continued throwing every question I could think of at them until the door creaked open, and once again I was led back to my room. The experiment was to take place in three days’ ; until then, they would perform a few final tests, and I would be given some extra time to myself. I considered refusing to take part, but it seemed like ‘no’ wouldn’t be taken as an answer. I was pretty certain I had said yes the moment I signed those papers, plus in a way, I was looking forward to it. This was one last interesting thing that would happen in my life; the rest I would be sitting in a concrete box filled with people just like me, until I died. Ultimately, I embraced my situation and prepared myself for what was to come. Judging by the head device test, being shot through space-time probably wouldn’t be a very soothing experience.

Thursday came far too soon. There was nothing to do now other then go along with what was planned for me, I signed myself up for this and I was going to endure it. I was escorted by two large men down to level -7, I noticed immediately that something more than just the air was different down there. When the elevator doors opened, I felt a similar buzz to the one I had suffered through days earlier. The entire place was painted black; if it wasn’t for the few dim blue lights overhead It wouldn’t have been possible to see anything. We walked down a circular hallway, the inner wall was glass and on the other side was a dark dome-shaped space, it went at least three meters down and at the centre sat a black object shaped roughly like a chair, somewhat similar to the machine they had used to test me with before. It was larger, and thick glass panes covered all sides of it forming a box. It was ominous, like some kind of possessed throne waiting for the right person to sit in it.

We abruptly stopped walking and turned to enter some sort of decompression chamber which entered into a strikingly bright room with an operating bed in the centre. I was instructed to wait there until a doctor came. The men left me alone. Roughly ten minutes later, a woman walked in wearing full PPE gear, including ear muffs and thick goggles. She carried a briefcase and told me in a muffled voice to lie down on the bed.

She opened the case, and a variety of tools, including a syringe, a set of scalpels, a bottle of purple liquid, some bags of pills and what appeared to be a small black square shape were revealed. She filled the syringe with purple liquid and walked over to me.

The next thing I remember is waking up in that black chair at the centre of the large room. There was a dull pain in my right temple, and I quickly realised all my limbs were tightly strapped to the seat with wires connected to different parts of my body. I could see a few silhouettes moving around in the glass somewhere above. And then it began, the vibration crept through my muscles and into my bones, growing stronger as it went. My brain began to ache. The pain continued to grow until every part of my body was engulfed in it, and then it penetrated my mind. My thoughts began to hurt, my vision blurred, and an intense buzz washed through my head. Whether this continued for hours or seconds, I couldn’t tell.

At that point in time, 100% of my existence was pure pain. It felt as if this suffering had always existed and would continue to exist forever. Every part of my being was in severe pain from my consciousness to my toes. Pain. Then all at once, everything disappeared. Everything. Gone. I stopped seeing, not even black, all my other senses were the same. Gone. I felt like I was floating in space, I couldn’t feel the tight straps anymore, even my thoughts had vanished. The only thing that remained was my consciousness, the very core of my existence. It was like everything else that made me me had been stripped away.

For a while I simply existed in that state; the pain was gone, it was just me and nothing else. I just was. Gradually, my senses began to return. At first, I began to hear; I heard the faint whisper of something far in the distance, like a radio playing at the other end of a field, slowly moving closer. The noise continued to grow until I started to make out sounds – distant static turned into chirping birds, some kind of animal scurrying through brush somewhere next to me, and trees brushing against each other in a soft breeze.

Then came my sense of feeling. First, it was just a faint sensation against my back; it grew into something solid. It was a rough, an uneven surface pressed against my spine. The fresh wind caressed my face. Despite something blunt poking my lower back, I felt relieved to be alive, almost at peace.

Eventually, I noticed a dim light somewhere far in the distance. The nothingness began giving way as it grew. Eventually, it engulfed my entire field of vision, blinding me, causing me to blink. I could move. Above me, what must have been the sun, peeked through the canopy of a thick forest. I saw shapes fluttering about.

I tried sitting up, but my strength hadn’t filled my muscles enough. I lay there, breathing, listening and watching. A few moments passed without any thought. Eventually, an insect scuttled up my leg toward my knee. I tried to kick it off, and to my surprise, my leg jerked as I had intended. I managed to roll over and push myself to my knees. I was somewhere in the woods. According to the scientists I was in the year 301,983.

