Priceless Heirlooms

"How the hell do we get down there?" I asked.

"Well," Jerry said, "you just slide down, mate."
"You kidding me?"
"Not really."
"Great."

Jerry positioned himself above the hole, crossed his arms and dropped in. He slid down and out of sight. Fuck, I thought. I hate slides. I jumped in and slid in to darkness. I flew through the tunnel fast, it was frightening, and long. Suddenly, boom, a bright blinding light and a short free fall to a big fluffy pillow-like thing. My heart was pumping. I sat still for a while. Jerry walked up to me and extended his hand.

"You'll get used to that, mate," he said.

He pulled me up and into a very bright, very white room. I followed him to a console on a nearby wall.
"What the hell is this," I asked.
"This, mate, is a whole new chapter in your life."
"How do you mean?"
"This place was here a long time ago. I didn't build it. I found it."
"Found it?"
"Before I started working this job I was running from the police on a drunk driving charge. When i tripped over a latch in the grass. I pulled on it. Found the hole. Heard sirens. Jumped in. Woke up here. Back then there was no pillow to land on."
"Keep talking."
"Right here on this console was a type of glyphs. What seemed to be a message, from my best guess. I hit this button over here."

He pointed at one of the many buttons on the console.

"Then, the message disappeared and the console went blank. After that I couldn't get anything to work. Nothing worked at all."

"So now what," I asked.

"This is not the only thing I found in here. I also found this."

He reached under the console and pulled out a box. He opened it and pulled out a was helmet.

"Do you know what this is?"
"It's a war helmet."
"Yeah, from World War II, mate."

He spun it around to reveal an emblem on the side.

"Fuck me," I said, "that's a nazi helmet from world war II."

I took it from him.

White.

I was in the room again. But, I still had the helmet. I didn't like that place, wherever it was. But, I kept ending up here. I gripped the helmet tight. A voice was heard.

"Welcome back, 01."

"Who's there," I shouted, "what the hell is going on?"

"Relax, 01. You already passed our test. One of them at least. Please, if you would be so kind as to put that priceless heirloom that your holding in to the retrieval bay."

"No fuckin' way! You tell me what the hell is going on here, damn it!"

"Please, 01."

"Fuck you!"

The helmet was pulled from me. Right out of my hands. It floated across the room and disappeared in to a square shaped hole in the wall. Once it was through, the hole closed up and the wall was flat again. What the hell was on the other side of that wall? Probably some damn answers, I thought. I took a step forward.

Black.

Everything I need to know, mate.

I woke up in my room again. With one hell of a headache. Body pains and this insatiable urge to spit my guts out on the floor. I felt like I had been hit by a train, twice.

I had to see Jerry. That fuckin' weirdo. I wonder if he could make sense of any of this shit. I took a shower, grabbed a bag of chips and walked out the door. I headed out in to the streets of deadville again. No one there as usual. As much as i hated this place, I was glad to be back in it after my trip to 'the room'. Wherever the hell that was.

I ate my chips as I walked down the street to the tram station. The tram station was empty. I walked up to the gate, scanned my montly pass card, and walked up to the platform. I took a seat and waited patiently for the tram to arrive.

A couple of minutes passed and another person stepped on to the platform adjacent to me. It was a girl. She was wearing a thick brown jacket and boots. It was cold outside, but it wasn't snowing. She seemed overdressed. She had gloves on too, I know, cuz I was watching her reach in to her pocket and pull out a pack of cigarettes. She searched her pocket looking for a lighter.

Then she looked over and spotted me. She gave me a nervous smile. She was kinda cute, sexy in her own way. Mysterious sort of.

"Do you need a light," I asked.
"Do you have one," she replied.

I smiled my grin of confidence and reached in to my pocket. I don't smoke, but I carry a lighter around with me for this specific reason. She was on the other side of the platform, so I had to throw it across.

She caught it with one hand. "Thanks," she said.

"Where you headed," I asked,
"Downtown," she replied, "you?"
"I'm headed down to Orville."
"Orville, huh," she smiled, "you live around there?"
"No, I live around here. I'm gonna see a friend."
"I see."
"Why are you going downtown?"
"I have my reasons," she smirked.
"I'm sure you do."

