BLACKOUT

 

 

I want to be fully informed

 

 

BLACKOUT: Part I

 

Anders finished the last sip of his coffee. He put it down on the table, and looked up at the lady across from him. A:” I’m sorry to keep asking, but, um, is there anything else I did that I need to know about? I want to be fully informed.” Darci carefully put down her coffee, and looked directly into his eyes.
D:” I told you everything.”
A nodded:” Good. Thanks a million.” He grabbed his coat and got up to leave. He took one step away, then turned back around. A:” I forgot to ask: How’s your paper on quantum mechanics coming along?” D laughed:” I won’t have enough room for all of the Nobel Prizes I’m going to win. Say, don’t you have a class soon?” Panic immediately crossed his face. A:” OH NO.” He turned and ran out the door.

 

[Around 45 minutes earlier.]
Anders had stepped inside the diner, slightly hungover. After a quick scan of the room he spotted the person he was looking for at the other end, sitting in a corner. He walked over and sat down across from the person. A:” Hey. Figured I’d find you here.” Darci looked at him oddly. D:” Do you remember what you did last night?” A shook his head:” No. That’s why I’m here.”

 

Two days later, he retraced his steps.
He didn’t say anything as he sat down across from her in the diner.
Again.
D:” Do you want me to go into detail this time? Or do you just want a brief description?” A:” You don’t need to go into detail.” D broke into a small smile. D:” Well, that should make this quick, because you didn’t do that much last night. At least, not till you arrived at my place. After that, you called Kate a frog, threw up all over my floor, tried to fight Davy, hit your head on the side of the table, and tried to climb the side of the house. All before 11. You stayed till after 2. Need me to continue?” A:” That would explain the cut on the side of my head. I’m so sorry about your floor.” D:” You really don’t remember anything else, do you?” Anders shook his head. D:” You can’t keep doing this! It’s going to get you into trouble. I’m not mad, but you have to be able to remember this stuff! What if you said something that you needed to remember? This is the third time this week we’ve done this. We can’t keep doing this. You can’t keep doing this. You have to figure out what’s going on!”

 

A stepped outside, D’s words echoing in his head.
“This is the third time this week we’ve done this.”

 

He waited for the crosswalk light to change.
Suddenly, he was on the other side of the street, walking towards his apartment. He looked around himself; everything else looked right. Even the day after the party, he was still blacking out.
A:” I’ve had enough. That’s it! I’m going to stop drinking. I’ll try for an entire month. I’m not going to even dream of touching any alcohol for the next month. I should consider myself lucky that I haven’t forgotten anything important yet.”

 

The next night, he went to the continuous party at D’s house. To the shock of everyone there, he passed up every offer to drink. It felt weird, but it was better than blacking out and not remembering a thing.

 

Two days later, he was sitting in class.
Anders felt quite a bit better than the last time, so maybe that was it. It sure sucked that drinking was off limits for now, but if that cured everything, well, that wasn’t so bad. His mind drifting away from whatever the professor was saying, he looked outside for a moment. There was a bright red bird sitting on a branch. It was cleaning its feathers.

 

The next moment, he was near the exit, handing in his tests. He stiffened, and quickly looked around himself. How did he get here? Well, he had a pretty good guess as to how he got there, but how did he completely miss it? His heart rate started to spike, and his hands started to shake. His test handed in, he walked quickly down the hallways trying to get outside. It seemed as if the hallway was getting narrower as he went along, and the roof was dropping on him. He managed to keep his composure, and didn’t start running. By now his heart rate was through the roof. Someone called his name, but he completely ignored them. Finally, after what felt like an hour, he reached the doors and stepped outside. He walked across the property till he found an unoccupied bench and sat down underneath a tree. He was breathing like a vacuum cleaner, and his heart rate felt like it was still going up, if that was possible. His hands were shaking badly as he tried to calm himself. What was going on with him?

 

He jumped to his feet, completely disoriented. Where was he? Everything around him was completely black. He reached into his pocket and fumbled for his phone. He dropped it on the ground, and started to panic again. “Get it together, Anders.”, he thought to himself. Forcing himself to calm down, he got on his hands and knees to look for his phone. That quickly proved counter-productive, as he couldn’t find his phone. His heart rate spiked again, and he began to shake.

 

Then finally, as he was scrambling his foot kicked his phone, sending it sliding across the ground. Diving after it, he grabbed it just before it slid out of his reach. He turned on the flashlight, and illuminated the room around him. It looked familiar, but he couldn’t place it. He found the light switch by the door and turned it on.
His panic started to subside as he realized it was his room.
His room! How in the blazes had he ended up here? He walked out to the door of his apartment. Stepping out into the hallway of his apartment, he retraced his steps. He removed his keys from the lock. Apparently he’d left them there. Entering his room, he picked up his jacket off the floor, and hung it up. There was some water in his kettle, but it was unplugged and cold. He walked towards his bed, which was still made. A:” I must have just walked in, and passed out, fully clothed, on my bed.” He checked his watch. It was 2am.

