Alternative Endings

Chapter Four

“How on Earth did I get here?” I asked myself, looking out at the barren land laid before me, “And how the hell am I gonna get back?”

I had woken up in this empty place, the only building being the old Engineering Facility. I knew that Div-inter had made me unconscious with some drug, but how was it possible to be somewhere so barren, so empty as here? It wasn’t like the Sahara Desert, nothing like it in fact. The ground here was hard and flat, and the air not cold but not hot. I had noticed some humidity in the air, but I hardly noticed it. It had strangely reminded me of England, where the air had felt like this. As soon as I had woken up, I went into a panic. I had ran all the way around the Facility, and found that despite the large front it was a relatively small building. So I decided I should take a look at the front again. And there, to my surprise, was a tape recorder stuck on the door, with a note that said, “Listen”.

“That’s funny, I could’ve sworn that wasn’t there before…” I had said to myself, my eyebrows furrowed in a quizzical manner. So I decided that as I had nothing better to do, I might as well listen to the tape recorder, and I soon found that the message was strange one.

But that had already happened, and now I found myself gazing into the distance. I guessed it was either early morning or late afternoon, judging by the low sun. Even though I was in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to eat or go, I found this place strangely peaceful. The gentle breeze in my hair, the dim-lit sky showing just enough of my surroundings for it to be beautiful. I shook my head, trying to get rid of those thoughts. “Concentrate, Andy,” I said to myself, my body stiffening as I became serious once again, “You have to get out of this.” It was weird, though, because I never spoke to myself in third person, although now it felt like the right thing to say. In the end I decided to take a look inside the building. I told myself that if I wanted to leave, I could just walk out the door.

***

The Engineering Facility was quite large; despite my previous thoughts. There were broken walls, rubble littering the ground. I saw some more posters stuck to the main walls, and thought I recognised the face, pointing his finger in a We-Need-You fashion. I decided to take a closer look, only to find that the face belonged to the man who brought me here, Div-inter. But it wasn’t just his face on the poster, there were some words included.

“Changing the Past, to Change the Future.”

I tried to interpret what these words meant, but to no avail. I then continued to look around this strangely place, eyeing old machinery left to rot. The building itself was supported by crossbeams, holding up the roof. The main walls were made of brick, but were barely noticeable under the thick layer of grime.  I was about to come to the conclusion that there was nothing in here that could help me, when I came across a room. This room was like all the others, except its walls were intact and the door looked fresh on its hinges. Now I was really curious, wanting to know why this room had been preserved, unharmed by whatever had happened. I started to walk towards that room, at a slow but sure pace. I couldn’t help but notice scratch marks on the door, as if someone had been trying to get in, running from whatever had caused this destruction. A shiver ran up my spine, I was sure those scratches were made by human hand. I told myself that I had to keep on looking, had to see what was on the other side of that door. I forced myself towards the room, and reluctantly opened the door.

“What the…” my voice trailed off, speechless at what I saw. The interior of the room was nothing like what it had been on the outside. The walls were metal, painted black. At the corners and edges of the room was a sort of white glow, stark in contrast with the black metal. The room wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t bright either. There was just enough light to read, which was just as well seeing that there was a note and a small box, lying on a pedestal in the centre of the room. After realising that these were the only things on display, I slowly walked over to where they stood. The note was bound in a ribbon, and sealed with wax. The box was one in which you would expect to find a ring, although somehow I didn’t think I would. I began to open up the note when I saw a small signature under the seal. “C. Sense”, it read, and I took it as another of Div-inter’s little jokes.