《TEST》


 TEST#001

    As Albert Einstein once said, ¡°''Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results¡±.


    Waking up for God-knows-what time, Urien was forced to look at the same old walls and contraptions. At the same time so informed and yet so uninformed; his brain was between two worlds. What was his purpose here?


    Wasn''t he just here? Or in an eerily similar room?


    He stood up from the metal-framed bed, and looking at the mirror, one of the only objects in the room, stared. He stared at himself, his head so full yet so empty of thoughts, his face so dreadful, yet so hopeful. His black, curly hair: uncombed.


    His nose, as sharp as a heel, with blood-red eyes, as if he hasn''t slept in a while..  ¡°Where am I now?¡±; he thought to himself. ¡°Didn''t I just ¡­ leave this place?¡±


    He was sure he was just here. And wonder about it he could, for a moment more, but he decided against it.


    Looking at the door, as his only available exit, he decided to walk up to it and reach for the door knob, which, in his eyes, looked as if it was turned a million times before he touched it. The door, as dull it was, opened with a strong creak, and revealed a hallway. Bright, white lights shined. It looked as if it was a hospital. The walls were a little worn down, long and tall. Next to the room Urien was in, a long stretch of more doors and rooms were sitting idly. No voices could be heard, and the creak from the door echoed through the whole hallway. A feeling of deja-vu hit him. Urien remembered something. Or, did he? Was it a false memory? Or did he actually go through all of this before?


    No one could tell him, as he was alone. Taking a look into every room would''ve taken a while, so Urien, freaked out by the situation he was in (or was in again), checked a couple of doors. Looking at the door he just exited out of, a number could be seen just above it. ¡°4402.¡± It seemed as if his room was just one of many.


    The door next to his had numbers above it as well: ¡°4403¡±. It was obvious this was a facility of some kind. The purpose of him being there; unknown, but a purpose had to be had. Had he been kidnapped? In his mind, in the few minutes that he had been awake at this point, he did not know what to think.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Sure, he was in an unknown place, but at least he wasn''t being tortured or anything of the sort. While looking into the other rooms, he saw nothing other than the same layout. A metal-framed bed, a mirror, and a window with its shutters half-open.


    He did note something weird though; the shutters for the windows were placed on the outside, meaning they were probably controlled by someone (someone who is using a remote, or something of the sort. Still, where does the need to control someone''s shutters even appear?). Nowhere in the room was a remote, button, or anything of the sort. "So they must be controlled by a switch or remote somewhere else." - he thought to himself, as if he was proud of noticing such minute details. These kinds of details were the details Urien noticed; he had a keen eye for these sorts of things. Nothing too suspicious, but nothing to brush off. He made sure to take note of anything that felt "off" to him. Looking out the window, trees could be seen. Birds could be heard chirping; the first sign of other life Urien found (or, in this case, heard). "At least I''m not all alone here..."


    After inspecting three or four rooms, Urien decided he was to go to the end of the hallway. After all, there has to be a way out. All the rooms were the same and nothing was of interest in any of them. The rooms gave him weird feelings, like he wasn''t supposed to be in them.


    Nearing the door at the end of the hallway, the strong white lights buzzed on, occasionally turning off for a moment. The floor looked as it was taken care of; the same could be said for the rooms. No trash could be found, in or around the rooms (In the rooms, dark-gray trash cans could be found. They were all empty).


    Nearing the doors on the end of the hallway, Urien felt, in his gut, that someone or something would be on the other side.


    Something is waiting for him. As if an encounter was meant to be, unavoidable and meant to be.


    Funnily enough, his gut feeling was right. Opening the doors, he was met with a familiar face and room.


    Tables to sit at, tables to be eaten at, windows to be looked out of: all of them were in front of him.


    A man with an old-looking, gray gas mask, medium length hair and average body weight, in the middle of the room, looked and stared at Urien. He didn''t move. He breathed, and it could be heard through the whole room. Actually, the whole room was dead-silent with the exception of the man''s breathing and Uriens worryingly fast-beating heart. The thumps were getting stronger and stronger, with the time between them (the thumps), almost non-existent.


    Without a warning, the man spoke his first words.

 TEST#002

    "Welcome to the next loop, Urien. Have you forgotten your mask? Do I need to remind you to put it on each and every time?" - said the strange man, with an almost annoying cockiness in his speech.


    "Where am I? Where is ¡°this¡± ?", Urien asked, still confused at large by the current situation he is in. The man, looking at Urien, stopped for a second, and, after carefully choosing his words, said: "Always the same reactions when it comes to you. Come to think of it, I never expected you to remember anything. Makes my job a million times easier, at least."


    (These words, so full of information, had little to no value to Urien, because, in his head, he was lost. Nothing was making sense to him and the words coming out of the person''s mouth were nothing but air-wasting movements to Urien.)


    "Sorry, but, I have no idea what you''re talking about. Was I in an accident? Is this a hospital or something of its kind? And if you could, please, show me the exit? I don''t feel like anything is wrong with me." At this point, it was clear to the man that Urien really did not recall anything.


    "So much is wrong with you, Urien, but I don''t take it as a means to judge you. Do you need an explanation again?"


    And so, the man somehow knew Urien''s name. Without any introduction or prior ¡°hellos¡±, he stood there knowing so much about Urien; while Urien knew so little about him.


    In this situation, what actions do you even take? Attack the unknown man talking to you? Do you try to establish trust or a bond? Trying to be as calm as he could, Urien chose the safest route he could; pretending everything was okay and that he wasn''t bothered (not in the slightest) by the fact that an unknown man with his face covered was standing a few meters in front of him. Without a second more of thinking, and some would say impulsively, Urien opened up his mouth, and with a certain shakiness in his speech, approached the man directly, as if they were lifelong friends reuniting after not seeing each other for years upon years.


    "Tell me, you, what is your name? I feel the slightest bit bothered with the fact that I do not know your name." - he asked.


    ¡°My name is John, Urien, and please, don''t feel bothered¡± - the man exclaimed. Within a second, and with the correct choice of words to say, Urien felt at ease to interrogate the man a little bit further than he originally even intended to. It seemed to Urien that he was the one taking control of the situation. With a little more courage, he continued the conversation.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Where am I, John? And who are ¡°you¡± ?"


    John let out a chuckle for some reason. As if this question was a failed try at a joke. Urien of course, noticed this, and he made sure to express his confusion - "What?"


    John didn''t let him finish his thought, by interrupting him, and exclaiming: "Funny that you always take the same course of action, each and every time. First you end up being so scared of me, and then you pick up some courage so you can end up looking manly and unbothered by the fact you''re talking to a complete stranger. Seems that this time it took you a little less time than usual."


    ¡°What!?¡± Urien, flabbergasted that John read his mind almost thought-by-thought, uttered the same words again, the only response a human could have at that moment. John chuckled again. He chuckled even harder this time, as if he was about to utter the funniest joke, cleared his throat, and said:


    "I knew you would exclaim your fear in that way. Don''t you know your legs start shaking when you''re confronting somebody?" (Without a doubt, Urien, taking a look at his legs, was at the same time both impressed and scared that John was reading his every move and thought, as if he knew everything that would happen. His legs really were, without a doubt, shaking as if he was standing in front of death itself, looking it in the eye directly.) Urien did not know how to respond to these, almost as if John had ¡°mind-reading¡±, exclaims.


    "I''ll explain everything again, Urien. Since you''re giving me the same signals as last time, you would feel the safest at following me from a distance, and you WILL want to follow me, because, currently, you see me as both your only enemy and your only ¡°friend¡±. What a weird situation this is, right? Are you following me?" - John asked, already knowing the answer that was about to come out of Urien''s trembling mouth.


    ¡°¡­I''m following you.¡± - Urien muttered with a certain look of disgust and defeat in his death-black eyes. So many things were going through his mind; maybe he really was staring at death''s pupil. (Or, at least, death with a gas mask on.)


    The room in which they were in (which was the cafeteria) gave Urien looks; and he had given it looks too. He felt as if the walls were laughing at him. At this point, if he had heard a sound coming from the walls, based on his mental state, he would''ve thought the walls were talking to him directly. John, as the picture was being painted, was looking like the type of person who would put a group of mice in those very walls just so he could scare Urien a little bit more. Perhaps he would do it just to chuckle a couple of times... Nonetheless, John put his hand outwards, awaiting Urien''s handshake.


    Urien picked up the courage to look in front of him, and, coming up close to John, shook his hand awkwardly, only because he knew that, at least, he was a little bit friendly. With one glance at the old gas-mask John was wearing, Urien could barely make out a pair of eyes looking at him almost "happily" (weirdly enough).


    With their hands shaking, John, looking at Urien, uttered just two sentences:


    ¡°Welcome back to TEST. Follow me, Urien; Tester #4402.¡±

 TEST#003

    ¡°Looks like I¡¯m Tester #4402¡­ What even is a ¡°Tester¡±? Why is he welcoming me back to this place? Something is off about all of this. ¡°4402¡± was the room I woke up in. There were so many other rooms though ¨C so where are all the other people? I guess all of them have already woken up or something of the sort; since I see no one else here¡­¡± ¨C Urien thought to himself. With good reason too:


    It was true, not including him and the mysterious man named John, no one else was to be seen. Sure, he could¡¯ve declined John¡¯s offer, but would that have really done anything? Urien knew that, since John predicted all sorts of his speech patterns and movements, they must¡¯ve met before and that something must be under the surface of all this mystery that was surrounding him.


    Staying behind John at a comfortable distance, Urien tried to gather as much information as he could about this place he was in.


    He noted, and also repeated to himself a lot of details so he wouldn¡¯t forget them: the Hallway of Rooms, in which one of them he woke up in, the empty cafeteria that should have been filled to the brim with people (considering there were 25 rooms in that hallway leading up to the cafeteria, spanning from Room number #4400 to Room number #4425), John (if that name was to be trusted) wearing a gas mask to conceal his identity, and a ton of different minute details, amongst others.


    Suddenly, amid all this overthinking, Urien saw a key hanging from John¡¯s pockets. Thinking quickly, he started making quick conversation with John, asking him obscure questions just to occupy him, and in the slim chance that the keys dropped, the conversation was there to muffle the sounds of the key falling to the floor. Urien knew that even that would be heard (the echoes of the hallway were too loud):  he made sure to get his left foot ready, to capture the key with his foot. (The key was hanging from John¡¯s left pocket.) He had hoped that the sound of the key falling onto his shoe, would have suppressed the sound of the key falling enough so he could bend over and pick it up before John noticed it. Suddenly, the key fell. Urien knew this was his chance. He slid his shoe (which was white and had no brand and or logo on it) under the key just before it made a sound. He captured it. He couldn¡¯t believe it. He bent over as quickly as he could, and he picked up the key. While stuffing the key nervously and as quickly he could into his pocket, Urien noticed the writing on the tag attached to the key. ¡°Gun Locker #2 ¨C M.R.¡± Just as he put it in into his pocket, John turned around back to him and exclaimed:A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Keep up, we need to get to the Main Room. I¡¯ll give you an explanation and all the details you need to know there.¡± ¨C John exclaimed with a raised voice, seeming almost annoyed that Urien was in his head, talking to himself, walking slowly through the hallway they were in. What John didn¡¯t know was that Urien was holding the key to the gun locker which was in the very room they were heading towards, in his left pocket.


    Eventually after walking for a minute or two, they reached the end of the hallway, where there stood a locked, silver-coated, double and tall set of doors. Above the doors in front of them, stood the words ¡°Main Room¡±, inscribed on a plaque of some sorts. The rest of the building didn¡¯t have ¡°rich details¡± like that ¨C so far this was the only one Urien had seen. Of course, with a reasonable doubt, he thought that this ¡°Main Room¡± must¡¯ve been the place where the people in charge, like John, spend most of their time in, working whatever job it is that they have. After all, the gun locker was in that room, right?


    It wasn¡¯t a lot of time, but that ¡°minute or two¡± of walking gave Urien enough time to plan. He was to distract John in the Main Room, and while he wasn¡¯t looking, Urien planned to unlock the Gun Locker and hold John at gunpoint until he let him out of the strange building Urien woke up so confused and lost in those 15 minutes ago. Urien let out a little grin, as if he had figured everything out already. He didn¡¯t need to know what a goddamned ¡°Tester¡± was (or even where he was, for that matter), he was about to escape from this place. Luck was on his side.


    Next to the tall set of double doors, an input digit system was to be seen.  It had the numbers 0 through 9 on it, with a big button which had ¡°proceed¡± written on it. John stood in front of the system, and if Urien heard and counted correctly, he had entered in twenty-two digits. This scared him. ¡°What kind of monster would remember twenty-two digits?¡± Urien thought to himself, almost as if he was making fun of John.


    John pressed the giant, green button with ¡°proceed¡± written on it, and a lock could be heard unlocking itself. With a light push of his hand, John opened the door to the Main Room. Urien followed him, and, upon entering the massive room, started immediately scanning his surroundings for anything that resembled a gun locker.


    Some details he saw were a main desk, a vinyl player, and a poster of some sorts on the wall of the room. He didn¡¯t need to look for the gun lockers long though, since he noticed 2 glass cabinets, resembling gun lockers, standing next to each other. They had the numbers ¡°#1¡± and ¡°#2¡± written on a paper, which was, humorously enough, taped onto the middle of the glass, as if a kid had taped the paper on. In cabinet number two, a shotgun of some sorts could be seen; amongst other things such as a protective vest. Not much else was in the cabinet though, since they were small. Ignoring the childish-like markings on the glass gun locker, Urien saw an opportunity.

 TEST#004

    ¡°Please, sit.¡± ¨C said John calmly. The situation was tense for only one of them as John had no idea that Urien was holding on to the key to the same gun locker which was in the room with them.


    ¡°All I need to do is distract him for a moment.¡± ¨C Urien thought to himself, and without wasting further precious seconds, asked John about a poster on the wall which he had noticed. The poster looked like an ad for a soda campaign, and to be fair, it was out of place in a seemingly stripped-down and monotone building like this. All that could be made of the name on the poster ad were the letters ¡°S¡± and ¡°p¡±.


    ¡°I¡¯ll sit John, but what¡¯s up with that random ad on the wall? Seems kind of out of place, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    John turned around, looked at the odd poster and started talking. ¡°This place we are in, which I am about to explain to you right now, used to be a facility of some sorts. Some relics of the past remain, like that poster. If you ask me, it¡¯s got a certain character to it¡­¡±


    John kept on talking about the poster all distracted while Urien kept his distance, slowly getting closer and closer to the glass cabinet containing the shotgun. In a lightning-fast movement of both of his arms, he took out the key, opened the cabinet / gun locker with it and slid the shotgun straight into his hands. John turned around upon hearing the cabinet door unlock and what he saw amazed  and shook him.


    ¡°Okay, Urien, calm down. We didn¡¯t come to this room for that.¡± ¨C John uttered in a shaky and scared voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m already sick of this place, John. And I won¡¯t stop holding this shotgun aimed straight at your face until you tell me what the hell is going on here, do you understand? ¨C said Urien, knowing he had all the power in the world in his hands currently. John worryingly replied: ¡°I promise you that that shotgun you¡¯re holding onto is no good, Urien. Give it back to me.¡± At this moment, John started approaching Urien slowly with an extended hand. ¡°Just¡­ Give it to me, okay? You can also slide it down to me across the floor as well, I promise you Urien, I¡¯ll forget any of this happened. Calm down.¡± ¨C are the words which came from John¡¯s mouth and were also the same words that confirmed to Urien that he was the one in control of the situation here. He was the one with the shotgun in his hands, after all.


    ¡°Step one more step forward, and I WILL shoot you John, I¡¯m serious. Start giving me the answers right now. Do you hear me under that gas mask, John? Or do you not!?¡± ¨C Urien exclaimed loudly, putting emphasis on the fact that he really was ready to shoot John if he didn¡¯t get what he was asking for.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    John, trying to be as calm as possible, told him: ¡°You won¡¯t shoot me, Urien, you won¡¯t. So, let¡¯s lay off on the death threats, how does that sound to you?¡±


    Thus commended a fatal mistake by John. He took a step forward towards Urien, which he warned him not to do anymore. He really wasn¡¯t just ¡°playing around¡± and acting tough in front of the mysterious gasmask wearing John. He stood back a second, and without a second thought, pulled the trigger on John, aiming straight for his face (or, if you would rather, his gasmask).


