text: [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction]
  
  and indeed you refuse to die. At least, you refuse to die like this. A sniveling whining scaredy-cat locked in their own brain. You try to think of anything you might do to fight back against the pain. But you are still bound to the metal chair, and your head trapped. Physically you are restricted. Mentally, however, there are options. You realize that the needles may be doing more than pumping your head full of useless (and painful) information. They could be giving you just the weapon you need to free yourself. You realize that you are connected, and receiving more and more information by the second.
  
  You have two courses of action you can take. One involves using the information already pumped into your head and seeing if anything is worthwhile, perhaps on getting out of this predicament or who/what is doing this to you and why.
  
  or
  
  You can choose to follow those needles and see where the source is...a sort of, out of body experience. Normally you would never try anything so crazy, but something tells you that at this point, if you put your mind to it, you can achieve it.
  
  so what will it be?
  
  > follow those needles!
  You dive towards the needles, picking one in particular, and you mentally follow it up. You feel resistance as you pull your mind away from your body. Almost as if you are tearing yourself in half. But you keep at it, pulling with all of your might. Eventually you feel things start to give and you spring forward, flying up the needle, up the wires and connections, up into the aliens' computers. You've never been in a computer before. It feels weird, and exposed, however also empowering. You can sense how to do things without actually knowing. You can see through the cameras in the room, and creepily, your body, slumped in one of the chairs. You wonder if pulling your mind out of your body actually killed it. You wonder even more if it matters at this point.
  
  You flip off the information pumping. Though that seems pointless now. You can tell from the cameras that all the other humans are dead. You analyze the rest of your present situation. The aliens are upset about something, though it doesn't seem to be about your sudden infiltration of their computer systems. In fact, it doesn't seem as if they've noticed you at all. Instead, they seem to be more concerned about the fact that what they're doing is illegal and the intergalactic police are now chasing them.
  
  The one alien seems to be suggestion an idea that the others find insane. You listen closely but can't seem to understand them at all. Curse these computers for not having a decent translation system. You wonder if you can use the needles stuck to your brain to download their language. You mentally shrug and try it, briefly attempting to connect yourself back to your body. You feel a slight tingling sensation, nothing more.
  
  You return to listening to the aliens, but by now, they've stopped talking and instead seem to be frantically working. An alarm starts to go off. Using the computer, you realize it is the collision alarm. The ship you are on is about to collide with something. This is a very bad sign for you. At this point you've survived a rough semester, a horrible finals week, abduction by aliens, freaking matrix things being downloaded into your head and now you're about to die in an alien car crash? To hell with this, you think.
  
  You quickly download knowledge about space flying, and jump back to the computer. Using the knowledge you understand that the aliens are attempting to commit suicide by crashing in a fiery mess in order to hide their illegal research activities. Well you're not about to let them. You reprogram their course towards a time rift. Sure, you're shooting them and yourself into an unknown part of space and time, but at least you'll still be alive!
  
  With that you slowly sink back into your body...
  
  > Riding out the next few minutes...
  The ship is shaking violently, your body feels like a rag doll strapped into the metal chair. You wish you had pulled the needles out of your brain, every time the ship jars you can feel them scraping inside your head. Though without the physical connection you wonder if you would have been able to get back to your body from the computers.
  
  You hear the aliens yelling again; terrified of the course that you have put their ship on. You locked the controls, meaning that now they are the ones who are powerless. You consider it a little bit of vengeance for abducting and experimenting on you. You can make out what they are saying now. They're trying to figure out how the computer locked them into this course. So they still don't understand it was you, the lone survivor of their twisted experiments. The one alien is suggesting that they all drink poison to end their lives, geez, what is with this group, you think. Why are they all so keen on killing themselves?
  
  The others seem to be shooting that idea down, however. As you listen in on their conversation, you begin to understand their fear. Driving into this time rift could mean a lot of things. But, the main certainty is, that there is no such thing as coming home. You begin to regret sending yourself and them on this route, but it's too late now, the ship is already starting to enter the rift. You brace yourself for impact and think about all the things and people you will never get to see again...
  
  The front of the ship is gone, you feel yourself falling, the binds that are holding you to your chair are dissolved, and you are falling, in some direction or another. You're not entirely sure which way is up and which is down at this point. Or if up and down actually exist here.
  
  You feel the strong urge to pull away from your body again. That maybe, if your body is destroyed but you're not connected to it you might survive. Though, you wonder what kind of 'survival' that might be.
  
  You feel dizzy, as if you're spiraling out of control, in every direction. Suddenly, you stop, and you hear a soft, calm voice in your head.
  
  > listen to the voice...
  "Relax, this will be fairly painless for you. I am here to help guide you," the voice says. It's a calming, feminine voice. It washes over you like warm water. You relax somewhat, after all, what else can you do at this point?
  
  The ship disappears from around you, which makes you feel a bit panicked. You attempt to struggle when you realize you're paralyzed.
  
  "Don't worry about that," the voice says. "It's for your own protection. I'm separating you from the ship. You're going somewhere different from them and I didn't want you to get hurt in the extrapolation process."
  
  Extrapolation process? This doesn't exactly help calm your nerves. You fight against the paralysis and even try to pull yourself out of your mind again. It seems, however, that the walls of your mind have closed completely and you're effectively trapped once again.
  
  The first thing you actually feel is a burning sensation on your forehead, which is already sore from all the pinpricks from those needles. You're forced to sit through it silently in your paralyzed state, but you make sure to send out scathing thoughts towards the Voice.
  
  The next thing you feel is another burning sensation in your left forearm. Almost as if someone were writing on it with a red-hot poker. This lasts much longer than the sensation on your forehead and this time you're in too much pain even to send scathing thoughts.
  
  Finally, the pain in your arm goes away and the voice returns.
  
  "I'm sorry about that, it was necessary to put some protection on you though. Better a little pain now than death later!" the voice says. You shoot your most vehement thoughts her way.
  
  "One last bit of pain and we're done, I promise," she replies. You're grasped with intense pain in your right hand, as if someone is entering your palm and following all of your veins throughout your entire body. The needles had nothing on this. It instantly fills all of your consciousness. It ends quickly, however, leaving you mentally shaking in terror.
  
  "I'm so sorry, I've never done that before, I had no idea it would hurt you so much," the voice says, seemingly sincere. You've reached the point of apathy, surrendering your mind in body in exhaustion.
  
  The last thing you remember hearing is the voice comforting you, and the strange sensation of rain hitting your face.
  
  To be (potentially) continued...
  
  Congrats! You found the most exciting ending!