 

BLACKOUT: Part II

 

The next night, like every night, he made his way to D’s house and the constant party. He walked inside without bothering to knock. Davy was just inside, with two beers in his hand. He instinctively held one out to A.
A:” Nah, I’m good. Thanks.” Dv:” Right. Sorry. I completely forgot that you were going sober. Where’s the fun in that!” A:” Hey, I never said anything about going sober. I’m just not drinking for a while.” Dv:” You know what that’s called? Going sober.” Anders stumbled for an answer. A:” Well, I mean. That’s still not what I meant. That’s not what I’m doing.” Dv was quick with his reply:” If that’s not what you meant, than why is that what you said?” A stared him down. A:” You know, I don’t have to be drunk to threaten to fight you.” Dv stared intensely right back at him. Everyone could feel the tension start to rise, and they instinctively paused whatever they were doing. Nobody moved.

A stuck out his tongue at Dv, which broke his concentration. A:” You blinked. I win.” Dv broke into a huge smile as everyone relaxed. Dv:” I knew it was coming, but I still couldn’t stop from blinking. I’ll get you next time. How are you doing?” A:” Not that good, honestly. Something feels off.” Dv:” Still got that amnesia thing going on?” A:” It’s not really amnesia. It’s more like I just jump ahead in time, and I don’t remember what happened in the meantime. I guess it’s sort of like amnesia. But it’s just so random.” Dv:” That must suck. Has it affected your classes?” A:” Not really. But its starting to affect some of my relationships. Sometimes in a conversation I’ll say something, and an hour later I have no idea I said that. It’s made for some awkward situations.” Dv:” Like that time you called Kate a frog? What even did you mean by that? You’re lucky she was such a good sport about it.” A:” Yeah. I had way too many drinks that night. Or so I’m told. Why a frog; I don’t know. Was she wearing green that night?”

 

A found himself on a couch, by himself. He started to panic as he tried to remember what had happened.

I walked in, made everyone think I was trying to fight Dv again. Again? I’m making a habit of that. We talked for a while, then I stood over there….
He started to relax as he remembered all the details of his time there. But it did remind him that he didn’t want to stay up overly late. He looked at his watch. Yep. It was time to leave. He moved to put down his drink, but caught himself and stopped. He looked inside his cup, and tasted it. Just water. Nothing else. Couldn’t be too careful. He put his cup down on a table near the edge of the couch and got up. He pushed his way through the crowd towards the exit.

He had almost reached the door when someone called his name and stopped him. It was Davy. Dv:” Where are you going? Are you going to grab something? If so, I want-.” Anders cut him off. A:” No. I’m not going to grab anything. I’m headed home. I don’t feel right. Somethings wrong. I’m starting to feel sick. Maybe I am sick.” He turned away, walked outside, and closed the door. But not quick enough. Darci slipped out right behind him.

 

D:” Are you ok?” A:” You know that I’m not. I’m still blacking out all the time. It’s getting worse.” D:” I didn’t know! You never told me that it was still happening. I just assumed that since you hadn’t said anything you were getting better. Have you seen a doctor yet?” A:” No, not yet. I can’t seem to get in anywhere. Everyone is booked solid. I’m on several different shortlists, but I’m still waiting for the call.” D:” I feel for you. That’s just really sucks. Hope you feel better tomorrow.” A nodded, and turned to leave, but D suddenly straightened up, like she remembered something.
D:” You know what? While you’re waiting for a doctor to become available, I know what you can do. I know someone down at the lab. I’m going to make a call, and after class tomorrow you’ll head down and get some tests done. At least then you won’t have to wait for tests after going to the doctor.” A hugged her. A:” Thanks. You’re the best. People must tell you that all the time.” He paused. A:” For real though. How often do people tell you that you’re the best?” She smiled at this. D:” If I’m being honest: fairly often. I really am the best.” A laughed and walked down the street.

 

The next day, after class he walked across the campus to a section of the university he’d never seen before. Already, not many people were left here. He walked past the last few stragglers. A couple more corners, and there was the lab, right where D’s directions had said it would be. Most of the lights were off, leaving the lab illuminated only by the setting sun. He knocked on the glass door, then opened it and walked inside. There was a light in the backroom, so he walked towards it.

Some papers were shuffled inside, and another student walked out. She looked inquisitively at him. L:” So you’re Anders?” He nodded. L:” I’m Lisa. Darci’s friend.” A:” Who isn’t? [He laughed] You got your stuff ready?” L shrugged:” Yes. How many needles do you want take at one time?”