My initially peaceful state morphed into panic as I realised that soon I would re-enter that seemingly infinite pain. As ridiculous as it was, decided I was getting that chip out at any costs neccesary. I scratched violently at the side of my head, banged it on trees until my head throbbed, and I used broken branches to pierce my temple; ultimately, nothing worked. I sat under a tree, defeated, bleeding and dishevelled.

Then I remembered something: one of the doctors had told me I would be retrieved in at most a minute, it mus have been far longer than that. I judged that at least twenty minutes had passed. Was I… stuck here? I couldn’t believe it. Why had I ever trusted those god-forsaken scientists? Tobi was right all along. I should have turned away as soon as I saw those papers. Now I was here, stuck 300,000 years in the future in some forest, probably in the middle of nowhere. On the contrary, I never wanted to experience that pain ever again.
Filled with regret and not knowing what to do, I waited, thinking maybe there was a malfunction and that eventually they would be able to pull me back to the correct timeline. I tried to prepare myself for that horrific vibrating buzz, which I expected to come at any moment, but it never came. The sun began to dip low, and these gruesome oversized mosquitoes began emerging.

They were larger than any mosquito I had ever seen, and they came in masses. Harassing me until my entire body was left red and bloated with horrifying bites. Any attempt to kill them was met with more aggressive bites. As the hours dragged on, the mosquitoes began to dwindle, and the cold set in. It knawed at my bones as I lay curled up under a tree in my t-shirt and shorts, regretting every choice I had made in the past month that had led up to this moment. There wasn’t much I could do now.

At some point during the early hours of the morning, I looked up toward the trees. Even through the thick canopy, I could make out some small punctures in the sky. I wondered if this was where I would die? alone, in the middle of nowhere, at some random point in time. Was my life’s purpose really just to be some morally corrupt scientist’s toy?

I don’t remember falling asleep.

I awoke to the sound of rustling. My entire body ached, and all my joints felt like they had been mixed and matched. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I noticed there was a small brown mass moving about in the bush next to me. When I struggled to sit up, it stopped abruptly. It was well camouflaged against the forest floor, but I could still see it. The creature stood partly concealed by a branch, head cocked toward me. It looked like a cross between a hedgehog and a rat; other than its long pink snout, it was entirely covered in thick black hair.

A sudden surge of wild hunger motivated me to reach around for a stick or rock. It was within striking distance, and if I could hit it in the right spot, it might just die without too much pain. I sat as still as possible, eyes locked on the creature, whilst rumaging around with one hand behind me. My fingers found a thick, solid object, and in one swift motion, I swung at the little mammal. The thing reacted instantly, darting in the other direction and easily evading the large stick. In a fit of frustration, I threw the stick in the direction it had run, loudly cussing as I did so.

I had no survival skills especially not for 300 000 years into the future and was facing almost certain death. After sulking for another few minutes, I debated what to do next. I could stay put, try to make a fire, and a shelter, or I could pick a direction and just walk, maybe I’d find water, something to eat or even other people. Either way, I knew I would almost certainly die. Still, I had hope. I settled on the second option, figuring I’d at least try to survey the area I was in to see if I really was in the middle of nowhere. So I chose a direction that I thought went uphill and started tramping through the foliage.
It wasn’t long before scratches covered my body, causing the already inflamed bites to swell up more. Along with this, my hunger continued to grow, it was now sweltering hot, and I was dehydrated. I trudged on, knowing I had no other option. The slight upward gradient grew into a steep hill. I found myself stopping every 10 steps and having lengthy breaks. I considered myself to be fairly fit, but this was far more intense than doing pushups in a cell.

I started to get drowsy as the dehydration set in; the leaves around me were looking more and more juicy. I continued, dragging myself up this unforgiving hell. By some stroke of luck, I heard the faint rush of a river somewhere in the distance. Hoping I wasn’t hallucinating, I began heading toward the sound.

I was so caught up in the thought of water as I moved closer that I barely realised the sound I was hearing wasn’t at all water, it was something more whiny, almost electric. My brain had switched to autopilot. I almost didn’t notice the sudden drop in front of me as I walked into a clearing.

Across from me was a large mountain that appeared cut in half, creating a huge rock face. A huge valley with cliff faces on either side carved its way through an infinite landscape. I had to blink a few times as I looked down toward the source of the sound. Far below, hundreds of little dots whizzed by at astonishing speed in either direction; a highway stretched across the entire thickness of the valley and ran all the way along it.

