The Hanging

I quickly flipped open the Shifter, searching for anything that could help me. I pulled the lever, but nothing happened, other than that same whining noise as earlier and a “Promixity Warning” flashing on screen. I pointed the Shifter at the LXR, which I’d managed to hold on to, hoping for a miracle. The Shifter vibrated. I stared at it in wonderment. Then, realising I only had about half a minute, I quickly fumbled with the gadget, and with surprise discovered a message.

“LXR = immortality drug. Elixir.”

Footsteps reapproached. It sounded like the man was about to enter. I scrolled down.

“Drink it.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted immortality. I didn’t want to see how humanity evolved. I’d had enough of this.

“Drink it, Joel,” it flashed. “NOW.”

Button presses on the other side of the door suggested they were re-entering.

“DRINK IT, and smash the bottle.”

I popped the vial and swallowed the liquid just as the door opened. The man looked at my hand, which was clenching the empty bottle.

‘Suck on this.’

I threw the bottle into the ground, and watched the glorious shards fly everywhere.

‘What… what have you done?’ he roared.

I didn’t know either.

Health

I opened my eyes once the wind stopped. In front of me was a pedestal, with a vial floating in midair above it. Silver and shiny, it bobbed up and down between what I assumed were two magnets. ‘LXR’, it was marked. I hesitated, and then grabbed it out of midair. Ding went the Shifter. Dongdongdongdongdongdongdong went the alarms. I turned around, looking for a corner to hide in. The room was circular. I didn’t find that funny.

There were two doors. I ran towards one, but it slid open and a man stepped through. I turned around, only to find three guards blocking that entrance. Facing the first door, I watched as the man – obviously the leader – walked confidently towards me. I clutched the vial tight.

‘You seem to have accidently picked up some of my property,’ he growled.

I didn’t move.

‘It's not yours,’ he clarified.
‘I need it,’ I stammered.
‘You don’t even know what it does,’ he countered.
‘You’re meant to give it to me,’ I replied.
‘True. But I’ve made such a nice living from it that I’m, shall we say, reluctant to give it up.’
‘You can’t ju-,‘ I began, but the man surged forward and tightly grabbed my arm.

‘SHUT. UP. The game’s over, Joel. Here are your options: plan A – you give me the LXR, and then go on your merry way. Plan B – my friends behind you melt your insides, I take the LXR and go on my merry way.’ He glared at me, but I forced myself to meet his gaze.

‘How about plan C – I prove to you that I know what the LXR is and you give it to me?’
‘You have no idea what it is,’ he asserted.
‘If you’re right, then I guess we move on to another plan.’

The man paused.

‘You’ve piqued my interest. We go with plan C.’
‘I need a minute. Alone.’

He stared at me.

‘I’m sure you can hold your excitement about microwaving my insides for a minute. Out.’

He looked bemused, and then waved at the guards. ‘One minute,’ he repeated, and went to close the door. ‘Don’t try using your new toy – the vial can’t be Shifted,’ he added, then slammed the door shut.

‘Shit,’ I swore, and smacked my head against the wall.

Sucked In

I’d tried all the other doors along the corridor, but they were all locked or wouldn’t open. I’d even left a shoe in the middle of the hallway and entered the door at the end, but my shoe was still waiting for me when I passed through. I didn’t know what to do. I sat down and retied my shoe, and thought through my options. The Shifter slid out of my pocket. Of course! I wasn’t thinking properly.

I took the time to really examine the thing. Black and sleek, its contoured edges screamed sophistication. Currently, “Without: 497” and “Within: 3” were blinking gently. It was still the 22nd of February, apparently, but now the Displacement was 2035. Suddenly, it clicked, and I realised that the “Displacement” showed what the time it would have taken for this level of technology to arise had I not taken the antiseptic and microscope back. I pulled the Shifter’s lever, and it shot back up. Not unexpectedly, nothing happened.

I paced up and down the corridor, Shifter in hand. My leg twinged, and I stumbled. I massaged a sore spot in my thigh, and while doing so, noticed the Shifter’s screen and how it now said “Without: 499” and “Within: 1”. I took a step back. “Without: 498”. “Within: 2”. I took two steps forward. “Without: 500” flashed red and “Within: 0” flickered violently between green and yellow. I pulled the lever. A mechanical hum arose, but was then suddenly cut off, whining back into silence. I got the feeling I was close to something. An error message flashed up: “Infinity Lock”. Damn. That didn’t sound promising.

Infinity, eh? I leant against a blanched white wall and tossed up what I knew. The doors at the end of the corridor seemed to loop into each other. It was like having a video camera feeding into a TV, and then filming the TV screen itself. I paused, midway through thought, and became excited. I ran to the end of the corridor, shut my eyes, and kicked open the door. It swung back and the handle embedded in the plasterboard wall. I turned around, felt my way slowly along the corridor to the far door, and kicked that one open too. A roaring, deafening, icy wind blew through the corridor. I inched along the wall, hugging the Shifter close and staring defiantly at the numbers as they dropped to zero. I took a deep breath, and then pulled the lever. The mechanical hum began again, and rose in pitch and volume until the room imploded.

Chained

A grimy, brown, rusted cabin presented itself as I stepped through the frame. This was immediately reassuring. I could handle dirt. A man with glasses was bent over a table that seemed to be displaying live feeds from security cameras. He spun a pen in his hand, and occasionally pressed at the videos, moving them or something. I took a step into the room, and his head shot up, staring right at me.

‘Um…hi,’ I said.