 

L wiped his arm with a cloth. L:” And that’s the last one. It wasn’t too bad now, was it?” A:” Nah, it was fine. How soon will I be able to get the results?” L:” I can probably get them in two or three weeks. There’s a bit of a backlog of stuff that needs to be processed, but I’ll try and see whether I can sneak it ahead of the queue. But since today is Friday, I won’t find out till at least Wednesday. I hope that works for you.” A:” Sure. That’s way sooner than I expected. Again, thanks a lot.” She nodded. L:” I hope you find what you’re looking for. Are you headed to the party tonight? It’s Friday after all.” A sighed:” No, I don’t think I’m going to. I think I need to stop for a while and see whether that’s the problem.”

 

BLACKOUT: Part III

 

A grabbed the sides of his chair as he jolted awake. All of the other bored people in the waiting room stared at him. He fought the urge to look around wildly like a madman. He focused on keeping his breathing calm as he tried to figure out where he was and how he got here. A:” Keep calm Anders. What were you about to do? After class, you wanted to go to your room and eat something. Did I do that? Shoot. I can’t remember. Next, I had my third doctor’s appointment of the week. I must be there.” A nurse interrupted his thoughts. N:” Is there an Anders here?” He stood up. N:” Follow me. The Doc is ready for you.”

 

[Twenty minutes later]
Doc:” Ok. Let’s go over it just one more time. I want to make sure I fully understand. Can you explain again what kind of symptoms you are experiencing?” A sat back in his chair. A:” I keep blacking out, and jumping ahead in time. I have no memory of anything that happened in the meantime. But I somehow still function normally during an “episode”, or so I’m told. To me, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s like someone is skipping time ahead.” Doc:” That’s ridiculous.” A:” It’s ridiculous that this keeps happening! I’m in perfect health, or at least close enough. There’s nothing wrong with me.” Doc:” Just relax. Your lack of sleep is making you crazy.” A nodded:” Yeah. You got me there. I’m certainly starting to go crazy.”

 

He gathered all of A’s papers.
Doc:” Again, I’m so sorry for the delay. You had to wait, what, over an hour?” A:” Don’t worry. It felt like no time at all. I just want to find out what’s wrong with me.” The Doc shrugged:” The best I can do is ADHD. That’s the only explanation. I can write you a prescription for Adderall. Otherwise, there’s nothing more I can do for you. Maybe, if you want, only if you want, I can refer you to a psychiatrist. But all that kind of stuff is beyond my expertise.”

 

[Weeks later]
A handed in his papers after his latest class, and shuffled out through the exit into the sunlight. D was waiting for him just outside the door. D:” You’re a hard man to find if you aren’t going to my parties.” A:” I’m keeping to myself more than usual, I’ll give you that. But you know when my classes end. More reliably than I do.” D:” That’s not hard.” A:” But the point stands.” D:” The deadline for my exams was coming up. I couldn’t spare a moment.” A:” How did you do?” D:” I don’t know yet. But I’m confident I’ll finally get the recognition I deserve. Still waiting on the results. Speaking of results, did you get yours’ yet? Last time I spoke to Lisa she still didn’t have them.”
They started walking through the park right beside the university. A:” Yeah. I just got them maybe a day or two ago. While I was waiting I found several doctors that had an opening for me. I’m going to see another specialist sometime this week.” D:” And?” A shook his head:” Nothing. They all think I’m crazy.” D:” Well, they’re not wrong, are they?” A laughed. A:” I’m certainly going crazy.” D:” Well, keep me updated. I want to know how’re you’re doing. Hope you can figure out what’s going on. The parties just haven’t been the same without you trying to fight Davy, or trying to climb the tree in the back.”

 

A sat quietly in a side room. He watched the doctors and technicians on the other side of the glass window talking heatedly with each other.
A:” I wish I paid more attention when Jim was trying to explain how to lip read.”
Another round of tests, another round of doctors trying to explain to him that he was crazy.

 

Frustrated, he walked down the street in the growing dusk. He walked past his apartment, and kept going. He reached the deserted university premises, and walked over the lawn till he found his favourite bench. By now it was pretty dark. He didn’t know whether that was because the sunlight was gone, or because he was holding his head in his hands. He tried to think of something, anything else, but he couldn’t. That same moment kept replaying in his head. He tried as hard as he could, but he kept coming back to the same set of phrases.

 

A:” It’s like someone is skipping time ahead.”
Doc:” That’s ridiculous!”
A:” It’s ridiculous that I keep blacking out. I’m in perfect health, or at least close enough. There’s nothing wrong with me.”
Doc:” Just relax. Your lack of sleep is making you crazy.”
A:” Yeah. You got me there. I’m certainly starting to go crazy.”

