Sam didn’t know his neighbors. He and Jean lived in an apartment above a divorce lawyer’s office. He knew there were 2 or 3 people living in the other apartment down the hall, but he’d never spoken to them, or paid close enough attention in passing to know who was neighbor and who was visitor. But, well, it would be pretty shitty to not at least check on them. Open a window into their well-being, or something.

Of course, this was not something Sam would normally do, and he wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to say. “Hi, I’m one of your neighbors that you sometimes nod at in passing. Everything ok here?” He groaned, that sucked. Maybe they wouldn’t be home.

Taking a deep breath Sam grabbed his key and left the apartment. He brought his phone and a multi-tool, on his way out. He’d packed a rolling suitcase with more supplies: duct tape, a flashlight, various first aid stuff, some rope and a small ratchet set and other random crap from the junk drawer that he thought might be useful.

He decided not to bring the bag with him to the neighbors. He’d chosen the suitcase because he didn’t want to carry a bag on his shoulders all day, but he didn’t want to show up at the neighbors with a suitcase like an uninvited guest. He’d grab it on his way out after checking on the neighbors. If they needed something he could come get it quick, and if they didn’t he’d just be on his way.

Patting his pockets, Sam ran the mental check list, phone, wallet, keys, and then turned down the hall. They didn’t have a peep-hole on their door. But then, the only people with keys to this floor were Sam, Jean, the landlord, and the neighbors, so it probably wasn’t necessary. Sam was glad he didn’t have to pretend like he didn’t know maybe was being looked at through the peep hole.

“Who is it?” a female voice called from the other side of the door with an awkward uncertainty Sam was familiar with. After all, it really could be only a few people, except that this was a completely alien reality and for all either of them knew, on the other side of the door was a wormhole to a hell dimension. They were in a position where they had to take a lot on faith, faith that nothing much was different then it ever had been. It was a faith everyone experienced every day, tomorrow will be like today was, because today was like every other day was. Except, today and was an outlier, twice so far. Now, even if the Sun did continue to rise every morning, there was knowledge that it was a different sun. A sun that was artificial, and in the end, not really even a sun. It certainly didn’t inspire certainty.

“Oh, hi, it’s Sam from next door. I guess I was just checking in?” Sam said, now feeling both the usual social uncertainty, and a whole new uncertainty about whether he was taking too much for granted. For all he knew there was a talking portal to a hell dimension on the other side of the door. “You aren’t secretly a portal to a hell dimension are you?” He said feeling clever until the very moment he finished saying it.

But the door opened anyway a moment later. “What?” the woman asked. She was short and wide with a buzz cut, he’d definitely seen her before. She looked at Sam in confusion, but he couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t hear, or because she did.

“Never mind, I realize this is a dumb question. But, you guys okay over here? Powers out, cell towers might be out, or maybe are just over used. So I thought I’d walk around seeing if people needed anything.”

“Oh. Yeah I guess. It’s just me in here, I’ve pretty much just been going back and forth between crying and exploring the Prison Store. My boyfriend and our roommate went to church yesterday, or whatever. Before. Are you Sam? I got your mail once and brought it over, the other guy answered” Sam’s neighbor said.

“Yeah, Sam, that’s me. Jean is my room mate, I don’t know what happened to him. Yesterday-err, man I bet there’s an official name for that day eventually. Anyway, we passed out early and I woke up in the middle of the night. I assumed Jean was in his room, but when I came to a while ago, he wasn’t in the apartment. What was your name?”

“Alex. And No, I know, I saw him run out of your apartment. Oh, and I I wasn’t able to sleep, I watched the satellite images of the Nanobots moving over North America. And then sat in the dark when the power went out. I saw the swarm cloud come down the street and enter our building. I opened the door and walked out into the hall. But, it was like it wasn’t in a rush. It went into your apartment first, and I heard you get surprised by it. Then a second later I saw your room mate stumble out holding the back of his neck. He practically fell down the stairs. For a second I thought maybe the swarm would chase him. I had been so resigned to it, dying and being turned to dust. Like I ran out of fear, or hope, or both. But then I saw that guy go running down the stairs, and I thought, if it chases him, making I can make it out afterward. I went back inside and peered out through a crack, but the swarm had come back out into the hall, and it was already practically on me. It was so quiet. And the moment after my hope rekindled it was shattered. And then the fucking tutorial and the none sense and it’s like hope and fear don’t even apply anymore. What are we afraid of? What do we hope for?” Alex said.

“Wow, that’s way more than I had to deal with. I turned around when I heard my door being dusted by the swarm. Scared the crap out of me, but then I also thought it was pretty and cool. And then it was just over. Or I guess not over, but well this. I have a quest to explore a path, which I don’t really know what I’m doing. But I chose ‘window’, and so I’m trying to spend some time living and thinking and making decisions while trying to emulate the various properties of a window to better understand both windows and myself. I think.”

“Why windows?”

“I honestly was just looking at stuff around the room, and it was like the 3rd thing, and the first I had any idea for.”

“Oh. Yeah I have quests. I have that one too. How do you choose a path?”

“What do you mean? Like, is there a window to select your path?”

“Oh, no, or at least I didn’t see one. Window is the path I chose, not the way I chose it.”

“No, I get that” Alex said, sounding a little annoyed. “I just thought maybe there was a way to officially choose it, rather than just think about it until it makes sense and you get recognized by it, whatever that means.”

“Ooh, I see. Hey, I was going to walk around the neighborhood see check to see if power was out everywhere and stuff. Wanna come with, we can check stuff out and keep chatting?” Sam didn’t want to cut the conversation short, but he also felt like it had moved past the point it could be had comfortably in a hallway. Alex grabbed some shoes and a large purse/bag when Sam told her about his bag of potential supplies. Then the two of them headed down their stairwell. Alex pointed out a dark smear of blood on the hand rail that they both thought might be Jean’s, Sam hoped he was okay. He hadn’t seen any blood in the apartment.

“Anyway, back to paths. Mostly, I guess you just choose one or maybe even some, and try to get epiphanies. But I’m not sure. But it’s part of why I’m out here too. I figure windows let us look out at the world around us, when we normally wouldn’t be able to. But they’re also a weak point to danger. So I decided to risk going out into this new unknown, see what I can see, and hopefully finish a quest.”

“So you trust the Wardens. You realize they basically killed us, and imprisoned us, in that order, all without a trial?” Alex asked.

Sam gave himself a moment to think, but he’d already been thinking a little about this. “When I was a kid, I was a Christian and I read this book by C.S. Lewis called ‘Perelandra’ It’s about a guy that goes to Venus where God has a different Adam and Eve doing a different trial. This time they aren’t forbidden a fruit, but are forbidden to sleep on solid ground. And I realized, a god that creates the morality, also chooses what is moral. If God decided that it was immoral to give to charity, and it was moral to eat puppies alive, that would be within his purview. But, he would still be the Judge, deciding how I’d spend eternity, so I’d definitely stop all charity giving, even if I wouldn’t eat a live puppy, not unless it was mandatory. But I was never thrilled I felt that way. This is a similar situation. Like it or not, it seems likely we have a virtual god judging our very thoughts. It controls my future to an unfathomable degree. I can’t begin to imagine what rebelling against such a force would look like. But in God’s reality, God makes the rules. The Wardens are god here. I don’t know to what extent they created or recreated my mind, and I likely will never now. But if they have the kind of power it seems like they have, I really really don’t ever want to find out."