    The gun malfunctioned. Urien was so sure it had ammunition inside of it, he even checked multiple times while keeping his distance from John.


    John started laughing, almost uncontrollably. Through the laughter, he managed to utter just one sentence, while Urien stood back, scared for his life because his plan hadn¡¯t worked out. ¡°Ahahahaha¡­ This is the twelfth time you¡¯ve tried the same thing! Ahahahaha!¡±


    Urien was confused while his heart was pounding and pumping as fast as it could. Was he about to be punished? What did the words John just said to him even mean?


    ¡°Welcome to the next LOOP, Urien.¡± These were the words that John told Urien in the cafeteria the moment they met all those minutes ago, which at this point, felt like hours to him. Was he reliving the same thing repeatedly, in a ¡°loop¡±? These thoughts made Urien uneasy. So uneasy in fact that he dropped the shotgun to the floor and followed that with intense staring at his own hands. He was probably counting his fingers to see if this was a dream or something of sorts. Who could know what was going through his mind at this moment? Only himself. After only being awake for a moment, Urien felt the biggest defeat of his life.


    ¡°What ¡­ is happening to me?¡± ¨C Urien uttered in a defeated voice. It could be heard that he was on the verge of bursting into a river of tears. John, at this point, was still laughing. Suddenly he stopped laughing and told the depressed Urien, in an almost robotic tone: ¡°Entry TEST, TEST #001, failed. Failed attempts: twelve across twelve LOOPs (so far).¡±


    Urien said nothing. He stayed radio silent for the next ten minutes, crumbled up on the floor. In those ten minutes, he heard John writing something, probably with a pen. John also turned on some classical music, which Urien assumed was probably via the vinyl player he saw when he first entered the room.


    ¡°Have you had your moment long enough, man? Seems to me like you have. It HAS been like ten minutes, you know? I guess you aren¡¯t tracking time, considering the utter disappointment you just lived through. Do you want me to explain what just happened or have you remembered?¡± ¨C said John.


    Urien stood up and took a seat in the very chair John told him to take a seat in 15 minutes ago. The atmosphere was almost positive, weirdly enough; ignoring the fact that a murder attempt took place in that same room moments ago.

 TEST#005

    ¡°So, without more stalling, let me explain what just happened to you just now. Listen closely because this is the twelfth time I¡¯m explaining this to you. Of course, you wouldn¡¯t know that, but anyways¡­¡± John took a deep breath and started talking.


    ¡°I am John, also known as Gas Mask. I am the supervisor of the building we are currently in, TEST #202, which means I am in control of the people who come into this TEST and this TEST alone. Using the word ¡°building¡± doesn¡¯t roll of the tongue as easily as ¡°facility¡± does, so, let¡¯s just call this a ¡°facility¡± from now on.¡±


    ¡°Everything, from the moment you woke up here, to the moment you met me, to the very moment you tried killing me, was pre-planned to happen. Yes, that includes the key falling out of my pocket. I made that happen on purpose. It also includes me blabbing on about a soda ad poster so much, while not keeping my eyes directly on you. Let¡¯s set the record straight. I am not that oblivious, and you are not as smart as you think you are, Urien.¡±


    This last sentence offended Urien, slightly.


    ¡°What you just went through was the entry TEST of this TEST facility, TEST #202. It was meant to test your state of mind. Would you have risked the gun locker key or not? Would you have given me the key back, or not? Of course, we know you picked doing the latter. If you are wondering as to what I was writing down, I was writing down the result of you going through that entry TEST. To say the result differs from the eleven other times you¡¯ve done this would be a lie. Congratulations, Urien, you have failed once again.¡±


    ¡°What do you- ¡°¨C Urien tried asking John something, but John cut him off and completed his question.


    ¡°What do I mean by ¡°eleven other times¡±, that¡¯s what you were about to ask me, right?¡± ¨C said John, almost as if he was making fun of Urien¡¯s confusion about the situation he was in.


    ¡°This is the twelfth time you have started a LOOP, Urien. If you are wondering about what a LOOP is, I¡¯ll tell you, and before you get too mad at the situation you are in, please, keep yourself calm a moment longer, because I have something to show you.¡±


    Urien nodded.


    ¡°There¡¯s a couple of TESTs you must go through, Urien. Once you go through them all, you¡¯ve successfully completed one LOOP. After completing one LOOP, your memory is swiftly erased. You forget even the most vital details about yourself, with some exceptions. Why is this done? Well, let¡¯s say if you KNEW how to solve a problem already, and you decide to solve it again, again, and again. Are you gaining anything from it? No, you¡¯re just repeating the same solution. You gain nothing from it. This is why you don¡¯t remember anything, and why you fell for that gun locker key so easily. Knowing that you gave the same response to the same problem twelve times already, doesn¡¯t that tell you something, Urien?¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Urien was trying to figure out everything that John just said and explained to him. He was frankly weirded out by all of this. Nonetheless, Urien replied: ¡°What¡­ What is it supposed to tell me?¡±


    ¡°Some things are part of us, by nature. They are rooted deep inside of us, and that, that is the true ¡°us¡±. If you knew the outcome that was to come out of you stealing that gun locker key, you wouldn¡¯t have done it, right? But look at you, taking the same route twelve times. That determination that is inside of you, it sure is strong.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ If this is my twelfth time¡­ How did I even come to this facility in the first place? What am I doing here?¡± ¨C Urien asked John, impressed by the words of the Man with the Gas Mask.


    ¡°We will get to that, - ¡°¨C John abruptly stopped in the middle of his sentence, as the vinyl player stopped. ¡°Give me a second to turn it to the other side¡±, said John. Turned it over he did, and another classical music piece started playing.


    At this point Urien was really confused about what was happening. Did he agree to these terms? And why? Is this really his twelfth time doing this, or is John just simply that powerful with his words? Whatever the case, at least he didn¡¯t get shot, he thought to himself. At the same time, Urien felt so ¡°at home¡± yet so far away from it.


    ¡°Please, continue¡­¡± ¨C said Urien.


    John, almost happily, with a certain grin underneath his mask, replied: ¡°Didn¡¯t know you were so interested!¡± After they exchanged some weird looks at each other, John continued with his explanation. ¡°All that I (or it would be more correct to say we) ask of you is to complete a hundred LOOPs, and that¡¯s all that you need to do here. Go through the same bunch of TESTs a hundred times, and you get to leave. You get the money you were promised, and we get the test results we are looking for. It¡¯s easier to TEST one person a hundred times than a hundred people once.¡±


    Urien, as off putting as his situation was, became intrigued: ¡°I¡¯m getting paid for this? Do I work here?¡±


    ¡°In a way, you do ¡°work¡± here. But then again, I¡¯m the actual employee here, and you¡¯re just a Tester.¡± ¨C John explained.


    ¡°So, I agreed to this? How do I know you didn¡¯t kidnap me and just erase my memory?¡±


    As soon as John heard this, as if he was waiting for this moment and this moment alone, stood up from his chair enthusiastically. ¡°This¡­ This question was the question I was waiting for! After I answer your question, I¡¯m basically done with co-operating with you until your next LOOP! Finally!¡±


    ¡°Does this guy change his personality every five minutes or something? What¡¯s up with his happy, then sad, then negative approach at this situation? Oddly enough he¡¯s perfect for this job, if it even is one, and if I am to believe his words¡­¡± ¨C Thought Urien.


    As John stood up, Urien kept his eyes on him. What was John about to tell him?


    ¡°No need to wonder anymore, Urien. The truth is you agreed to this. Don¡¯t believe me?¡± ¨C John said as he picked up a DVD, with something written on it with black marker. John approached Urien and showed the DVD to Urien, in his face. The writing on the DVD said as follows:


    ¡°URIEN / TESTER NUMBER #4402


    VIDEO: APPLICATION VIDEO


    DATE: 02.06.2000.¡±


    ¡°Give me a second while I boot the computer up. Do you mind turning off the vinyl player, Urien?¡±, asked John politely.


    Urien stood up calmly and in disbelief of what he just read, turned the vinyl player off.


    ¡°Come here and watch closely Urien, because this is all you.¡± ¨C John said, and, after making sure Urien sat in his seat, turned off the lights of the Main Room. He let Urien press play on the video himself. After loading for a second or two, a video started to play.

 THE INTERVIEW (I)

    ¡°I wish you a warm welcome! Welcome to PROJECT: M.O.¡±, a strange female voice, coming from the video, said. At this point, it was unclear who¡¯s voice it was, and, in the video, the origin of the woman¡¯s voice, who sounded like she was in her late twenties, could not be seen. Urien assumed she was off camera. The video, at this point, was showing a glass of water standing on a what-seemed like a wooden table.


    ¡°Before we continue any further, I want to confirm. This is Urien I am talking to, right?¡±


    The camera suddenly switched its angle from a glass of water to nobody else but Urien, oddly happily sitting in an office chair, in what seemed to be a well-kept and even decorated room.


    ¡°Yes.¡±, the Urien in the video replied quickly. It seemed as if he was rushing to get through the interview as fast as possible.


    Suddenly Urien took this video of himself a hundred times more seriously. He tried to focus on every detail of the video he could.


    The lady, which will be referred to as ¡°The Interviewer¡± from this point onwards, let out a little chuckle in the video.


    ¡°Alright, alright. Then let¡¯s begin this interview, shall we¡­ Urien?¡±


    The Urien in the video nodded the same way as he had nodded to John a couple of minutes ago. This inspired John to comment on the subject: ¡°There¡¯s that infamous nod.¡±


    ¡°You are here, and I am sure a hundred percent, because you saw our ad somewhere. After all, in this business, we need new people circulating all around nonstop, so why don¡¯t you tell me about the ad you saw?¡±


    Video Urien looked as if this question irritated him, which could be seen with the sudden change of expression in his face. He stuttered for a moment, and then replied: ¡°Honestly¡­ I don¡¯t remember the exact ad I saw. But it sure did catch my attention, making me come all the way down to this facility.¡±


    The Interviewer took notice of his reply. ¡°Okay¡­ I am glad we took your attention so easily, then.¡±


    ¡°Do you mind telling us something about yourself, not in the sense of personal details and who you are (because those details will be needed at the end of the interview, not now), but mostly I am alluding to you telling us about what attracted you most to this PROJECT. Was it the money that was promised?¡±


    Video Urien, almost as if he had prepared the answer to this very question, replied: ¡°Well, to be honest, the promised money was a nice bonus, sure, but what is even more attractive to me about this ¡°job¡± (if you could even call it that), was the note on the ad that said that most of the TESTs I am to be doing were to be ¡°mental¡± ones and not ¡°physical¡± ones. Because, and believe me, I¡¯m not the most athletic person out there¡­¡±


    ¡°So, you like challenging yourself? Mentally, your- ¡°self¡±?¡± ¨C The Interviewer asked.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Yes.¡± ¨C a quick answer followed soon by Urien in the video.


    ¡± I hope you don¡¯t mind me asking, Urien. While we are on the topic of your mental self, how are you, how should I put this, ¡°mentally¡±? Have you ever had any procedures done to your brain before? If you have, please do tell me. Don¡¯t take this question lightly as having work done on your brain before could affect your stay here if you do get accepted into the PROJECT. ¡°


    ¡°No, ma¡¯am. Nothing of the sorts.¡±


    ¡°Then that settles it. I¡¯ll explain the main concept of our work here to you so you can settle on a definitive answer to whether you want to take part of our PROJECT.¡±


    ¡°Have you heard of the concept of ¡°erasing memories¡±, Urien?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t say that I haven¡¯t. You see it all the time in sci-fi fiction...¡± ¨C Urien replied.


    ¡°Would you have a problem with us erasing your memories?¡±


    ¡°Depends. Do you mind telling me a little bit more?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. Here at PROJECT: M.O. we are looking for potential candidates who will take on the challenge of challenging themselves. Upon starting your stay here, your memories of ever signing up for this ¡°job¡± get erased. How, may you ask? Using our newly required patent for the ¡°LOOP-DOOR¡± system all it takes is a willing human to go through it and, like magic, the human in question forgets almost everything about themselves. Even their name. So, then you are placed inside of a room, and when you first wake up, someone is sure to remind you of your name through light conversation. After that, you are to undergo a series of TESTs. These TESTs, like the name suggests, ¡°TEST¡± your mental strength and capability. After you complete every TEST, you go through the same ¡°LOOP-DOOR¡± again, and, if you haven¡¯t grasped the concept already, you go through all the same TESTs again. Thanks to the ¡°LOOP-DOOR¡± system, you forget you¡¯ve ever did them and you start anew, all while we collect results, in hope of getting differing results each time. We then collect these results and sell them to the companies who need such information. After you finish a hundred LOOPs, you do one final TEST. It is after this final TEST that you are free to collect your hard-earned cash and go home. If you want to help us with this project further, though, after finishing the final TEST you also have the chance to join our staff team. Do not worry, after completing all your work here, we make sure to bring your memories back using the MERGE-LOOP-DOOR system. It makes sure to bring your old memories back into your current self. The choice is on you! Do you have any questions?¡±


    ¡°It sounds simple enough but it¡¯s the LOOP SYSTEM part I can¡¯t figure out. How do those doors work?¡±


    The Interviewer smiled. ¡°You go through a painless operation where we install a simple chip inside your brain. This chip then overtakes almost all your memories, but leaves the parts of the brain vital to you so you don¡¯t forget the basic things: how to walk, how to talk, how to write, etc. New memories, that you make while you are here, get put onto the chip instead inside of your brain. When you finish a LOOP, going through a LOOP DOOR simply wipes the information and memories off the chip and lets you start over fresh again. Finishing every TEST allows you to go through the MERGE-LOOP-DOOR. It basically, as the name suggests, merges your LOOP memories (which are on the chip) with your old ones so you¡¯re not at a loss. All your LOOP memories are stored deeper in the chip, and only then are they wiped off the surface. Technically, they are still in the chip, its just that they are copied off to a place in the chip where you can''t remember them. Once you go through the MERGE-LOOP-DOOR, those LOOP memories stored deep within your chip merge with your actual life memories.¡±


    ¡°So let me get this straight. For a hundred LOOPs, I have no idea what I am doing. And, once I complete one final TEST, I get to merge my memories back into my actual brain. After that I can choose to stay as a worker or just go home?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡±

 THE INTERVIEW (II)

    The Interviewer then, after a couple of seconds, asked Urien: ¡°That glass of water in front of you. Describe it, would you?¡±


    ¡°Half empty.¡± ¨C The Urien in the video replied.


    ¡°Interesting...¡±


    ¡°For your first TEST, and this is just to make sure you are mentally sane... Please write out the alphabet in order. Make sure to include every uppercase and lowercase letter, along with a dot, an exclamation mark, you get the point!¡±


    The camera switched over to a piece of paper The Interviewer slid to Urien, along with a pen. Urien wrote out everything he was asked to. This interview was then followed by a couple of off-topic questions.


    ¡°Now, tell me a little about yourself Urien. What is your family like, where do you come from? I mean, in the forum you filled up you gave us your address, so we know where you¡¯re actually ¡°from¡±, but you know what I mean!¡± ¨C said The Interviewer, followed by a little chuckle she let out.