Maybe I wasn’t so alone after all. Surely this meant there were other people; now all I had to do was find a way to make them notice me, and I’d be saved. Ultimatley I didn’t have an option; this was the only chance of survival. My plan was stupid, I had no Idea how to get down to them, so instead I decided to throw things down to get them to come to me.

After a few minutes of utilising the quarterback skills I learned as a kid, I collapsed under another tree. Not knowing how long this might take and not wanting to spend another night in the open, I needed to build myself a shelter. I managed to get back to my feet and, after searching for a suitable spot, found a large semi-rotten tree trunk that had fallen over beside a big pine tree. This created a little corner which I propped some larger branches against to make a structure using the dead trunk to wall off one end. I then weaved together some sticks and filled the gaps with mud and leaves to make the roof. I then barely managed to peel off a large, half rotten peace of bark. I used this as a make-shift door. Using a pile of leaves, I was able to separate myself from the ground.

Satisfied with my creation, I lay inside, and almost on cue, it started to rain. With a new bursst of energy I ran out holding my mouth to the sky. Nearby I found some incredibly large leaves from a palm-like plant, I used one of these as a bowl and managed to catch a decent amount of water, which promptly quenched my thirst. My shelter held up better than I expected; the large pine tree blocked most of the rain, and only a few spots were actually leaking.

By this time, the sun had dipped below the horizon, and I was knackered. The leaves didn’t provide any comfort. Still, I fell asleep surprisingly quickly, listening to the rain tapping against the leaves.
I woke up sometime just before dawn. The rain had picked up, and a large part of my roof had fallen apart along with the door. I was soaked from the waist down and freezing cold. I took up a fetal position in the corner of my shelter. I could barely see anything, but I could hear the rain relentlessly beating the mud where I had been sleeping. I stayed shivering in an almost hypothermic state as the darkness grew into a dim grey light.

It was around this time that I noticed another sound. It was barely audible over the pounding downpour and yet noticeably distinct. It was a squelch of mud was moving back and forth somewhere nearby; it would grow louder and then quieter again as if something were moving around, searching. It was certainly footsteps, and one would be louder than the other, like whatever it was had a limp. It sounded large and heavy. I couldn’t really do anything but sit paralysed with fear, hoping whatever ‘it’ was wasn’t searching for me. At one point, I could hear deep ragged breaths coming from the other side of the dead trunk as it stomped past. A few times, its huge dark shadow moved past the entrance, sending nerves shooting up my spine. The entire time, I didn’t move a muscle.

It must have been midday by the time it disappeared. By then, the rain had calmed down until it was only spitting. I waited another half an hour before leaving the safety of the half-destroyed shelter. Doing my best to ignore the hunger, I crawled out, my joints aching and creaking as I did so. Large humanoid footprints littered the ground all around. They looked like bigfoot prints, they were double the size of mine, but uneven, the right foot was far larger than the left and also created much deeper prints as if the thing was hobbling. Completely unsettled by this, I decided to go back to the clearing, to think of what to clear my mind.

The endless stream of dots was still there, speeding along the valley seemingly all throughout the night. I ended up with some larger branches and logs on the highway in another fruitless attempt at attracting other people. I watched as they disappeared downwards, hoping each time it would affect one of the dots. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to notice. For a while, I pondered throwing myself over the edge, wondering if disappearing like the branches would be better than being devoured by some huge hobbling monster. It was tempting, but I knew I was too much of a coward to do it. There was still a flicker of hope burning somewhere within, and it was prepared to drag on my existence for as long as it could.

As the sun entered the later stages of its journey, I found myself walking along the cliffside. If not to find food, I was at least putting some distance between myself and that thing. I had drunk some water from muddy puddles left by the rain, so at least for the moment, that urge was suppressed. I eventually came across a thick bush filled with tiny red berries. What looked like a group of oversized finches were eagerly picking at them, and before I could stop myself, I had gorged on several mouthfuls of my own. The berries were disgustingly bitter, with large pips in the middle, but at least I had a full stomach again. I picked as many as I could carry in my shirt. The sun was now touching the horizon, and I needed to find a place to stay the night.