 

He woke up in bed. Or was he already awake? In either case, he was still unable to think of anything else. It had been on loop in his head for hours now.

Your lack of sleep is making you crazy.
Yeah. You got me there. I’m starting to go crazy.

He paused his thoughts. A:” Am I? Am I going crazy? Or am I on to something here? What happens next? What could I possibly do?” He sat up in bed, and started to wake up. As he woke up, he started to become more rational. A:” Maybe, maybe I should try and get more sleep. Yeah. You’re crazy sleep deprived.” He laid back down and tried to close his eyes.

 

Several days later, sitting in a lecture about- something, he couldn’t remember what the professor was supposed to be talking about- his mind kept coming back to that moment on the bench.

It’s like someone is skipping time ahead.

 

BLACKOUT: Part IV

 

A:” I’m completely insane. But I have to look into this just to prove that it’s not even possible. It’s time to put that degree of yours to some use.”
Immediately after the lecture ended, he bolted for the exit. Waiting for him just outside the door was D.
A:” Isn’t your class still going on? What are you doing here?” D:” My class ended early today. You know me. I like checking in on all my friends. You look like you’re in a rush. What are you going?” A:” The same thing I do every day. Go back to my room, and look through my logs of every single blackout and try to find a pattern. What are you up to?” D:” You’ve kept logs of every single blackout?!” A:” Of course! Except for the first couple ones. But once I knew that this was going to be a long term thing, I started logging everything I could remember from before and after a blackout.” D:” I would be extremely interested in having a look at those. Any chance I can grab a copy of them?” A:” Ah, I don’t know. They’re not that interesting. What are you up to?” D:” Oh, you know. The usual for me too. Go back to the lab, wrap up whatever project I was working on, then go to the party. Hopefully Davy doesn’t try to get Kate to paint my bedroom before I get there. Again. Have you tried looking through your logs for patterns?”
A opened his eyes wide:” Have I tried?” He opened his mouth, but paused, and changed what he was about to say. He glanced at the watch on his wrist. A:” Sammy gave me this watch for my birthday. It’s a beautiful watch. I have no idea how Sammy afforded it, but that’s beside the point. I thought it maybe had something to do with my episodes, since often I remember looking at my watch as my last memory. But it doesn’t happen every single time, and my blackouts started happening long before having this watch. So it can’t be that.”

D was confused:” Why are you telling me this?” A:” Because I’m grasping at straws now. I’m way past trying to figure out if I should stop drinking. I’m trying to figure out if I’ve got a rare disease, or if it’s the route I take to school, or the watch on my wrist, or the seat I sit in during class. I’ve looked for patterns everywhere. I can’t find any. This is sort of my whole gig, too. But I can’t find a pattern here.” He broke off, and stared into space. A:” Sorry. I started to rant there. I’m just so tired of this.” D:” I don’t blame you. I can’t imagine how irritating this is. Maybe another pair of eyes could help you find a pattern. It’s worth a shot at least.” A:” Sure, I guess. I’ll make some copies and you can pick them up after you’re done at the lab tonight.”

 

Later, after D had stopped by to pick up the copies, A looked again at the locations of every single episode. All so random.

He sat back against his wall, and continued brainstorming ideas, trying to figure out how someone would “skip time ahead” for him.

A:” I could try and make a list of everyone on the planet who has the resources to design and build that kind of technology, but that would take far too long. But, I could start with trying to figure out who has the resources to do this nearby.” He got up and walked over to his laptop. He already had a handful of lists from presentations last year, so that cut down on the amount of investigation he needed to do.
He picked up his phone and called a friend. A:” Hey, John. Would you be able to make a list of the top scientists in the world who specialize in time research? It would be a huge help to me.”

 

Weeks later, he laid back down on his bed and stared at his ceiling.

 

His list of possible candidates had been narrowed down from fifty different people and organizations to just five people who might be able to build this kind of technology.

He ran through them in his mind for the tenth time this evening. This time, there was a name that jumped out at him. Tech guru Rance R. Anders had done an entire presentation on him last year. If there was anyone he could fund this kind of technology it was him.

He looked through his contact list. He still had their phone number, so it would be simple to call them. Unless they had blocked his number. He dialed it up, and waited for whoever was unlucky enough to be working in the PR department that day.

