FRIDAY

You wake up with the sun shining in on your bedroom. You can safely say you haven’t had that experience in a long time, if ever.

You aren’t sure what time it is, but knowing you, you probably slept through the morning as usual.

Once again, you’re stuck in the same clothes you’ve been wearing since the beginning of the week. While you can certainly shower, you’d really rather change clothes at this point so you go through your room and hope that your alternate self left some old clothes in it.

After going through some drawers you find that your alternate self has about the same fashion sense as you do, meaning pretty simplistic. The clothing itself tends to be a bit brighter though as everything else seems to be in this reality and it’s starting to get on your nerves.

You grab a pair of old jeans and a shirt and head to the bathroom where you wash up and later attempt to brush your teeth using your index finger with toothpaste on it. The jeans and shirt are a slightly tight on you though. It’s not enough that your alternate self has a happier life, but the fucking bitch is apparently a size smaller than you as well.

“Oh well, I guess I’ll just be that much more popular with horny guys (Sigh) …unfucking believable…” you mutter as you squeeze yourself into the clothes.

After getting dressed, you head downstairs. The first thing you see is dad on a small ladder working on the overhead light he mentioned wasn’t working. You don’t think you’ve ever seen your own dad ever fix anything.

“Hey, look who’s finally up. You sleep well? You must have considering it’s the afternoon.” Dad says.
“Yeah, I guess I really needed the sleep. Where’s mom?” you ask.
“She’s in the kitchen. Oh meant to ask you, where’s that silver sports car your drive? I didn’t see it in the driveway or even on the street.”

Silver sports car? Seriously? You own a fucking sports car?

“Oh, um…yeah I decided not to drive that one here, it’s been giving me trouble lately anyway. I got an older car for cheap to just drive around in; it’s that small blue one outside.” You say.
“Oh. Okay. I just thought I’d ask. Like I said, there’s been some burglaries and I was concerned that the criminals had expanded to car theft too. Probably a good idea you didn’t bring it, nobody is likely to steal that thing outside.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.” You say and head to the kitchen.

“Fucking sports car…” you whisper shaking your head before you greet mom in a friendly manner.

“Hey sleeping beauty is finally awake! You sleep well I trust in your old bed?” mom asks while she works on cooking something.
“Yeah. Slept fine. What are you cooking.”
“Oh I’m preparing big batch of beef stew. I swear your father would probably not eat anything else. It will take awhile, but I can make you something before then of course.”
“Nah, I’m okay.” You say sitting down.

Your mother smiles at you and you smile back, but you don’t say anything else.

It’s weird, you wanted to talk with her so much yesterday, but now as reality sets in that she’s not really your mother, you’re sort of at a loss for words and awkwardly silent.

Still, you want to make the most of this time so you struggle to think of a topic without being suspicious.

“So…uh…how are Ben and Kelly doing?” you ask.
“Well Ben is still stationed over in Europe. Not exactly sure what he’s doing over there, but it doesn’t seem to be dangerous for once, which I for one am glad about. Julie and the children I imagine are glad about it too. You talk to her recently?
“Not for awhile.” You say which is sort of the truth.
“Oh. Well I did hear you two weren’t on speaking terms any longer. I hope you make up though since the pair of you were always good friends and the both of you probably said words neither of you really meant.”
“Wait, what?” you ask.

You mother stops chopping potatoes for a moment to address you directly.

“A few months ago, Ben told me that Julie told him that you got in argument with her about how she’s too strict with your niece and nephew and she told you not to tell how to raise her kids. I can’t remember the entire exchange of what else happened except I know she ended up calling you a dyke that won’t ever know what it means to be a mother anyway and then you swore at her and hung up. While I can certainly see Julie’s defensiveness about how to raise her children, I don’t think it was right to say such hateful things, just because of your lifestyle choice.”
“Lifestyle choice?” you say a bit confused as you’re attempting to process everything.
“Oh right. I’m sorry Suzy. I know you were born that way. You explained it very well to your father and me when you came out years ago before graduating from college. We’re just still a little old fashioned in our way of thinking and it lapses at times.”

You do not believe this…

“But I’m not a…” you start to say, but then realize why bother correcting her? It would just confuse things for when their real Suzy arrives.

“…I’ll try to make the attempt with Julie, but she really needs to apologize.” You say instead.
“You always were the bigger person. And I wouldn’t give it another thought as far as what she said about being a mother is concerned. There’s always adoption and I also know you people are really big on all that artificial insemination stuff. I’m sure when the time is right you and Heather will…”
“Heather?”
“Yeah, your girlfriend. Wait, you didn’t break up with her did you? She seemed so nice when you brought her here for us to meet her…”
“No…no…I didn’t break up with her, um… so how is Kelly again?” you ask really wanting to change the subject.

“Kelly? Well she’s Kelly. Still one of this town’s finest and doing a good job at it. Wish she’d find a better man to settle down with though. She seems to flip back and forth between these various loser guys that are so far beneath her it isn’t even funny. She really could do so much better and it’s not like there haven’t been several good men that have made genuine attempts to woo her. She doesn’t want to be tied down though and it’s her life I suppose.”

Well now you’ve heard everything. You truly are in bizarro world.

“You okay dear?” mom asks.
“Yeah, yeah I’m just fine mom.” You answer
“Well enough about your siblings, how are you doing? You working on a new book yet?”
“New book?”
“Yeah, you started writing a new book again? I know last time you said you had a bit of writer’s block. Honestly I don’t know how you come up with all the ideas you do. You’ve written like three books already. I know I don’t have the imagination to do that, but you always were creative even as a little girl.”

So that’s what you do. You’re a writer. Makes sense actually. In fact you almost want to kick yourself of why the hell you never tried your hand at it in your own reality. You certainly procrastinate enough.

“I’ve got a few ideas in my head I suppose. Writing is never an exact science.”

Before you have to make up more shit on the fly, dad comes walking in.

“Smells good in here already. Anyway I fixed the light and now I’m going to the hardware store, I’ll be back later.”
“If you already fixed the light, why do you have to go to the hardware store?” you mother asks.
“I have to replenish all the stuff I used.” He says, but mom doesn’t look convinced.
“Okay I just want to go because I really want a new drill.” Dad breaks down and admits.
“George you’re really silly sometimes when you try to make up stories.”
“Well it’s where Suzy gets her story telling ability from!” dad remarks and pats you on the shoulder giving you a smile, which you return.

“Okay, see you both later.” Dad remarks and leaves the kitchen with Mom still smiling about the silliness.

“You and dad seem very happy.” You remark.
“Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we be? We’re enjoying our elderly years together, we’ve had a successful marriage, we have three successful children that love us, grandchildren, a nice home, what more could one hope for?”

What more indeed. You’re still thinking about what the hell you’re going to do with your own life.

Despite a few major differences in your alternate self, you’d still switch places with her. She’s got everything, a formal higher education, successful career, a fancy car, a significant other and most importantly a loving family.

You begin to get lost in your own head, which is then disrupted by mom.

“Suzy? Suzy?” mom asks.
“Huh? Yeah?” you answer.
“Are you really okay? You’ve been sort of spacing out lately.”
“Oh, yeah. Well like I said, I’ve got a few story ideas in my head and sometimes I get lost in thought.”
“Okay. Well I really have to go to the bathroom, can you finish cutting those carrots?”
“Oh yeah, sure mom.” You reply.

Your mom leaves the kitchen leaving you alone with your thoughts and cutting up carrots. You increasingly become melancholy as you dwell on how things still suck for you and as you’re apt to do, you begin talking to yourself.

“(Sigh) Suzy, Suzy, Suzy, only you could find the negative out of the one relatively positive thing about thing about this fucked up week. Pull yourself together girl. You survived a hell of a lot worse than this. You wanted to be self-sufficient, we this is a good start. A fresh new world is your oyster and you’ve got plenty of opportunity…”

Suddenly you hear a phone ring. It’s the land phone on the kitchen wall. You walk over and nearly grab it immediately, but then you remember you’re not really supposed to be here.

However, you then notice the caller I.D.

Suzy.

You are compelled to pick up.

“Hello?” you answer.
“Hey. Mom? Is that you?” the voice on the other end says.

You pause. You never realized that you and your mother sounded so similar before.

“Yes, of course it’s me honey. Who else would it be?” you say.
“I dunno, you sound a little different. Might be that ratty old land phone you have though, I keep telling you to get a cell!”
“Oh you know me dear, your father and I are a bit set in our ways.”
“Don’t I know it. Ha ha! Nah, I know you guys really do try. So hey, I was just calling to let you know I’m coming a little bit earlier and I’ll probably be there sometime late tonight. Like probably after midnight.”
“You are?”
“Yes, like I said I just wanted to let you know so you guys don’t get too mad when I’m knocking on your door late at night waking you up…unless you want me to stay at the town’s motel until tomorrow morning. I know you guys go to bed early.”

It is at this moment that the dark idea your mind has been dancing around for quite some time isn’t going away and is now in full bloom.

If you just got rid of this Suzy, all your problems would be solved. You just have to muster the fortitude to do it…
> You tell Suzy to come home
You can’t do it. Even if you could pull it off and ignore the immorality of it, you still can’t do it. If you did, you’d be taking the easy way out just in a different fashion.

Besides, what right do you have to take this good life away from this reality’s Suzy? You don’t.