    ¡°I come from a little apartment a couple of kilometers from here. I was raised by my stepmom. My dad was never there in my life, to be honest. He and my stepmom got divorced, because to be honest, he wasn¡¯t the best dad ever. Now I live with her. I just turned eighteen not to long ago, and I really needed the money for us, so I guess this was the best option I had.¡±


    ¡°Interesting, interesting. Now, Urien. I must inform you of one last part of these TESTs. You are to wear a mask throughout all your stay here. This is to prevent a few things. We value your privacy here, and it would be awkward if someone you knew saw you here or if you saw them. Also, its a good thing to note that the mask you will be wearing is something we use as to prevent you from recognizing someone you know or anything of the sorts. Imagine this situation: you see someone you know, and you start working with them throughout your testing. This would make an unfair advantage, as teamwork is not encouraged here: we value solo work. After all, the whole point of this testing it to see what ¡°you¡± would do uninfluenced by other people. After a worker shows you this interview video, they make sure to put the mask onto you so you cannot remove it, as a passcode is put onto a lock that holds it in place. Do not worry, though, you can breathe perfectly fine wearing the masks. You are given the code to take off the mask at the end of every day and you have a ten-minute window in the morning where you can do everything you need to do before a worker puts your mask back on with a new code in place. There is just enough space in between your face and your mask so you can drink through a straw and eat the food provided here, so do not worry. You can survive perfectly fine. Does this sound good to you?¡±


    ¡°Well, I had my concerns about the food and all, but you seem to have explained it well.¡±


    ¡°Of course! Bring the masks here!¡± ¨C said The Interviewer, to someone who wasn¡¯t in the cameras field of vision.


    Five masks were brought in front of Urien. He was then told to choose one of his liking. They all varied in looks and aesthetics. He chose one, seemingly at random.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Good choice!¡± After all these questions, The Interviewer asked:


    ¡°Great!... So, Urien. I think we got to know each other a little bit more through these questions. Now is the time to ask you: do you consent to getting your memories erased for a while? Before you answer, I must tell you: if you do then you consent to being a Tester here for an, if needed, extended period. We do not know how much it will take you to complete a single LOOP, so we cannot give you an estimate. Taking into consideration that the building for TEST #101, ¡°The Silent¡± TEST has been destroyed and not yet repaired, you are to start in the building TEST #202 with the building¡¯s leader instead. Your first TEST will have had happened moments before seeing this video of yourself, but of course, you won¡¯t know that. Do not worry, you will have all the food you need provided for you, along with your own room. Here at PROJECT: M. O. we are NOT responsible in the case of your death participating here. We should also note that, after starting your first LOOP, you cannot leave until you complete a hundred LOOPs.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ I can¡¯t leave?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all in the legal paper, here¡± ¨C said The Interviewer as she gave Urien a paper of some sorts.


    For the next couple of minutes, the video sped up as Urien was reading through all the terms and conditions of the PROJECT. It seemed as if he wasn¡¯t trying to deny the job at all. All of this was so weird to him. He was looking at a video where he is willingly agreeing to, essentially, get trapped in this building for an undisclosed period while he was asked to do God knows what ¡°TESTs¡±. Looks like he was in it for the money, or so the video made it seem that way. Another interesting thing was noted by Urien: he wasn¡¯t wearing a mask, and he hadn¡¯t seen anyone else besides John at this point, so it was clear to him that the other Testers were somewhere else (or he was completely alone as the only Tester in the building. He was planning to ask John about this later.).


    The video returned to normal speed.


    ¡°So, what do you think Urien?¡± This was the final question asked by The Interviewer.


    ¡°I¡¯m in.¡± ¨C said Video Urien as he signed the paper with his name.


    John turned the video off. ¡°Do you understand now, Urien? You chose this path.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand any off this.¡±


    ¡°Well, you better do soon, because I¡¯m going to grab your mask now.¡±


    John walked up to a cabinet of some sorts and low and behold, he took out the exact same mask Urien had chosen as the one in the video. On the back of the mask, there was a padlock. It was to be used as a mask lock.


    ¡°Wait¡­ Do I seriously have to wear that?¡± ¨C Urien asked.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re the one who chose this mask! Not me! Come here and let me put it on you.¡± ¨C John replied. The mask in question had an interesting design, for sure: one of the eye holes on the mask was normal while the other one was a little higher than intended. It had a cross over the eye hole and it was surely enough to annoy you while blocking the vision of your right eye. It was to be put on your whole face, with only your hair, ears, eyes and neck being visible. The mask had a lock on its back side, just like it was described in the video. Urien came in closer and let John put on the mask on him. After a couple of seconds of getting it right, he heard it get locked. His head was trapped inside this mask until John¡¯s mercy took it off him.


    ¡°Please, sit now Urien. I take it you won¡¯t try killing me again?¡±


    Urien didn¡¯t reply. Instead, he just sat in his designated seat.


    ¡°Welcome back to TEST, Urien.¡±


    ¡°Your LOOP number: 12 out of 100.¡±


    "TEST Building :#202. TEST Leader: John."


    The game between Urien and this place had started (once again).

 TEST#006

    It¡¯s official, the testing has begun (even though it has already begun, with John letting his keys drop on purpose) and there¡¯s no way for Urien to escape his situation. He saw himself sign the contract which didn¡¯t allow for him to leave until the one hundred LOOPs were finished. Who was to say the video wasn''t faked? That he had to escape? He feels that these TESTs are going to destroy him, mentally. After all, what if his second TEST has already started? He wouldn¡¯t know. The best thing to do currently is to stay on alert, he thought to himself.


    Another thing that gave him hope was the fact that, if John was to be believed, this really was his twelfth time going through a LOOP. That means he has survived all the TESTs up until this point, meaning the chance of him dying was lower than you would think in a ¡°captive¡± situation like this. He couldn¡¯t think of it as a captive situation himself though, seeing as he willingly agreed to go through this process for the money. Upon watching the video, it was as if seeing himself talk about his family made him remember a little more than he could before watching it. It seemed to him that The Interviewer was right: when she said seeing other people would help you remember and ruin the memory-wiping process she was right. He just remembered that he does live with his stepmom: that was a hundred percent sure to him. Suddenly, he got emotional thinking about the financial situation they were in¡­ Getting through a hundred LOOPs, it was his goal: to escape this building and return safely to his home. In no situation would he stay to work here.


    After some small talk with John, he is told to go back to his room. John also gave him five silver coins of some kind. He said that they could be used in the cafeteria. Taking into consideration that this was his first day on ¡°the job¡±, he didn¡¯t have much to do except wonder¡­ Where are the other Testers? Why is he still alone here? Are the twenty-five rooms just a decoy of some sorts?


    He went through the hallway back to the cafeteria, and there he made sure to take note of any other rooms he could be needing in the future. Sure enough, there was a room labeled ¡°E.R.¡± very close to the Main Room he was just in. He could barely see through the windows in the hallway, but what he did see gave him the slightest bit of hope. A couple of pine trees. It looked as if he was in some kind of forest. There was electricity in the building though, and the lights of the vending machines that were in the cafeteria were on; so, he wasn¡¯t someplace ¡°too¡± far from society. The building he was in had to get its power from somewhere, right?


    The mask was uncomfortable at first but after a couple more minutes Urien seemed to get used to it. ¡°Man is my neck itching all of a sudden¡­ Ugh¡­.¡± ¨C this was his main complaint. He knew there was no way that he could guess the code on his mask, so he didn¡¯t even bother trying. His main goal currently was to find more information about the mysterious building he was in. The only thing he knew was that he wasn¡¯t on the floor level of the building, as he saw the pine trees from above. Upon coming into his room, he saw a paper with something written on it there as if it was a note of some kind. Urien quickly realized that those were the instructions for his next TEST, which was to take place today.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°TEST #002


    ¡°The Puzzle¡±


    Will start when all sand is at the bottom.¡±


    There was no clock in his room, so the only way he could be told when the testing will take place is to look at the big sand-clock on the table that was put next to the note. All that he was given was a couple of arrows that were drawn on the paper, starting from a dot labeled ¡°Your room¡±. ¡°So, ¡­they don¡¯t want this place being mapped out¡­ Looks like I got myself something to do...¡± ¨C he thought.


    Next to this paper was an ID of some sorts, which, when he inspected closely, only had a picture with his mask on along with the ID of ¡°TESTER #4402¡±. His name was nowhere to be found. He took the ID and put it into his pockets. The piece of paper with the instructions was a piece of paper that he was given for free, and he wasn¡¯t about to throw it away in the room¡¯s trash can. A lot of things he needed to remember, but no pen or pencil were available to him. Upon checking the vending machines in the cafeteria, he noticed no other items other than food and drinks was available. There was also a cup full of straws which were needed if you wanted to drink something while having the mask on.


    Next to the vending machine a card scanner of some sorts could be seen. Above the scanner there was a paper with a lengthy number of sentences. ¡°Please scan your Tester ID before using the vending machine otherwise you will not be able to purchase the item(s) you have selected. The remaining trash must be put into your room¡¯s trashcan so we can make sure you aren¡¯t making anything we might not allow while you stay here. Your TEST leader will count the trashcan¡¯s trash upon roll call every morning to make sure all the things you have bought have been disposed of correctly. In the case of finding contraband, a punishment will be fulfilled. Thank you.¡±


    ¡°They sure made it a point not to forget a thing. I thought that using the soda cans could have come into play if I needed to make a sharp object or something of the sorts which could have helped me with my stay here. I guess they don¡¯t want Testers killing each other with sharp soda cans¡­ I¡¯m going to need a sharp object. I¡¯ll think of a plan to fool him.¡±


    The system was really built to be as secure as it could. Every item you bought on the vending machine was to be logged onto an account and then displayed in a list. In the case John found out that the items displayed on the list didn¡¯t match with the contents of the trashcan, you would be punished in an (probably) unwanted way.


    ¡°I still have time before the second TEST, and John gave me five of these silver coins to get me started. Apparently, I¡¯ll earn more of them as time goes on¡­¡±


    Urien bought a soda of some kind. After grabbing a straw, he drank it as quickly as he could. He then made a full lap around the floor of the building he was on, and he took a mental note of all the rooms and hallways. After making sure he remembered everything right (or, as right as he could) Urien sat at the desk in his room with the empty soda can in his hand. He started to tear it apart and, after doing so and folding it in a way he could hold it like a knife, he started to poke it at his left pointer finger until it started bleeding heavily. ¡°If I can¡¯t get a pen or pencil, I¡¯ll have to use some of my blood instead. I should hurry up and map this floor before the next TEST begins. This will come to use in the future, I¡¯m sure of it. An escape plan could be planned¡­ I¡¯m full of ideas.¡±

 TEST#007

    There wasn¡¯t enough blood coming out of the top of his finger, so he started to stab other parts of it as well. He realized that he forgot where each room in the long hallway leading up to the Main Room was, so he went back and, covering the work he had done on his finger by putting his hands into his pockets, remembered where each and every room in the hallway was: the first room to the side was a storage room of some sorts, or so it seemed. He also saw John going into the Main Room and locking it behind himself. The next couple of rooms after the big storage closet were intended to be ¡°office¡± rooms as it was written on the doors themselves, but no one could be heard inside. There was also a door with no label on it, so Urien didn¡¯t even bother thinking what it could¡¯ve been. After a couple of offices, the door to the E.R. stood. He heard someone moving inside; but it obviously wasn¡¯t John, as he saw him just now, going into the Main Room. Urien figured that it was his best choice to take it easy and not meet too many enemies in one day¡­ Peeking through the door was an idea that he had but was it worth it just so he could know what was going on inside the emergency room? He decided against it. Urien returned safely to his room, which was room number #4402. To his surprise, the sand was still falling down from inside the clock, and he had more than enough time to map the floor out.


    Minutes went by as he put as much detail into the floor plan as he could. He had a plan to hide it perfectly: notice how nowhere on the floor there was a bathroom / toilet? As he did map out the whole floor, he was sure it wasn¡¯t on the current floor he was on. Hiding it in inside of the toilets, under a loose slab or a crack in the wall: that was the perfect hiding spot that he was looking for. He made sure to double check the map he drew; everything looked fine (he was even a little proud of himself for coming up with such an idea). As he picked up the courage to go knock onto the Main Room¡¯s door, he made sure to fold the empty soda can as much as he could so everything could fit perfectly inside of his pockets. Why? He wanted to start mapping the floor where the bathroom / toilet was. He wasn¡¯t about to waste any time.


    Going up to the room where John presumably was, Urien knocked. ¡°John, you haven¡¯t shown me where the toilets are, and I really need to go. I promise, I¡¯m not holding a gun currently, check the cameras if you want.¡±


    A camera could be found in only two places: the long hallway and the cafeteria. Before even starting to bleed himself out, Urien made sure to check the whole room for hidden microphones and or cameras. He was the type to talk to himself aloud when he wanted to solve a problem: he always said that it helped him approach problems more easily, sometimes he wouldn¡¯t even notice that he¡¯s talking aloud, and people would stare at him weirdly¡­


    Almost instantly, in a hurried voice, John replied: ¡°Yeah¡­ Give me a second while I check.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Urien found it offensive that John didn¡¯t trust him. ¡°How could he?¡± he thought.


    He heard footsteps and the door suddenly opened. John was still wearing his mask but instead of being in the jeans and random t-shirt that he was in when Urien saw him going into the Main Room he was in a suit and trying to put on a necktie. ¡°Are you serious?¡± ¨C Urien said, almost as if he was annoyed by the fact that John was acting as if all of this was a big game.


    ¡°I like to look the part when new Testers come, so what? Shouldn¡¯t you be getting ready for your¡­ second TEST?¡±


    ¡°Having the urge to go to the bathroom really puts you out of the mood of being someone¡¯s TEST subject. Can you show me the way to the bathroom, please?¡±


    ¡°Oh, sure¡± ¨C John replied as if he was having light conversation with a friend who was asking for a favour. ¡°Follow me, its not on this floor though, and I must warn you, the floor below us could get really tricky as it¡¯s like a maze, so, I wouldn¡¯t even bother looking for it myself if I was you, so I understand why you wouldn¡¯t bother looking for it yourself.¡±


    ¡°Maybe I would if I knew where the stairs of this building were¡­ These lights are creeping me out, its like were in a haunted hospital. And us wearing these masks, could I be any more unfortunate?¡±


    ¡°Just follow me.¡±


    Urien nodded and John led the way. They walked for a couple of seconds before coming in front of the room which had no label. This room was next to the offices but before the E.R. This was also the door that the arrows led to on the testing instructions he got. ¡°Behind this door is the stairway.¡±


    John opened the door and there was a large staircase which could go either way: up or down. They started to go down and to Urien¡¯ s surprise it was a tiring walk. There were too many stairs to count but eventually they came down to a door. It was a double door: and a big shining light could be seen through a little bit of glass that was above the doors. John went up to the double doors and opened them at the same time, while Urien stood back.


    As the light overshined over them both, the thing Urien saw left him in shock. A large room, so big that he couldn¡¯t see the end of it was in front of him. Inside of the room other people could be seen, other Testers. He saw three, brand new people all with masks. They were working out on some gym equipment, which there was a lot of. Music of some kind was blaring and there was no way he was believing any of this.


    ¡°What is this!?!?¡±


    John didn¡¯t turn around to his scream. He looked at the Testers in the room and screamed: ¡°Everyone please welcome Tester #4402, who is only on his twelfth LOOP! The fact is that he is here to go the toilet just shows how all of you take this job more seriously than him!¡±


    The people who were in the room, which looked to be like a room meant for working out and keeping in shape, just turned around and stared at John. The room looked amazing: It had a bunch of hallways off to the sides and so many doors could be seen in those same hallways. Urien thought that he was alone, but it looked as if three more people were there with him and John. Urien¡¯s plan to map out the whole place just took on a whole new level of insanity. It was like a maze you cannot escape.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Testers. Even though you don¡¯t know each other, the final TEST of this building WILL include all of you doing it at the same time. So, don¡¯t worry. You¡¯re not all alone, huh?¡±

 TEST#008

    This view¡­ knowing that there were other people here. It made him think that all of this wasn¡¯t all that bad. Sure, he was obligated to stay for however much it will take him to finish all of his remaining LOOPs but seeing other people who were in the same situation that he was in gave him hope. It was a weird feeling: he didn¡¯t want to be there, but he knew it was something he must go through. For a moment he thought like this, standing in place completely frozen. ¡°Will this be the end of me?¡± ¨C is what was going through his mind.


