Genre: Science Fiction
Word Count: ~2400
The
analog clock alarm rings for no one but an empty room. It's ringing is
magnified by the resounding silence - and not just that of an empty room
but of the entire world. Just then, one can hear the thumping footsteps
of a man who coomes into the room, stops the alarm. Then, emptily
stares at the dial which showed the hour hand on 7 and the minute hand
on 6. Who needs an alarm in this world - is a question he never asks.
For him, it is a routine he simply follows. Little did he realize that
today, 6 years after that incident, he is going to come to terms with
the reality of the world and he was going to begin a journey he never
imagined.
Bid Dable was an inventory manager at a local
warehouse. He was 31 years old and had been working as the inventory
manager for the last 10 years. And every day of those 10 years have been
the same - waking up at 7.30 in the morning, getting ready and checking
in to the warehouse by 8.30, work until 8.00 in the evening, go to a
mall and get some pre-cooked food, heat it in an oven and consume it,
then go to sleep at 10.00. During holidays, he would never get out of
the house, except to get some food. For the rest of the time, well, he
worked as a carpenter. Nothing fancy, just some stools, teapoys, simple
chairs etc. Something he knew he could make in a few hours. His
customers were charged for the actual wood purchases, but his own work
charges were quite small compared to professional carpenters. So, he
used to get quite a few orders on a regular basis. He had assigned a
small portion of his house as wood work-station and worked on these
small jobs during the day, ensuring the neighbours are not disturbed
during the night. He would also commit only to as many orders as he
knows he can finish during weekend or holidays. Although, some of them
did not mind delays because his workman cost was quite cheap. And thus
every day of his life when he woke up and until he slept, he knew
exactly what he needed to do.
And then it happened. It was 6
years ago from today. Bid was checking inventory in the warehouse as
usual. There was a loud thunder, the earth shook and even some shrieks
were heard. He surmised that it was probably a co-occurrence of
earthquake and a thunderstorm or he would have, if he cared about what
just happened. He cared more for the boxes that fell out of the shelves
and thus, his next step was to place them back where they were. Soon, it
was 8 in the evening and he was about to leave the warehouse, he saw
nobody, none of his co-workers were around, the manager wasn't around.
He checked that their cars were still parked. A normal man would have
been intrigued as to what happened, but for Bid, these were things he
need not bother with. He simply took his car and left for the mall. He
took his usual pre-cooked food, and waited at the counter for someone to
appear but no one was to be seen. No one, as in, not the cashier, and
not even people who usually frequented the mall were to be seen. He
waited for a while, but then he simply placed the required cash amount
on the counter with a note and left. This continued for the next few
days, no people were seen around but he continued to live on as if that
did not matter to him. The first weekend after the incident arrived and
he finished some of the orders that were left over but no one came to
pick them up and pay for it. The next week, continued in the same vein,
he carried along his routine at work. Until the second weekend, he had
no carpentry orders. For the first time in the last 10 years, he did not
know what to do. He sat on the sofa, then tried to sleep, but nothing
worked for him. He got up, put on his work clothes and went to the
warehouse - it was OPEN! He simply went inside and began to work as if
it was just another week day and this continued for the next 6 years. In
all this time, he never questioned how he was able to find food at mall
and never got over or how he never had to fill the gas tank of his car.
These things were irrelevant, as long as he knew what he had to do.
On
one night when Bid was going to the mall in the evening as usual.
Suddenly a wall of liquid appeared in front of him, which forced him to
suddenly brake. He got out of his car - it intrigued him. He went closer
to the wall and started examining it. It was oval shaped, it was not
too wide, but it was not too thin either. He felt as if he could walk
through this wall quite comfortably if he so desired. As he continued to
examine it, the liquid suddenly shimmered and showed the road behind
the wall. There were people, he could see people. People who were not
there if he looked around the wall, but he could see them through the
wall. He instinctively approached the wall, but then it disappeared and
another man came flying from just behind the wall to hit Bid.
Both men were hurting from that impact. The man quickly got up and offered his hand to help Bid get up.
"Are you alright?" the man asked Bid. Bid shook his head in affirmative.
"Good."
The man said and quickly took out his phone and started entering
something into it. Bid just stood there staring at him. He had not seen
another human being in the last 6 years and now that he has seen one, he
has no idea how he is feeling. The man caught Bid staring at him and
suddenly started,
"Oh sorry, where are my manners? I am Wate,
Adick Wate. I am a computer scientist specializing in prediction
models." Wate then took a quick look at Bid and claimed, "Well dressed,
neatly shaved and how did you manage to cut your hair? Anyways, you seem
to be doing lot better than most people I have come across."
"I am Bid, Bid Dable. Ah, I work in inventory management. Do you mean to say that there are others?" asked Bid.
"Hmm, yes, why? you haven't come across any?"
Bid shook his head in negation.
"That
may not be such a surprise, it may not be that many people but the way
things are going, you might see a whole lot more in this area and to be
honest, that may not be such a good thing." said Wate as he continued to
fiddle with his phone.
"What do you mean?"