“No! We wouldn’t dream of making you do such a thing! You come right over, and we’ll answer the door when you arrive.” You say.
“You sure?”
“Of course I’m sure! What kind of parents would we be if we didn’t let our own daughter back into the house?”
“You two really are the greatest parents sometimes. What am I saying? You two are the greatest parents ALL the time! Okay, well I guess I’ll be seeing you tonight then.”
“Suzy?” you utter.
“Yeah?” she asks.
“I want you to know that your father and I love you very much.”
“I know that mom. I love you guys too.”
“Just always remember that, okay? We’ll see you when you get here.” You say before hanging up.

You have to fight back the urge to cry.

“Did I hear you on the phone out here?” you mother says walking into the kitchen.
“Huh? Oh, yeah just someone trying to sell something. They were really persistent.” You reply.
“I can tell, you hardly cut up any of the carrots.”
“Sorry, I guess I got caught up in telling them to never call here again. I should have just hung up I suppose.”
“No worries, I’ve gotten directly angry at those telemarketer types too.”
“Hey mom, I’ve got some things I left here that I want to get and I know they’re probably in my room somewhere, you don’t mind if I go take care of that do you?”
“No, not at all. We can talk later. Let me know if you’re looking for something in particular. I might know where it is.”
“I will mom.”

You leave the kitchen and head to your room where you close the door and break down a bit quietly. It isn’t fair, but it is the right thing to do.

“Well, at least I had a few more moments with her, even if she wasn’t my real mom.” You say to yourself.

After a few moments of being sad, you finally motivate yourself to action.

“Well, I might not be killing her, but I’m not above stealing from the bitch.” You say and grab an old looking duffle bag out of her closet and grab a bunch of her old clothes out of her drawers for yourself.

Sure they’re going to be a little tight, but at least you won’t have spend money on clothes for awhile and you’re going to have to make that thousand dollars you still have last until you figure out a way to make a living in this world.

After pillaging your alternate’s room, you decide you probably should leave now. No point in drawing this out and it will be easier for you. You imagine that your visit here is probably going to leave some very strange questions for this family when the real Suzy arrives, but you really can’t worry about it. Besides, you’re sure that everything will work itself out anyway. Seems to have so far with this Suzy.

You head back downstairs and find that dad is back home.

“Hey Suzy, where are you heading off to?” dad asks.
“Oh, I’m just going to put this in the car and maybe drive around town. Look up some old friends and such. Might not be back until late so I might be knocking on the door waking you up again.”
“What? You’re not even going to have dinner with us tonight? I thought the whole point of this visit was to see us!” your dad exclaims.
“It is, but I still want to visit a few old school friends I haven’t seen in a long time too. I mean we’ll have lots of time tomorrow and the rest of the week!”
“Rest of the week? I thought you had to leave here by Monday.”
“Oh, yeah…well two days is still a lot of time!” you say.
“I suppose…it’s just…well your mother and I were really happy that you arrived a little earlier than you did since we don’t see you as much anymore and we really wanted to enjoy the time we were getting with you. The extra day was like a bonus.”

You look a little downtrodden at dad’s disappointed tone.

“But I guess if you made other plans with other people, I wouldn’t want to stop you.” Your dad remarks and leaves the room.

You nearly say something, but stop yourself. Instead you just head out the door and to your car.

You throw the duffle bag in the trunk of your car and get ready to drive off…

“(Sigh) Shit…” you say to yourself as you hang your head down with the key just in the ignition.

You get back out of the car and head back to the house.

“She’s not supposed to arrive until after midnight. Still gives me plenty of time. It’s not going to hurt to have dinner.” You say to yourself and ring the bell.

The door soon opens and dad answers.

“You forget something?” he asks.
“Yeah, my manners. You’re right, I should be spending time with you guys. Sorry dad.” You say and give him a hug.
“It’s okay honey.” He replies and hugs you back.

You pass the next few hours chatting with dad. Mostly about mundane matters, which actually don’t involve any more insight into what your alternate life was like here. Doesn’t really matter though, you’re actually just enjoying the conversation. Back in your reality, you don’t think you ever spoke more than a half hour with your father at most.

Eventually when dinner is served you sit down to eat with mom too and the conversation continues. This time you do learn a little more about your “life” here and through careful weaving and quick thinking, you manage to navigate through questions you might not otherwise know the answers to.

By the time dinner is over, you’re enjoying your time with mom and dad so much that you put off leaving immediately after. Instead you play a few board games with them (Which you definitely never did as a child with either of them in your own reality) and continue to have more fun.

Eventually the time is getting very late and you do start to get concerned that the other Suzy will arrive earlier than expected. Fortunately mom and dad being creatures of habit tell you they’re turning in for the night and after a few more words, hugs goodnight and mentions of plans for tomorrow, they go to bed.

You look at the time and see it’s indeed getting up for midnight. You leave the house and get in your car once again.

As you drive off, you notice you aren’t sad. Well you’re sad that you do have to leave, but you not the emotional wreck you thought you might be. Maybe that little extra time together brought closure of sorts. You certainly are more at peace with it all. You wipe a few tears from your eyes and smile.

This moment of “zen” is suddenly cut short by a car slamming into your driver’s side while rolling through a stop sign due to neither you nor the other driver paying full attention to your surroundings.

The impact is pretty hard and given you weren’t even wearing your seatbelt at the time makes it worse. Unlike the car crash you had this earlier week, you’re hurt very badly and you even can’t move in your current condition. As you’re lying in your car bleeding, bones broken, having a hard time breathing drifting in and out of consciousness and a piece of twisted metal impaling your side you don’t think a mysterious stranger with magical healing gel is going to fix you this time.

You also can’t help but think that this is probably the only way this week could have ended for you. Part of you wants to fight, but somehow with the last few good moments you just had with mom and dad make you actually want to let go. Why keep struggling? If you live you live, if not, well at least you had some joy during your last day. More than you might have had otherwise. Maybe you just weren’t meant for this world either.

You aren’t sure how long you lay twisted in the wrecked vehicle for before you hear sirens, but you aren’t even awake long enough to hear the ambulance sirens, let alone before anyone actually comes and helps you. You die of your wounds in the ambulance thanks to the paramedics attending to the other driver first. Who are more than a little freaked out when they first see you and the driver of the other car.

The funny thing is, you never did see that it was a silver sports car that slammed into you. Somehow fitting that this reality’s Suzy was luckier than you.


THURSDAY

You wake up to the sound of…well you can’t quite place it. White noise might be the closest thing you can think of, but that wouldn’t be correct. It’s like an annoying hum or buzz going straight to your head. You get up and see that the TV is off from yesterday, so it isn’t that.

“Jack? You hear that noise?” you call out in a groggy tone.

There isn’t any answer, just that increasingly annoying noise.

You attempt to get up and it takes you a couple tries, not because you’re naturally lazy, but more because you’re starting to feel nauseous. The noise you’re hearing isn’t helping matters.

You get up on your feet and stagger to the door way which when you get to, you lean up against and feel like you’re going to puke.

“Jack…” you just barely manage to shout, before you have to stop to keep from vomiting.

You look up and down the corridor and find that the lights are flickering. Some are out completely. You have no idea what the hell is going on, but you’d probably be more scared if you didn’t feel so sick.

Mustering up all your willpower, you head to the bedroom thinking Jack might be asleep in there. Nobody there, but you can’t fight the sickness any longer and you run as fast as you can to the bathroom nearly falling over in the process.

You just barely manage to make it to throw up in the toilet. The lights are going nuts at this point and you notice the bathtub and sink are both on. After recovering a bit, you notice the stuff coming out of the sink isn’t exactly water. It’s black and tarry looking. You don’t risk touching it, you just get the hell out of the bathroom.

No sooner have you done this, when a sudden loud noise hits you so hard you actually stumble and fall to the floor. You wouldn’t even be able to describe the sound, it’s just really horrible and even though you’ve just puked, you still feel pretty damn nauseous.

Picking yourself back up and leaning against the wall, you slowly try to make your way to the room where Jack was messing about with his radio stuff. You don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere though, in fact the more you walk, the more you feel like you’re on a treadmill in an endless corridor.

You continue on, but as you pass by rooms you can swear you’re seeing weird things out the corner of your eye. You then start thinking you’re seeing shit in front of you as well. Shadowy humanoid figures blink in and out existence along with the lighting.

At this point the feeling of terror is becoming stronger than your feeling of sickness. The white noise is still drilling into your head, but now it’s accompanied by an insane laugh, which varies in pitch and tone. When you pass the flight of stairs, you hear whispery voices beckoning you go in that direction. You’re hardly enticed to do so.

As you get closer to the radio room, the shadowy figures can be seen running about in the large room up ahead. As you get closer, these figures are becoming less shadowy and more “solid.” These figures are starting to no longer look humanoid either.

It is around this time that you notice your surroundings are becoming… warped. Walls are melting around you and you’re seeing those shadowy figures in the next room starting to move in slow motion one moment and then other times you see them rapidly moving back and forth in a repetitious manner. You nearly jump out of your skin when several of these beings appear right in front of you and you get a good look at them now that they aren’t so shadowy anymore.

They’re a mass of tentacles, teeth and misshaped features that would make any horror movie demon jealous, unfortunately this is no movie. The screeching, wailing, and gibbering are bad enough, the visual is bad enough, but the fetid smell is what puts it over the top in just vile nastiness.

You see one particularly disgusting one with a mutilated face like raw meat and a the scent of a rotten corpse on a hot day, transform into something even worse looking before it opens three of its mouths to reveal its tongues which not only look infested with disease, but have ugly little faces on them.