 

p:” Hello. You have reached the Public Relations Department of Rance Productions and Technology Advancement, or RAPTA for short. How can I help you? A:” Hi. My name’s Anders. I am currently working on-” He was cut off by the person on the other end.
p:” OH NO. IT’S YOU.” A laughed. A:” Yep. It’s me.” p:” You’re the annoying student who called a hundred times last year!” A:” Technically, it was only eighty-six times, but who’s counting?” p:” Why are you calling again?” A:” I am currently working on a follow-up presentation to the one I produced last year. I want to see how much has changed in the past year and the like. There was a number of technologies that were supposed to have advanced significantly over the past year, and I want to see how you guys did on that.” p:” And if I say no?” A:” I only called eighty-six times last year. Ask around. That didn’t even make my top five.” The person on the other end sighed. p:” What do you want?” A:” If you could arrange for a tour of the facilities again, and for several questions relating to your progress in a number of areas to be answered, and you’ll never hear from me again.” p:” Never again?” A:” Never again.” p:” Fine. Two hours. Nothing more. Tomorrow. You know where to go.” A:” Fantastic! See you there.”

 

BLACKOUT: Part V

 

The next day, A managed to show up on time, right outside the facility gates. There was a guide was waiting for him. G:” You’re Anders?” A:” The one and only.” G:” I heard about you. I never thought they would let you back here.” A:” Neither did I, but persistence pays off every now and then.”

She got into a golf cart, and motioned for A to get in beside her.

 

About an hour and a half through the tour of the facilities, her phone buzzed. G picked it up. G:” Our head of Development and Research is ready for you. You’ll get about twenty minutes.” A:” Awesome!”

 

He was led through the labs, and into a huge airplane hangar that was full of different projects all going on at the same time. A short man in a plain suit was waiting for him. He didn’t reach out to shake his hand. S:” Hello. So you’re Anders?” A:” Yes. You’ve heard of me?” S:” It’s my job to know everyone who comes through here. That way if any of our secrets get leaked, we know who might have to “disappear.” A:” Point taken.”

 

Over the next twenty minutes A asked a handful of standard filler questions, and mixed in some harder questions to follow up on his previous presentation just in case someone was paying attention. But he finally got to the question he really wanted to ask.
A:” Currently, much of your research efforts is focused on time manipulation?” S:” Well, we aren’t working on time manipulation exactly. A more accurate description would be to say we are working towards being able to modulate the experience of time in humans. But we are decades away from even starting preliminary testing. Even for us, this is going to be extremely difficult.” A:” What are some of the proposed uses for such technology?” S:” The primary reason we have started working on our theories of time modulation is based around shortening the experience of space travel, especially when traveling to the distant planets we plan to colonize in the distant future, such as Europa, Ganymede, and in the very distant future, maybe even Triton and Neptune. After we began investigating, some other uses we came up with was getting less brave astronauts into space. If we can eliminate the experience of being strapped to a bomb and fired into space, we can increase our list of potential astronauts. Domestically, a potential use we found was that of relieving boredom.” A:” But all of this is decades away from being useable, right?” S:” We are decades away from even being able to begin preliminary testing of our theories. It isn’t clear whether this will even be possible.” His phone buzzed. S:” Time’s up. One last question, if you have one.”

 

[One month later]
A opened the door slowly and walked inside. Dv automatically handed him a drink, before realizing who it was. A grabbed the drink from him, and instinctively began chugging it down. Dv:” You’re back! I haven’t seen you here in, what, two or three months?” A:” Yeah. Something like that. It’s been a while.” Dv:” What made you come back? You finally couldn’t stay away any more?” A:” A doctor finally found something. I won’t bore you with the details. But now I’m taking some pills every other day. The important thing is I’m not blacking out nearly as much.” Dv:” Congratulations! That means you can drink again?” A:” A little bit. I still have to watch how much I have. But I can sip a little.”

 

[Three weeks later]
A walked around the conference room filled with high-powered Tech Execs and CEOs, and reporters, and sightseers. He passed by one exhibit, and bumped into an executive he had interviewed last year. C:” I think I know you. Anders, is it? What brings you to Japan?” A:” The one and only. I’m not sure how, but I managed to convince my Prof to fund a trip here to finish up on some projects. And there’s no better place to meet people like you than at these conferences.” C:” True. How did your presentation on me do?” A:” Top marks in my class. Thank you very much.” C:” Any presentation on me should get top marks. Have you met anyone else interesting while you’ve been here? You know, the guy you should interview is Rance R. He’s working on some just wild stuff.” A:” I know! I got the privilege of touring some of his facilities recently.” C:” Oh really? His public ones, or his secret facility?” A:” His what?” C:” You of all people should know! His secret facility. Do you mean you’ve never heard the rumors? Well, I guess he’s done a great job taking care of rumor makers like me.” A:” You’re not concerned?” C:” Nothing concerns me. I can see the gears turning in your head. What’s going on up there?” A small smile crossed A’s face:” I would be very interested in seeing this secret lab. Now here’s the million dollar question. Do you happen to know where this secret facility can be found?” C laughed, but quietly. C:” You’re a bold one. Just like me. But secret information doesn’t just get handed out for free.” A:” Why? Are you concerned?” C:” Nothing scares me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t manage risk. But more importantly, I don’t do anything for free. That’s the secret to riches. Don’t do anything for free. I’ll give you that for free, out of the deep benevolence of my heart.” A:” Well. I’m always down to make a deal. What kind of deal are we looking at? I have no money, so that’s off the table. But maybe there’s something else I could do for you. But that’s only if you know where it is, and you’re not just making stuff up.” C:” I’m not making anything up. However, I don’t know exactly where it is. But what I can give you is a general location to look in. First, we need to talk about the payment. You might be able to help me out with something.”