    John was still looking at him. He turned his head around quickly, looked at Urien and asked him: ¡°Why the sad face? Come on, follow me.¡±


    Urien was still engulfed by the way this room was revealed to him¡­ He followed John and they went past another Tester. What it seemed like was that you were allowed to physically train as well as mentally through the TESTs. Knowing he had food and drinks, he realized that this place was more like a prison of some sorts where you¡¯re staying there and putting up with what is thrown at you so you can get some money¡­


    The other Tester was wearing a mask as well. It was so familiar to him¡­ It was one of the masks that were shown to Urien in The Interview video. His opinion still hadn¡¯t changed though: he still saw his mask as the one that looked a million times better than all the other masks. John¡¯s gas mask was also way below his one, in terms of Urien¡¯s rating inside on his head that he had done. ¡°At least mine isn¡¯t as boring as theirs¡­¡±


    They turned to the hallway which was on the right. After going through the hallway, which had four rooms, two on each of the sides of the hallway, they arrived. At the end of the hallway a different looking space was emitting lights that were giving out their best try at shining for at least a second more. ¡°These damn lightbulbs¡­ I need to get them changed. I¡¯ll get someone to replace the ones in the hallway in front of your room, too. It¡¯s about time I take care of this building a little bit more seriously¡­¡± ¨C John commented on the matter.


    ¡°Anyways, I think you can guess on which side the men¡¯s bathroom is.¡±


    The two doors, with one on each side of the bathroom, were drastically different in looks. The women¡¯s bathroom had a noticeable bigger lifespan ahead of itself than the men¡¯s one. As there were almost no signs in this building about where what was, you had to guess your way through the place, except a couple of rooms like the E.R., which had a clear sign on it stating what room the door was leading to.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to wait on you to finish. Find the way to your next TEST when the time comes for it.¡± John started to walk away, probably back to the Main Room.


    ¡°I¡­ I have a question, John. Wait.¡± ¨C Urien uttered.


    ¡°How many TESTs are ¡­ you know¡­ there for me to do?¡±


    John turned around and gave him the answer he was looking for, as if this question didn¡¯t bother him at all: ¡°Four. Taking into consideration that you have already finished one, that leaves you three. Don¡¯t worry; it won¡¯t take too long.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Urien stared at him for a second and then decided it was best to go to the bathroom now. No point in standing like a statue in front of the bathroom. Urien walked into the bathroom entrance which was on the left side at the end of the hallway. It didn¡¯t smell too bad, or so he thought until he went into one of the designated toilets. Inside of it was a smell so bad, and in no way was his reaction over the top or dramatized, that Urien had the urge to puke his guts out right then and there on the floor. It was a disgusting stench which could only be described as if a dead body was laying underneath the bathroom¡¯s floor for years all while ten more dead animals were buried next to the body itself. As ridiculous as it was, it was the perfect toilet for hiding things: to Urien¡¯s surprise, after feeling all of the tiles in the bathroom (which were unkept and had fecal matter all over them for some reason), there was a single loose tile on the wall which could fit multiple things on its inside as there was a little hole in the wall it was standing on as well. These were, as Urien would remember through his stay, the single most vile and disgusting 5 minutes of his life. Then, he realized why the toilet was like this: no toilet paper was given to anyone participating in the TESTs of this building. If it was, people would have an infinite source for paper, a source for writing down any single thought and mistake that they would have found along the walls of the hallways, rooms, along the floors and the windows¡­ So, they wiped their hands where they could¡­


    Urien hid the bloody map of the second floor inside of the hole behind the tile and then he put the tile back. Another thing that he had done was chip off half of the paper on which the map was drawn. The way he drew the map one half of the paper was empty (although, a little bloody) and the other half had the actual map on it. The other half of the paper he saved for a particular reason for which he needed to go back to his room to do. Not realizing what was about to happen to him, he went ahead and returned to it. The walk was long and boring, and he was already getting tired of the same white walls and stains. Talking to the other Testers didn¡¯t seem risk-worthy, either; after the gun incident with John, he isn¡¯t even sure if those people are actual other Testers or if they are all on John¡¯s side. One thing that was impressive with this building was the fact that it had great sound isolation. The music that was playing inside of the gym room could not be heard for not even a second from the second floor. Urien returned to his room and saw that the sand was almost all the way down inside of the clock. He decided to fold the soda can back into its original form (or as much as he could) and after he was sure it looked as natural as it could, put it onto his table. Waiting for the next TEST after the one which was to start in a couple of minutes was exciting to him. He hoped that he would get another paper just like the one that he had gotten for the instructions for this TEST. The half of the paper that he had saved and put into his pockets, it was needed to fool John.


    Not knowing if John was going to ask for the paper back, Urien decided to keep half of the paper which he would then tear into pieces, little ones. He was then to get all those pieces and put them into the soda can. If John was to ask for the paper back, he could simply act annoyed and reply: ¡°I got so frustrated that I tore it apart and then I wanted to make a mess and leave it all around the door of the Main Room for you to see, but I decided against it and I put it all inside of that soda can, so you can thank me for not making a mess for you to clean up.¡±


    This way, John couldn¡¯t be suspicious of anything.

 TEST#009

    The sand was falling and dropping its final drops of sand onto the bottom of the clock. Urien realized that it was time. This time, he wasn¡¯t going to get fooled so easily. He realized that he might need to use the soda can as a knife as he didn¡¯t know what was going to happen in the next TEST. He hid all the torn paper pieces inside of his room and then he folded the soda can back into the sharp shape of a knife. Slowly making his way towards the door to the stairway, he made sure to keep an open mind and not let himself get manipulated. He went ahead and opened the door and made his way towards the bottom of the stairway. This time he opened the double doors himself, and upon opening them, he realized that the three other people which were there just a moment before had disappeared.


    ¡°Urien! Come here.¡± ¨C John shouted. John was peeking on Urien from the hallway which was on the left, opposite to the hallway where the bathroom and toilets were. Urien kept his calm, and he went up to John. ¡°The sand in the clock told me it¡¯s time.¡± ¨C Urien said to John. ¡°Oh, sure it did. I just hope you never mess with it, because those sand clocks are the only way to tell the time here except for the computer(s). The thing is, if you knew how much time had exactly passed, you would have been pissed off¡­ Anyways, lets make it to the room where your second TEST will begin.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ Its like a casino: only they don¡¯t have windows, so you don¡¯t realize you¡¯ve spent the whole day there gambling¡­ At least I can see the pine trees from this building¡­ - as Urien was saying this they were already on their way to the room John said was to be the room where the testing will take place. After walking for a while, they arrived.


    The room had a clear label stating it was the ¡°TESTING ROOM¡±. It had two entrances, one for the Tester and one for John. ¡°Go inside and I¡¯ll explain to you the rules as I look over you.¡±


    Urien went inside of the room and the room looked as if it was a playroom for kids. In the middle of the room there was a table with a box on it. There was a chair, as well. A mirror off to the side and a couple of kids toys. The box on the table had no label on it.


    ¡°Welcome to your second TEST; The Puzzle¡±, Urien. In front of you is a box which contains a couple hundred puzzle pieces. They are all white with a couple of lines on them. Using those lines, you must form a rectangle along the puzzle¡¯s landscape. Your finished puzzle must contain the shape, and you are to be locked in this room until you finish. There are a couple of rules:


    You cannot quit. I have a timer which will tell me the time it took you to figure the puzzle out. You cannot ask for any help, and no food and water will be given to you. If you faint, the TEST will be marked as failed, and you WILL eventually starve to death this way. This is only the third time this TEST is being used on a Tester. Which means, you are one of the lucky ones. Don¡¯t worry, you haven¡¯t done it in any of your LOOPs before, so you are up for a challenge. Good luck. Your time starts now.¡±


    John could be seen watching Urien as if he was a monkey being experimented on through a thick glass pane meant to withhold a bullet. Urien rushed over to the table and started to lay all the pieces out on the table. They all had marks of blood on them. As if someone tried to wash it off but couldn¡¯t. Marks of dried blood stayed on the pieces which disturbed Urien. It was as he described: lines could be seen on some of them too. Starting with the corners, he made sure to build the corners out as quickly as possible. At this point, his mask was still on his head and his neck was itching even more. It was clear to him that there were possibly over three hundred pieces to this puzzle. It was a tiring process, trying to connect all of the (mostly white and bloody) pieces together. He thought to himself that this was a million times easier than he had imagined it to be. ¡°He is probably trying to scare me with this blood and I will probably have to finish this as soon as possible for better results.¡± ¨C Urien thought to himself, with a hopeful look on his face (behind the mask, though).If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    As he started to connect more and more of the pieces together, he realized that there were numbers on the puzzle as well. As he looked back on the door he entered from, he saw a place in which you could enter in a code. His first thought was that after beating the puzzle you get the number to free yourself from the room and you beat the TEST that way. It took him a couple more minutes, but eventually, he finished the puzzle. One piece was missing from the middle, but the numbers could be read: ¡°8428¡±. The lines formed a rectangle along the way around the numbers. ¡°John, one piece is missing, but I finished the rest of the puzzle. I¡¯ll go on ahead and finish this up now.¡±


    As he stood up from the chair in which he was standing on, he went over to the console to input the numbers. To his surprise, they did not open the door. After trying again a couple of times, the same result was in front of him. The code didn¡¯t work. ¡°John, is this code a working one?¡±


    John looked at Urien from across the glass and he gave him a thumbs up, all while looking at Urien carefully. John put on some blinds as to cover himself from Urien¡¯s view. This confused Urien and thus he sat down on the chair at he pondered at the table, staring at the puzzle with one missing piece. It was too specific to be a blunder: the very middle piece of the puzzle was the exact one which was missing.


    ¡°Wait¡­ These numbers, perhaps I can take my mask off with them?¡±


    Urien went ahead and, trying his best to use the mirror to his advantage, tried to match the numbers on the mask¡¯s lock with the numbers on the puzzle. A click was heard. His mask, with a little push of force coming from his hands, went off his head almost as smooth as butter. He could finally scratch his neck. Then, he felt it. There was a puzzle piece in the back side of his neck. It was under his skin.


    ¡°No¡­ No. Don¡¯t do this to me John. John? Hello? I am not about to do this!¡±


    No reply was heard. He screamed as loud as he could, throwing the chair across the room. ¡°This¡­ improvised knife from the soda can¡­ Do I really have to¡­ No¡­ There must be another solution¡­ John!¡±


    He was panicking. Even if he broke the glass, what good could it be? He still had to cut his skin open. ¡°No¡­ I can¡¯t let him know that I have this knife on me¡­ I have to break the glass; I have to fool him. He has to think that I¡¯ve done it using the glass pieces. No way am I about to do this¡­¡±


    Urien, in his raged state, went over to the mirror and he kicked the sucker right out of its place. Behind the glass there was a paper. It had the next note written on it: ¡°Now you have something to cut yourself open up with, but, with no mirror, how will you see what you are cutting? :)¡±


    In his rage, Urien had made the job so much harder than it already was. Now he had no mirror, so he is going to have to, using only his feel, cut out the puzzle piece from inside of his neck. All the dried blood on the puzzle pieces, now it made sense. He was about to bleed hard. Trying to slow his breathing down, with his shaky hands, Urien decided to get the chair back from the other side of the room where he threw it at, and, with a strong will to survive this TEST, he decided against starving himself to death. Urien started to whisper to himself¡­ ¡°This damn building, it¡¯s a building for torturing people¡­ Will I even get the money I was promised, no, I¡¯m so suspicious of all of this, I need to escape, I need to save my life! This building will be the end of me, it will kill me, God help me!¡±


    As he was talking to himself, he began cutting his skin up. His screaming could probably be heard a mile away¡­ ¡°God, help me, help me!¡±


    The improvised knife was going through his skin, tearing it up and infecting his skin and body. It was pure agony, pure torture: he was getting nothing from doing this except the fact that he would live another day. In truth, he fought for his life full of courage. The screaming was nowhere near done and the cutting was just getting into the deeper part of the skin. It was slow, it burned, it bled, and blood was spurting everywhere, and the adrenaline from this was too much for the average man to handle. ¡°God, help me! John, why are you doing this!?!?¡±


    The cuts got to the point where he could feel the puzzle piece with the sharp edge of the improvised knife. With his arms shaking he folded the knife back as much as he could, and he realized that two more folds and the can would definitely break. It was nearing the end of its usability. He hid in inside of his pockets and he got the puzzle piece out, squeezing the skin around the cut as much as he could with his hands. It came out, all bloody, but intact.


    He placed it onto the puzzle, and then he made sure to bloody some of the glass up so it could look like he used the glass to do it. A buzzer was heard, and the door opened. Urien fainted and fell to the floor, losing blood by the second.

 TEST#010

    Time had passed. Urien opened his eyes. He was alive. While looking around the room he had noticed a bunch of medical equipment all around as well as the fact that he felt something on his neck. A noise could be heard coming from behind a wall, which had a door to its side. His guess was that he ended up in the Emergency Room. This was confirmed to him by the fact that a heart monitor was right next to him, measuring his heart beats and health status.


    He didn¡¯t have enough time to wander his eyes around the room as soon the noise of someone walking was becoming louder and louder to him. Through the door from which behind he heard noises: another masked person entered the room along with him. This person had a hoodie on, which had a pattern on its front side which depicted an x-ray scan of what would be your ribs and the bones you could see inside of your torso and arms as well. The mask this person had on looked like a plague-doctor mask, only it was long, and it went below the neck. Through the middle of the mask there was a line which looked like a long stitch. This person was holding an axe which had the initials J.W. on it. Urien didn¡¯t have the energy to stand up and run from this madman, so he accepted his fate in the hospital bed he was in. Urien was wearing his mask, only this time there was a hole where the puzzle piece and neck cuts were. He felt pressure on his neck.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I am not going to hurt you.¡± ¨C said the strange man with the axe. ¡°What happened to me? Wasn¡¯t I completing a TEST?¡± ¨C Urien asked, with the little energy that he had inside of him.


    ¡°You¡­ you completed the TEST. You were bleeding so much though ¨C and you fainted. Then, John came running to me and him and I had to bring you up to here. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be just fine.¡±


    ¡°Is my¡­ what is up with my neck? Did I break it?¡±


    ¡°You cut yourself open on the neck and I had to do a little operation on you. Thankfully, you fainted yourself, so we didn¡¯t have to use that much anesthesia on you. The puzzle piece which was inside of you¡­ Well, you wouldn¡¯t remember, but, before you completed your eleventh LOOP¡­ I was the one who put it in there. Then you went through the LOOP door, and you forgot all about the thing¡­ Maybe you felt your neck itching? That was probably a dead giveaway as to what was happening but I¡¯m sure you haven¡¯t had the time to take your mask off and analyze what was going on¡­¡± ¨C said the strange man to Urien.


    That explains why he hadn¡¯t noticed the puzzle piece earlier. ¡°Since you would have figured it out by the time the TEST had started, John decided it was best to make it your second TEST and get it over with as soon as possible. One thing that I should probably tell you, as well: the reason we had to do the operation on you with your mask on is because I don¡¯t have the right to see the Tester¡¯s faces. That would¡­ it could make it weird for everyone. John is the only one who can see the Testers faces, and even at that, it''s just the one time you wake up and find him in the cafeteria... How¡¯s the pain feeling? Are you any better?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ okay. I could use a painkiller or two.¡± ¨C this was all that Urien could mutter. All of a sudden, a worry hit him: have they found his improvised knife? The second the strange man turned his back to Urien so he could grab a painkiller for him, Urien checked his pockets, and sure enough, it was there. He was still wearing his bloody clothes, and the unprofessionalism made Urien sure that this whole place was not what it seemed to be when he first signed up for it. In this case, the fact that they didn¡¯t check his pockets properly or dress him in new clothes was a good thing. They were about to destroy him and rebuild him a hundred times, just so they could get the results they want.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Depressive thoughts hit Urien, knowing that he and his memories were being played with¡­ ¡°To escape this place¡­ It¡¯s what I must do. I¡­ I need to save people from coming over to here. But, if people get their memories erased when they come here, and what if, then they erase them again when they finish these TESTs (which would be the opposite of the promised idea that they merge all your memories back), no one will be able to escape¡­ Everyone will be stuck here forever¡­ And¡­ what if then, after you know nothing about yourself, they just tell you that you¡¯re a worker here, and then you just¡­ become a part of the ones who torture the others¡­? I don¡¯t think I¡¯m the first one who had this idea, this idea to escape. But seeing as this place is still up and running¡­ It means that no one is yet to be successful. I must¡­ escape.¡±


    ¡°Here, take these¡± ¨C said the strange man. As Urien was cooperating with what the man was saying, there were no problems, and the air felt a little bit less heavy than it was when he first woke up.