When it attempts to lick you, you turn and run only to find yourself in a wide open space where everything now looks like it’s been put through a multicolored filter. You feel like you’re in a rainbow void. When you look behind you however all you see is darkness save for the creatures now moving towards you.

You don’t run far when all of a sudden the rainbow filter disappears and is replaced by a flickering affect that you’re actually back in a “real” location. It isn’t the corridor though, it resembles more of a large college auditorium and in the center is a single figure sitting in a lotus position.

He’s bald and not dressed in modern clothing and in fact looks like he’s from some sort of nerd cosplay convention. He appears human however.

One thing that’s about him that doesn’t look human though is his eyes are completely white and not just normal “blind eyes” sort either. They’re glowing pure white light.

You become very disorientated as the flickering of this reality disappears and slowly just becomes a blank gray open space with more gray as far as you can see despite there not being any more walls. You see that the creatures behind you aren’t following, but they definitely want to get closer. It would seem this man’s presence is at least holding them back somehow. At this point you you’re completely lost to as what is going on, but you approach the man if it means keeping the monsters at bay.

The man suddenly speaks as you get close to him. He’s not really looking at you though, more like looking through you.

“You…I…don’t belong here…everything changes…so many changes…been here…before…somewhere else…so much to do…bring balance…the future is beautiful…the past is beautiful…everything is ugly…corrupted…it’s beautiful…” the man utters in a fragmented way and you have no idea what the hell he’s talking about.
“Where is Jack?! What’s going on? Who are you?!” you ask trying to figure out this situation.

To your horror you notice your hands and arms become weathered and wrinkled. From what you can tell, your hair has gone completely white as well. With some hesitation, you feel your face and it definitely doesn’t feel smooth anymore.

“Oh my god…” you utter.

“…time is short…fleeting life…the others do not like this place…disrupts balance…” the man says still not moving from his spot.

You then notice your hands and everything else have gone back to normal. This entire situation is very fucked up, and you don’t have the faintest idea what’s going on, but you hope that “Mr. Lotus” has some answers with all the cryptic shit he’s spouting.

“Look! I need answers! What is going on here and who are you?!” you ask again while still looking back to make sure those creatures are still staying away from you.

“A footnote…forgotten… traveller…cursed…blessed…nobody… you must choose… Suzy…” the man utters.
“How did you know my…” you start to ask before you’re interrupted.
“You must choose…the others…they come…”

You turn your head and see that the monsters and the darkness are indeed starting to move towards you once again.

“Choose? Choose what?! What are you talking about?!” you ask again.
“You must choose…” the man says again with less of an air of indifference and more of one of authority.
“What am I choosing?”

The area surrounding you and the man begins to darken and now you’re getting creatures starting surround you as well.

“You must choose or die…” the man says again.
“Alright! Alright! I choose! But what the fuck am I choosing!?!” you shout with a mixture of fear and frustration.
“You’ll know when the time comes…” the man says.

For a brief moment your surroundings change from that of the large classroom auditorium again with the man still in front of you. The blackness has disappeared, but the monsters have not as you see several floating tentacle creatures in the room with you. They aren’t quite as disgusting, but they’re still dangerous and giving off that aura that’s making you feel nauseous again.

Just as you think you see a more humanoid figure enter the room there is suddenly a blinding flash all around you causing you to shield your eyes. Everything goes completely white, to completely black and then when you open your eyes again, you find yourself in the large front room of the building. Items are no longer neatly stack and are instead scattered about all over the place, some of them probably broken.

Still completely baffled by what the fuck is going on, you look around for something to protect yourself with amongst the junk all over the floor. You eventually see a sturdy looking bat and pick it up. Upon inspection you notice the words “RUTH” on it, no doubt one of Jack’s valuable purchases.

Speaking of Jack you still haven’t seen him, but you soon hear him.

“Suzy?! Suzy? Are you here? Where are you?” you hear him call out. Sounds like it’s coming from the corridor, but you don’t see anyone. Maybe he’s upstairs? You haven’t been up there yet, but given what you just experienced, you’re a little reluctant to go deeper into this place.

You remember Jack said he was going to tell you something about this building before you fell asleep, well whatever that was, it’s apparent that you were right that something about him was weird. Not just weird, but dangerous.

You don’t think you’re ever going to quite get some of the images out of your head, you even feel a little different. Maybe the sensory overload has made you a bit numb rather than reducing you to a gibbering wreck.

Numb or not, you still have a good mind to just walk out the front door and get the hell out of here.

Maybe this was the “choice” that strange guy was talking about.
> You go to Jack
Maybe this isn’t a good idea, but considering Jack did save your life a couple times, it seems like a pretty shitty thing to do if you just left him.

With bat in hand, you head towards back to the corridor and call out to Jack.

“Hey Jack! Are you upstairs?” you say.
“Suzy? Yeah! I’m up here! Be careful though, there’s still a bunch of weird shit going on.”

Not terribly descriptive or encouraging. Weird shit could literally be anything, and in this case probably is.

You head towards the stairs and go up for the first time. As you going up, you have this fear that you’re going to start sinking into them, that doesn’t happen and when you arrive to the top, you find yourself exiting into a corridor that’s laid out very much the same way as the first floor, the only difference is you’re across from another set of stairs on the opposite side.

You look to your right and hear some noise causing you to ready your bat, though you soon see Jack exiting room of the side rooms.

“Suzy! I’ve been looking all over for you.” He says approaching with an axe in hand.
“Hey! Keep your distance!” You shout and raise your bat
“What?” Jack asks as he stops in his tracks.
“Sorry, it’s just, well there has been as you put it, a lot of weird shit going on and for all I know you’re some horrible monster. Not to mention you’re coming at me with an axe in hand, though I suppose given the shit I’ve already encountered, you probably wouldn’t have bothered to even stop.” You reply lowing the bat.
“Well, you probably were best to err on the side of caution. I’ve just spent what I believe to be an hour or two looking for you.” Jack says.
“I was in your living room downstairs asleep on your couch. Right where you left me last night.” You reply.
“Yeah, and you weren’t there when I checked on you later this morning. I called out and looked in every room on the first floor. I heard your voice coming from the second floor so I went up there and that’s when things started getting weird. (Sigh) and I thought this place was done with all that…should have known better I suppose…”

Jack trails off, but at this point you’re demanding an answer.

“Jack, you’ve saved my life twice, but if I’m going to hang out with you, you better start explaining what the hell’s going on with this place. I’m not sure what weirdness you’ve experienced up here, but what I just experienced downstairs was beyond weird, it was fucking terrifying.” You exclaim.
“I know. I know. I should have told you about this place yesterday. Well let’s head into this room and talk about it.”

Jack heads into a room down the corridor and to the left. You follow and find that it’s another living area furnished in a similar manner as the one downstairs. Jack was really like consistency. The pair of you sit and after you tell Jack what happened with you downstairs, Jack apologizes that you had to go through it and then tells you a little about what he knows of this place.

Jack goes on about how he bought this Gray Building years ago for cheap and figured it would also be good to store all his stuff along with being a place he could live and thus no longer living in his mom’s basement.

He then mentions he went to check out the place after he bought it and right away he experienced weirdness. He said the first time he opened up the door to the place there was a jungle village inside. He mentions that upon entering the building seemed to whisk him away to this place and his surroundings completely changed.

“Curiosity got the better of me I guess. However it wasn’t just a jungle. I found out later when cannibals were chasing me, that I was on an island made of Styrofoam and held together by hemp rope. Barely escaped.” Jack says.
“What?! That’s…incredibly random.” You say.
“That was just the beginning. Of course any right thinking person, would have just written this place off, but I couldn’t help but find it fascinating. Of course I found it less fascinating the second time I went in, when I was attacked by these shadow wolf things. Barely survived that too.”
“Why the hell did you keep coming back here?”
“Well I actually stayed away after the second time. Though after a few months, I felt drawn to the place again. I can’t explain it, but as it turned out third time was the charm, well maybe not entirely, but the place started to become more accommodating. In time, I started to encounter less dangerous shit and the place became more normal, well as normal as it could ever be I suppose. Still, I was never quite willing to go all in and actually live in this place until recently and that’s only because of some positive weirdness that I experienced when in this building a few months ago.”
“What happened?”
“Well I saw a glimpse of the future and in few days I believe this world as we know it is going to start resembling Road Warrior. Of course even without seeing the future I was listening in on some pretty scary radio broadcasts before the Ground Zero corporation started cracking down and scrambling the airwaves.”
“Wait, you say you saw the future, like how exactly? In your head or what?”
“No, it was a portal or rather a small window that opened up on the third floor. Happened rather suddenly while I was up there deciding on where I should put more of my stuff a few weeks ago. I saw Security City get nuked. The town looks like it survived, but I saw that overrun by mad people, like rabid or something. Given how the people in town have been acting and the world situation lately, I’d say what I saw was on the mark. It was then, I decide that I might actually be safer in here.”
“Doesn’t seem like it, by the look of things.” You say.
“No, apparently I was wrong about that. (Sigh) I dunno, I’m sorry I got you involved in all this.”
“Well it’s done now and it seems like I was fucked no matter what this week. So, is there anything we can do? I mean we can’t really stay here I think you’d agree, but if the world is doomed like you’re saying, where could we go?”
“Know where there is a fallout shelter?” Jack asks.
“Yes and no. My older brother made one a long time ago back home, unfortunately its entrance is a bit of a mystery now since he’s dead.”
“That would mean going back to town anyway and with the National Guard and the rabid there I imagine it’s going to resemble a warzone.”
“Well there has to be somewhere we can…is that snow?” you say noticing the hallway.

