Ending Time by Nichole Haines

Author:Nichole Haines
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Published: 2022-08-30T06:00:00+00:00

12

Confused

NICHOLE HAINES

I was standing inside the black cube. I couldn’t see anything, but it felt like a real room to me. The only thing that seemed off was the fact that there wasn’t any light at all. It didn’t feel dark or gloomy, just different from what I’d grown up with. Maybe it’s supposed to be dark and mysterious? But my eyes were adjusting, so maybe not. “Hello?” I called out into the silence.

“Who is this?” A woman’s voice came back to me. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “Where are you calling from?”

“Uh…” I looked around for something to point at. There was nothing in sight. “Outside.”

The woman chuckled. “That’s not going to work,” she said. “You’re in a simulation, so your senses aren’t functioning properly yet.”

Wait… What? She can hear me?

“What do you mean?”

“Just tell me where you are,” the woman told me. “I’ll find you.”

How did she know who I am? Or how could she even hear me over this distance? This was unbelief-

“There!” She pointed toward the wall of the cube. I followed her finger until I saw a small dot moving slowly across the wall. The dot turned into a man. He was wearing a white lab coat and had a pair of glasses on his face. “Here you go.”

He walked right through the wall, which made me wonder if he was some kind of ghost. Then he started walking toward me. I backed away.

But then he stopped in front of me. His eyes widened when they fell upon me. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed. “It’s you! I thought you were dead!”

***

A smile spread across my face. “Hey, Gabe. How have you been?”

Gabe took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Oh, man. You don’t know how good it is to see you again. Where are we?”

“In a simulation,” I replied.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. Just make sure you get out soon. We’ve got work to do.”

“We do?” I asked.

“Well, yeah,” Gabe said. “I think you might be able to help us figure out what happened to me.”

“Okay…”

“And we need to get back to our bodies. I’m getting tired of being trapped here.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I understand.”

“Good. Because I think you might be able to help me get back to my body. But first things first: Let’s get you out of this simulation.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Easy. Just follow me.” Gabe started walking down the hallway.

***

After a few minutes, I noticed a door ahead of us. I hadn’t seen it before. It must have opened while I was talking to Gabe.

“What’s behind this door?” I asked.

“My bedroom,” he answered. “I think I left my phone there.”

“Let’s go check.”

Gabe walked into the room and started looking around. After a moment, he came back to me. “Nothing.”

“Maybe you should look harder.”

Gabe shook his head. “No way. I’m not messing with this stuff anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Look, I used to mess around with VR simulations a lot. When I was younger, I had this whole setup in my basement.

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