    ¡°Oh¡­ sorry. I forgot to introduce myself: my name is John Woodfield. I am a worker for PROJECT: M.O., just like John, who you¡¯ve met before me, is. Him and I are the two main people who run things here, in this building. I¡¯m trained in medicine, and I work along with John so we can fulfill our job as easily as we can. You can call me Woodfield, since, calling us both John is ought to get confusing for you. Just forget that I have a first name. My name is Woodfield.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Great. Another John¡­¡± ¨C said Urien. ¡°Look. You passed the TEST, but that wasn¡¯t the only way to pass, you know?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¨C Urien was distraught at Woodfield¡¯s claim.


    ¡°If you had read the rules of the TEST¡­ It was specifically said that all you had to do was form the shape along the puzzle¡¯s landscape. In truth, if you had removed the middle row of puzzle pieces, it would have clicked in perfectly, and you wouldn¡¯t have had to cut yourself open. The puzzle piece would have been removed by me and you wouldn¡¯t have caused yourself any pain. Here, look."


    Woodfield brought the puzzle, which was at this point, in the room with them, in front of Urien. Sure enough, removing the middle row wouldn¡¯t have caused any problem and the shape of the rectangle would still be visible. If it was a square, for example, removing the middle row would have caused unequal sides of the shape. But, taking into consideration that it was a rectangle, removing the middle would have kept it as a rectangle, just shorter on the two horizontal lines. Still, this counts as a passed TEST.


    ¡°You¡¯re telling me that I didn¡¯t have to do any of this?¡±


    ¡°Read the rules, here. No where does it say that you must use all of the puzzle pieces.¡± ¨C Woodfield handed over the paper to Urien, so he could see it and read it for himself. The paper had the rules written out, the same ones that John had read out to him. It was exactly as Woodfield had told him: cutting his neck open was not the only way to pass the TEST.


    ¡°Can you walk? I can let you take a walk around the building, outside. Some fresh air would do some good to your tired self.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I can walk. Let me outside.¡±

 TEST#011

    After he helped Urien get up, Woodfield led the way to the exit of the building. Urien was about to sense the first breath of being free, outside. Seeing the pine trees up close, for some reason, was a real wish that he had. ¡°Just follow me, and, we don¡¯t have to talk at all, if you don¡¯t want to, that is¡­¡± ¨C said Woodfield; displaying how little interest in Urien he actually had (which was, when compared to John¡¯s connection with Urien, oh so different).


    They left the E.R. and they went down the ginormous set of stairs. On the floor below, no music was playing, and the vibe of the floor was drastically different then from when John introduced Urien to the floor and the other Testers (which had disappeared somewhere). All of this gave Urien an eerie feeling. As if he wasn¡¯t meant to be alive, as if he was the only one alive in this building. All of the other people, including John, Woodfield, and the Testers as well, they all seemed so lifeless. Like their lives were drained out from them, as if they had no reason to live or to continue living. It all seemed so miserable, it all seemed like a big decoy, like a pair of curtains, meant to hide the even bigger evil which is happening behind them¡­ There was a secret undergoing all of this, and Urien knew nothing about it. He knew that he would get to the bottom of this mystery, but his question was how? He has no allies here, and even Woodfield, who had just aided him in recovery, was probably being nice to him only because he felt bad for him for a moment¡­


    Soon enough Woodfield had guided Urien through the hallways. All of this was being remembered by Urien so that he could finally make the map for this floor. No light conversation erected in between them. Only a couple of glances, which could be guessed, that they were not on purpose but on total accident.


    After walking for a while through the building¡¯s hallways, they arrived at a metal plated door. It was surely the door to the outside. If only there was a giant forest around this building, so that Urien could take the run for it as soon as Woodfield opens the door for him. Sure, there were pine trees and birds could be heard singing, but a fence that kills you just because you¡¯ve touched it was sure to be the thing that tells you that, even though you¡¯re outside, you aren¡¯t free, and you are definitely trapped to live inside of the building and its premises.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The door opened, and a ray of sunshine overtook their masks. For a second, due to the sun, Urien saw inside of Woodfield¡¯s mask. One of his eyes was wide open, as if it was being held open by force, and his other eye was no where to be found. There was only, as Urien had made out, a black hole in the place where his right eye should¡¯ve been. He was sure that he had lost the eye due to the axe he carries. ¡°Imagine having your own initials on an axe. What, are you going to lose it? You carry it through the hallways to the E.R., to the outside and back¡­¡± ¨C Urien tried saying quietly, but as he realized that Woodfield was right next to him he had resorted to saying the rest of his thoughts only to himself, inside of his mind¡­ John didn¡¯t respond because either he didn¡¯t hear him, or he didn¡¯t have the time for such immature comments¡­


    Urien looked at the outside world. It was beautiful. Walkways through which you can take walks all day long, benches, and even the birds could be seen and heard. ¡°Do you need me, or can you walk along yourself? I have some important work to do.¡± ¨C Woodfield had asked. ¡°No, I¡­ I can do this myself.¡±


    ¡°Okay, ill be back in 30 minutes. Just don¡¯t try touching the fence, if you even get that far¡­ Wait for me here.¡±


    Urien was free to run if he wanted. He could¡¯ve screamed as loud as he wanted, he could¡¯ve done whatever he had wanted to do. The only thing he couldn¡¯t do though, was leave. In a sense, he was the freest he could ever be, with no one around to judge him and look down upon him, but also he was somewhere he realized he didn¡¯t want to be. He decided to go with the ¡°take a walk¡± route.


    The trees were amazing. They were displaying such nice shadows from the autumn¡¯s sunrays. Or, at least, it seemed as if it was autumn. A nice breeze in the wind could be felt and the temperature was neither too hot nor too cold. It seemed perfect, oddly enough: you would¡¯ve expected worst living condition in a place that physically and mentally tortures you¡­


    As he was walking along the route, he had noticed something pinned in between two trees. It was a note of some kind. The first thing which was on his mind was the idea that this was TEST#003, and that he was already being watched and tested upon. With a serious doubt, Urien came closer to the note nudged in between the two trees and what he saw shocked him, making him undecisive as to whether the note was a part of a TEST or whether it was as real as it could be.


    The note could not be read. It was a letter of some kind, but it was written in a coded cypher. What... what was it? Was it a part of the next TEST he was about to undergo?

 TEST#012

    He still wanted to enjoy his walk, but looking at this letter it was clear to him that his mind could not be at peace. Underneath the cryptic text, there seemed to be a map of some sorts. Trees were drawn on the map, and a few buildings. One of them was marked, with some cryptic text beneath it as well. What if Woodfield had given him false freedom, only to come up to him and tell him: ¡°Hey, this was a TEST, and you¡¯re stuck here forever.¡± The thought of such a TEST had arisen to his mind, especially after seeing the type of TESTs they were conducting upon him. He took the letter, and he put in into his pocket, making sure that no one was watching him. As he had decided to continue his walk of freedom, many thoughts had begun to rise inside of his mind, which to him seemed to be wiped of every happy memory he had ever had. The birds and the pine trees, the fact that the sun was shining upon him, all of this gave him a sort of happiness in this specific and lost state of mind. Sure, he was trapped, but inside of his mind, he found peace. If you really think about it that¡¯s the only place where you can find it ¨C true peace. While walking, he took note of the layout of the outside making sure to check the other trees, for all that he knew, this could be something good, something that saves him from this place. His white shoes, which he had not taken off himself for the last couple of hours, started to become a hindrance to him but taking them off and walking in socks across the dirt path didn¡¯t sound like the brightest idea. ¡°I¡¯m trapped here... I really don¡¯t know anything about myself currently. And when I do remember, it will all get lost inside of my mind again. Is it true, what they say.? Will I remember my life ever again, will the scenes of my childhood appear before me even once more? This is still, though, a life worth living, because I have a hope very dear to me: that I will make it out of this alive.¡± ¨C Urien liked to dwell upon his optimism inside of his mind a lot. The situation in which he was, he completely accepted, he became content with it. And this letter, this cryptic letter that he had found, was sure to be the key to his freedom. ¡°You never really realize you¡¯re free until you get sick, until you have to stay at home sick, and its those moments, those are the moments which tell you that you were once free to do as you wanted but not even a second have you spared in that freedom to be thankful for it.¡±


    ¡°I agree, Urien.¡± ¨C  the voice of John could suddenly be heard. ¡°Did I just say all of that out loud...?¡± ¨C Urien was startled.


    ¡°Yes, you did, Urien. Now, look, of course we couldn¡¯t let you walk freely as you wanted, I was over here watching you closely, from behind the shadows of the trees. Now, about that letter... I put it there, sure, but not for the reason you think. Listen to me very closely now.¡±


    This news was no surprise to Urien as he had grown used to the ways of these TESTs, especially after cutting out his own skin just to obtain a simple puzzle piece. ¡°Can I just enjoy my freedom, for a moment?¡±


    ¡°There is no freedom, Urien.¡± ¨C John had replied.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Knowing that he was at no place to argue with his, as it seemed, captor, Urien came closer to John and listened intensely to his words.


    ¡°That paper and the map on it... It isn¡¯t a TEST. Someone is lurking inside of the building, around it, on it and under it. Someone has infiltrated our grounds. I only recently found that exact paper, but you will be surprised to know that it isn¡¯t the first one me and Woodfield have found. Its all so... cryptic. There is a message trying to be portrayed, and we have had no luck in deciphering it.¡±


    ¡°All of which we have puzzled out is that it is by an individual going by the initial of ¡°D.¡± ... Take it out of your pocket, and look. Thats the only clear letter, down there where it looks as if it is a signature.


    Urien took it out of his pocket, and it really was there.


    John continued: ¡°The gender of this person, their age, and how they look, its something we simply don¡¯t know, for we have had no luck in catching this individual. Sure, we have cameras, but only a limited amount, and even when Woodfield and I had on multiple occasions stayed awake through the whole day and night together, watching the cameras and the surroundings of this building, still, its a dead end... As if we are being played with, as if it is a dead end...¡±


    Urien knew that this paper he had found was special. He was in some way even happy that this paper wasn¡¯t a part of a TEST, but a puzzle made by an intruder, who is toying with the building¡¯s workers... John went on, talking about the history of these notes and papers: ¡°How these papers have came to be, we seriously don¡¯t know. It is a hindrance; it is a problem we need solving and getting to the bottom off.¡±


    ¡°After all of this that I have told you, I wish to make a deal with you. Me and Woodfield have absolutely quit on deciphering the letters, but I ask you now: if you wish to decipher this letter for us, and tell us exactly what it says, for an equal exchange, we will spare you of your next actual TEST. This will be something we don¡¯t usually do, but seeing as you are a smart fellow yourself, we can only think to ask you for help. So, how does this sound to you, Urien? For a simple deed of helping us, we will spare you of the next TEST. And guess what, you¡¯ll only have one more to complete. Do we have a deal, Urien? After all, you are a worker here...¡±


    Urien knew what to say. ¡°I have nothing to lose from trying. Count me in, John...¡± ¨C Urien had agreed to this deal that John had proposed to him. The sun was already setting, so they both went inside, and after going through all the corridors and hallways, they had finally made it back to the hallway on the second floor. Here John gave Urien some more currency, so he could get something to eat from the vending machines. After getting a chocolate bar and eating it as quickly as he could, Urien went ahead to his room, disposed the wrapping and after making sure to return the improvised knife made from the soda can to a decent look, he squished it by jumping on it. He disposed it as well. Knowing that John wasn¡¯t looking at him while he was cutting his neck open, the chances of John even knowing about Urien making a knife against the rules were none. While Urien went back to the E.R. and fell into a sleep so sound it was as if he was dead, John went ahead and met with Woodfield in the main room. The next part of this story is to be the secret conversation between the two masked workers, John and Woodfield...

 TEST#013

    The door to the Main Room was shut by John, who had just put Urien back to bed to rest. The night was slowly falling upon them, and a serious conversation was about to be had between the two workers of this building.


    ¡°Look at me, over here. I¡¯m serious.¡± ¨C John had started the conversation with such a bold statement with an almost angry tone which could be heard in his voice. Woodfield had still not, at this point, taken off his mask in front of John. They believed in the rules of privacy even if their moral values didn¡¯t seem to be upheld as highly. Why I am mentioning it now is because, in the moment John had said such words in such a tone to Woodfield, Woodfield felt the need to show him underneath his mask and show him how serious he was as well. This event was also, in hindsight, remembered by John as the moment Woodfield had the need to let John know that he could without a doubt, trust him.


    Woodfield took off his mask and behind the long plague ¨C doctor like mask, which was covering his face, stood an aged face which looked to be like in its late twenties, with a stitch which was located above and below his left eye. This scene shocked John so much that he felt at the same time as amused as he was disgusted by the face in front of him. His face looked half dead, like a broken mans¡¯.


    ¡°The rules state you cannot do that, so why you had the need to do such a thing in a hundred years I couldn¡¯t understand. You look so dead, so full of hate, but your words are so soft and delicate, you speak like an angel, so what is this I am looking at? What happened to your face? Is this recent?¡± ¨C John was full of questions, and he couldn¡¯t hold it together as much as he would¡¯ve liked to. Woodfield, who was looking at him, smiled for a second and even let out a relieved chuckle of some sorts. It was clear to John that Woodfield was trusting enough of him to break the rules in their workplace in front of him. The Main Room was one of the few which did not contain a camera inside of it, so he was safe in doing so.


    ¡°I want you to trust me. Well, not want, as it is a need. I NEED you to trust me, John. I am serious too ¨C and sorry, but this conversation I will take into my lead. So, what better way to do that is there if not opening up about our ¡°real¡± lives? And don¡¯t worry, my friend, as I will start myself. Maybe I don¡¯t remember a lot, maybe. But this scar on my head, I am forced to look at every day. So, listen to my story, dear friend, as it is one of pure agony.¡± John was listening to these words of Woodfield, but he was nervously pacing around the room as if he was worried about something.


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    ¡°I am listening, don¡¯t mind me, I just can¡¯t stand ¡°standing¡± in one place.¡± ¨C replied John to him.


    ¡°It all started, my friend, in the year 1991. Well not exactly, but these events I am about to tell you of. This was when I was twenty, and I had freshly married to whom I thought was the undeniable love of my life. Her name was Caroline, and you see, Caroline was a special lady. Special in the sense that her short black hair and soft lips could make you fall in love with her just from hearing stories about her... She was a wild one, that¡¯s for sure ¨C and in no way was I unaware of such a fact. It was exactly that which I had loved about her. She wasn¡¯t scared to do anything, and she was always extra in everything, and I mean everything ¨C the way she walked, the way she talked, and the way she handled men who were in such blind love with her. If you haven¡¯t picked up by now, I was a victim of the latter...¡± ¨C this last sentence Woodfield uttered as if he was not proud of himself for saying it out loud. It was clear to John that these words were of the truth and sincere nature.


    ¡°Sorry, I, I¡¯m listening. Do continue.¡± ¨C said John, all while looking around the many cabinets of the Main Room.


    Woodfield had continued: ¡°Now, how was I a victim, you are probably asking? Well, me and her, we were a part of a gang with a long history... Not even a ¡°gang¡±, many were calling us a ¡°terrorist group¡± back then for the things that we were doing, her, me, and a couple more of friends all of whom I haven¡¯t heard from in a long while. But the details of that group, and our adventures, I am afraid, I am in no position to describe. Not only because I can barely remember them, but also because that is not the focus point of my current story. Anyways, to continue... Me and Caroline were two sweethearts in love, at a time in history where it wasn¡¯t the best idea. People are nowadays calling that, well, meeting in the right place, but at the wrong time... She was a great wife, and we had our money, sure, we weren¡¯t starving. Hell, far from it.¡±


    John smirked. ¡°So, you had a beautiful wife, and money which could pay off all your future generations debts. I fail to see how any of this connects to the stitches on your face, this sounds like a perfect life, Woodfield.¡±


    ¡°The money was the root of the problem, John. In a way, you do see the way it connects. Let me explain.¡± Woodfield had continued to talk of the little previous life he remembered. Seeing as John had remembered almost nothing, hearing Woodfield talk so much was a nice surprise to him.


