In Memoriam - An Unus Annus Fanfiction

23.02 -23/03 - Edible Slime was a Mistake

Luís's head was spinning. He had zoned out halfway through Marcus's explanations and by now he wasn't even sure which era he was in. Eons could have passed, or minutes.
   »Tell me again about this Machine. You and Alex build it and Mark used it for what exactly?«
Marcus's eyes glimmered. He seemed all too happy to tell his story once more. »Alex and I were study partners. He was clever, oh yes, very clever. The Machine did more than just preserve the body. It preserved the mind.« He tapped his finger against Luís's head. »We all pale next to the genius of Mark Fishbach. He made more, yes more than anyone else could have. There is a world inside the machine, a microcosm the likes of which has never seen before.«
   »Like virtual reality?«
»When virtuality becomes real, is it not just reality virtualized?« Marcus jumped out of the couch, grabbed a piece of paper from his desk and waved it around in front of Luís's face. He took it out of his hand, but couldn't make sense of the equations scribbled on it. »It was his idea, but I was the one who implemented it. Oh, curse my hubris. I reached for immortality, and instead I got agony.«
   »Uploading the mind to a machine, right?«
»Yes! Yes, my friend, thousand times yes. But there is no freedom in the Machine. It's a prison, and I created it. «

Lixian raised his hands, as if it would bring Marcus to talk slower. »If it's a prison, than who are the prisoners?«
  The man looked around the room, as if he wanted to make sure that they were alone.
»Mark and Ethan.«
   »Mark and Ethan? But how can they be here if they're in the Machine?«
»It's a part of them. Part of their minds. I have no doubt, Mark is the one behind all of this. I don't know how he did it, but a part of them is locked into the Machine.«
He snatched the paper out of Luís's hands as if he had stolen it. »We need to save them. Before it's too late.«
  »Save who and too late for what?« Talking to Marcus slowly but surely became debilitating.

»The parts of them that are stuck in the Machine. Unus and Annus. If the channel dies, they die.«
   »That doesn't make sense.«
»It does if you think about it from the right way. Marks part has been in the Machine since the accident at the mansion. Long before the countdown started. It began when everything was ready. The stage was set, the actors all here. But sometimes, the stage director forgets to check for mice, and the whole play comes down.«
When he saw Lixian's confused look, he added, »We are the mice, my friend. We'll put an end to this game. And then, we'll uncover the enigma that is Mark Fishbach once and for all.«

»And how are we supposed to do that?«
Marcus kneeled down next to his working desk and pulled the rug out from underneath it, revealing a small trap door. »The apartment below us is empty. My lab is down there.«
His lab. Of course, Lixian thought, hesitantly following him down the hatch.
Papers were hung on the walls and thrown all across the floor, and the built in kitchen had been repurposed as a chemical lab.
The wall between bed- and bathroom had been taken out, mainly because the whole bathroom was filled out by a metal canister vaguely resembling a bathtub. Hundreds of wires connected to a computer that looked as if it had been used all the way back in the 1940s.
  »My old prototype.« Marcus's voice sounded as if he was talking about his child. »An unnoticed entrance to the Machine. Hopefully.«
   »What do you mean, hopefully?« Lixian knew that the window he had for walking away from all of this was long gone, but at this moment, he thought about simply prying it open.
»As long as Mark doesn't notice it, we are fine. You just stand guard.«

Without warning, Marcus unbuttoned his shirt and pulled his pants down. Naked save for his underwear, he gave Luís a thumbs up, and lied down in the metal bathtub. Slimy fluid, shimmering green, began to fill it from holes in the sides.
He scooped a bit of it up with his fingers and put it in his mouth. Luís cringed, and the explanation »It's edible,« didn't change anything about that.
The computer began to beep and hiss and whirr and hundreds of lights blinked simultaneously. Then suddenly, silence. Marcus looked as if he was sleeping. At this moment,his face looked calm, almost normal. Luís let out a sigh and sat down on the cold floor.