It was almost completely dark by the time I came across a large moss-covered boulder with a small overhang. I could see a hollow area that created a small den beneath the rock. As I crawled under a huge rat-sized spider glaring at me from the corner sprang toward me. Startled, I threw a hand forward blocking it’s attack. It latched on and sunk it’s fangs into my palm. I stumbled out toward the nearby cliff, spilling the remnants of berries. Without hesitation, I launched the spider over the edge, hoping to never see it again. A sharp pain surged through my right arm, and my hand instantly began swelling until it looked like a small cushion. I lay against the rock for hours, shaking in pain, drifting in and out of consciousness. My mind conjured images of Bigfoot and Yeti emerging from the darkness, inches ahead of me. Coming to strip the last bit of life I was clinging onto. Eventually, I faded into unconsciousness.

A small light flickered through the trees somewhere far off to my right. It was still pitch black, so it was easy to make out the small light weaving in and out of trees, gradually moving closer to me. I began hearing heavy, uneven foot steps, one thumped louder than the other as if whatever was making them had a limp. They crunched through branches and brush. As quietly as I could, I slipped into the den under the boulder, dragging my now unresponsive arm behind me. The opening led to a surprisingly large space; it was about as good a hiding spot as I could hope for. Through the entry, I could now see a bulbous shadow moving around carrying a torch. It rocked as it crashed through bushes and trees. This thing walked zigzag right up to the boulder until it was practically standing over me.

I could only see part of this… person, or at least I thought it was a person. It looked like a massive, horribly mutated man with a huge, bloated torso. The arm carrying the torch was weirdly long and muscular, thick veins bulging out, whilst the other arm barely protruded from the layers of fat on its side. The creature’s head looked as if it had melted onto its shoulders, creating a thick, meaty neck. Its mouth hung agape as it morphed the fresh air around it into a rotten stench. I could also see why it rocked as it walked. Its right leg was fairly normal, but the left had two knee joints bending in opposite directions. Thick muscles wrapped around to stabilise them. The worst part? It was completely exposed. This overweight man-thing was completely naked, and it felt almost as bad as seeing a fat naked man in a pool changing room as a kid. It stood in front of the boulder for a long time, taking long, drawn-out breaths. It was so close I couldn’t see any of its upper face.

I thought that at any time it would crouch down to grab me, its horrible knees bending like a scissor lift. I was so filled with adrenaline that all my pain from the spider and the previous days had disappeared. Finally, it drew a large breath and, in one huff, blew out the torch, violently throwing us both into darkness. I heard it’s many knees crack as it stumbled to turn around before hobbling back a few steps. Again, it stopped. I heard the same crackling noise as it turned around again, followed by a thud. A long silence inseud.

Eventually, the clouds must have parted, and a fragment of moonlight broke through the canopy. To my horror, I could see the silhouette of the creature. It had walked a few paces back, turned to face me and then flopped onto the ground. Although I couldn’t see its eyes, I could feel its gaze. You could’ve cut the tension with a knife as this thing, and I sat ostaring at each other, each waiting for the other to make a move. As the night shifted toward dawn, I began to make out more and more of its repulsive features. Warts of varying sizes grew all over its body, accompanied by thick bushes of hair growing in random patches. Its face was stuck in a permanent grimace, and where its eyes should have been, there were two lumps of flesh.

Sometime during midday, I noticed a growing whirring noise coming from somewhere near the cliff edge. Significantly louder than the highway far below. The last thing I would have imagined happened next: a sleek, white, metallic box floated over the edge of the cliff between me and the thing. At this point, I felt so out of it that I may well have been hallucinating, my adrenaline had long since worn off and extreme fatigue and pain had set back in. I stared dumbstruck as this box turned toward the creature and produced a small robotic arm holding a needle, all the while the man-thing sat still, head cocked towards the machine as if it knew exactly what was happening.

The box inserted the needle into the man-things’ arm, sending a jerk through its entire body. Next, the box made a noise, some kind of guttural grunt. As if the man-thing had perfectly understood the box, it got up and started hobbling away. The needle was retracted, and its perfectly sleek body reformed. To my bewilderment, the box turned toward me and started floating over. I almost burst out in hysterical laughter. I mean, even for some crappy sci-fi magazine, this was pushing it. First time travel, then an infinitely all-encompassing pain, then a monumental valley through which an equally large highway ran with tens of thousands of dots whizzing in both directions 24/7, then a huge revolting monster thing and now a floating box with an arm that could speak to the monster? I was sure I had lost it, and honestly, I’m still not 100% sure how much of what happened actually happened. Regardless, I will continue to tell the story as I remember it.

