Plan B

Chapter 3 | Where It All Began

Before he knew it, the world was slowly appearing before the cloudy haze of Tony's tired eyes. He was quick to realise, even before he gained a bearing of his surroundings, that he felt particularly woozy and disoriented this morning. Granted, woozy and disoriented were both words that could quite accurately describe how he felt every morning, although, strangely, it was... worse this time. That was the best way he could think to put it in his scattered, confused state of mind.

His head hurt. No. His everything hurt. But why? It wasn't even like it was particularly bright- if anything, it was quite dark aside from a small shine of dingy, yellowish light. He tried to think of a reason for this. But he couldn't even recall where he was. There was a mild but constant stinging in his eyes, and he didn't dare try to strain them in an effort to get an idea of his situation. It was like the sickest migraine.

Well, he had to start somewhere if he wanted to figure this out. It couldn't be a hangover; from what he could remember, he'd been holding off on any alcohol consumption for a long time. (Shrignold had been insistent on helping both Larry and him after finding out that he had a drinking problem too, though the former had been much more problematic.)

So then, what had happened? Where had he been last night? Wracking his brain had done nothing to help him so far, but now he could just about recognise one detail from within the stormy clouds that obscured his memory. He knew he'd been with Colin. Optimistic, enthusiastic, amiable, intelligent (often too much so for his own good), sometimes considerably narcissistic Colin.

Of course that stood out to him.

He wasn't even surprised. It was Colin, by far the most tolerable out of everyone he lived with, as much as the others undoubtedly disagreed with that view. Well, tolerable was an understatement if you looked at him through Tony's eyes. But hey, at least it was a start. If Colin had been with him last night, then he must be at home. He didn't see why he'd be anywhere else. And, as his memories slowly began to disentangle, like he was clearing an old and dusty room of cobwebs, he finally found himself remembering.

He couldn't believe the memory had evaded him for so long. He'd been sat with Colin, watching the hours tick by as his hope for their safety ticked away with them. Hed tried his hardest to believe that they would be okay as confidently as his friend did. Poor Colin. He'd spent all that time trying to convince Tony to believe him, but all his efforts to inspirit his friend had fallen on deaf ears.

Relieved to find that his surroundings were beginning to materialise around him as his eyes came somewhat into focus, he took a moment to have a brief look around. And his heart dropped.

This wasn't where he'd fallen asleep the previous night. Where was this? The space he'd found himself in somehow felt spacious and cramped all at once, which may have been thanks to the stale, muggy air and cardboard boxes stacked in all corners of the room. The pale cream paint on the walls was faded and peeling, stained a slightly darker colour in some places. Perhaps the floor was supposed to be plain white, but it was so caked with dust and filth that it was dulled to a dark grey.

If the room wasn't windowless, then Tony would have been able to look outside to get an idea of where in the world he was, but thanks to the only source of illumination in the room being a dimly flickering ceiling light, he hadn't the slightest clue.

At least he had his internal clock, which let him know it was exactly twenty-seven minutes to nine in the morning. But what help was that if he didn't know the date? What if his latest memory wasn't from 'just last night'? What if it was less recent than he thought? He couldn't know. He had no way of telling how many days had passed between then and now. In fact, he'd never realised how much he relied on Colin to know the date; similarly to Tony's constant, inherent awareness of the time, Colin could intrinsically recite the date whenever asked. Well, he essentially had all the knowledge in the world, so he was convenient to have around for well-nigh anything.