At this point Jack stands up and you do too, both with your weapons ready as you approach the hallway where white flakes are falling from the ceiling and snow is starting to fill up the hallway. Jack looks to the left and right and then speaks.

“Well I don’t see anything else out of the ordinary except the snow, but I think we better get the hell out of here and take our chances with the outside world, whatever might happen to it.” Jack exclaims.
“Don’t need to tell me twice.” You say and the pair of you run as quickly as you can back down to the first floor.

When you get to the first floor, you and Jack make your turn towards the large front room and that’s when reality starts warping and you’re getting disoriented again.

“Shit…” Jack says tripping over. You go to help Jack up and that’s when you see them again. Those tentacle things coming at you down the hallway, which is once again increasingly being enveloped in darkness. There’s no magical bald guy around this time to save you either.

‘Oh fuck, we need to move!” You say and start running towards the front room. Jack follows along.

When you get the front room the lights flicker. Junk is still scattered all over the place and there is also no front door now, but TWO open doors.

“What the fuck?” Jack exclaims and then the lighting gets even dimmer and soon you’ll be left completely in the dark save for the illumination coming from the open doors.

At glance, one door is leading to what looks to be a tropical area since you’re seeing vines, trees and such. The other door is leading to a snowy area and you can even feel the cold air whipping in from that one.

And those creatures are still in pursuit behind you with darkness ever encroaching. You’re starting to hear them now in your head, howling, chattering, gibbering. It’s madness and you need to leave now.

“Shit, my head…” Jack says staggering.
“Come on! This way!” you say and start heading towards the jungle.
“Wait! That’s a fucking jungle, and I know nothing ever good comes from entering one! Remember my first trip here?” Jack says.
“Well, it’s either that or the fucking artic and we’re not exactly dressed for that!” you say.
“I’d rather take my chances with snow than a jungle.”

“It’s pointlessss….death…isssss everywhere…embrace madnessss and ssssave yourself… embrace usssssss…” a voice in your head suddenly interjects this is followed by hideous mocking laughter.

Maybe you’re getting resilient or something because you manage to keep it together. Jack isn’t looking as great though which is odd since you figured he’d be used to something like this. He’s having a hard time standing up and you’re having a hard time keeping him from falling.

Either way, you’re making the decision on which way to go.
> The jungle
Jack may have had a bad experience with the jungle before, but you’re going to have one infinitely worse you don’t get the hell out of here!

You don’t know where you’re going to end up, but you figure at least there is more chance of survival in the jungle than the tundra or artic or wherever you might end up with the snow door.

Since Jack isn’t exactly in a position to argue, you continue heading towards the jungle.

You’re almost at the door when everything goes dark. You feel like those things are almost upon you and you can only hope they stop pursuing you when you go through the door.

With a boost of energy and a shove, you and Jack both tumble through the opening and into the jungle area. Soft muddy ground gets all over you both.

You recover as quickly as you can, fearing that those creatures are still right behind you, but when you get up you find that not only are they not, but the Gray Building itself is gone. Nothing is behind save for more jungle.

“Where the hell? Where did it go?” you say.
“It’s gone. We’re some place completely different and who knows where the hell that building is now. Shit…my head is still throbbing and all fucked up. I still don’t feel quite right. Just let me rest here a moment.” Jack says still sitting on the ground.

You look around and you have no idea where to go next. You look at the trees and ground and for all you know you’re in the Amazon. Certainly feels hot enough and you’re already starting to sweat.

“Goddamn, it’s hot. Jack I’m going to tell you right now, I MIGHT be taking my shirt off at some point and I can only hope you’re a gentleman enough to keep your eyes at least focused on my face when you’re directly speaking with me.” You say.
“Fuck, with the way I feel, I dunno if I’m even up for that sort of stimulation. Besides, I’m going to be keeping an eye on everywhere else given that we’re in a jungle. Ohhh, I really wished you went towards the snow, I got a bad feeling about this.”
“What are the chances we’re on another Styrofoam island?” you ask.
“Well, I dunno, but it still doesn’t change the fact we’re in a jungle where all manner of animals, bugs and plants can kill you. I guess we better pick a direction and hope we find friendly civilization.” Jack says and gets up.

As Jack gets up while you look around again and decide on a direction.

“Well at least you’ve still got your axe and I got a bat. The jungle doesn’t look as heavy in that direction I suppose. Guess we’re going that way.” You say.
“I suppose it’s as good as a direction as any.” Jack replies.

You and Jack begin your trek through the jungle…

Despite the jungle not being as thick in this direction, it’s still not an easy walk. The only upside, is the canopy of the trees is at least shielding you from the sun directly. You can honestly say you don’t remember when the last time you had to deal with this sort of heat. All that time spent in the cool basement has made you a little less resistant to it you guess.

Jack and you continue to keep your eyes and ears open. So far you’ve not seen any signs of civilization, but at one point a small purple furry rodent like animal walks by and you can honestly say even with all the animal and nature shows you’ve seen, you’ve never seen something like this before. It sees you and squeaks causing you to raise your bat before it runs off.

“What the hell was that?” you ask.
“I dunno, looked like some sort of rat, but purple though.” Jack replies.
“Well don’t you think a purple rat is a little strange?” you ask.
“Well of course I do, but given that this is where the Gray Building sent us, is it really surprising?”
“I don’t mean just that though. I mean before I thought that maybe we were at least still on our world. Weird looking purple rat like creatures aren’t exactly native there. Is it possible it sent us to some alien planet?”
“Suzy, with the Gray Building anything is fucking possible.”

It’s at this moment you lose a little hope. Its one thing to possibly be lost in a jungle on Earth at least there would have been a slim chance of survival if you somehow made it to civilization. The idea of being on some sort of alien planet is a lot more disheartening.

“Great, we are so fucked.” You say.
“Probably, but we have to keep moving.”
“What the hell’s the point? For all we know this whole damn planet is jungle and uninhabited and if it is inhabited I can’t imagine the natives are going to be friendly!” you exclaim.
“We don’t know if this is an alien planet! I mean maybe we got transported back in time to the Mesozoic Era, we don’t know what the hell sort of creatures lived back then or what color they were.”
“Oh, so we’re in the time of dinosaurs? Yeah, don’t think that’s any better.”

Jack at this point wipes his face and closes his eyes.

“Suzy, it’s too hot for us to argue, but I told you I didn’t want to go to the jungle anyway!”
“There it is. I told you so. Thanks. Real helpful. (Sigh) Okay, look I’m sorry I’m just…”

At this moment you hear a rustling noise and then a whizzing sound is heard just before blood splatters on you.

Jack looks down briefly to see the top of a spear through his chest. He coughs up blood and falls to his knees looking at you the whole time.

“Oh shit Jack…” you utter and then another spear just narrowly misses your head and hits a nearby tree.

Then you see your assailants coming out of the undergrowth. Several small bipedal lizard like creatures armed with spears. They’re not even as tall as you, but they certainty look more than capable of killing you. They hiss at you and one proceeds to finish off Jack who was already dying at that point.

You turn and run in the opposite direction ignoring the fact that you’re going to only get yourself further lost in the jungle, you have to escape these things. They screech and they run after you.

Another spear nearly hits you and despite the very real fear of death you’re experiencing, the only thing going through your mind is how you curse the day you went out to go get a real job. One day you were living comfortably in a basement and now you’re running through a hot ass jungle being chased by fucking lizard aliens.

You already know this isn’t going to end well for you. You’ve been pushing the odds ever since you left the damn basement, and it’s only a matter of time before those lizards get you and…

Suddenly you feel a sharp bite to the side of your neck. It isn’t a spear. It’s some sort fauna that resembles a snake with legs. You didn’t even see it, but even if you hadn’t been so focused on running, you still wouldn’t have seen it due to its camouflage.

Then before your eyes several of these creatures seemingly blink into existence and they’re all jumping on you and biting. You’ve just run into a nest of whatever these things are and you fall to their onslaught.

The only upside is their deadly poison kills you before they can start eating you alive.


Maybe this isn’t a good idea, but considering Jack did save your life a couple times, it seems like a pretty shitty thing to do if you just left him.

With bat in hand, you head towards back to the corridor and call out to Jack.

“Hey Jack! Are you upstairs?” you say.
“Suzy? Yeah! I’m up here! Be careful though, there’s still a bunch of weird shit going on.”

Not terribly descriptive or encouraging. Weird shit could literally be anything, and in this case probably is.

You head towards the stairs and go up for the first time. As you going up, you have this fear that you’re going to start sinking into them, that doesn’t happen and when you arrive to the top, you find yourself exiting into a corridor that’s laid out very much the same way as the first floor, the only difference is you’re across from another set of stairs on the opposite side.

You look to your right and hear some noise causing you to ready your bat, though you soon see Jack exiting room of the side rooms.

