《Dreams Recounted》#3 | Time Loop
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Waking up at a bar and lifting my face up from the counter I look around wondering where I am. The bar really was not a bar at all, just a bench with some stools and an assortment of empty nondescript bottles lining the back wall. The place was really sterile looking with it being mostly white and bright, no windows, only two tables with no chairs behind me and a hallway to the right of where I woke up.
Standing up I go to explore the place, going down the short hallway which after only twenty metres turns sharply right. Turning I find a dead end, a thick metal door blocks my exit. To the left a room extends out and rows of tubes line the walls, all holding a person completely lacking in colour and looking like androids, floating through some unseen force, sleep. The bodies all face away from me, facing outside. Looking through the clear glass of one of the tubes all I can see is a featureless white plane, stretching on forever with a horde of charging monsters and abominations screaming and roaring, peaking over the horizon.
Looking to the right, I find an open door blocked off by metal boards. Inside is a boy, he looks like a stereotypical nerd with circular glasses and overly neat clothes. He has colour. Calling out to him he lurches his head up to look at me. He explains to me that he has the power to make isolated explosions from his right hand and he isn't leaving the room for safety.
Turning back around I go back down the hall. Just as I turn left to search the bar area for anything the wall behind me is suddenly broken down by two featureless people, equally as lacking in colour as everything else, charging at me. The one leading the charge has a gun made out of crystal that they aim at me before pulling the trigger. I dodge the bullet and quickly wrestle the gun out of their hands, turning it on them and shooting them between the eyes. Just as one drops the other tackles me into the room throwing me into one of the tables. Raising the gun at them I pull the trigger twice and miss both shots.
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Getting up and weaving around the blank person I get a better look at them, the alive one seems to be female, the dead one being male, and both wear sharp suits. Running back to the Nerd he pulls out a laptop he had stashed behind some pipes that lined a wall in his room and hacks the place, sending a command to open everything so I can escape through the door. Once finished he goes to use his power on the barricade to follow me but just as he goes to explode them a handcuff appears on his right wrist, the other end attached to one of the pipes. His power blows himself up, killing him instantly.
The tubes that were filled with featureless people had also been opened up along with everything else, and all of them turn to face me. Trying to make a run for it I only get a few steps out into the blank plane before I get tripped up by one of the dolls. A colourless doll, looking almost exactly like the Nerd steps out before stomping on my neck.
I die.
Waking up at the exact same stool as before I go through the motions, trying to keep the differences between runs at a minimum so I can reliably predict what will happen next. The Nerd doesn't have any recollection of the past lives. Turning back down the hallway to the bar room, the wall is broken down again. The dolls charge in the exact same way. Trying to wrestle the gun out of the males hands does not go as smoothly this time, the gun being shattered against a wall. The male starts to form crystal out of his hand but before anything of proper shape is formed I grab the biggest shard left over from the gun and stab it into his head. Successfully running back to the bar unobstructed I search it for anything of use finding what seems to be a cookbook.
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Frantically opening the book, every page is the same thing. A big picture telling me to mix one of the empty bottles with water. Deciding to try it, I pull off the cork of the described empty bottle and turn it upside down into a glass that already had water in it, golden liquid flows out and mixes with the water. Drinking the concoction I use my ability. I don't know what my power does nor how it works but more than half of the androids in the tubes die. Running around the female doll I get the Nerd to do the same thing as before.
The female slowly walks down the hallway, seemingly incapable of fast movement, and opens her hand. On her palm is a single symbol representing each of us. Her power locks someone in place, who it decides to lock is random and based on the number of people in her vicinity. The symbols on her palm start quickly changing, the symbols shooting down and a new one appearing from above exactly like a slot machine. It lands on the Nerd exactly like last time. Unfortunately I had killed the exact number of things for the lock to appear on the Nerd again. I am caught exactly like last time.
I die.
Going through the motions following step by step what I did last time this time the only difference being using slightly less golden liquid in the mix, this time killing a few less than last time and luckily not killing me or the Nerd either. I run back to the Nerd hoping for things to go right this time and they do. Everything is opened like last time except for one of the Blanks not being let out the tube showing an error on a screen above it. Drowning in the clear liquid that fills them, it being so clear that I hadn't noticed it before, a few bubbles escaping them before it goes slack.
Pulling the Nerd along behind me we run out towards the horde of teeth and claw, the nerd trying to pull away from it but I reassure him. Just as we reach the line where white ends and black creatures start, the monsters with too many eyes start to flow around us, solely focused on the fake people that have lined up outside the front of the building. A different power for each of them building and glowing in their hands, all still lacking any kind of pigmentation or purpose.
One monster, a flying one with six eyes and wings, drops on my shoulder landing with little momentum and tries to snuggle up to my neck. The creatures think we are one of them.
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