(Here is the original introduction to my masterlist, but changing my blog name messed it up!)
You sprinted down the hallway, the white walls and floor of the lab pristine, shiny, and a blur as you sped past them. They expected you to keep running straight down the hall and escape. After all, you had destroyed the samples that you needed to and could finally leave. You heard footsteps thundering behind you. It was the herd of armed guards that had chased you all around the maze-like facility. But your lead on them was closing, and you were getting tired.
You darted down a couple of side hallways and shit, you had met a dead end. A huge, circular metal door waited for you at the end of the hall. In this pristine, white hall, there was nowhere to hide, no wait, except…! Your heart leapt in relief as you ducked behind a metal cart with wheels and drawers.
Your head cleared the top of the cart mere moments before the guards stampeded through the hall perpendicular to you. It frightened you that you had been standing in that very hallway not even a minute before. The floor shook and you did your very best to stay quiet.
“Should we look down this hallway?” one guard yelled to another over the din of the search for you. Your heart clenched as you braced yourself – to run, to fight, to do whatever you needed to do to survive.
“Nah, there’s nothing down there,” another answered. “Probably headed for the exit – we’ve got an ambush set up there.” You breathed a sigh of relief – at least you didn’t run to the exit.
When you were sure that they were gone, you ventured out from your hiding place. You couldn’t run to the exit. The guards were there. You knew that there was only a short time until they started combing the facility to find you.
You needed to hide. The guards remarked that there wasn’t anything down this hallway. Behind the door seemed like a good place to hide away for the time being. You approached the door. A small camera on a retractable arm popped out of the wall. Although you jumped back and covered your face, the camera had already seen what it needed to.
A cool robotic voice greeted you by name as the grey door opened. It was strange that the computer knew your name. The distant footsteps that rang out in the hall made you decide to slip into the room. The door clamped shut behind you with a thunk!
You stood in a cavernous, black warehouse. The room was so tall and dark that you couldn’t see the ceiling. Huge black shelves in neat rows stretched up into the shadows of the room, and on the shelves were tanks. The tanks were lit from the inside, and this light alone illuminated the room. You drew closer to them, and peered into the closest tank. Inside, floating in the green translucent liquid was… you.
Your stomach lurched. The body swayed back and forth. Attached to its… your face was some sort of machine, making bubbles and humming. The glass radiated heat, and you felt it on your face. You backed up, trying to get away from your clone in the tank. Your back hit another warm glass tank. The panic bubbled up in your stomach as you realized that every tank on the shelf had your clones in them. All the tanks behind you did, too.
Something about this was… seriously messed up.
“Oh, you’re early,” a voice remarked. You jumped, searching for the source of the voice. Was there someone else in here with you?
A figure in a dark, hooded cloak turned the corner. You spun on your heel and bolted to the door that you entered through. The person in the cloak snatched your arm with a strong grip. You flailed and tried to escape, but they were too strong.
“Let me go!” you shouted, trying to wiggle your way out of their grip. In your struggle, the person’s hood fell back and exposed their face.
The person holding you was… you. But the version of you that you dreamed of being. Every flaw and insecurity that you saw in yourself was erased from them. The perfect you. Even if the other you looked very different from you you, there was something in them that you recognized.
“Oh, I remember this,” they said. “You’re baby me.”
“Come with me, let me explain,” they said, holding one of your arms and leading you deeper into the warehouse. The two of you walked through rows and rows and rows of tanks, all with other yous in them. You lost track of how long you walked, but eventually, you reached a wall with a grey metal door. The other you opened the door, and light spilled out of it. You eyes watered at the brightness.
Inside of the room was what could be best described as a “futuristic museum.” The grey walls were covered with computer screens from floor to ceiling. Each screen showed a video. For a moment, you watched them, and you realized: that was you in all of them. Different stories, different settings, but always you. They varied in physical appearance – some were men, some were women, some were neither. Some looked like you do now, some looked like who you wanted to be, some looked like they weren’t even human. But you recognized the other yous in the same way that you recognized the you in the black cloak – you detected something deeper in them that resonated with your soul.
“That’s… me?” you ask, turning to the cloaked you.
“That’s us,” they confirmed. “In different lives. Here, come look at these exhibits.” They led you down a hallway that was also covered in screens, to a room with glass display cases. Inside of each case was a computer monitor, and some trinkets. Some cases had mannequins with outfits, trinkets that must have been important to you, tools, letters, journals, audio recordings, songs – like an extremely fancy museum. They all had plaques to describe what had happened in that life. The stories all centered around you. Or well, that particular you. The you in the black cloak followed you throughout the museum, and answered your questions.
“Who make this? Why me, er, us?”
The other you looks amused. “We made this. Different versions of us, throughout time. This is like… a hub, to experience all of these different lives. Between lives, we live here until we feel called into the next life. Everyone has one of these places. You were just lucky enough to find ours.”
“So, some of these people… are you?”
“They’re you, too. Or, they will be, when you decide to live through that life.”
“So I can go into that world?” you gestured to a computer screen that showed a video of you sitting at a desk, looking at a laptop. “Or that one?” You pointed to another monitor where you were in the dark, looking at your phone while laying in bed. “Do I have to?”
“Yes, eventually. But those lives are kind of boring, don’t you think? Don’t you want to start with something a little more exciting? You can stay here, but there’s nothing really to do, so you’ll find yourself wanting to go into a new life, trust me.”
“What happens when I live through all of them?”
“I dunno. I’ll let you know when I finish living through all of them. Every floor of the tower is like this. I bet I’m not even halfway done yet,” the other you laughed at the shocked look on your face. “Yes, I remember being on your side of this conversation… that was a long time ago.”
“How many floors are there?”
“There’s a lot. One time I made it up to the seventieth floor, but I got bored and came back down. There’s more floors past that, though.”
“And I need to live through them all?”
“That seems to be the goal. But nobody really knows, I guess. Take a look around and tell me if you find one that seems interesting. I can show you how to get into it. The ones in displays are the more prominent ones, so they’re usually more fun to live through, but you can start with any.”
You explored the building until you found a life that seemed interesting, and the other you helped you to transport yourself there. Which one was it?