“Suzy! I’ve been looking all over for you.” He says approaching with an axe in hand.
“Hey! Keep your distance!” You shout and raise your bat
“What?” Jack asks as he stops in his tracks.
“Sorry, it’s just, well there has been as you put it, a lot of weird shit going on and for all I know you’re some horrible monster. Not to mention you’re coming at me with an axe in hand, though I suppose given the shit I’ve already encountered, you probably wouldn’t have bothered to even stop.” You reply lowing the bat.
“Well, you probably were best to err on the side of caution. I’ve just spent what I believe to be an hour or two looking for you.” Jack says.
“I was in your living room downstairs asleep on your couch. Right where you left me last night.” You reply.
“Yeah, and you weren’t there when I checked on you later this morning. I called out and looked in every room on the first floor. I heard your voice coming from the second floor so I went up there and that’s when things started getting weird. (Sigh) and I thought this place was done with all that…should have known better I suppose…”

Jack trails off, but at this point you’re demanding an answer.

“Jack, you’ve saved my life twice, but if I’m going to hang out with you, you better start explaining what the hell’s going on with this place. I’m not sure what weirdness you’ve experienced up here, but what I just experienced downstairs was beyond weird, it was fucking terrifying.” You exclaim.
“I know. I know. I should have told you about this place yesterday. Well let’s head into this room and talk about it.”

Jack heads into a room down the corridor and to the left. You follow and find that it’s another living area furnished in a similar manner as the one downstairs. Jack was really like consistency. The pair of you sit and after you tell Jack what happened with you downstairs, Jack apologizes that you had to go through it and then tells you a little about what he knows of this place.

Jack goes on about how he bought this Gray Building years ago for cheap and figured it would also be good to store all his stuff along with being a place he could live and thus no longer living in his mom’s basement.

He then mentions he went to check out the place after he bought it and right away he experienced weirdness. He said the first time he opened up the door to the place there was a jungle village inside. He mentions that upon entering the building seemed to whisk him away to this place and his surroundings completely changed.

“Curiosity got the better of me I guess. However it wasn’t just a jungle. I found out later when cannibals were chasing me, that I was on an island made of Styrofoam and held together by hemp rope. Barely escaped.” Jack says.
“What?! That’s…incredibly random.” You say.
“That was just the beginning. Of course any right thinking person, would have just written this place off, but I couldn’t help but find it fascinating. Of course I found it less fascinating the second time I went in, when I was attacked by these shadow wolf things. Barely survived that too.”
“Why the hell did you keep coming back here?”
“Well I actually stayed away after the second time. Though after a few months, I felt drawn to the place again. I can’t explain it, but as it turned out third time was the charm, well maybe not entirely, but the place started to become more accommodating. In time, I started to encounter less dangerous shit and the place became more normal, well as normal as it could ever be I suppose. Still, I was never quite willing to go all in and actually live in this place until recently and that’s only because of some positive weirdness that I experienced when in this building a few months ago.”
“What happened?”
“Well I saw a glimpse of the future and in few days I believe this world as we know it is going to start resembling Road Warrior. Of course even without seeing the future I was listening in on some pretty scary radio broadcasts before the Ground Zero corporation started cracking down and scrambling the airwaves.”
“Wait, you say you saw the future, like how exactly? In your head or what?”
“No, it was a portal or rather a small window that opened up on the third floor. Happened rather suddenly while I was up there deciding on where I should put more of my stuff a few weeks ago. I saw Security City get nuked. The town looks like it survived, but I saw that overrun by mad people, like rabid or something. Given how the people in town have been acting and the world situation lately, I’d say what I saw was on the mark. It was then, I decide that I might actually be safer in here.”
“Doesn’t seem like it, by the look of things.” You say.
“No, apparently I was wrong about that. (Sigh) I dunno, I’m sorry I got you involved in all this.”
“Well it’s done now and it seems like I was fucked no matter what this week. So, is there anything we can do? I mean we can’t really stay here I think you’d agree, but if the world is doomed like you’re saying, where could we go?”
“Know where there is a fallout shelter?” Jack asks.
“Yes and no. My older brother made one a long time ago back home, unfortunately its entrance is a bit of a mystery now since he’s dead.”
“That would mean going back to town anyway and with the National Guard and the rabid there I imagine it’s going to resemble a warzone.”
“Well there has to be somewhere we can…is that snow?” you say noticing the hallway.

At this point Jack stands up and you do too, both with your weapons ready as you approach the hallway where white flakes are falling from the ceiling and snow is starting to fill up the hallway. Jack looks to the left and right and then speaks.

“Well I don’t see anything else out of the ordinary except the snow, but I think we better get the hell out of here and take our chances with the outside world, whatever might happen to it.” Jack exclaims.
“Don’t need to tell me twice.” You say and the pair of you run as quickly as you can back down to the first floor.

When you get to the first floor, you and Jack make your turn towards the large front room and that’s when reality starts warping and you’re getting disoriented again.

“Shit…” Jack says tripping over. You go to help Jack up and that’s when you see them again. Those tentacle things coming at you down the hallway, which is once again increasingly being enveloped in darkness. There’s no magical bald guy around this time to save you either.

‘Oh fuck, we need to move!” You say and start running towards the front room. Jack follows along.

When you get the front room the lights flicker. Junk is still scattered all over the place and there is also no front door now, but TWO open doors.

“What the fuck?” Jack exclaims and then the lighting gets even dimmer and soon you’ll be left completely in the dark save for the illumination coming from the open doors.

At glance, one door is leading to what looks to be a tropical area since you’re seeing vines, trees and such. The other door is leading to a snowy area and you can even feel the cold air whipping in from that one.

And those creatures are still in pursuit behind you with darkness ever encroaching. You’re starting to hear them now in your head, howling, chattering, gibbering. It’s madness and you need to leave now.

“Shit, my head…” Jack says staggering.
“Come on! This way!” you say and start heading towards the jungle.
“Wait! That’s a fucking jungle, and I know nothing ever good comes from entering one! Remember my first trip here?” Jack says.
“Well, it’s either that or the fucking artic and we’re not exactly dressed for that!” you say.
“I’d rather take my chances with snow than a jungle.”

“It’s pointlessss….death…isssss everywhere…embrace madnessss and ssssave yourself… embrace usssssss…” a voice in your head suddenly interjects this is followed by hideous mocking laughter.

Maybe you’re getting resilient or something because you manage to keep it together. Jack isn’t looking as great though which is odd since you figured he’d be used to something like this. He’s having a hard time standing up and you’re having a hard time keeping him from falling.

Either way, you’re making the decision on which way to go.
> The snow
Really either choice seems pretty shitty, but if Jack feels that strongly about the jungle being worse, you guess you’ll take the snow (and probably freeze to death). You suppose the upside is that there are probably less deadly animals lurking about as there might be in a jungle.

“You better be right about this Jack.” You say,

You’re almost at the door when everything goes dark. You feel like those things are almost upon you and you can only hope they stop pursuing you when you go through the door.

With a boost of energy and a shove, you and Jack both tumble through the opening and into the snowy area. Snow gets all over you both and it’s at that point you notice there are also a lot of trees nearby, so it’s not just endless tundra, which is at least a good sign that you didn’t wind up Antarctica.

You also recover as quickly as you can, fearing that those creatures are still right behind you, but when you get up you find that not only are they not, but the Gray Building itself is gone. Nothing is behind you save for more snow and trees.

“Where the hell? Where did it go?” you say.
“It’s gone. We’re some place completely different and who knows where the hell that building is now. Shit…my head is still throbbing and all fucked up. I still don’t feel quite right. Just let me rest here a moment.” Jack says still sitting on the snowy ground.

You look up and while the clouds are covering the sun, it’s definitely still daytime wherever you are, but with the wind making the cold even worse, you’re going to have to find shelter pretty damn quick and you have no idea which way to go. For all you know you’re in the Canadian wilderness or some other godforsaken place.

“Goddamn, it’s cold.” You say.
“Yeah, we need to get going, even though I’m still feeling woozy. We need to keep an eye out for everything though. I guess we better pick a direction and hope we find friendly civilization.” Jack says and gets up.

As Jack gets up while you look around again and decide on a direction.

“Well at least you’ve still got your axe and I got a bat. This direction looks as good as any.” You say pointing to the right.
“I suppose so.” Jack replies.

You and Jack begin your trek through the snow…

The snow actually isn’t really that deep, but it’s deep enough that it’s not pleasant to walk through. The wind eventually dies down a bit which makes things a little better, but not by much. You and Jack are both very cold and periodically you’re rubbing your hands together and blowing on them in a futile effort to keep them warm.

“This is sucking so much, we’re going to freeze to death out here in the fucking forest.” You say suddenly stopping.
“Well maybe, but we gotta keep moving. We just gotta stay positive.”
“Yeah, well as you might already know, positive things haven’t been happening to me lately.” You respond.
“Trust me, you aren’t only one.” Jack replies.
“…I’m sorry, I’m just really cold, and as brave as I’m trying to be about all this, I feel like I’ve already been pushing my luck all this week and I feel like this is going to be it. Like my dumb luck has run out and I’m really fucking scared of dying.” You say trying to remain calm.
“I know.” Jack replies and puts his hand on your shoulder.

It isn’t much comfort, but if the end is coming soon, you could have worse company.

“Come on, you’re right, we need to keep moving.” You say and the pair of you continues on.

A few moments later, you feel like your fingers and toes have gone numb and you’re even starting to get a little sleepy. Day is starting to end and night will be beginning soon.

Just when you believe it’s starting to look even worse than ever, you and Jack notice some smoke rising in the distance up ahead, and as they say where there is smoke there is fire. (Hopefully)

You and Jack both quicken your pace as much as you can and eventually you reach the edge of the ground, which starts sloping downward from your location. In the short distance from that you see a small log cabin with smoke coming from it.