    ¡°All that money, unfortunately, it made Caroline go crazy. Crazy with power, and crazy with obsession. She had become so obsessed with it, she couldn¡¯t go anywhere without a larger sum of it, and material items were a big part of everything that she had cared about on this earth... One evening, when I had tried to ease her mind, after she had lost a little amount of it while coming back home to our apartment, such an indescribable rage hit her suddenly. That money, it broke her.¡±

 TEST#014

    ¡°The next few events I will tell you in as much detail as I can possibly remember by looking at this scar on my face. But, about my right eye, and the way I lost it... Well, unfortunately I cannot remember.¡°


    As John looked at Woodfield he realized that Woodfield really didn''t have his right eye. From the mask his right eye hole was covered, but he never thought much about it especially since he thought it to be an aesthetic choice of some kind. ?I didn''t even notice that, I was so drawn in by those scars...¡°


    ?Well... Allow me to continue. It took a lot of diffusing and calming down, but eventually I saw that she had accepted the fact that she lost the money somewhere on the way back to our home. Maybe it was just me, and my view on the situation, but I saw no ill intent coming from her. She seemed okay, or at least, as I am telling you, it seemed that way... Now, this was somewhere around four PM probably, as it wasn''t still completely dark outside but I had seen the sun slowly setting. The time of this occurrence was the day before Halloween of that year. It was the day we were supposed to carve out pumpkins, since we had always enjoyed in such activities together. After all, she was my wife, and I loved her.¡° ¨C it was clear to John that upon hearing the raw emotion coming out of Woodfield''s mouth he was really sensitive and emotional about this topic. Without trying to be in any way disrespectful, he had just nodded and gave the sign to Woodfield to continue.


    ?Anyways, yeah... That is the last time we were truly happy together. After that, all of it came crumbling down very slowly but surely. It was night and we had finished carving out our pumpkins, and as the night got colder, I had to get up from my lousy arm chair in which I loved to sit and read at to get some wood for our fireplace. I took a flashlight with me and I went outside, trying to open the door as quietly as I could as I saw her sleeping on our living room couch. It was here that I looked at her and realized just how much she meant to me. Yes, we were criminals together, we conspired together, but we had left that life long behind us. I loved calling us Bonnie and Clyde: it gave our relationship such a special feeling.¡°


    ?I went out through the back door, and as there was no wood in ready shape, I had to get an axe from the nearby shed. I heard some noises, but none of which I found to be of any problem. I was standing there happily, in front of the shed''s door, and all of a sudden, in the exact same moment I opened the door, Caroline was there, standing with that axe, in front of me. She screamed loudly and slammed the axe right into my face, hitting my left side. The axe had somehow avoided my left eye, which was I presume her target: she wanted to take my sight away. Not kill me, but get rid of my sight completely for some reason. The blood from my face went all across the shed and the grass which was in front of it, and I was screaming in agonizing pain. I couldn''t handle that pain, I was full of adrenaline and my fight or flight response had activated, but the person dealing me such a full hand of pain was the one person I truly believed to be my true partner. It was her next words that had confirmed to me the reason of doing such a thing to me:


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    ?Woodfield, you lying scum! For what reason, after all of our happy moments together, do you have the need to steal and hide money from me? Do you think I''m not responsible with it enough? Is that why you have been meeting with ?him¡° again? We left that life behind us, but still you cheat and lie me! So much for Bonnie and Clyde, so much for your compassion! I''ll make you lose sight of yourself, I wont allow you to do such a thing to yourself!¡°


    As she was saying all of this, my heart was pounding and the adrenaline inside of me made everything go by so fast. I was holding the axe trying to stabilize her, and she was trying to get it back to herself so she could harm me once more. I wasn''t going to allow her to destroy us. Eventually I took control of the axe and she ran away from me, crying and screaming an indescribable voice full of agony and pain. She returned back to me, as I was laying on the floor helpless, with a gun in her hand. This was where I, for the first time in my life, felt actual, spine chilling fear inside of me. She turned it over to not myself, but to her."


    ?Tell me where the money is! I know that you''ve taken it away from me! End this lie, and tell me where it is, or I will pull this trigger, while it is pointed at me!¡°


    ?The money, Caroline, it isn''t with me, sweetheart. I... Sorry, I am fading in and out of consciousness... Please... Put the gun down honey...¡°


    ?Stop lying! I am giving you one more chance, as I am sick of all of your lies, I have them all written out on a paper, in my room. Take it as my suicide note, take it as the reason I have taken my life!¡°


    "I stood up to try and stop her but it was too late and I was too slow. In the moment I showed the slightest movement, all she did was pull the trigger and end her life right then and there in front of me. I managed to, with all my strength, get next to her and check if she was really dead. Sure enough, she was. My sweet Caroline was dead, frozen in time in front of me. And for what, John? For money? I know the answer, and it it such a sad one, John, that I feel as if my life ever since that moment has been a miserable and painful life.¡°

 TEST#015

    ¡°So, she died just then and there, in front of you, lifeless?¡± ¨C John had asked Woodfield, not only because of curiosity but also because he felt genuine empathy towards him in this moment.


    ¡°Yes, she died! Are you even listening to what I am saying?¡± ¨C Woodfield was furious, and full of rage, he had slammed the table with his arm. The whole room echoed his voice and the various things such as his mask were trembling on the table. It was this loud noise that woke Urien up from his deep sleep. Urien, in his room, was struck out of his sleep. While he was looking around the room to see if he could see what it was that woke him up, he heard the loud voices of John and Woodfield arguing. Although he wasn¡¯t looking for trouble, Urien saw it as a chance to sneak up to them and listen to their conversation. He made his way out of the E. R. And up to the door of the Main Room. It was locked, but through the door he could hear the conversation John and Woodfield were having. It was a risky thing to do, but he went along with it.


    The conversation between John and Woodfield had continued.


    ¡°At least let me tell the story until the end! Why do I feel like you are making fun of me by asking all these questions? Let me tell you, it is annoying. So much so that it is getting on my nerves more and more by the minute.¡± ¨C Woodfield was obviously mad. John couldn¡¯t even look at him in the eye. Woodfield continued to, as much as he could, retell the rest of the story.


    ¡°So, there I was, standing in front of her. When I went inside of our house to try and find some medicine, I was no luck. Nothing could save her, and as it seemed to me that I was the reason she had killed herself; I, the love of her life, was the reason she had taken her own life.


    What did I do, you may be asking? I went to her body, and I started kissing her. My lips were all over her and I started crying. I was crying so much the tears had stopped falling from my face. I was empty; she was there with a gunshot in the middle of her head. But I could still caress her beautiful, short black hair.  ¡°Oh, my sweet Caroline!¡± - I was saying out loud.¡±


    It was clear to John that Woodfield was feeling the tensest of emotions.


    Woodfield continued. ¡°What was the reason for her to do such a thing? I went inside the house, I rushed in again, and on our bed, I saw a note. The note was a list of the last few months and next to them amounts of money were written. Then at that moment it all clicked to me. I realized that she was keeping track of all the money that I was withdrawing from our savings: but you may be asking why was I doing such a thing, and not telling her?


    It was because I was trying to buy her something. Something for our anniversary. It was a black car, it was a good car, and most importantly it was her dream car. The model¡¯s name, I couldn¡¯t tell you even if I wanted, because I do not remember it.


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    I didn''t want to get too much money out at once out of our savings: then she would realize what I was doing. No, I had to get it all piece by piece. I was hoping she wasn''t going to notice, because as I have confirmed to you, we were not in a situation where we did not have money, but also, we were not ¡°rich¡±. We had it all, not millions, sure, but thousands: and I guess she saw that I was getting a thousand out of the savings each month.


    The worst part about it all is the car was ready to pick up. The money was in a special place, where I had hidden it in our bedroom (there was no way she could find it).


    And now I realize that that car is never going to be picked up. That car, her dream car, which she dreamed of driving with me, in which she had wanted us to go on long night drives, the car in which we were about to make a million more happy memories together, was never going to be driven by us. Not by us¡­¡±


    Woodfield started to cry. He couldn¡¯t control himself any longer. He continued to talk, all while crying so much:


    ¡°And the money, the money she was angry about at that moment, the money she had thought that she had lost, when I looked over to our couch in our living room, it was there in in between the cushions. This was where I realized that she was mad at me for nothing; that she was mad at the world for nothing; that there was no money lost. And yes, she did care for money a lot, and it seems that it had cost me a happy life¡­ It was at this moment that I was at my lowest. She had taken her own life for no reason. Piecing it all together at that moment¡­! It felt like such a shock! I didn''t know what to do next and believe me, the thought of taking my own life as well, and just lying next to her in the grass, in our little garden next to the carved pumpkins, would have been almost poetic in some sort of twisted way. I was thinking about doing it, but no.¡±


    ¡°Do you know what I did then? Of course you don¡¯t! And from my life, this is one of the only things I can still remember. I got the money, or at least as much as I could, some of it stayed in the house. I got the axe, and I got my favorite hoodie, the one I am wearing currently, I grabbed her body, and I went to open my car¡¯s trunk. I put her in the trunk of my car, and I wasn''t going to let someone else bury her.¡±


    He stopped for a moment, and then he continued¡­ ¡°I wasn''t going to let someone else see her in such a state, in such a low state of mind, in such a low state of life¡­ If anyone was going to be responsible for how her death was going to be handled, it had to be me. I put her in the trunk of our car, and I started driving. I started driving to our favorite place, a happyish song was on the radio when I first turned on the car: and what I did is I slammed the brakes, I turned off the radio, I started punching all over the place and I started screaming.¡±


    ¡°Screaming like a little child, I was going through such a great grief, I was thinking to myself: ¡°Oh God, how do I stay normal after this, how do I continue on living after such an event has taken place in my life? Is there any escape?¡±¡±


    ¡°Well, after all of this I even came to the knowledge that the cops came over to our house, because our neighbors, who were not ¡°close¡± to us, but they could hear the gunshot and screaming. They had called them. There was a police investigation going on, and once again, after our neighbors gave them our descriptions, they realized who we were: Woodfield and Caroline; their very own Bonnie and Clyde to catch (only this time, our deaths were to be far from romantic).¡±


    ¡°We got on top of ¡°Calling Hill¡± as we called it, it was our favorite hill, the hill on which we had met all thanks to one man. And that man¡­ I know that I owe it to him that I''m living and breathing, alive and well currently. Who he is, I cannot tell you, for he is a very secretive man. But trust me, it is him that I owe to every positive and negative thing that has ever happened in my life.¡±


    The talk of such a man intrigued John. Urien, as well¡­

 TEST#016

    Of course, John was intrigued by the existence of such a man, but he didn''t find it respectful to ask of him now... who knows, maybe we learn more about that man in the future... but as it stands now, the conversation is coming to its end. The tensions between them were dying down. Woodfield continued for the last time:


    ¡°Sorry my emotions are, I just feel so full of depressing emotions. We went to the top of the hill, and would you know it, it was still the same as when we had first met: the bench on which we had sat at together to meet each other, it was still there, only this time, I was the only one who was going to sit on it. The night was full of stars: the sky was black, sure, but the dots along the sky filled me with a sort of eerie feeling; my Caroline was among them now, and all I could do now was stare at her beauty, forever frozen place¡­¡±


    ¡°I realized that I had left my shovel home, so I had to go back to get it. I talked to myself: what if there were cops around? I mean of course, I know that there were cops now, but something felt off, so I decided against it. I had started up my car again and I had driven us to the nearest home I could find, nearest home from which I could steal a shovel. And would you know it, there was a two-story house in a street which was a couple of minutes away from the hill: that was the first house that I had saw which had a shovel in its driveway. When you''re in love you do crazy things: you steal, you punch, it is there before all your other emotions, for it is an uncontrollable disease, you do something you normally wouldn¡¯t do; and in this case what I did was steal a shovel. I got up to the driveway, and yeah, is it the worst thing that I have ever done in my life? No. But still, stealing that shovel, it made me feel guilty, it made me feel hopeless. I got the shovel, and I ran back to my car.¡±


    ¡°I started it up again and I pressed on the gas as hard as I could: I managed to get back to the hill in half of the time which it took me to get to the house. If I could redo it all¡­ I would. Now it was here when we were on top of the hill, me and her, I got out the shovel. I started digging and it took me an hour. I dug a hole in which she was to lay in, never to be seen by anyone else again. My Caroline, I was going to be the last one to see her, and to kiss her beautiful, soft little lips. I laid her down in the hole and I started crying. The sounds of the city were loud, I could hear the cars, I could hear people talking in the distance, I could see the flats and I could see lights going on and off. There was life, it¡¯s just that my life was turned off.¡±


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    ¡°And that moment, now I don''t mean to exaggerate this, but it was here that my opinion on life changed completely; like from black to white. I promised myself that I wasn''t going to let anyone else get hurt this way in front of me again, and I stand by that from that day on. I became a protector. My face was still bleeding at this moment, I was still feeling very dizzy, and the adrenaline was wearing off very slowly, I stopped the bleeding as much as I could by wrapping up myself with some bandages I had in my medical box, in my car. I was a destroyed man.¡±


    ¡°I looked at her for the last time and I realized that I had to get some help. I couldn¡¯t stand in place forever, but I wish I could¡¯ve. Just staring at what I had just been through, it was enough and that was the moment in which I had decided to go. Life keeps on going and I wasn''t going to get better just by standing there helplessly, and with all my might and with all the power that I had left in me I went ahead and went to the nearest pharmacy. I got myself some painkillers and I tried to dose off the pain as much as I could, but it was clear to me that I was going to need some stitching. And who had done those stitches to me, you may ask? Well, it''s another woman¡­¡±


    ¡°That woman, you know who she is¡­ She was a friend of mine: a good friend, and she is the one who had taught me all about medical care. That is why now here, in this building, I am specialized in medicine and care. She has taught me everything I know about human life and its components.¡±


    ¡°This is unfortunately where my story ends as I cannot recall any other events¡­ John, that is who I am, and now I finally hope that you can look at me as more of a person. Not just a blind person behind the mask, or is that all you can still see?¡± Woodfield has finished his story. John was shaken but he felt the need to reply.


    ¡°Woodfield, I didn''t know any of this, after all, we never even talked about our past lives¡­ and even in this building here, there''s not so much that we can remember, but the things we do are the worst ones. The memories we have, it''s of those bad moments in life, as those are the only ones that I remember as well¡­ Why it works like that, I have no idea but look at these Testers: they remember nothing. At least we can remember some things, right? Or at least we are beginning to remember¡­ still, I feel bad for you. I''ll take off my mask of unseriousness and I''ll tell you, face to face, I genuinely feel bad for you¡­¡±


    John was about to take his mask off as well but as he did that Urien made a loud noise as he was peeping on their conversation. John had stopped, and he had rushed over to the door. Urien started running back to the E.R. as quick as he could so that John couldn''t catch him; he laid himself in his bed, and he pretended to be confused. John had arrived in the room. ¡°What happened? What was that noise, why are you awake?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know¡­ a noise just woke me up¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, I suggest you have a good rest tonight because tomorrow you have a lot of deciphering to do. Good night Urien.

 TEST#017

    The night had passed in what seemed to be a second¡­ Urien started dreaming, and his mind wandered off to a place in his mind which he had completely forgotten about. The dream went a little something like this¡­


    ¡°What? Is this the interview room?¡± ¨C Urien had asked himself. He was surrounded by the room in which he had taken the interview in; only this time he was the only one there.


    The door that leads out of the room could be seen very clearly, as behind it there was a strong, luminescent light shining. For some reason, Urien had remembered a part of his life which he wasn¡¯t supposed to. They wiped his memories and hid them, but somehow, and not even Urien knows why, his dream had accessed a part of those memories. It was like remembering an old friend you had long forgotten about¡­


    Behind the room, there was chatting, and he went ahead and sneaked up to it, trying to head what the unknown voices were talking about.