He slowly lowered his head, and I slid out past him, through another door. It was a hallway, with flickering lights emanating from the ceiling, though with no obvious source. I passed several doors, and then picked one at random. I twisted the handle, but it was locked. I decided I go to the end door, and when I peeked cautiously around the frame, the same hallway stared back me, identical to the one behind me.

Not just similar-looking. The same. I saw myself looking through the door at the end of the corridor. Slamming the door shut, I ran back down the corridor and opened the door I came through. Again, my head was obscured as I peered round a door.

‘Shit,’ I swore, and sat down.

Podcasting

I appeared in the sky roughly four metres above where my house used to be. I quickly realised that at least gravity was still hanging around, and that I hadn’t screwed that up too. Luckily, my house was now a crystal clear lake, which softened my fall. I floundered my way to the surface, suddenly remembering at an opportune time that I wasn’t the swimming type, and added it to my mental list.

Dripping, I surveyed the land. My house was gone, and so was the neighbourhood. Gently rolling hills extended from the lake, a natural centre of the park. Trimmed shrubbery lined smooth, grey paths, along which strolled suited women walking pods with small dogs trotting alongside. A lawnmower was quietly clipping each rebellious grass blade that dared poke its pointed head above the rest. There was no obvious operator, or even a means of operation. I walked up in front of it, and it smoothly rolled around me, studiously enveloped in its menial task.

As I strolled up the hillside, I took the chance to peer into a passing pod. A small, red baby was sleeping, cocooned in blankets. A screen on the pod measured the inside temperature as twenty-four degrees. The mother, well, walker – I couldn’t be sure whether it was her child – ignored me, so I had to match her pace to keep looking. My inspection completed, I stood still and watched the woman amble away, and suddenly realised she wasn’t actually touching the pod itself. It lazily slid along, perfectly centred in the middle of the path.

It seemed as if my heart grew cold, and with every pump the feeling spread glacially throughout me, until even my bones shivered. I started moving in the opposite direction to the woman. Another pod brushed past, and I jumped, avoiding looking its inhabitant. The dog passed by, oblivious. I sped up, leaping off the path and walking over the manicured grass. A wake of machines straightened the flattened blades of my footsteps. Flowerbeds, hedges, trees, birds; none stood in my way as I scrambled up the slope in panic. I crawled to the crest, and lay panting on the mesa. In the corner of my eye, a framework stood out against the horizon. It was a door.

I stood up and turned around, slowly, hardly daring to breathe.

Pods circled the lake, perfectly spaced, at identical speeds, in precise step with one another, in a horrendous mechanical ballet. I pushed through the door.

The Wire

The man was steadily coming closer. I was steadily not moving. I decided to change that, and started to sprint away from him. Stumbling up steps, I tried to focus on running and also on looking at the Shifter at the same time. The Shifter’s screen was red, and the words “Within” and “Without” were flashing. Next to each word was a number – the “Within” value was increasing, while the “Without” number was dropping.

I hit a wall.

Stumbling off it, I dazedly headed off in the right arm of the T-junction, and kept running. A quick check showed that Shifter’s numbers were barely moving. I slid around muddied bricks, and took a left. The numbers began to move again. “Without” was at fifty, which soon dropped to forty and then thirty-five. I leapt over a crate of chickens that was being hastily dragged indoors. There was a reverberative thunderclap that shook my bones and made dogs howl. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a man silhouetted at the end of the alley.

Thirty.

He began to run.

Twenty-five.

I gave up dodging people.

Twenty.

A glimmering flash of-

Fifteen.

-iridescent-

Ten.

He ran right through a crowd of excited teens. There was a sound like one hundred people breathing in.

Seven.

-pearlescent-

Four. Nearer.

-glowing-

Zero. I pulled the Shifter’s lever. It sprang back up. The screen went green.

-light.

Live

I didn’t argue. The door at the end of the corridor now seemed an incredibly long distance away. Still, I had broken into a fairly steady lope and was narrowing in on the exit quickly; the wooden pews were just a blur around me. I reached the opening of the chapel and slid through. As I did so, I had to look backwards to shut the door.

The pews were on fire. Brilliant red flames licked at the age-old wood, their golden tongues caressing the backs of the benches. Standing at the foot of the altar was a man, darkened by the shadow of the cross. It seemed as if no light could touch him; the fiery rays did nothing to alleviate the darkness enveloping him. His hair glinted.

I shivered, and slammed the door shut.

Turning, I quickly took in the square. Dusky purple light had descended on it, and the sky above was littered with clouds that menacingly glared down on us, their intangible quality overshadowed by the colour of gloom. The marketeers were hurriedly packing up their goods. No customers were wandering the aisles. It was spitting, but something told me the traders weren’t worried about the weather.

Running through the rows of shops, I focussed on not tripping up or looking back. I wasn’t the athletic type, so I needed to concentrate on getting away from the church. I glanced at one of the stalls – a delicate porcelain statuette had caught my eye – and as my gaze returned to the aisle, I saw a man step out in front of me. I skidded on the wet cobblestones, but it was too little too late. I wildly flung an arm in front of my face, and –

Turbid light around me.
Beautiful washes of pulsating color.

I was lying on my back, staring up at the thunderheads. I looked to my right. The man was continuing on up the aisle, unscathed. I looked to my left. The Shifter had skidded along the ground, and was resting against a sack of potatoes. I mentally kicked myself, and picked up the gadget. I got up, and turned to face the church. The door opened, and a man strolled out. I pulled the lever on the Shifter, and grinned as the man started to run towards me.

Nothing happened.