The box extended another needle toward me, and I watched as it pushed it into my chest. Then, there was darkness. When I awoke, the scenery around me was completely different. I was in a small white room, the entire floor was soft like a mattress, and I lay in the middle staring up at a sterile white ceiling. For a moment, I thought I was back in my timeline, back at that facility. But, looking around, I noticed some oddities. There was a tiny black cuboid floating in one corner of the room, and I couldn’t see any doors. Neither was there any specific light source that I could see, despite it being blindingly bright. I also noticed that all my pain and fatigue were gone, and I was refreshed and clean for the first time in days.

I stood up, noticing how smooth my joints felt, and walked over to the floating cuboid. It was really floating, and hesitantly, I prodded at it with a finger; it swiftly slid out of the way each time I tried. I walked around all the walls several times, trying to feel for a door without avail. After searching every nook and cranny of the room and finding nothing, I sat back down, once again feeling somewhat helpless. That’s actually when I began writing this: I recognised the shape of my notebook in my back pocket. All this time, the tiny pen and pad that those scientists had given me were still somehow in my pocket. The pad was scrunched, torn, and partially destroyed by water, and the pen had split in half, but to my surprise, the cartridge still held ink, and the pages didn’t immediately rip on contact.

I wrote down as much as I could before getting bored and then spent a long time trying to catch the little floating cuboid, of course, to no avail. Then, finally, after sitting in that room for at least several hours, something happened. One of the walls simply faded away, revealing another white floating cube like the first one. It hovered forward, and the wall faded back into place. Briefly, I saw what looked like the interior of an infinitely vast building. There was no floor insight, and far across from me was another large white wall. It looked like certain sections of the wall had opened up to similar rooms, but they were too distant to make out anything inside., Several other white cubes floated about, going about their tasks.
The box then spoke, in English. The voice was unnaturally natural; it was too perfect.

‘Hello Ted’

I sat speechless,

When I didn’t respond, it continued,

‘You’re in one of our many storage units, specifically the one for all things living. In our language, we’ve dubbed it the ‘living unit’; all things stored here are living. In fact, we have copies of all but 4 living species on earth stored here. You are an exception; you are human, although significantly different from the modern humans we assist. Nevertheless, since you are human, it is morally right to give you the freedom of choice. You have two options: either you stay here in this conurbation where you will live in a capsule along with the urbanised humans, or you can return to the rural humans, where we found you. Before you make a choice, we should show you what we mean by ‘living in a capsule’ so you get an idea of both situations.

Before I could react, a hologram grew from the robot, gradually replacing my surroundings. I was in another seemingly infinite warehouse, this time standing on ground level. Hundreds of pencil towers stood in neat rows, and I couldn’t see any of the main walls. Each tower contained thousands upon thousands of stacked glass orbs, each sitting in its own little cubbyhole forming honeycomb structures. I could see bright pink masses pulsating inside the orbs, each with various wires and tubes connected to different parts of the blob, presumebly keeping them alive.

‘Those are Humans’

The immaculate voice invaded my mind, overwriting my normal internal monologue.

Those… sacks of organs were… human.

‘Each human lives in a personalised virtual utopia, because of our advances in healthcare, the average life expectancy for a human has grown to 3000 years, and any need for evolutionary improvement has vanished. We can place you in a capsule where you, too, can live out all your wildest dreams’.

In an instant, I was snapped back to the little white room. The little white robot cube floated silently as if awaiting my choice. I stared back at it, feeling disconnected from reality, fully ready to wake up from this crazy dream, but I just didn’t wake up. My mind was blank; it took several minutes for thoughts to start coming through.

‘How do you know my name? Is there a way you can take me back to my timeline?’

‘We learn all your personal information by analysing your brain. As for your timeline, It is far too risky for us to attempt to move an organism of your mass backwards through time, you would almost certainly die, in addition, even if you did survive the chances you would return to your exact timeline would be extremely slim’.