 

BLACKOUT: Part VI

 

Once that semester ended, he spent all summer biking down abandoned roads and hiking among the trees. Nothing. Nothing that he was looking for, at least. He found a lot of interesting stuff, but no secret labs. The summer was getting close to the end, and he was starting to think that C had led him on a wild goose chase. But he still had a few more areas to investigate. Hopefully he would find something soon so that he would have enough time to go hiking for fun.

 

Biking down a lightly used gravel road, he turned a corner. More road. He biked a little farther, but then he jumped off his bike and listened. There was a vehicle coming up from behind him, back around the corner. They probably hadn’t seen him yet, and there was no reason to let them. Moving quickly, he grabbed his bike and pulled it into the trees on the edge of the road alongside him. He stayed as still as he could, keeping his eyes on the road. A lightly armored transport truck rumbled by down the road in the direction A wanted to go. That was promising. Unless it was a secret government interrogation center, which would really suck.

 

A thought out-loud to himself:” I could follow on my bike, but if someone drove up behind me I would have no time to hide. I got lucky with this corner. If I need to make a quick exit this isn’t the greatest idea, but I don’t have a better idea.”

 

He carefully hid his bike underneath a pile of branches, and made sure to memorize where he left it. After he was confident that no one would accidentally find his bike, he started walking through the trees down a deer path, making sure to keep the road in sight to his left.

 

About an hour or so in, as the daylight started to fade, he started regretting the decision to leave his bike behind. The debate started in his head whether to turn back here, and try again in the morning, or whether he should push forward. Not long after he started considering going back, another vehicle drove by, headed in the same direction as the first.

 

Encouraged, he kept pushing through the trees. By now it was getting harder to see, but the trees and bushes were becoming thinner, which made walking easier.

Finally, he came across a short clearing, and a high chain-link fence on the other side. Looking to his left revealed the road, ending in a barricade and a small hut. Past the barricade, the road led to a medium-sized parking lot, and several large buildings, all connected together. But what really caught his attention was a short tower coming out of the middle of all the buildings. It was a sort of mini-skyscraper, reaching up about six or seven stories. All of it was branded RAPTA.

 

C was completely right. Rance R did have a secret facility.

 

Unfortunately there was several armed guards in the small hut, and a handful patrolling the perimeter. No dogs however, which was nice. Significantly less nice was the fact he couldn’t tell what kind of security was on the doors. If it was just a keypad he could maybe figure out a way in, but if it was full biometric scanners, then he would have no chance of making it inside.
On the bright side, it was logical that whatever he was looking for had to be at the top of the tower, behind the most extreme security in the entire complex. At least he knew where to look.

 

He noticed that there was a patrol slowly walking the perimeter towards him, so he sat back down against a tree and stayed as still as he could. He looked at his watch. Was it really that late? Maybe it was stuck. He tapped it. Nope, not stuck, just late. The patrol passed by the spot A was hiding, and kept walking the perimeter.

 

He jumped, full of panic. It had been a while since the last time he blacked out. As he had trained himself, he immediately looked at his watch. Four hours had passed.

Where was he?

He was back in his apartment, of course. Where else would he be? He laid back down on his cold floor.

 

Wait. His floor was never cold. He heard footsteps, and a light. A large door about twenty feet away from him was being opened from the inside. He didn’t move a muscle, and watched to see who was exiting the other room. Unfortunately he was temporarily blinded by the light, so he was unable to see who was walking out. The person walked out, and the door began to close behind him. Moving too fast to think, acting only on instinct, A slid the pencil in his hand towards the door. Why was he holding a pencil? It didn’t matter why, but his idea worked. The door slowly closed all the way to the pencil, leaving just a pencil width open. A pencil width was all he needed.

The footsteps opened another door, and closed that one. He listened as the footsteps slowly retreated down the staircase.

 

He waited another ten minutes just to be safe, then slowly pulled himself out from underneath the crate on wheels he was under. Stealthily, he ran towards the door. Carefully, making sure his fingers weren’t going to be cut off if the door tried to close, he stuck them into the pencil-width opening and attempted to pry the door open. It was easier than he expected.