Salvation, but somehow you doubt if it’s going to be easy.

“You know there are going to be people living there.” You say.
“Yeah, but I mean come on, we’re freezing to death, surely they’ll help us. At best they’ll let us warm up before giving us directions to the next nearest town.”
“Jack, your optimism would actually be very charming if we weren’t in the situation we’re currently in.” you say.
“Well hopefully you’ll better appreciate it when we’re nice and warm. Come on.” Jack says.

You and Jack carefully make your way down the slope and soon you’re at the cabin. You see piles of logs stacked nearby, along with some barrels. The cabin doesn’t have any windows or at least none on the sides that you’ve seen.

“Okay, so how are we doing this?” you ask.
“Well I guess I’ll knock.” Jack says.

Jack bangs on the door a couple times.

“Hello? Anyone in there? We’re freezing and we need help. Hello?” he says.

There is no answer. You don’t even hear any noise.

“Maybe nobody is home after all.” You say.
“But there’s smoke coming from the chimney, obviously there’s probably a fire going on in there.” Jack replies.
“Well, maybe they’re out hunting or something and there’s a scared kid in there that was told not to open the door to strangers. See if the door is unlocked.” You say.
“Wait a minute, didn’t you just say there might be a scared kid in there?”
“Yeah and if there is, he’s still going to be scared whether we’re inside or outside. We need to get in there Jack, we can deal with the consequences later!” you exclaim.

Jack exhales.

“Well okay…” Jack says as he goes for the handle.

Surprisingly it opens and when Jack peers into the dimly lit cabin, he sees absolutely no one inside.

“This place is empty.” Jack says.
“Good, now let’s get to that damn fire!” you say and push past Jack.

You warm up by the fireplace while Jack shuts the door and locks it with a large piece of wood across it. He soon joins and sits down right next to you.

“Oh, sorry.” Jack says when he thinks he’s too close to you, but you stop him from moving over.
“Jack, I think we’re at that point in our relationship that under normal circumstances, we’d probably be dating already. You’re fine, in fact why don’t you just hold me. I could use the extra warmth.”

Jack complies with your request and you’re feeling a little warmer already. As you still trying to enjoy the warmth, Jack is still looking around the room a bit from his position.

“This is strange.” Jack mentions.
“Really? I thought this was probably the least strange thing we’ve done since we met.”
“No, I mean this cabin, something seems very, I dunno, medieval.”
“Well it is a log cabin in the middle of the woods, it isn’t like it’s going to have the amenities of the modern world.”
“Yeah, but have you noticed the decorations? A shield and a sword are hanging over on that wall along with a small banner of some sort. Over there in that corner is a set of spears. There also a lot of furs just laying around.”
“Maybe the guy that lives here is a historical buff on top of being a hunter. You know, trying to live the way they did back in the old days.”
“Yeah, well I’ve never seen something like that either. Look.”
“What? That’s just a deer’s head…oh what the hell? That’s fucking hideous looking.” You say just noticing the head of some very furry creature with far too many teeth mounted on the wall.

It doesn’t look like anything you’ve ever seen on those nature or animal shows. You shiver a bit looking at the damn thing causing Jack to give you a bit of a squeeze.

“Ugh, I don’t want to look at that thing. What is it?” you say.
“That’s what I’m saying, I dunno. I mean a lot of this shit looks familiar, but seeing something like makes me less sure.”
“What are you saying?”
“I dunno. I mean I’m wondering if we’re even on our world.”

In all the worrying about freezing to death, you suppose it never occurred that might not actually be on Earth.

“You think the Gray Building sent us to a different dimension or something?”
“I have no idea, but with that thing it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I mean you told me yourself you experienced reality weirdness when you were speaking with that bald guy.”
“Yeah, that’s true…shit. We might be in some real trouble.”
“Well, in the chance that we are on another world, I’d say we can at least look on the bright side that we aren’t going to get nuked any time soon.”
“Heh, always looking on the bright side.”
“Did it charm you this time?”
“A little bit.” You say with a smile.

After warming up completely, you and Jack explore the cabin a little more in detail, which doesn’t take too long considering it’s not excessively big. Some of that exploration includes raiding the foodstuff stored in the cabinets and the actual stew that’s in the hanging pot over the fire. All you find to drink is water and some sort of sweet alcohol. Jack says that’s probably mead.

One of the more important things you find is a small pouch of coins. A few are gold, some are silver and a lot of them are copper. You also find a few books, but they’re in some sort of language you don’t understand.

The last thing you discover is a trap door near the bed to a small root cellar where there is more food and water stored. Looks like you might be okay if you have to stay here awhile at least.

The only short term major concern is a toilet at which point Jack points that while it’s possible there is an outhouse you missed somewhere in the area, you both might have to be roughing that in the cold air of nature. You’re not looking forward to either possibility.

You remark about how this place reminds you of something from a video game you played on your computer, which only cements Jack’s view that you’re possibly not on your world any longer, or at best you’ve been transported back in time on earth to who knows where. That thing’s head on the wall seems to favor the former though.

Eventually though as the night moves on, you start to get tired again, but this time you’re not in danger of dying of hypothermia. It’s soon pointed out that there is only one bed.

“Well I guess I’ll let you take the bed.” Jack says.
“Actually I want to sleep by the fire, I’m just going to grab some more of those furs to sleep on. You can take the bed, or if you really want to, sleep with me by the fire.” You say.
“Well that’s no choice at all, of course I’m going to sleep with you by the fire.” Jack says.
“Fine with me, as long as you know I’m just using you for your warm body.” You reply with a smile.
“Well, just respect me in the morning.” Jack smiles back.
“Um, speaking of that. Do you think we should be worried that the owner will be coming back at some point?”
“Probably, but if someone comes knocking on the door, it isn’t like we’re weaponless.”
“True, okay let’s try to get some rest and figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

You and Jack lay down several furs on the floor and settle in to sleep. Despite this situation not exactly being the best, you both at least enjoy the closeness of each other.
> Next day…
FRIDAY

You wake up feeling slightly colder than you did last night, though it’s probably because the fire has died down a little and Jack is no longer spooning you. A quick look around though shows that he’s still here. He notices that you’re up.

“Well good morning sunshine.” He says sitting at a table with a candle burning.
“What time is it?” you ask, not thinking.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d say it’s still morning, maybe the afternoon. In any case it’s daytime the last time I looked outside.”
“Oh right. No modern luxuries. Is that one of those books we found yesterday?” you ask.
“Oh yeah. I was trying to read or at least understand any of it.”
“You a linguist?”
“Eh, not really. I mean I have studied a few languages from time to time for my own reasons and in a couple cases thanks to the Gray Building weirdness I had to learn some new ones, but it isn’t like I had any formal training on the matter.”
“You understand any of it?”
“Not excessively so, but I only really started. I get the impression whoever lives here is a fur trader. Some of this book isn’t doesn’t really consist of words as it’s a list of numerical symbols and totals. Fortunately those are universal. It would also explain the large amounts of furs piled up and this…” Jack says picking up the pouch of coins. “…I would imagine is their life savings.”
“So you still think we’re in a different world?”
“I dunno. As I mentioned I’ve looked outside while you were asleep, and wandered the area a bit. Not too far, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary save for trees, snow and a few white rabbits bouncing around. I mean that ugly head on the wall is the only thing I’ve seen so far that’s out of the ordinary. I will say that the presence of books at least shows writing and probably literature exists. The coins imply some sort of economy system. So civilization here exists, but of course who knows what said civilization is like.”
“You said you thought it was a medieval one.”
“Yeah, and I’m still holding on to that belief, of course it’s possible that maybe we’re just in a less advanced area. For all we know there are people whizzing around in jetpacks elsewhere.” Jack says and then snaps his fingers. “Oh I did see an outhouse. It’s not excessively far; we just never saw it yesterday due to the direction we came from. Well that and paying more attention to wanting to get into this cabin. You’ll happy to know it’s not even a disgusting diarrhea sprayed mess or overly foul smelling. The cold climate probably helps on that aspect. There’s even a roll of paper in there. Um, it’s not exactly the softest stuff though, and you’ll have to clean your hands in the snow.”
“Lovely. Definitely not looking forward to the experience. So you see anything else of note on your outdoor adventures?”
“I noticed foot prints going from this cabin and heading towards the east. I imagine they’re from the boots of the person who lives here. I’ve seen the same foot prints all over this immediate area, but those were going somewhere with a purpose rather than milling about taking care of every day chores around here I imagine.”
“Wow, you’re tracker too huh? You really do know a little bit of everything.” You say.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a tracker, I’m just sort of making guesses in the scheme of things. I just saw the prints in the snow and made the conclusion.”
“You think the person living here is coming back?” you ask.
“I dunno. I mean it’s possible, but I’m wondering if this place was abandoned. Seems like the door would have been locked. Of course the door can only be barred from the inside, so maybe that’s unavoidable and there generally aren’t many people wandering around here to worry about locks. Still, it seems like they would have hidden their pouch of coins better or even taken them with them.

You nod and there is a silent pause in the conversation.

You look back at the fire and Jack goes back to looking at the book. Probably the pair of you are wondering what the hell you’re going to do now. At least you are. Jack seems like he’s trying his hardest to make sense of everything and that’s certainly a good thing. You can’t help but think maybe you’re not pulling your weight as much as you can though, it’s just you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. It isn’t like you’ve ever been in a situation like this before.

