Against the Universe - After ONE 18

ONE | Second Inhabitant

Liam was so, so tired.

Tired from sleepless nights.

Tired from trying to solve something he couldn't understand.

Tired from feeling like everything was against him.

Tired from the persistent ditress filling his heart.

But that was nothing - or at least that's what he kept telling himself. Why would tiredness matter when this big pile of code was waiting to be deciphered? He couldn't have problems, he was meant to solve them. It was his responsibility to be okay.

The computer monitor shined brightly in his face, almost hypnotizing him: making him feel like there was nothing else but the white screen. And that's what he believed too. That's only what counted.

Liam blinked repeatedly, trying to focus. Lines of numbers and letters blurred in his eyes.

His back hurt from slouching over to the screen, so did his legs. Especially the frequently broken one. After some time, he successfully took the cast off, but he had to stick with the crutch; it appeared that the leg didn't heal properly and he had to resort to limping on it. Constant sitting didn't help to get it working again, too.

He didn't mind that much though. It's not like he had to walk very far.

For the hundredth time today, Liam squinted and leaned towards the computer. He'd been watching a lot of tutorials about programming and trying to apply them to the files in the library. But he was no professional, even if his previous job could be subsumed to the IT industry - there's a huge gap between a telemarketer and a programmer, after all.

What does this "xorl %ecx" mean? Dang it. Why can't I understand this? he thought frustrated.

Liam leaned forwards and held his face in his hands, elbows on the desk. His eyes closed gently and inevitably, his body dangerously close to drifting off into sleep. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers, trying to stay awake; but after a minute, his eyelids started falling again.

Overly tired, his thoughts went rogue... and a stray, forbidden one crossed his mind.

What if I never figure it out?

That thought came with a sinking cold flow in his stomach, enough for him to process it through. If that were true, if he would never get it... what then? Would his friends on the Plane slowly lose their sanity and die? Would he lose his sanity too? Would they all be trapped forever?

Too lost in wondering, Liam had no clue why his head started to hurt and his mind went straight to panic, and he felt himself paralysed.

Elusive whispers rustled in his ears, the whole world went spinning and distant. His mind hurt like a thorn was being stuck into it. Like somebody was tearing his brain open to get inside. And he panicked, because it hurt, it hurt so badly and somebody was attacking him somebody wanted to hurt him somebody was inside SOMEBODY WAS INSIDE-

And it ended as quickly as it began.

Everything came back to him at once and Liam realised he was slouching over with hands stiffly holding the desk and eyes squeezed shut, and he was screaming with all his might.

Once he gripped reality, his cry diminished to a tight moan. His head hurt... everything hurt.

What... what just happened? he thought dizzyingly. What was that?!

Liam gingerly allowed light to slip to his eyes. His chest moved rapidly and uncontrollably and he struggled to keep his balance, hence why he clenched the desk so hard.

I'm fine, he shakingly reassured himself. Just a hallucination. Just a hallucination! I'm just sleep deprived!

His mind made fast circles that shoved any traumatic event or memory away, deep away, until he could forget about it; it was like stirring bitter medicine in juice until its taste faded away. Liam had developed this mechanism over the course of time. It allowed him to not remember for a while, to live in a pretty world of lies, to stop feeling what hurt. And it automatically turned on right now too.

It's just my imagination.

Right.

Let's go back to work.

So he pushed himself up and clicked another tutorial.

The internet being available definitely sped up the process of learning... he couldn't imagine working without any advice.

Speaking of which, he had tried to get Texty's laptop to charge again, but no cables fitted in the input. The device was dead with no way to get Texty back for now; he had to rely on YouTube videos and online lessons.

The green backpack glanced over to the Plane, on which the contestants were sleeping shockingly calmly. Fortunately, his little outburst didn't disrupt their resting time because he had switched off the mic previously. Liam felt his face flush hot with embarrassment just by imagining what would happen if he hadn't.

The microphone at least worked, unlike Texty's laptop. Or perhaps Liam got the cables wrong?

Cables... Liam circled the desk to see the computer's back side again.

A lot of cables tangled together - tangled so much that they blurred in his eyes, as if they didn't want to be looked at.

And none of them led to an outlet. This was a cave after all, why would it have electric outlets, why would it even have electricity? Yet the computer somehow just... funcioned on infinite power and never ran out of battery.

That only added to the strangeness of the situation and Liam regretted checking the cables. He returned to his place and silently resumed working.

But the uneasy experience rattled in the back of his head.

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Author's Note

Hello! Thanks for reading the first chapter! See you in the next ones, there's a lot more we will dive into!

Also, remember to check the warnings in the description!