He checked the back of the door. No security clearance was needed to open it from the inside. He removed the pencil, and let the door close quietly. It was pitch black inside, except for a sliver of moonlight coming in from a window. He grasped around in the dark, and found the light switch. He flipped it on.

 

BLACKOUT: Part VII

 

The light revealed a large room, with almost nothing in it, besides the main attraction, which was a large box-like machine taking up most of the space inside. A:” I feel like that is what I have been looking for. But I have no idea what it is, or what it does.” He slowly walked around the machine, and tried to figure out what it was. A:” It’s not like they just left a-” He paused mid-sentence, as he reached down onto what he figured was the control panel. He picked up a small booklet. A:” It’s not like they just left a manual lying around. I’m lucky today. Or having a lucid dream. Hopefully it’s the former.” He started to read through it as quickly as he could. It wasn’t all that complicated as far as manuals for top secret technology go, so he was able to read through it fairly fast.

 

As he was reading through it for a second time, a sound from behind him broke his concentration.
He spun around, and stared at the two people standing there. To his surprise, he recognized both of them.

 

The Tech Guru and Businessman himself, Rance R, in an expensive black suit, and in a white lab coat, Darci.

 

Out of the three of them standing there, D recovered her senses first. D:” Anders. What a surprise! Anders, this is Rance. Rance, meet my friend, Anders.”

A stared at him. He heard lots about this man, but had never seen him in person. A:” Rance R, as in, the businessman? I wrote a presentation about you last year. Youngest to make a billion dollars, or something like that? Or is this a different Rance?” RR:” Close. I’m not quite at a billion dollars. I’ll get there soon. I heard about your presentation. It made quite the stir. What are you doing here, in my lab? How did you get here?”
A:” If I’m being honest, I’m not sure how I made it here. I sort of just blacked out, and arrived here. What are you doing here?” RR:” What do you mean what am I doing here? This is my facility. I own the place. How did you find it?” A:” I knew why you were here. But I don’t know why she’s here.” RR:” I needed someone smart enough, and with access to the right places, to bring my idea to life. She needed money, and wanted recognition. I have a little bit of expendable cash, and huge amounts of expendable fame, so it worked out for the both of us.”

Anders suddenly understood a little bit more. A:” So that might explain why she suddenly had enough money to buy a new house. And why she doesn’t care about insurance anymore. Not that I’m complaining. The parties are fun.” RR:” Yes. I’m her “dead” uncle, or whatever her explanation was.” A:” So what exactly was she brought in to research for you?” RR:” You really never stop asking questions? No wonder you annoyed the heck out of my poor PR department. I don’t have time for this nonsense. This bores me to no end. I thought I had left the lights on, but instead it’s the most annoying person I’ve ever heard of. They say money can’t buy you happiness. I don’t know whether that’s true or not. Regardless, money can buy many things. Like the controls to my new and very expensive time-modulating machine.” He tapped a button on the side of his watch. RR:” In a moment, that machine will start up, I’ll blackout, and wake up in a couple of hours, hopefully on my private jet to my next set of meetings.”

A shrugged at this. A:” Or maybe not. You never know with these things.” RR:” Is he always like this?” D:” I wouldn’t say always. But in these situations, yes. What did you do this time, A?” A:” I may have disabled the machine. Which means that you’re going to be experiencing this in real time. Sorry about that. But in the meantime, I have a ton of questions. Like, why did you build this in the first place?” RR:” Why? Do I really need to answer that? It should be obvious. Boredom is the absolute worst! I can’t stand it. Ever since I was a young kid I wished I could just skip time ahead. Sitting in traffic, or on a plane, or in that horrible lull between exciting moments… it just plain sucks. It never ends! It just drags on and on. It never ends. But other times, the time just flies by. You don’t notice it at all. But that only happens when it’s not boring! What if, I asked myself, what if you could press a button during a boring moment, and skip over it? It would be like no time at all. It would take too long to list all of the things I would I be willing to give to have that! Since the moment I acquired the resources to work on this, I have poured all the money and time I can into this. All for moments like this. Once I figure out what you did, all the time will pass by for me.” He took a step forward towards the machine.

A:” I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” RR:” And why not?” A:” Well, since you say I talk too much, I won’t go into the details. But you have to remember: I broke into a secret multi-million dollar research facility. I might know what I’m doing. And, unfortunately for you, I don’t think you’ll ever be able to get this machine to work again.” RR:” Irritating beyond belief. You know I can always just build a new one, right?” A:” Oh, yeah. I know that. But I want you to listen to me for a moment. I want you to really be here, experiencing this. So if everyone just bears with my stupid questioning for a moment, we can wrap this up faster than if we start running in circles around a broken time machine. Cool?” RR looked over at D. RR:” It’s your call.” D:” Honestly, I don’t think it is. I think he’s calling the shots. As of right now, you have more to lose than he does. [She turned towards A] Ask away.” A:” What is going on, and why was I lucky enough to get involved? Tell me everything. I want to be fully informed.”