So far you’ve just been trying to make the concentrated effort of not falling apart and giving in to despair because you get the impression no matter what happens, from here on out your life is going to be very different.

“I know how to sew.” You suddenly blurt out.
“What?” Jack responds.
“I know how to sew, I mean I haven’t done it ever since my mother died, but you never forget something like that completely I suppose. My mother was the one who taught me, which is why I just sort of lost interest in it when she died.” You say.
“Well that’s an interesting little fact you never told me about yourself when you were talking about your family before. What made you bring it up?”
“Our situation I suppose. I mean I suppose at some point we’re going to need new clothes. I’ve never sewn furs together, but I suppose I’ll figure it out. I guess I just want to let you know I’m not completely useless and I will be contributing to our survival out here. I mean I’ll chop wood and learn to hunt and whatever else we need to do together.”
“Suzy, you’re stressing about this too much. I mean yes, this situation isn’t the best, but trust me I’m just as worried if I’M going to be useful at all in this situation. I mean it’s only thanks to all the past weirdness I had to deal with due to that Gray Building that I even have some of the basic knowledge I have of various things and a good portion of that probably isn’t even going to be useful here.”

Jack gets up and goes over to sit with you and he takes your hand.

“When it’s all said and done. We’re both a pair of basement dwellers and neither one of us was truly prepared for this, but we’re still going to get through it. I mean I like to think I’m a survivor on some level. And you, well I think you’ve more than proven to be one. I know you think it’s all just been luck or coincidence in that regard, but hell, maybe there’s a reason. Maybe there’s a reason for all this.”
“You think so? You believe that all this is part of some plan?”
“I dunno. Maybe it’s just a bunch of shit that happened. Still doesn’t mean we aren’t going to get through this.”

You look into Jack’s eyes and you take the initiative and kiss him full on the mouth. He reciprocates your affection, but you’re getting the strong impression that you might be the experienced one here.

And then something urgent breaks up the moment.

“Damn it.” You say.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” Jack asks.
“No. That thing that I wasn’t looking forward to has finally arrived.”
“Wha…Oh. That. Um, well did you want me to come with you?”
“You’re going to watch me go to the bathroom? Freak.”
“No! I meant did you want me to come with you to show you the way or extra protection.”
“I know what you meant, just joking. Yeah, I suppose you should come with me so you can at least show me where it is. Knowing me, I’d end up getting lost on the way there. Well alright come on, let’s go get this over with.” You say getting up.

Remembering how cold it is out there, you grab a couple of the furs to wrap around you so you’re at least better protected this time. You go to grab your bat, but then you think if you shouldn’t take one of those spears instead.
> You take the bat
You’ve never used a spear before, so you aren’t even sure if you’d use something like that effectively. Better to stick with something you’re used to.

Jack puts on one of the furs as well and grabs his axe and the pair of you are out the door. The sun shines down and you feel the cold wind blow.

“Shit, even with these furs on I forgot how cold it was.” You say.
“We’ll get another big fire started when we get back.” Jack says.
“I’ll look forward to it, so which way?”
“Oh to the left and then past some trees, it’s not hard to find.”

You and Jack make your way to the infamous outhouse. You both look around periodically, but see nothing dangerous.

Eventually you get to your goal and it looks exactly like you thought it would.

“Well this is it.” You say.
“I’ll be out here. Keeping a look out.” Jack responds.

You enter the outhouse and endure the unavoidable. Thankfully Jack makes no attempt to speak to you while you’re inside.

Eventually you come out and start putting your hands in the snow. Jack watches you and then goes back to looking around.

“Well, wasn’t as bad as I thought, I’m still missing modern plumbing though. Wish we had soap too.” You say.
“I guess if you want to sanitize your hands even more I suppose you could pour some of that mead we have at the cabin on them.”
“Will that work?”
“It’s got alcohol in it, I assume it can’t hurt. You ready to go?”
“Yeah, you see anything out here?”
“Nah, just a few more of those white rabbits I always see hopping around.”

As you and Jack make your way back to the cabin, you and he speak on if either one of you knows anything about hunting. You of course know nothing, Jack says he’s not much better, though he thinks maybe you both could start making simple traps or something, especially given that there are obviously rabbits around here to be caught.

“Wish we had the Internet so we could at least look all this shit up. God, I really miss the Internet…I think this is the longest I’ve been without it and I suppose those days are over as well.” You say as you approach the cabin.
“Oh, you don’t know. We’re still just stuck out here in the wilderness, like I said, maybe there is Internet and hover cars somewhere else.”
“Love that optimism Jack…” you say chuckling and heading towards the door.
“Hey Suzy, wait is that blood in the snow?”

You and Jack both stop a few feet away from the cabin, you’re still closest to the door, which suddenly swings open.

Before you, you see a man with a good amount of facial hair and wearing several furs and clothing much more suited for this sort of weather.

He’s not completely standing upright, but is in a somewhat stooped position as if wounded which judging from the blood in the snow is probably the case. While it’s difficult to tell his facial expression due to the hair, his eyes are wide as if he’s surprised, desperate or possibly even afraid. Maybe a mixture of all three.

The major thing you see however is the crossbow he’s holding and pointing at you and Jack.

The man shouts something at you in a language you don’t understand and before you can duck or get out of the way he fires a bolt and at this range his aim is still sound. You feel the piecing object go into your heart and you fall to the ground.

Jack screams your name and attacks the man who is desperately attempting to reload his crossbow.

You however never know if Jack avenges your death.


FRIDAY

You wake up feeling slightly colder than you did last night, though it’s probably because the fire has died down a little and Jack is no longer spooning you. A quick look around though shows that he’s still here. He notices that you’re up.

“Well good morning sunshine.” He says sitting at a table with a candle burning.
“What time is it?” you ask, not thinking.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d say it’s still morning, maybe the afternoon. In any case it’s daytime the last time I looked outside.”
“Oh right. No modern luxuries. Is that one of those books we found yesterday?” you ask.
“Oh yeah. I was trying to read or at least understand any of it.”
“You a linguist?”
“Eh, not really. I mean I have studied a few languages from time to time for my own reasons and in a couple cases thanks to the Gray Building weirdness I had to learn some new ones, but it isn’t like I had any formal training on the matter.”
“You understand any of it?”
“Not excessively so, but I only really started. I get the impression whoever lives here is a fur trader. Some of this book isn’t doesn’t really consist of words as it’s a list of numerical symbols and totals. Fortunately those are universal. It would also explain the large amounts of furs piled up and this…” Jack says picking up the pouch of coins. “…I would imagine is their life savings.”
“So you still think we’re in a different world?”
“I dunno. As I mentioned I’ve looked outside while you were asleep, and wandered the area a bit. Not too far, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary save for trees, snow and a few white rabbits bouncing around. I mean that ugly head on the wall is the only thing I’ve seen so far that’s out of the ordinary. I will say that the presence of books at least shows writing and probably literature exists. The coins imply some sort of economy system. So civilization here exists, but of course who knows what said civilization is like.”
“You said you thought it was a medieval one.”
“Yeah, and I’m still holding on to that belief, of course it’s possible that maybe we’re just in a less advanced area. For all we know there are people whizzing around in jetpacks elsewhere.” Jack says and then snaps his fingers. “Oh I did see an outhouse. It’s not excessively far; we just never saw it yesterday due to the direction we came from. Well that and paying more attention to wanting to get into this cabin. You’ll happy to know it’s not even a disgusting diarrhea sprayed mess or overly foul smelling. The cold climate probably helps on that aspect. There’s even a roll of paper in there. Um, it’s not exactly the softest stuff though, and you’ll have to clean your hands in the snow.”
“Lovely. Definitely not looking forward to the experience. So you see anything else of note on your outdoor adventures?”
“I noticed foot prints going from this cabin and heading towards the east. I imagine they’re from the boots of the person who lives here. I’ve seen the same foot prints all over this immediate area, but those were going somewhere with a purpose rather than milling about taking care of every day chores around here I imagine.”
“Wow, you’re tracker too huh? You really do know a little bit of everything.” You say.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a tracker, I’m just sort of making guesses in the scheme of things. I just saw the prints in the snow and made the conclusion.”
“You think the person living here is coming back?” you ask.
“I dunno. I mean it’s possible, but I’m wondering if this place was abandoned. Seems like the door would have been locked. Of course the door can only be barred from the inside, so maybe that’s unavoidable and there generally aren’t many people wandering around here to worry about locks. Still, it seems like they would have hidden their pouch of coins better or even taken them with them.

You nod and there is a silent pause in the conversation.

You look back at the fire and Jack goes back to looking at the book. Probably the pair of you are wondering what the hell you’re going to do now. At least you are. Jack seems like he’s trying his hardest to make sense of everything and that’s certainly a good thing. You can’t help but think maybe you’re not pulling your weight as much as you can though, it’s just you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. It isn’t like you’ve ever been in a situation like this before.

So far you’ve just been trying to make the concentrated effort of not falling apart and giving in to despair because you get the impression no matter what happens, from here on out your life is going to be very different.

