Every cell in the human body is replaced over the course of about seven years. That means, not one part of me from that April day ten years ago is still with me today – the thought raced through my mind as my peculiar abductors evicted me from a metal cage. I found myself lying in a peaceful glade, with soft blades of glass caressing and comforting my skin. I got up with a strange feeling on my arm. I noticed a strange device pierced my skin. It beeped with a blood-red glow. I marched into a strange, swampy lake. The relaxing effect of the water soothed my battered body – when an iridescent, shining object caught my attention. It had sunk to the lakebed. As I approached it, Its sheen turned to a blinding pearl white. I grasped it with my hands. To my surprise, It dematerialized into my hands, as a wave of blue raced across my body – with stinging pain along with it. Fortunately, It stopped in a miniscule amount of time.
That was when it came back to me – I am an amnesiac on a journey to collect my memories scattered across time and space. The piquant pearl was the first step of my journey.
My ‘Wristband’ turned from red to a deep blue – and the peaceful and familiar glade dematerialized in front of my eyes – As I found myself in what seemed to be an abandoned tomb. Sandstone walls towered over me. Moonlight was my only hope as it peeked through the cracks and crevices in the ceiling in illuminating beams creaking through the darkness around me. I noticed a set of alien hieroglyphics carved into a wall. Somehow I was able to read them, as though I had studied and mastered the usage of this ancient language beforehand.
As I explored the labyrinth, I deciphered the information around me. It spoke of a ruthless conglomerate seeking to obtain all power in the universe.
After what seemed like an eternity, I had come across a room with lit torches – A chest lay in the middle. I approached it, opening it to reveal a collection of priceless artefacts – when a roar pierced my eardrums as though lightning had struck me. I scrambled through the items in the chest. A golden object like the pearl I had encountered in the lake presented itself. I grasped it as a wave of golden now spread across my body.
Pounding footsteps boomed across the tomb – they were getting louder and louder – until I felt the shrill breathing of a fearsome beast sending chills down my spine.
I had been teleported into a peculiar white room with a multitude of monitors. I glared at my now-green ‘wristband’. A digital timer ticked down from sixty seconds. I noticed two doors on either side of the cubic room. That was when I realized the bitter truth. I had been trapped in an endless loop of this journey – doomed to repeat it for eternity, as the menacing conglomerate extracted my memories, converting them into energy to find their goal of galactic domination. I wasn’t the only one – millions of other people had been trapped – I looked at them as they submitted their existence to a formidable cause. I had to escape this prison.
But which door? One led to death, the other back into the loop. With a mere dozen seconds left, I made my decision, pulling open the door and accepting my fate.