 

BLACKOUT: Part VIII

 

D looked inquisitively at RR, took in a large breath, and started:” As you may have guessed, RR approached me, among others, with an offer to work on this project of his and try to figure out some method of modulating the experience of time. The one complication is that he wanted this to remain absolutely secret. He didn’t want anyone to steal his idea, or worse, get the government involved and shut him down. Right?” RR:” Correct so far.” D:” I was well compensated for my efforts.” A:” That sort of explains what’s going on, but how did I get involved?” D:” Because you have no sense that you should stay out of other people’s business! I was putting in some long hours after class, and didn’t have time to travel here to the lab, so I was doing some experimentation in my basement. We were working on creating an experimental liquid that made a person susceptible to this machine’s effects. [She pointed at the large machine in the middle of the room]. I finished mixing our third version of the liquid, the first that actually worked, in the morning before class one day. As fate would have it, I didn’t have time to put it away. Of course, I finished late that day. I show up to my house and I find that you and Kate have started the party early, and you guys raided all of my alcohol. Not only that, but you slipped into my basement and personally drank most of the experimental liquid.” A:” Actually? I hope I didn’t actually do that. Did I?” D:” You did.” A:” Oh no. I’m so sorry.” D:” I never wanted you to drink that in the first place, but after you did, that gave us the idea to use you as an experiment. Well, not to throw him under the bus, but it was RR’s idea.”

RR:” I don’t think I came up with it. But I enthusiastically endorsed the idea. I let some of the poor saps in my PR department know, and they thought it was the best possible revenge. There haven’t been many people who’ve caused enough of a headache that I hear about it.” A:” That’s extremely disturbing, but I maybe deserved it. Maybe. Even so, it’s still very disturbing.” D:” So, after we decided that we wanted to use you as our test subject, during subsequent parties I slipped more of the experimental liquid into your drinks to make it more permanent.” A:” Permanent?” D:” That’s what we believed at the time. The strength of the effect has dropped a little over time, so you would need a booster drink or two. But since you haven’t had anything to drink at my place in a while, we haven’t been able to give you one.” A:” So all that would explain why you were so eager to have a look at my logs.” D:” Yeah. It was invaluable information. It helped us immensely. Was I too eager to get my hands on them? Did I give it away?” A:” No. It did seem strange, but I’m only noticing that now. Did you do anything else to me?”

D pointed at his wrist. He noticed it looked similar to the watch RR was wearing. D:” You see that watch you’re wearing? I gave that to Sammy to give to you for your birthday. We wanted to test its effects on the signal before RR started wearing it. We wanted to know whether it had any unpleasant side effects, and whether it caused you to blackout for longer.” A:” And?” D:” It was a complete success. Absolutely no side effects as far as we can tell, and it boosted the signal, allowing us to affect you from farther away. However, the introduction of the more powerful signal caused you to blackout for upwards of six hours. We weren’t expecting that, which forced us to adjust the duration of the effect so that you wouldn’t blackout for that long. Another unfortunate thing was one of our engineers forgot to disable the side button. Once we gave it to you there was no way we could take it back and fix it. Not without serious risk. So you were able to accidentally trigger the machine if you happened to press the button.” A:” Just a couple more questions. Did anyone else drink some of this liquid?” D:” No. Just you.” A:” Was Lisa in on this?” D:” Sort of. She’s been one of the scientists helping us with the biological side of things, but she doesn’t know exactly what we’ve been working on. I’ve just gotten her to work on different projects and other sides of it. I think she suspects it has to do with some sort of anti-aging treatment. But otherwise she doesn’t know anything about what we are doing here.” A:” Does Davy or Kate, or anyone else in our circle know about this?” D:” The only people who know about this project are the three of us standing here, and a handful of RR’s more important scientists. No one else.” A:” I think that about wraps it up here. That wasn’t so bad now, was it?” RR:” I found it exceedingly painful. I’m glad it’s coming to an end now, but it could have wrapped up a solid fifteen minutes ago.” A:” I think you might be more irritating than even me. Then again, maybe not. I’ll try and get out of your hair as soon as I can. Before we try and figure out what happens next, I want to make sure I don’t miss anything. Is there anything else that I need to know about? I want to be fully informed.” D:” I told you everything.” A:” Just like in the diner the morning after my first blackout?” D:” Just like the first time. I told you everything.”

 

I told you everything

 

<THE END>

 

 

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