“I know how to sew.” You suddenly blurt out.
“What?” Jack responds.
“I know how to sew, I mean I haven’t done it ever since my mother died, but you never forget something like that completely I suppose. My mother was the one who taught me, which is why I just sort of lost interest in it when she died.” You say.
“Well that’s an interesting little fact you never told me about yourself when you were talking about your family before. What made you bring it up?”
“Our situation I suppose. I mean I suppose at some point we’re going to need new clothes. I’ve never sewn furs together, but I suppose I’ll figure it out. I guess I just want to let you know I’m not completely useless and I will be contributing to our survival out here. I mean I’ll chop wood and learn to hunt and whatever else we need to do together.”
“Suzy, you’re stressing about this too much. I mean yes, this situation isn’t the best, but trust me I’m just as worried if I’M going to be useful at all in this situation. I mean it’s only thanks to all the past weirdness I had to deal with due to that Gray Building that I even have some of the basic knowledge I have of various things and a good portion of that probably isn’t even going to be useful here.”

Jack gets up and goes over to sit with you and he takes your hand.

“When it’s all said and done. We’re both a pair of basement dwellers and neither one of us was truly prepared for this, but we’re still going to get through it. I mean I like to think I’m a survivor on some level. And you, well I think you’ve more than proven to be one. I know you think it’s all just been luck or coincidence in that regard, but hell, maybe there’s a reason. Maybe there’s a reason for all this.”
“You think so? You believe that all this is part of some plan?”
“I dunno. Maybe it’s just a bunch of shit that happened. Still doesn’t mean we aren’t going to get through this.”

You look into Jack’s eyes and you take the initiative and kiss him full on the mouth. He reciprocates your affection, but you’re getting the strong impression that you might be the experienced one here.

And then something urgent breaks up the moment.

“Damn it.” You say.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” Jack asks.
“No. That thing that I wasn’t looking forward to has finally arrived.”
“Wha…Oh. That. Um, well did you want me to come with you?”
“You’re going to watch me go to the bathroom? Freak.”
“No! I meant did you want me to come with you to show you the way or extra protection.”
“I know what you meant, just joking. Yeah, I suppose you should come with me so you can at least show me where it is. Knowing me, I’d end up getting lost on the way there. Well alright come on, let’s go get this over with.” You say getting up.

Remembering how cold it is out there, you grab a couple of the furs to wrap around you so you’re at least better protected this time. You go to grab your bat, but then you think if you shouldn’t take one of those spears instead.
> You take the spear
“Hey Jack, is that outhouse large enough to prop up a spear inside it?”
“Um, I think so. Why? You taking one of those instead of the bat?”
“Yeah, I was remembering something I watched once talking about how the spear was an easy weapon to learn how to use even for someone completely unskilled which is why it was used so much in ancient and medieval wars amongst infantry. I’m just thinking I’d probably want something like that with me instead of a bat if we encounter a bear or something I want to keep at a distance.”

Jack looks at you a bit impressed.

“Well, look at you. Suzy, warrior princess over here. You said you didn’t know anything.” Jack says smiling.

You take the spear and then look over at the shield.

“Jack, help me get that shield down from the wall.” You say.
“What?” Jack responds.
“I want to take the shield with me too.”
“Suzy, you’re just going to the bathroom, not to war!”
“Hey you said it yourself, we still don’t know what this place is all about and I want to feel as secure as possible, so if that means carrying around a shield, then that’s what I’m going to do!”
“…alright…” Jack says and then proceeds to grab the circular shield down from the wall and then hands it to you.

The shield isn’t light and is made of strong thick wood; you definitely feel the weight just holding the thing.

“You sure you don’t want the sword too?” Jack asks.
“Nah, I think this is all I can carry. The shield is definitely heavier than I thought it would be.”
“I really don’t think you’re going to need that.” Jack says wrapping a fur around himself and grabbing the axe he brought with him from the Gray Building.
“And like I said, it makes me feel better. Come on let’s go.”

Upon exiting the cabin you see the sun shining down and you feel the cold wind blow.

“Shit, even with these furs on I forgot how cold it was.” You say.
“We’ll get another big fire started when we get back.” Jack says.
“I’ll look forward to it, so which way?”
“Oh to the left and then past some trees, it’s not hard to find.”

You and Jack make your way to the infamous outhouse. You both look around periodically, but see nothing dangerous. When Jack’s not looking around, he’s studying you.

“So you ready to fight the Persians?” Jack asks with a smirk.
“I dunno, but I have to say I do feel rather empowered.” You reply.

Eventually you get to your goal and it looks exactly like you thought it would.

“Well this is it.” You say unenthusiastically.
“Your shield is going to be kind of bulky, leave it out here with me. Unless you plan on getting attacked from below and if that’s the case, a shield isn’t going to help.”
“Fuck, now I’m going to be worrying about something lurking down there and reaching up to grab me. Thanks a lot!” you say and give the shield to Jack.

You enter the outhouse and endure the unavoidable. Thankfully Jack makes no attempt to speak or make jokes to you while you’re inside.

Eventually you come out and start putting your hands in the snow. Jack watches you and then goes back to looking around.

“Well, wasn’t as bad as I thought, I’m still missing modern plumbing though. Wish we had soap too.” You say.
“I guess if you want to sanitize your hands even more I suppose you could pour some of that mead we have at the cabin on them.”
“Will that work?”
“It’s got alcohol in it, I assume it can’t hurt. You ready to go Valkyrie?” Jack asks and hands you back your shield.
“Yeah, you see anything out here?”
“Nah, just a few more of those white rabbits I always see hopping around.”

As you and Jack make your way back to the cabin, you and he speak on if either one of you knows anything about hunting. You of course know nothing, Jack says he’s not much better, though he thinks maybe you both could start making simple traps or something, especially given that there are obviously rabbits around here to be caught.

“Wish we had the Internet so we could at least look all this shit up. God, I really miss the Internet…I think this is the longest I’ve been without it and I suppose those days are over as well.” You say as you approach the cabin.
“Oh, you don’t know. We’re still just stuck out here in the wilderness, like I said, maybe there is Internet and hover cars somewhere else.”
“Love that optimism Jack…” you say chuckling and heading towards the door.
“Hey Suzy, wait is that blood in the snow?”

You and Jack both stop a few feet away from the cabin, you’re still closest to the door, which suddenly swings open, instinctively you put the shield up to cover yourself as much as you can.

Before you, you see a man with a good amount of facial hair and wearing several furs and clothing much more suited for this sort of weather.

He’s not completely standing upright, but is in a somewhat stooped position as if wounded which judging from the blood in the snow is probably the case. While it’s difficult to tell his facial expression due to the hair, his eyes are wide as if he’s surprised, desperate or possibly even afraid. Maybe a mixture of all three.

The major thing you see however is the crossbow he’s holding and pointing at you and Jack.

The man shouts something at you in a language you don’t understand and fires, but fortunately you had the shield in front of you and the bolt is prevented from hitting your body and merely goes stops half way through the shield instead.

There is the smallest pause in this encounter where you realize that you just came close to being killed again, Jack realizing you nearly came close to being killed and the man realizing he’s failed to kill you.

The man quickly backs inside and hastily attempts to reload his crossbow, meanwhile you don’t think about your near death experience and just act. You charge forward with the shield up and the spear out. You even start screaming like you’re in an action movie.

Your charge is stopped when you hit the man full on. The spear sinks into his body and he cries out in pain dropping the crossbow. You attempt to pull the spear as hard as you can back out, but it isn’t easy because the man keeps you from doing so by gripping the top of the shaft and the man still has enough strength to grab the knife on his side with his other hand.

Fortunately he can’t quite reach you and swings helplessly with one hand. Since you can’t pull the spear out, you instead start wiggling it to the left and right no doubt adding to the pain as well as internal organ damage. The man once again screams in agony and lets go of the spear allowing you to pull it out. He falls to the floor.

Jack who was having difficulty in getting around you before finally succeeds so he can get in closer to swing his axe down at the man on the floor.

“Suzy, hang on I can…agh!” Jack exclaims as the man desperately slashes at the closest leg to him with his knife, which happened to be Jack’s. This causes Jack to reel back and nearly stumble into the fireplace. Fortunately he only falls into a small pile of logs for the fireplace.

You press your advantage by stepping up and attempting to plunge the spear into the man’s neck, but he manages to dodge and you only hit the floor. He grabs the shaft of the spear again in an attempt to keep you from using it. He’s got a weak one-handed grasp though.
> You pull the spear
With as much strength as you can, you pull the spear from the man’s grasp. It puts you a little off balance, which is enough for the man with his other hand to swing his with the knife and plunge it into your foot before pulling it out again.

You scream in pain and lose complete balance and fall to the floor dropping your spear.

Jack has recovered by this point to help, but the man sits up and throws his knife into Jack’s stomach. Jack falls to the floor, dropping his axe and stopped from being able to help you.

Meanwhile you’re attempting to recover from your wounded foot, and sit up just in time to see the man stagger and stumble over to pick up the spear. Upon seeing how severely wounded Jack is, and your own injury you begin to panic. Not enough to run, but also not enough to make the best decisions.

You limp over to the man in an attempt to cave his head in with the shield, but thanks to your foot, you aren’t really the fastest. The man dodges your attempt by falling back to the floor, but with the spear now in his hand, from his prone position he manages to thrust it into your side.

You cry out and fall. The agony of your wounds is overwhelming now and you can barely stand it. Actually you can’t stand it at all and your body feels like it’s going into shock, like all the energy is leaving you.

You weakly attempt to put your shield up to defend yourself when you see the man hover above you, but you don’t have the strength just tears. He knocks the shield aside and finishes you off by spearing your throat.