My heart sank. I was stuck here. If this really was happening and I wasn’t on some crazy trip, then this was an incredibly important decision. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life in a fabricated world; it simply did not feel right. Even if it was so perfect you couldn’t distinguish it from reality, I couldn’t do it. My life would become useless, the rest of my real existence would be in a tiny class orb stacked away on a shelf in a mega warehouse. I would be contributing nothing to actual reality. I needed purpose in my life, I wanted to find a way back to my timeline, tell my story and contribute something to humanity. I needed to keep that last dying ember alive in the hope that it would one day become a thriving fire, one that warmed those near it, created a place to sit around, share stories, cook, etc.

I made my mind up there and then.

‘Take me back to the forest’

‘Are you certain? The humans there are feral. Whilst we try our best to keep all humans alive, we cannot determine your safety; they may attack you, gang up on you, or even kill you”

‘I’m certain… one more question, what happened to the rurals, why are they so… fucked up, hell even the urban people are completely fucked up’

‘The rural humans dwindle in population and are a subspecies of human. Because of this, we practically treat them as animals. Our job is to keep the urban humans alive and happy. We have created the perfect formula to accomplish this. Once in a while, the rural humans require an injection to immunise them from surrounding dangers, such as sickness, malnutrition, etc. As a result, after millennia, natural selection became partially dormant and much larger variation in the species became apparent. In other words, we made it very difficult for them to die, no matter their physical circumstance. A very similar thing happened to the urban humans; the need for natural selection virtually disappeared with our advanced immunisations and life assistance’

At this, questions began racing through my mind, of which I managed to blurt out 3,

‘That’s a bit fucked up, why treat them worse? And will you immunise me too? Why do I have a ch-‘

I was interrupted,

‘We treat them differently because they are different, they are subhuman and have been for 10258 years before we became independent in 40521. We cannot inject you with the immunisation, it will certainly kill you as it has not been designed for your primative kind. We chose to give you a choice because you mentally resemble the urban human; you are intelligent, unlike the rural humans, who have almost completely lost the ability to develop abstract thought. Once again, I must warn you that you will likely die in that environment. Are you certain this is your choice?’
I didn’t think twice; living the rest of my life in an orb was inconceivable so long as the latter option contained hope. I thought that if I could return to where I had first arrived, I might have a chance at getting back.

‘Yes, I’m sure’

‘Very well, we will return you now’

Once again, the cube produced a needle, and before I could react, everything was black.

When I awoke, I was curled up under that rock again. Strips of light shone through the canopy, and the air smelled of rotting meat and decay. I found out why when I crawled out from my little den. The little mammal that had escaped me days earlier lay on the ground. Its face was stuck in a silent look of horror and pain. Something had torn its stomach down the middle and peeled its skin outward, exposing the rib cage and organs. A crudely made dagger was planted in the centre of the ribcage. This thing had been put on display specifically for me; no part of it had been eaten or taken.
I took it as a sign to get out of there; something told me I was a very unwelcome intruder in that thing’s territory. I trudged along the cliffside toward the direction I thought I had come, the endless whizz of robots pouring up over the edge. I could hear birds singing joyfully from the trees, and the sun hung suspended above distant mountains. I wondered whether it was evening or morning. I began to tire, and thirst gradually overwrote my thoughts; in spite of this, the sun continued to climb and with it came an immense sweltering heat. At some point, I turned right, toward the forest, hoping it’d be cooler. Sweat continued to pour out, and eventually I came to a stop.

I had been walking on autopilot for the past hour and only now began to take in the new sights and sounds. The forest had morphed into more of a jungle; the trees were much shorter and denser, the ground was squishy and soggy, and the bird songs had also changed into a deeper croaky sound, like ratchet noisemakers. Somewhere in the distance, I thought I heard a waterfall, faintly accompanying the bird song like white noise.

I began to move toward the sound, driven purely by a dry, nagging throat. Sure enough, the sound was real. After walking about 200 meters, I came across a small waterfall about my height. The water fell into a pool that was surrounded by tall rocks and vines. I spent the rest of the evening drinking water by the pool, so engulfed in the sensation that I barely noticed a deep hollow in the rock face next to me.

Soon, the sun sank below the trees, and those gigantic mosquitoes emerged from their hiding spots. I took refuge in the cave, but it did nothing to stop the swarm of relentless insects from leaving me swollen and bruised. Once again, I found myself lying broken and exhausted on the brink of consciousness.