"Few people,
and nearly abundant resources. It is a situation almost out of a fantasy
book where a man is consumed by his thirst for power. And such is case
right now. They talk about recreating the entire human kind with
themselves as its leader. But of course there are many with similar
ideas and they all claim that they have been chosen by God and this
world has been given to them as their reward or some nonsense like
that."
"They are fighting?" asked Bid, almost surprised.
"Oh yes, there are small skirmishes between different factions happening right now as we speak."
"You look unconcerned."
Wate was taken aback, "You speak without holding back, don't you?"
"I am sorry."
"No,
apologies are unnecessary. It is true. Because I believe this is not
our world at all and that gaining power is just idiotic." then Wate
looked at Bid and asked him pointedly, "Did you see through the portal?"
Bid looked back confused, "Portal?"
"The wall of liquid like material that was in front of you. Did you see through the wall of liquid?"
Bid shook his head in affirmative.
"Did you see people through the wall?"
And
then the images of people walking by, cars honking on the road flashed
through his head and his almost instinctive unexplainable reaction to
touch the wall resurged again.
"I knew it, your expression says it all. Its a shame you didn't try to go through the wall"
"Why?"
"You would have been back to our world by now, if you had", Wate was excited as he said this.
"Our
world? Then what is this place?" enquired Bid. There was a certain
enthusiasm in his voice that he had never experienced before.
"You
are asking a difficult question. Initially, I thought it was some
strange abduction experiment, corporation conspiracy, government
conspiracy, but over the years even though I haven't had clear evidence
one way or the other, I have a strong belief in the following answer -"
Wate looked at Bid as he came to this point. "You will call me crazy, if
I tell you this."
"No, I would consider your answer seriously.
Whether I would believe it or not is something I can't say, but I would
consider it seriously."
Wate felt a sense of gratitude towards
Bid. "There is a hypothesis in philosophy known as Simulation
Hypothesis. In 2003, Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom claimed that our
universe could be simply a simulation in some giant computer."
"What does that have to do with this world?" asked Bid.
"Well,
that is the basis and everything I tell you now is just my
speculation." Wate looked at Bid again, but Bid's eyes were serious and
paying complete attention. "Have you worked with computers Bid?" he
continued.
"Yes, at work."
"Good, if you have some important document and your computer is behaving strangely, then what do you do?"
"I just take a back up."
"Exactly! This world, haha no the entire universe, my friend, might just be a backup!"
Bid considered this carefully and answered, "but why do you think that?"
"How
else can you explain the things that happen around you? The food you
use is automatically replenished and it is exactly the same as before.
You use that car right? I am sure you haven't refilled your gas tank in
all these years. Why do you think that is the case?" and as Wate
continued Bid recalled all the events, his daily routine, things he saw
but did not think about and slowly realized how bizarre world the was.
"And what's more things that get broken, gets fixed automatically."
"What?" Bid got up almost startled.
"Don't
tell me you haven't broken anything in the past 6 years? Seriously?"
Wate took out a new notebook and tore a page from it and Bid saw, that
in front of his eyes, the page was being restored, as Wate still held
the torn page in his hands.
"This is amazing!"
"You know
what the messed up part in all this is - the same rules don't apply to
us. If the same rules applied to us, we should not be aging or our
wounds should heal", then Wate pointed to the small wrinkles on his face
and several bandages on his body. "If God were behind all this, He
certainly thought that our accomplishments were more important than us.
We are not wanted by this world! We are the pariahs, the Others of this
world! In fact, I believe we shouldn't have been here in the first
place. And I believe that the strange behaviour of the 'giant computer'
that created this backup must have had some problems which pulled us
into this universe and that very same behaviour is also creating these
walls of liquid that you saw and I believe they are a way back to our
world."
"That's", Bid looked a little uncertain as he said this,
"a little far-fetched, don't you think?" He looked at Wate, hoping that
he wouldn't take it the wrong way.
"True. But I have to get back and I will take any explanation that allows me to get back to where I was 6 years ago."
In
the last 6 years, Bid never wished for anything, he went about his
routine as if that's all that mattered to him, but right now seeing this
man in front of him striving hard for the past 6 years to get back to
whatever it was he had, stirred something within him. "Where are these
portals created? I had never seen this wall of liquid around these parts
before."
"They are almost random. But I have been tracking them
for a long time and I have built a prediction model on my phone that
helps me predict where the next portal will appear. Good thing, its
batter power does not go down, but a phone is slower than a computer,
but with none of the power stations running, it will be difficult to use
anything with electrical input."
"Look. I don't know how much I
can accept the whole - universe is a simulation thing. But I do know
what I saw and I did see people on the other side of the wall. And if
possible, I would like to help ... "
"That is fantastic!" Wate held Bid by his shoulder. "That would be
great, if there is one more person looking for the portal, it would help
reduce the time it takes for me to find them. If you have something
that you would like to take with you, please do so right now. It will be
a few hours before my model can predict the next location. But as soon
as it does so, I would like to leave without delay."
Bid went
back to his home, as Wate sat in his car near his apartment building.
Bid looked around his house. He looked around for things that he would
like to take. Finally, he just took his analog alarm clock and his
carpentry toolbox with him. He bid adieu to his house and left with Wate
on a journey to find their way back.
