Genesis

Ch_000_050: Genesis

I find myself in a white room. I am not sure what I am, but the memories are coming in slowly. I am a Canadian man and I have an urge to wander. I feel helpful and kind but I am unsure why that is. Is that just the Canadian default? That seems correct suddenly. My head itches as if pressed by an unseen helmet.

I see a floor for the first time and it is unremarkable. It is remarkable that it is unremarkable as the novelty should be interesting and yet it is not. I can say the same thing about the ceiling and three of the vertical walls. The fourth wall is different. I see it shimmer slightly and sway from a nearby draft.

I walk up to the fourth wall and put my hand out to touch it. It bends away from my hand and seems to be as weightless as a bubble. I keep pushing forward. The fourth wall breaks with a loud pop.

There are eyes staring back at me from an endless void. I can see shipping containers stretching out beyond sight and countless eyes surrounding each. Strange things are happening inside the others, and I watch as the eyeballs drift between them. I am compelled, somehow, to fix on a nearby container. This one, unlike the rest, has only a single eye attending it.

The persons within the nearly abandoned container seem frightened. They increase their antics in desperation, and then it happens: the final eyeball leaves. “Watch carefully,” says something unbidden in my mind.

The unwatched container slowly tips over and the people inside scream into the void below.

I look back at the eyes in fear. One moves forward. It blinks and my mind is filled with the eye’s hypnotic purpose.

“You are London, the unnamed. You will travel between Canadian towns and help the dogs you find in jeopardy. You must follow this itinerary. Failure to make a town on time means the shipping container will be destroyed. I believe you just witnessed a failed container and its end.” I feel rather than hear.

“Judge yourself and your success. Look to the corner of your eye.”

I look. There is a count there now and it was not there a moment ago. My current viewers, and any recent change.

“A container with no eyeballs is a container to be destroyed.”

Before I can respond, the world goes black and I hope it will return soon…