She tossed my lighter back over the track. I caught it, put it back in to my pocket.

"Thanks," she said, "I really needed a smoke."
"I understand the feeling."
"You want one?"
"No, thanks, I don't smoke."
"Then how do ou understand the feeling?"
"I'm addicted to chips," I gave her my suave smile.
"Right. It's not the same you know?"
"I've been told that before."
"I'm sure you have."
"You have company Downtown?"
"No, actually, I don't."
"You want some?"
"Maybe. What about your friend?"
"He doesn't even know I was going, besides, it's not safe for a girl like you to wander around downtown alone."
"I can take care of myself."
"I didn't say you couldn't. You just might need some back up is all."

She thought about it a minute.

"Besides, someone needs to light your smokes," I said.

She looked at me and nodded her head. I ran down the steps so I could cross over to her side. I headed through the station and then up to her side.

She wasn't there.

I didn't hear the train come. Where the hell did she go?

I crossed back over and waited for my train.

Jerry.

I walked in to Jerry's office. He was sitting behind his desk face planted in to a bowl of chips.

"Jerry," I said, "are you okay?"

He wasn't moving I walked over to him. I nudged him, he didn't move. Fuck, I thought, the fat shit choked himself!

I tried to lift him up. Smacked his back. Nothing.
All of a sudden, he leaped at me. I fell back, freaked out.
He burst out laughing.
"You dumb s.o.b." he laughed.
"That's not funny, man."
"Sure it is. You fucking pussy! Hahaha!"
"Damn it."
"Get off the floor you bum, this ain't your house, mate."

I stood up. Took a seat in front of his desk.

"Now, what seems to be the problem with you today," he asked, still smiling.
"This is serious," I said.
"Erectile dysfunction can be helped, there's nothing to -"
"No, you fuckin' mook, lemme explain."

I told him the story, everything except for the girl at the tram station.

He sat back in his chair. He was trying to take it all in. After a long awkward silence, he leaned forward.

"It's them, mate."
"Who?"
"Them," he said, "the name that can't be uttered."
"Will you just tell me?"
"I can't. They'll come for me too."
"Fine. What do 'they' want?"
"They want you, mate. You and everything about you."
"Great."
"No, mate. it's not great. Not great at all."
"Jerry," I said, "tell me who they are."
"I can't."
"Jerry."
"I'll show you who they are."
"Let's do that."

Jerry led me to the back of his office where he pulled on a book on his book shelf.
"Where's the secret door," I asked.
"Fuck you, mate."

He pulled on another book, and another. Eventually just about every book on the shelf had been removed. He put them back in a different order, and voila, nothing happened.

I looked at him. He turned and looked at me. "Now, I'll show you," he said.
"I'm sure you will," I answered.

His desk began to move. It was sliding across the room. The floor below it slid open and a poof of dust blew in to the room.
I moved over and looked in to it. It was too dark to see anything really, but, I knew it led somewhere.

Jerry walked over to me. He put his hand on my shoulder and forced me to look at him. For the first time ever Jerry was dead serious about something.

"Mate, what I'm about to show you doesn't leave you.You tell no one, you deny it's existence, you utter not one word, or so help me God, mate, I will kill you," he said. He was dead serious. It was scary.

"Give me the card you found, mate," he said.
I reached in to my pocket and pulled out the business card.
It still had name: written on it.
"Okay, now, hold the card, and repeat after me," Jerry said.

I held the card, and waited for him to start.

He began : "Name. Zero One."

I repeated what he said. The letters on the card changed again, this time reading : Please verify.

"Say it again, mate," Jerry said.

I said it again.

The card changed and read : Thank you. Please insert the card.

"Insert where," I asked.
"Bend over, mate," Jerry said smiling.

He pointed to a slot, right next to the hole he had unravelled earlier.
I put the card in. Lights filled up the hole, it was a tunnel. It curved so I couldn't see where it led.

"Jerry, what the hell is down there?"
"The answers to everything you need to know, mate."

Submission

Darkness had consumed the office. The other drones murmured around me. Then a flash lit the room. A burst of light that seemed to be one of the florescent lights popping. Then it was silent.

I put the card I was holding in to my pocket. I was kind of scared. I should have been anyway. With all the weird things that was going on that day, not being the slightest bit scared would prove my insanity. The lights came back on. They were bright, so bright I had to close my eyes for a second.