As I lay there, a sharp pain in my forehead gradually spread. I tried to move, but I felt paralysed, my legs glued to my sides. At first, I thought it was caused by the lumpy mosquito bites covering my head, but this was different. It created a penetrating buzz, originating from somewhere within. Involuntarily, I began writhing as the pain grew. Sometime in the night, just before the peace of unconsciousness took me, I thought I saw a dim flicker outside the cave, swinging back and forth as if whatever was wielding it had a limp.

I woke suddenly, jolting upward. Immediately, a foul stench of rot and smoke filled my nostrils. Something soft and moist pushed against the back of my head, and as my eyes adjusted, I noticed something that hadn’t been there the night before. At the cave entrance, someone had made a fire. A pile of those rat-like animals was lying in a pile beside it flies were hovering around them. One had been skewered on a stick and was being roasted over the fire. The smell it all emitted was ghastly; some of the animals must have been dead for several weeks.

As I pushed myself up, a sticky substance pulled at my hair like stretching cheese. I turned to see that I had been laid on a mutilated elk-like animal. An incision had been made along its belly and its spilled out onto the ground where I was lying. I stood up, wincing in pain, I began moving for the entrance, not wanting to be roasted like the small rodent. I got about three paces when I heard the same uneven stomping I had nights before. This time accompanied by some sort of rustling and scraping. I froze trying to listen and figure out where it was coming from. The last thing I wanted was to come face-to-face with the creature outside the cave. Before I could decide what to do, its figure appeared in the entrance.

It was the same thing from last time: three knee joints, no eyes, no clothes. It stood there for a moment before moving toward me, dragging a small tree behind it. I stumbled backwards as it advanced. It grabbed the rodent from the fire and continued walking toward me. Its many knees cracked with every step, and drool dripped from its fat lips. Even though it had no eyes, it seemed to stare through me. I kept stumbling backwards, tripping over the dead elk-thing and hitting the ground hard. I tried to scramble backwards, only to hit the back wall of the cave. Then the edges of its mouth lifted into a gruesome smile. I closed my eyes as it began moving faster toward me.

As it closed in on me, I began breathing rapidly. I was about to die; this would be the end of my miserable and worthless life. Memories flashed by, my mother’s smile, my first crime, Darens excitement at our plant, then finally the look on the clerk’s face as I pulled the trigger; scared, alone, helpless. It occurred to me that this was exactly the fate I deserved. I had stripped someone else’s life in a very similar way; the only difference was that I wouldn’t be missed by anyone.

I opened my eyes, prepared to face my demise, but what I saw surprised me. The creature had laid the rodent before me and was standing a few paces back, its head tilted curiously. I stared in bewilderment, wondering what would happen now. This thing wasn’t giving me food, was it? Was it playing a joke?

Hesitantly, I reached forward for the dead animal. The creature didn’t move. Only now did I notice my burning hunger, writhing inside me desperately. I bit down on the stomach, its flesh stunk and was sour and tough, I continued to chew anyway. I ate until a little more than the bones and head remained, all the while the thing just stood still. Once I finished, the thing turned back toward the fire and stoked it with a branch from the tree. Then, in one movement, it lifted another rodent, skewered it and placed it over the fire.

For a long time, I just sat at the back of the cave, back to the wall, waiting for something to happen. Was it saving me? Fattening me up for a better meal? Hours passed, the evening turned cold, and I began to shiver; my torn and dirty clothes offered no warmth whatsoever. It was certainly the coldest since I had arrived. It noticed my shivering and turned toward me again. This time, it kept its head trained on me for a while before moving its strong arm up and mechanically gesturing for me to come closer. When I didn’t move, it got up and started moving toward me again. Like before, my heart started racing, and I closed my eyes ready, to die a violent death. When it got to me, it didn’t attack or violently grab me; instead, it scooped me up gently. I felt paralysed again; it craddled me with one arm and plopped me down next to the fire. Then it took its position again next to the fire.

After another few minutes of paralyses something strange happened. It made a noise

‘-A-A… ArGh Oh i’

Its voice was rough and scraggly, sounding like a mute person trying to speak, but through the voice box of a bear.

When I didn’t respond it repeated itself,

‘ARgh O I’

This time it gestured towards itself

‘That… i-is that your… name?