    ¡°Some of the letters are represented by the objects which we are surrounded by, but not all of them. Is it a backwards cipher of some sorts, is it even solvable?¡± ¨C a female voice was saying.


    ¡°It has to be, all of this, it makes no sense!¡± ¨C John was talking, and as Urien had realized it was his voice he got scared for a hot second.


    ¡°Is this my mind making things up...? No, this must be a memory! What cipher, the one in the letter? If I check their faces, will I see what John and The Interviewer looks like? Will I¡­ Remember?¡±


    Urien rushed over to the door but as he opened it a floating mask of some sorts was in front of him. It was one of the masks which was in the interview video, it was his mask! On the mask was written, on a sticky note: ¡°The letters you so willingly gave out, now they can say whatever they want in your name!¡±


    He tried to grab it, to interact with it, but all of this got him so excited (too excited some would say) and as soon as he tried to grab it, he had woken up in a nervous type of sweat.


    ¡°What¡­ Did I just get the answers to the cipher through my dream? Was this a memory of mine, did that happen already? Or is it just mixing up the events of yesterday into one jumbled mess?¡±


    ¡°Snap out of it! You have some work to do, boy.¡± ¨C John was standing in the corner waiting for Urien to wake up. Urien had no time to think, as his mission had started the moment he jumped from his bed in such a nervous series of events.


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    ¡°Fine, fine! Let me get dressed, at least!¡± ¨C it was a positive atmosphere, Urien had thought to himself.


    Soon enough John led Urien to a special room which hasn¡¯t been mentioned yet ¨C it was a part of the Main Room, behind a set of doors, and in it was a fair surprise.


    On a whiteboard in front of them, the text ¡°THE MYSTERY OF D.¡± stood, bold in marker, and beneath it, what looked like a dozen of different letters and drawings. It was an ongoing investigation.


    ¡°Look at this, Urien! All these papers and notes, drawings and cryptic texts, they all match this one handwriting! All from a person we only know as ¡°D.¡± For the last couple of weeks, it¡¯s been an ongoing theme and investigation inside of these walls. Someone is toying with us, with our work. And they wish to stay as anonymous as possible... That is why I beg of you, to try to solve at least this last note (you have already seen it). In one LOOP before, I have already given you this chance, but you had no luck. If it will help you in any sort of way, which I don¡¯t know how it could, I¡¯ll bring your previous attempt at the decipher back here. Maybe it will spark something inside of you¡­¡±


    John went ahead to a cabinet which was close to them and from it he pulled out a document. It was the paper on which Urien had tried to decipher the cryptic texts already once before. In what LOOP and how long ago he did not know, but sure enough, Urien had recognized his handwriting.


    John left him alone as he carried away a bunch of documents from the folder that same document was in, and it was up to Urien to try and solve at least a part of this mystery. Since the previous research document was stored inside of a folder labeled ¡°#4402¡±, it was clear that all the files inside of the folder were to be associated with Urien.


    Urien grabbed the folder from the table on which it stood, and sure enough, in it stood another paper. It was a clear copy of Urien¡¯s handwriting.


    ¡°The dream¡­ and the video, I remember writing this! Now it makes sense, this is how they keep you at bay here forever!¡±


    ¡°The letters you so willingly gave out, now they can say whatever they want in your name!¡± ¨C now he understood it, all the things he had done in the interview, it had a purpose¡­


    The reason no one was going to come looking for him or even help him escape¡­ They have his handwriting, they can fake letters, they can do whatever they want with it! At home, his mother¡­ She won¡¯t come looking for him. He even gave them the location at which he lives at, so they can send as many fake letters as they want. This was when it clicked to him: he was going to stay here, in this building, working mindlessly and being tested on, forever.


    In a hurdled rage he got the printed paper and almost tore it apart, but he held himself back. ¡°Have they really thought of everything, damn this, damn it all, they made a fool proof torture house!¡± ¨C this was what Urien was thinking throughout all of this¡­


    And yet, he was working for them ¨C helping them find this mysterious person among them.


    ¡°I am going to decipher this text, I will be the only one who knows the answers, and to them I will tell a fake tale. With this ¡°D.¡± person, I am going to escape and come back to burn this place down. I have the perfect plan, the perfect way to fake my cooperation!¡±


    From this moment on, Urien had started crafting his master escape plan, step by step. All it was going to take was getting John to like him¡­ This realization, it was his turning point.

 TEST#018

    Urien gave himself a moment to breathe and he remembered the dream he had again. The thing which he heard behind that closed door, was that the answer to deciphering the text?


    He started to look at the text more clearly, and among the many drawings, he saw many of them repeated. Many of them were also actual letters.


    There was a drawing of a wheel, so following his gut, Urien decided that that must be the letter ¡°W¡±. He marked all the little wheel drawings with a small, written ¡°W¡± above them.


    Following this pattern, he got some letters out clearly. It was taking him time trying out different combinations, but eventually he managed to form a word from all the imagery. ¡°Dorothy¡±.


    That was the name of this strange person, Dorothy. ¡°A woman is behind this¡­?¡±


    Feeling that he was getting closer to a definitive answer, he kept on trying different combinations. Eventually, a certain text emerged, and everything which was on the paper suddenly made so much sense¡­


    He looked around to see if John was near, and he was not. He decided to read it out in full. The text read as follows:


    ¡°My name is Dorothy. I can help you escape. Below is a map ¨C there are multiple buildings.¡±


    Below this text was a circle of some sorts marked with the numbers ¡°#202¡±, and around the circle, there were trees drawn. Pine trees. What made this map and text so interesting, was the fact that this circle, this building wasn¡¯t the only one. On the map there were three more circles, so four in total, and all of them were numbered differently. ¡°#101, #202, #303, #404¡±.


    For some strange reason, the circle which had the numbers ¡°#101¡± written below it was crossed out with a large X.


    ¡°So, this last TEST, will I not start over right here? If this map is to be trusted, I have three more buildings which I haven¡¯t even heard of up until this point...


    Wait, is this why John and Woodfield were always referring to this place as ¡°THIS building¡±, and not ¡°THE building¡±? It must be, they aren¡¯t the only ones behind this elaborate torture scheme. And the things I overheard from their conversation; all the walls are shrouded with mystery¡­


    This text, I was able to decipher it thanks to the message in my dream ¨C so it must mean that I have heard talk of this in a LOOP before! The chip probably malfunctioned, perhaps the operation wasn¡¯t entirely successful? Am I the only one who can remember my past¡­?¡±


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    It was clear as day ¨C this really wasn¡¯t Urien¡¯s first LOOP. The feeling of deja-vu that hit him when he first woke up here, it is all so very real. Perhaps the fact that his chip malfunctioned was going to be the sole reason why he was about to undergo the craziest period of his life.


    Urien never saw himself as much of a hero, though: he was always moral about things and he wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad person, but to take it into his hands to end this torture scheme, perhaps it was too big of a feat to achieve by himself. But as he deciphered the text, as he realized he had someone on his side, he knew that he could do so much more than just escape this place. ¡°What happened to the other Testers I saw?¡± ¡°Maybe they¡¯ve escaped, maybe they are in one of the other buildings?¡±


    ¡°But why, why is this strange person helping me?¡±


    About Dorothy and the plans that stood inside of her mind we will come to knowledge of. Urien had an ally, not one he could see, but he believed in this cipher ¨C in these words; perhaps teaming up with Dorothy was going to be the best choice he could¡¯ve made. But what were her motives for doing such a thing, and why is she hiding? There was a little doubt in Urien that even though all of this got him a spiritually stronger mindset, there was still the slimmest chance that he was being played with.


    Although, seeing the effort which was put into finding this ¡°Dorothy¡±, it all looked too detailed just to be a simple TEST.


    ¡°If she wants to help me, I must help her as well.¡±


    Urien realized that telling John and Woodfield what was really being said in the paper wouldn¡¯t be the way to go. He isn¡¯t on their side, but still, he needs them to think so, they need to think he is helping them.


    To give away the name was something he felt he had to do. But that wasn¡¯t the end of his plan. Inside of the room there was a trash can with a soda can inside of it. Seeing as this wasn¡¯t a room for Testers, the chance that John kept track of this trash can was almost non-existent. He took it, and folded it into a knife-like shape, just like he had done before.


    He was about to fake the cipher.


    ¡°I¡¯ll just use what I know to my advantage ¨C for all they will know, this cipher will be of a completely different nature!¡±


    Urien started changing the things that Dorothy wrote, erasing parts where he saw fit and making up a cipher of his own. He made sure to do this as close to the handwriting of Dorothy as he could. He changed as little as he needed, and he worked it out.


    The new, fake cipher was put into place.


    ¡°I am Dorothy. There is a knife inside of the bathroom stall! Look for the numbers below, they will lead you to it!


    -D.¡±


    The plan was set in stone. He was to hide the soda can knife inside of a bathroom stall in the building. The map, Urien would just play dumb. For all they would know, Urien, instead of going ahead and taking the knife for himself, reported the malicious cipher to them. This was going to be in his favor, this was going to let them know that ¡°Hey, I am on your side, lets catch her.¡±


    Before he reported this to John, though, he needed to place the fake evidence himself. Considering that John and Woodfield were walking all around the building, it was going to take a good plan of action¡­

 TEST#019

    He could hear them moving around, but that wasn¡¯t going to stop him. He got one of the papers on which he could try to decipher the text and folded it neatly inside of his pocket. Along with the plan to place the fake evidence, he had to map the lower floor as well. He got a pencil from the table, too. Urien went ahead and checked the door that led into the Main Room: there was no one there except for John.


    ¡°Hey, John. I¡¯m getting hungry¡­ I¡¯ll go to the cafeteria to grab something, I¡¯ll be back in a couple of minutes¡± ¨C said Urien, cooperatively.


    ¡°Sure, just make sure to solve that cipher or you will have to go through TEST#003, that was our deal. Don¡¯t forget to leave the trash in your room¡¯s trash can¡± ¨C John didn¡¯t raise any suspicions. It was a clear way towards the cafeteria, so to make his actions more believable, he went ahead and got a couple of things. He sat down in the empty cafeteria, ate and drank it all, and went on ahead to put it all into the trash can in his room. To his surprise, it really was empty, and they really were checking them every morning. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing I threw away the knife¡­¡± ¨C he thought.


    Upon his way towards the lower floor, he noticed John coming into his direction.


    ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°I have to clean my hands; I¡¯ll be right back.


    ¡°I admire the fact you keep good hygiene in such a situation. I¡¯ll be waiting for you in the Main Room, so you can show me your progress.¡±


    Urien nodded and went ahead towards the stairway. This was where he started to note everything he could about this floor, as well. Seeing as they weren¡¯t checking his pockets, a good idea emerged inside of his mind. ¡°I¡¯ll take the map I¡¯m hiding, and I¡¯ll just place the fake evidence there instead. Sure, I won¡¯t have a hidden spot for hiding things, but them trusting me is sure to play a bigger part in my escape here than that hiding spot¡­¡±


    As he was standing in the middle of the spacious room with the gym equipment, Urien made sure to make a map inside of his mind, which he would then draw.


    Before heading to the toilets, though, he made a full walk around the whole floor, even trying to open some of the doors which weren¡¯t being watched by the cameras (that is, which weren¡¯t in their line of view).


    He got to the room where he had completed TEST#002, and sure, it was locked, but seeing it again made him shiver.


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    ¡°That¡¯s where I¡­ Never mind. I¡¯m feeling better now¡­¡±


    As he was checking to see if there were any unlocked doors, he had no luck. There were so many, and the floor was such a large size that he realized if he doesn¡¯t hurry up, it might just raise the slightest suspicion. Next to a door labeled ¡°ELEVATOR¡±, he found a blind spot, behind a certain wall, and decided to draw the left side of the floor. The elevator intrigued his interest, so he marked it with an ¡°E¡± on the paper. All that was left was the right side, where the toilets were¡­


    As he was walking through the hallways, he wasn¡¯t completely invisible to the cameras. In an unknown room, somewhere inside of the building, was Woodfield, watching him. The moment in which he had started watching him was after he had left the blind spot, signaling to Woodfield that he was in fact on the left side of the building, for no apparent reason.


    ¡°Great, now to hide this.¡±


    Out of the hidden spot behind the tile he got out the blood-red map he had drawn a couple of days ago. It was still the same, untampered with, and the smell was still as bad as it was.


    He put in into his pocket, and after drawing the second map as well, he made sure to hide the fake knife inside the tile. His plan was all set in stone. After finishing his hygiene, he made his way back to the Main Room with the two maps in his pockets.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m all done. Open the door.¡±


    John opened the door from the inside.


    ¡°That took you longer than expected. Come on, let''s look at the cipher.¡±


    Urien got inside of the Main Room, and then, with John following him, made his way back into the smaller side room which was where the investigation was undergoing.


    ¡°What I have deciphered so far, is that some of the letters, you can turn them around, and you can flip the paper upside down as well, some of the words come to life, and you realize the way the cipher works.


    Here is the part that I have deciphered:


    ¡°am Dorothy. Thr s a knf nsd of th bathroom stall! Look for the numbrs blow, thy wll lad you to t!¡°


    ?Some of the words still don''t make sense to me ¨C this is the closest that I have gotten.¡°


    John was intrigued:


    ¡°So, their name is Dorothy! Well, I notice almost no vowels¡­ Have you tried putting in the letters ¡°E¡±, or perhaps ¡°I¡±? I can make out some of the words that way!¡±


    John felt accomplished that he was deciphering it so masterfully, yet he didn¡¯t know that all of it was an elaborate scheme by Urien to make him feel as if he was still above him. Urien felt great, he was about to realize about the knife, and Urien was even to be thanked for it! A couple of minutes passed by while John tried deciphering it.


    ¡°I got it, I got it! You did it Urien! It¡­ Oh my¡­ I cannot tell you what it says, I must report this to Woodfield immediately. You just did us a huge favor, thank you Urien!¡±


    Urien smiled and thanked him for the kind words. John sprinted into an unknown direction, towards Woodfield. They were about to find the knife, and thanks to Urien¡¯s little scheme, no way would they belittle him as much as they have these past few days.


    ¡°I did it, I actually did it. Thank God he wasn¡¯t that interested in my process of deciphering, all of that was pure nonsense which I have told him! Such a sweet victory, the tides are changing¡­¡±

 TEST#020

    And so John went ahead to find Woodfield. Was Woodfield about to tell him of Urien¡¯s actions? Only time could tell...


    They met up, and John, full of excitement, started talking:


    ¡°Woodfield, you won¡¯t believe this. Urien managed to decipher almost all of the letters and text... All it took was a little push on my side and I managed to decipher it fully. It says here that (and here, take it in your own hands, read it) there is a knife inside of one of the bathroom stalls here. And look at the drawing underneath, it symbolizes this building right here, TEST#202. So, it must be inside of this building... And the persons name, it is a woman: somebody named Dorothy. Read it, please read it.¡±


    Woodfield got the paper underneath his fingers, and he held it, reading everything very closely. Everything that John said was true, it was all on the paper, right there in front of him. He couldn¡¯t believe it.


    ¡°You know, I just saw him going to the toilet for some reason.¡±


    ¡°On the cameras?¡±


    ¡°Yes. On the cameras... Perhaps he knew what the full cipher was?¡±


    ¡°That couldn¡¯t be it. He was dumb-founded, and at a complete stop. It was probably after him eating that he went to wash his hands and possibly take some time in the toilet to let it all out of him; after all he hasn¡¯t went to the toilet in two days...¡±


    ¡°That makes sense, but still, I have some doubts... We should check the spot immediately: what if he took it, and now he is waiting for the perfect moment to attack us both while we are not on guard?¡±


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡±


    John and Woodfield went ahead and checked all the toilets for a hidden space. It was after a couple of minutes that they saw a loose tile in one of the toilets. This had to be it, they thought to themselves.


    Sure enough, after removing the loose tile completely they saw it: a soda can folded in such a way it could be used as a sharp object (knife). Cutting someone with it was sure to be possible, and it was more than enough to take someone¡¯s eyesight completely.