And that's when they got me.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a room. A white room. A blank empty space. My clothes had been changed to pure white pants and a long sleeved tee-shirt. I moved around the room, looking for a doorknob or window. Nothing. Then it hit me, a strong force in my body shouted in to my head,

"you're dead, fucker!"

I dropped to my knees and began to cry. I was only there for a moment before I was thrown up against a wall with tremendous force. My hands and legs stretched out. I was being held there by some kind of invisible power. Some energy, if you will, had me pinned up against the pure white wall.

I screamed in fear. Then in agony. Then in pure anger.

"What the hell is going on," I cried, struggling. Trying to regain control of my limbs. Then I started to move. Sliding across the wall. Being pushed. Sliding over on to the ceiling. Being pressed against it with mighty force. Feeling my bones begin to creak with the pure pressure. It was starting to hurt.

Dropping.

I hit the floor hard. That mysterious force had let me go, for now. I stood up, hearing my bones snap back in to place and my muscles cringe with pain. I threw up. Puked out my chips right on the floor in front of me. I wiped my mouth clean.

I heard a voice in my head. A whisper. It grew louder, began to scream. It cursed aloud. Others joined in. Voices from God knows where in my head laughing, screaming, crying, shouting. It hurt so bad. I grasped my hands around my head burying my fingers in to my ears. A headache grew so intense that it felt like my head was exploding every two seconds. I rolled on the floor. Trying to regain control. I punched myself. Assuming that madness had taken over.

Then it all stopped. I was curled in a fetal position in the middle of the room. Whimpering and groaning. trying to make sense of all this. Another voice was heard. This one not in my head. This was in the room.

"Stand up, Zero One," he said, calmly. I looked up at him. He was dressed like me, all whites. But, he was older. Maybe sixty. He was smiling, too. He put out one of his hands. I scrambled back away from him.

"Don't be afraid," he said, "I'm not going to hurt you."
"Fuck you," I replied.
"Please, Zero One," he said as he moved to stand above me, "there's no need for that kind of language."
"Fuck you," I roared, "just what the fuck is going on here?"
"Honestly, Zero One," he answered me, "I am taken aback by your behaviour here. They said you'd be happy."
"Who," I snarled rising to my feet, "who said what"
"Your masters, Zero One," he looked confused.
I grabbed him by his pearly white collar and forced him against the wall. "I have no masters!"
"This is highly inappropriate, Zero One," he said, "you must -"
I cut him off.
"I must what, old man?"
"You must know who you are."
"I know who I am!"
"Do you know who you are, Zero One?"
"What?"
"Do you know your origins? Your race, your creed, your purpose?"
I let go of him and took a few steps back.
"What are you talking about?"
"You are not yet ready, they were wrong."

I threw myself at him, I had to get my answers. He caught me in mid air with nothing but his eyes. I froze, floating. "Do not test me, Zero One," he said with authority, "I am a very hospitable creature, but, everyone and everything has their limits."

He moved very close to me, he looked me right in the eyes.
"Are you willing to submit?"
I looked at him, anger coursing through my veins. But, in his eyes, there was something familiar. Something I had known and lost a long time ago.
"Are you willing to submit, Zero One," he asked again, "it's a relatively simple question. Two probable answers : yes or no. Now, you must choose one."

I looked at him. I didn't know what to say.

"Choose, Zero One," he shouted, "submit to me!"

"What's -" I tried to speak, he wrapped his hand around my neck. He was strong. Very strong.

"You cannot answer my question with one of yours," he screamed, tightening his hold around my neck, "do you submit to me?"

I gasped for air.

"Submit to me," he shouted.

I tried to move.

"Submit!"

I tried to hold the air in my lungs.

"Submit, Zero One! There is no other way!"

My body straightened out, I floated still in the air, but now by my own means. The old man was thrown away from me. My body was emitting a white glow, my face and hands were burning. I looked down at him seeing in his face only fear.

"Submit," he whimpered.

My vision was red, my whole being reborn. I stared at him fiercely saying only one word :

"No."

Between the lines

Looking at the sheet of paper that I had recieved, I was trying to make sense of it. The TV screen had cut back to the news. I wasn't interested in it at all, i had more important things to worry about.