It tilted its head in confusion before again pointing toward itself and saying,

‘ArGhOi’

I tried to echo it

‘a-aroi?, a-aroi… you… you… aroi’

As I said ‘you’, I lifted my arm to point at it
Its face morphed, and it let out a cacophony of noise that must have been laughter.

‘AhGurhGHI ahI SIUThYU!!’

When it finally quieted down, it pointed at me and opened its mouth, trying to form a word

‘o-ou… O?’

It tilted its head again quizzically

‘Ted… Im Ted’

‘TaaAa…d’

‘Yes, yes! Ted, T-E-D’

It tried to mimic me,

‘T-AA-D’

I began to feel more comfortable around it… No, Aroi, I began to feel more comfortable around Aroi. It didn’t seem like he wanted to harm me; he wanted a friend, and he was lonely. I realised the rodent with the knife in it wasn’t a threat. Aroi had tried to give me a gift.

As crazy as it may sound I began to feel oddly comfortable, I began to look past his mutilated appearance. Aroi was the closest thing I had to a friend since Toby. Unlike the floating robots he seemed to have a genuine compassion for me.

That was last night, I fell asleep next to the fire to the rhythm of Aroi’s breathing.

I awoke some time in the night to the moonlight filtering through the trees, casting swaying shadows onto the cave interior. The fire had burned down to embers and Aroi had disappeared. I lay there trying to return to my slumber, but sleep wouldn’t come.

It started out as a dull pressure some where in the core of my brain and gradually evolved into the same pain I felt the previous day. This time it was stronger, thicker, this wasn’t going away as easily. I came to a striking realisation; this was the same pain I had felt all that time ago during the experiments.

Could it be that the scientists were trying to pull me back in time?
The pain didn’t subside until dawn. All morning I stayed still, eventually Aroi returned carrying another batch of rodent carcasses. Despite his attempts to communicate I couldn’t bring myself to respond. I was frozen in the memory of travelling here and the pure soul wrenching pain that came with it. It was 1000 times worse then what I had been experiencing.

I jolted up, bursting into motion. I was sweating profusely, and my heart felt like a piston. Aroi had layed his knife next to the fire and was busy collecting more wood. I grabbed it first putting it to my head where the chip was implanted and then to my neck. But, I didn’t cut, I thought about going home. No matter how slim the chance, I yearned to go home, I wanted to be back on my bunk chattering with Tobi, I wanted to do my time and be free, most of all I wanted to see my mother, I wanted to apologies to her, I wanted forgiveness. I lowered the knife and my breathing slowed, then I dropped back to the ground. I realised I was willing to endure anything to have that back.

That was this morning now I sit, waiting, watching dusk, and writing an account of my experienced on the tattered notepad that somehow isn’t completely destroyed. The sun casts its gentle beams through the trees. One of those rat/hedgehog-like creatures just ran past the cave entrance, it stopped and sniffed at me before scurrying away. Aroi’s been gone for a while. Not sure why. I can feel it coming, the dull pressure in my head, however its different again, this time I can feel a vibration, a buzz. I think this might be it, my last evening in the year 301 983.

My heads, in pain, it feels like it might combust at any second. But, I’m still here still writing. Its getting worse by the second, I can hear Aroi stomping around somewhere in the bush. My mind keeps switching between the smile of my mother and the look in the clerks eyes right before I shot him, I deserve every ounce of the pain to come, I deserve to feel this helplessness, this… fear.

The sun went down a few hours ago, the pain has spread to my chest, bursting from my heart into my ribcage and shoulders, my vision is blurred and my hearing is muffled. Aroi’s sitting next to me trying to console me, he must know somethings wrong, I’ve said bye to him several times, but I don’t know if he understands.

That was about half an hour ago, now I’m barely able to write. I can feel that this is it, when I wake up I won’t be with Aroi anymore, I’ll be back in that chair, surrounded by scientists, right? Those fucking scientists, Tobi was right all along, murderers sentenced to life don’t just get out on bail, its an excuse, they’re used, tested on, they’re lab rats. How naive and stupid I was.

But now I’m going home! Am I?

I must have hope.

Is there any?

The robots words just flashed through my mind,

‘It is far too risky for us to attempt to move an organism of your mass backwards through time, you would almost certainly die’

The darkness is enclosing, the light of the fire is growing more and more distant.

I can hear muffled sobs from Aroi somewhere next to me

I’m losing consciousness

I don’t think I’m going home

Credit: Finnzyy

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