The note was still kind of a blur. I tried some combinations in trying to decifer what it said. I thought back to what I heard from the TV.

"Read between the lines, 01."

What the hell did that mean? Who the hell said it? What the hell was going on? Well, all I could do was find out. I stared at the paper. Read between the lines, I thought. Then it hit me. Read between the lines indeed.

d f e s
k o h s
o i x j
k u r t
y z i q


d o y o u e x i s t

Don't I, I thought. I am here, I am alive, last I checked. I am.

I looked back at the TV, still just the news. Nothing of any real importance. I was late. Lunch break was over twenty minutes ago. I threw on my shoes and dashed out the door, back across the street, through the office doors and in to my chair. No one noticed. No one cared, they were drones just as much as I was. I looked around for the mail boy, maybe he knew about that letter. He was no where around. I turned on my screen when I noticed a card stuck in to my keyboard.

I took it out, looked at it. It was blank, just like the envelope. Plain. I turned around to the guy who sat behind me. His name was Nick. Hadn't spoken more than three maybe four words to me since he joined the ant-farm couple of months back. Nick was busy with his work. Filling blanks. I looked at him for a moment expecting him to notice me. He didn't. I reached out and knocked on his desk. He looked up at me startled. A blank expression on his face.

"Hey, Nick, have you seen the mail boy around?"

Nick looked at me for a moment before he spoke. His voice shaky and uncertain, kind of nervous. "What mail boy" he answered puzzled.

Confused, I turned back and faced my screen. The card was still in my hand. I looked closely at it, there had to be something there. I sighed. It caught the warmth from my breath and turned a slightly different colour. I breathed on it again, this time revealing more of the card. Over and over I did that until the whole card had turned from white to a very dim shade of yellow. There was a small print in the middle.

:eman

Didn't make sense, much like everything else that day. I flipped the card over, it made more sense this time. It read

name:

Well, not much of a difference. "What the hell is this" I mumbled. The text on the card changed. The letters morphed and formed something else:

Invalid Account

The sky shouted thunder, and rain began to pour. The electricity in the office went out. Darkness.

01

I woke up again. There was a dim light shining in to my room. As I rose up from my bed I noticed a few dark clouds above. It's gonna rain, I thought. There was a pain in my back. I had to see Jerry again. Jerry is my doctor a good guy but, he's got some issues. He thinks that there was a Martian landing on earth billions of years before we set foot on the moon. He went on to say that all of our greatest theories, like evolution, were written in the sand by the Martians and we found them and it was imprinted in our brains as primates, therefore, it stuck with us until today.

I told you he's got issues.

I put my feet on the cold floor. I wish I had a carpet in there. I readied myself for work again, I am a drone at a computer company. I basically fill in the blanks in a sequence of scientific anomalies and rythms and stuff. I fill missing spots in it and send it to a server. I've been doing it for six years. I have no idea what I do, or what I contribute to.

I left the house and walked down the street to my office. This city is a dead zone. No one was around, no shops were open, nothing was moving, it was just me. In the middle of a large empty street. A metaphor of my meaningless existence in this world.

The office was basically the same, I walked in and made no difference. I punched in and sat down at my terminal. I received my files and began to work.

The mail boy walked by and tossed an envelope on to my desk.

Wonder what that is, I thought. I looked at it. The envelope had my name on it. That was all. I opened it up and saw a blank piece of paper, except for a block of gibberish in the middle of the page. It read:

d f e s
k o h s
o i x j
k u r t
y z i q

It didn't make any sense. I didn't really bother with it. I was hoping it meant that I was fired.

Lunch break had come early today. I stepped back in to the empty streets and crossed over to my apartment. I walked in sat on the couch and turned on the TV. I opened a bag of chips that I have next to my couch at all times. The news was on. I was still baffled about that random note I had received. The news was bland, something about the price of eggs going up again.

The channel changed by itself. There was static. I reached for the remote, but, then I noticed something. The screen flickered. Once. Twice. Three times. Then in the static I saw a face. Or what looked one. I heard something different in the static. It sounded like a voice. I heard my name. I moved to the screen trying to hear better.
The screen went black.
Then I heard it clearly.

"Read between the lines, 01."