    ¡°So, he didn¡¯t take it?¡± ¨C Woodfield asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, he doesn¡¯t even know what the full cipher is. I had to complete it for him. I trust him. After all, do you really think he would risk it all for a fake knife? He knows he is on the weaker side of things, and that we overpower him completely. If he genuinely thought he could take us on, perhaps then we wouldn¡¯t have found this knife here.¡±


    ¡°If anything, at least he helped us...¡±


    ¡°I think we can use him to our advantage. Make him help us and give him the most basic thing in return. In his captivity, being freed from one TEST is like a blessing from above; and what does it cost us? Nothing...¡±


    ¡°So, you say that we should use him as a pawn in finding this... Dorothy... person?¡±


    ¡°Exactly that. And as long as PROJECT: M. O. is concerned; we¡¯ll just make up a random TEST result. Doing it every once in a while... it¡¯s bound to stay under the radar, right?¡± ¨C John asked Woodfield. For their own personal gain, he saw it fit to break the rules of his own job. For above them, he stood, talking to them only from the shadows, rarely to show his self... He, who overlooked them.


    ¡°I can¡¯t say that it¡¯s a smart idea, John... I don¡¯t agree with it fully. From now on, we must use him, Urien, carefully. We don¡¯t want the news of a strange person walking around the FACILITY getting to him... He would find us unfit for our own job.¡±


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    ¡°So, Woodfield, we¡¯ll keep this ¡°under the wraps¡±, huh?¡±


    ¡°Only because it helps us. But if word reaches him, I can bet you that we are bound to be under lockdown until Dorothy is found.¡±


    The talk of such a mysterious man sent shivers down both of their spines. That man, who still hasn¡¯t shown himself, is somewhere nearby. And sure enough, they were taking commands from him and no one else. Working on something other than that which he commanded, could prove to be a dangerous move.


    The day went by in a moment, and as Urien finally returned to sleep in his room, John knocked on the door and entered a moment later, awaiting no answer from Urien himself, and entering upon his own wish.


    ¡°Todays code is ¡°3340¡±. Make sure to take your mask off, so you can have a goodnight¡¯s rest. Tomorrow awaits, and with it, your final TEST in this building. Goodnight, Urien.¡±


    He closed the door, and when Urien was sure that he was left alone, he went to the window of his room and using it as a mirror he managed to take his mask off. This was the first time he had saw his face in a week. The mask was starting to get uncomfortable, too, so finally taking it off and having a goodnight¡¯s rest with nothing on his head (literally) was a great feeling. ¡°I am changing. I am... slowly getting to a point, to a point where I can fight this situation.¡±


    He went to his bed, and he fell asleep rather quickly. When he woke up the next day he felt at rest, though, it wasn¡¯t his body¡¯s clock that woke him up; it was John knocking again.


    ¡°Urien, I¡¯m coming in with the hourglass sand clock and to put a new code on your mask. Put in on so I can lock it securely, I¡¯ll give you a moment. Your final TEST awaits...¡±


    Urien realized that he hadn¡¯t taken a proper shower, brushed his teeth or regularly washed his face and arms since he woke up here. This irritated him, so he made sure to ask John for help:


    ¡°I am afraid that I will start to reek, John. Would you mind telling me where I could do some proper hygiene, to stay, you know... taken care of?¡±


    John chuckled and answered in a weirdly positive way: ¡°Of course, of course! I never explained it to you in this LOOP, my bad, friend... There is another room on this floor, meant for that sort of stuff, along with some of the rooms only Woodfield and I use as well. Come out, but hold your mask on, I¡¯ll show you the way.¡±


    Urien listened to him as his main priority was getting clean. In one hand he was holding his mask over his face, and following John, made small talk...


    ¡°You know, the toilets downstairs are only meant to be used so you can quickly go to the toilet while you¡¯re using the gym equipment, and I guess I forgot to show you the actual washroom on this floor.¡±


    After coming to the stairway in which you went downstairs with, John showed Urien another door, which was off to the side, leading to another hallway. ¡°Follow me...¡±


    And sure enough, in the newly discovered hallway there were many more rooms, along with a washroom, with showers and everything else included.


    ¡°Protocol only allows one person in the washroom at once, because in it you are free to walk around without a mask. Every Tester is given 20 minutes to finish their daily hygiene. After you finish, either me or Woodfield put your code on.¡±


    Urien went inside and John closed the door behind him. There was a special place in which you could place your mask, and it was here where Urien let his mask to rest.


    After finishing his hygienic needs, he called to John, who told him to ¡°look for clean clothes¡±.


    Sure enough, there was a part of the washroom in which there stood clean underwear, tank tops, t-shirts and many more things of the sort. After changing, Urien felt better about himself, and right next to this great amount of clean clothes there stood a basket labelled ¡°DIRTY CLOTHES¡±.


    After putting his dirty clothes in, Urien went outside of the washroom, and while he was holding his mask, John put on a new code from behind.


    ¡°Go to your room, and read the instructions for your next TEST. I have already put the timer in place, too. Goodluck.¡±


    Urien went back to his room, and sure enough, it was there. But before he got into his room, he heard the noises of other Testers being in their own respective rooms as well. They weren¡¯t talking, but he heard their movements... ¡°Seems as if I¡¯m not alone on this one.¡±


    Inside of his own room though, stood the same old paper, with the same old hourglass ticking its time using sand to portray the moments slipping away...


    The paper read as follows:


    ¡°TEST#004 ¨C ¡°The Chase¡±


    After your time has run out, please head to the cafeteria to meet with the other Testers. Until then, stay in your room while we complete the necessary setup process.¡±


    After thinking it over and over about what this TEST could be, the time passed, and it was time to head to the cafeteria. Urien was ready.

 TEST#021

    Upon arriving to the cafeteria after the time was up, inside of it were already John and Woodfield, along with the three other Testers which Urien had seen only for a moment a couple of days ago.


    ¡°That is all of you. Now, let us introduce to you your final TEST, The Chase.¡±


    John started explaining how the TEST worked and its purpose:


    ¡°This TEST is a little different from the others. Each one of you is allowed to team up with each other, although talk between you is still prohibited. Using hand movements is okay. All of you will be placed inside of a random room inside of this building. After the doors of your rooms open, you should know that the TEST has started. The lights will turn off, and through the dark, you will need to find a paper, a paper with your Tester numbers on it. So, there will be four papers in total. The location of the papers¡­ We will not tell you.¡±


    ¡°Through this search, Woodfield, with his axe, is going to try to find you, that is, he will be chasing you. If he catches you, that is a failed TEST. What will happen to you if you get caught? You do not want to find out.¡±


    ¡°I should also note that Woodfield is equipped with a pair of night vision goggles, which turn on for a moment every few seconds. That is the advantage he has above you. This TEST tests your courage, speed, and of course thinking. Will you be able to outsmart Woodfield? You are soon to find out. Showing Woodfield the paper signifies to him that you have completed the TEST. Now, let us escort you.¡±


    John and Woodfield started by putting on some type of cloth on each of the Tester¡¯s heads, including Urien. John led them each to a random room on the first floor, because if Woodfield was to do it, he would know their locations¡­


    It began. Their doors were locked by some sort of system, probably controlled by John, and Urien heard the lights going off¡­ All the Testers took off the cloths from their heads and the TEST was about to begin. A game of survival¡­


    The doors unlocked, and the opening of the same doors could be heard across the first floor, which was massive and such an easy environment to get lost in¡­ But this is where Urien remembered: ¡°I¡­ I still have the maps in my pocket! I have to use them to my advantage. I knew it, that they would come to be a massive help; and this was that moment in which they will help me tremendously!¡±


    Urien suddenly felt as if all the puzzle pieces had clicked inside of his brain. He had a massive advantage above this TEST, which meant that he was bound to beat it easily.


    The lights were off, but it wasn¡¯t completely dark. Using what little light he did have, he tried to locate the exact room in which he was in. He peeked outside, and next to him, the ¡°ELEVATOR¡± door stood. On his map he had specifically marked it just a day prior, so now, thanks to this, he knew where he was. To make it through the building was to be easy.


    This was where he heard running, which were getting louder and louder by the second. It was either a Tester, or Woodfield coming closer and closer to him. The atmosphere was dark and uneasy. No, it wasn¡¯t a Tester. Still peeking from his room, he saw Woodfield running in the other direction, in the long hallway in which both of them stood.


    Suddenly a scream was heard. It was full of terror, and this made Urien all the more uneasy. ¡°Did someone¡­ just get caught?¡±


    There was no time to think, as he realized that time was of the essence. Slowly but surely, he made his way to the room next to the one he was located in. Inside of it were no papers, nothing. He searched the drawers, all along the room, behind the door, and as he stood behind that door inspecting it, he heard running coming into his direction. The fact that he didn¡¯t close the door behind him, was it about to cost him this TEST?


    Urien hid behind the massive door and hoped for the best. An intruder let himself inside the room. Urien wasn¡¯t sure if it was Woodfield or a Tester looking for their paper, but this question was answered to him soon enough.


    Another person could be heard running, heading also in Urien¡¯s direction.


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    This was Woodfield. A moment passed, and inside of the room, there he was, standing behind the back of the other Tester.


    Woodfield, strangely enough, uttered some weird words:


    ¡°Come¡­ and let me save you!¡±


    Urien was staring at the wall while he was listening to all of this take place. The other Tester, inside of the room, screamed. And after a second, Woodfield knocked them out, as could be guessed by the sound of a body falling. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll save you. Trust me.¡± ¨C said Woodfield, out of breath.


    The sounds of a body being dragged along the floor could be heard, and Urien, scared to death, saw that if he was to be caught, it wouldn¡¯t end well for him.


    After he was sure Woodfield went away, he peeked through the room¡¯s door, and it was clear. He saw a silhouette of a person running. Urien hurried to check the other rooms which were all over the place, and after getting into the fifth one, he saw it, a paper. But this paper didn¡¯t have his numbers, ¡°#4402¡±, on it. It belonged to another Tester.


    He took it and placed it inside of his pocket. Maybe he could help the other Tester¡­


    As the minutes passed, he kept on trying to find the paper with his numbers on it, and while looking for it, sneaking through the hallways, the night vision Woodfield had had activated for a moment, which was enough to see him.


    Urien started running as fast as he could. On the map he knew of one spot in which he could hide, but that was it. He heard the steps of Woodfield behind him and as he was running, he knew that to outrun him was impossible. He turned around, and as Woodfield was running towards him, in the narrowest way possible, Urien dashed himself to the side, while Woodfield fell on the floor. Woodfield had tried to jump on him and catch him, but he wasn¡¯t victorious in doing such a thing. ¡°Let me help you¡­¡± ¨C Woodfield uttered, all while getting up on his feet, slowly but surely.


    ¡°Stay¡­ stay down!¡± ¨C Urien¡¯s heart was beating. He ran towards the corner, opened a random door, and decided to turn another corner. Only then did he open the door to another room, in which he hid, while keeping it as shut as possible with his body.


    He heard his footsteps, getting closer and louder to him. He could hear him checking the room which Urien left open on purpose. ¡°Please, don¡¯t check this door.¡±


    This prayer of Urien¡¯s wasn¡¯t answered. Woodfield started to check each door, slowly but surely making his way towards the room in which Urien hid.


    ¡°Wait, the paper, there¡¯s a paper over there, by the table. What if it¡¯s mine¡­? No, I can¡¯t risk checking it¡­¡±


    Urien saw as his only means of escape to slowly exit the room just as Woodfield was about to enter it.


    Then it happened: Woodfield opened the door while Urien stood behind it. He saw him, walking in front of his face. Holding his breath and not making a noise, would prove to be of the most difficulty in a situation like this. But while Woodfield checked the paper, Urien did just that.


    He was out of the room, and suddenly, Woodfield turned around, seeing him so close. Woodfield rushed to catch up to him, but in the hallway, another Tester was looking for his paper. The three of them were actively in each other¡¯s fields of view.


    Woodfield managed to catch the other Tester, who was almost exactly next to Urien. ¡°He¡­ I have to check the upper floor. I must hurry!¡± ¨C Urien started running straight to the stairs that led to the upper floor.


    When he made it to the cafeteria, he found a paper on one of the tables. It didn¡¯t have his number on it, what was happening with his luck?


    He made his way back down to the first floor and there stood Woodfield, dragging another knocked-out Tester somewhere. He saw Urien and said: ¡°Let me¡­ help you!¡±


    Urien started dashing away, eventually making it in front of the door labeled ¡°ELEVATOR¡±. He tried to open the door which was to his surprise open. Now he was inside of the elevator, where could he go now? Woodfield was rushing towards him, trying to get inside, all while Urien was pressing on the highest floor button as quick as he could. The doors closed just as Woodfield caught up to him.


    ¡°Phew, I¡¯m safe, I¡¯m safe¡­ But where am I going now? I didn¡¯t know that there was a third floor, is this the solution to this TEST? Is my paper on that floor? But still, I haven¡¯t checked all the rooms on the first floor as well¡­¡±


    The elevator stopped and its doors opened. He was on the roof of the building, next to the highest points of the pine trees¡­ The night was full of stars and the moonlight shined upon him.


    ¡°The¡­ the roof? Am I supposed to be here?¡±


    To his surprise, he heard running coming from the other side of the roof. It was none other than Woodfield, using all his strength to catch Urien.


    ¡°How did he come here?¡± ¡°What am I supposed to do?¡±


    Urien went ahead to the safety rails and looked down. If he jumped, maybe, just maybe, there was a chance to escape this place. He saw the bushes, maybe it was possible¡­ But no time to wonder was left to him, as Woodfield approached him so menacingly¡­


    ¡°Let¡­ me¡­ help you!¡±


    Woodfield jumped onto Urien, but Urien simply ducked, causing Woodfield to go over the rails.


    ¡°Woodfield!¡±


    ¡°Did he just kill himself?¡±


    Urien¡¯s mind was racing, and his face was as pale as a ghost¡¯s. In all this frenzy, a strange voice from behind Urien took his attention:


    ¡°¡­Another TEST failed.¡±


    It was a woman¡¯s voice. Urien looked at the strange woman and she was wearing a hockey-mask, along with a suit of some sorts.


    She came closer and closer to Urien, and without a second thought, knocked him out of consciousness.

 A YEAR HAS PASSED, TEST#101 (I)

    1 year ago, at FACILITY #87, where some of the people we¡¯ve come to know get ready for ¡°The Incident of TEST#101¡±... five days remain until the infamous incident.


    This anecdote starts with Woodfield, whom we have come to know well, talking to a group of Testers. Its the year 1999, and PROJECT: M. O. was just in its starting phases...


    ¡°You all! Congratulations on passing the TESTs given to you in the building TEST#101. This right here, is the second building of four, TEST#202. Here, instead of the silent Finn and Shan giving you the broadest of commands, you are to be monitored by me and my colleague, John.


    Each one of you has been assigned a room. Remember: talking between yourselves is not allowed, so in case you need help from either me or John, just come and find us so we can talk in private. Remember, after this building there are two more, and with that your LOOP will be concluded. For some of you this is already the fifth, the sixth, etc. time you are going through a LOOP, so, congratulations.


    As food goes completing a TEST successfully grants you some currency which you can use on the vending machines provided to you. The trash that is left over you must throw in your room¡¯s trash can, for safety reasons. We check the trashcans every morning. Our cook can prepare for you the best of meals for the duration of your stay here. Breakfast and dinner have their designated hours, in which you will be allowed to eat inside of your rooms.


    If you find it useless to eat, head on over to the floor below and use the gym equipment to further your strengths. Don¡¯t worry, during lunch and dinner hours, your mask will be taken off, just like in the previous building.  The washroom, in which you can do your daily hygiene, is also close. Come, I¡¯ll show you...¡±


    The atmosphere of the building, TEST#202, was completely different then. There were at least a dozen Testers in the building listening to Woodfield¡¯s commands. It wasn¡¯t dreadful at all, no, it was full of hopeful people who had signed up looking for some extra cash. It was awfully peaceful, nothing like it was currently. And the TEST#101 building, actually existed, working full force. It was the building which was crossed out by Dorothy on her cryptic paper.


    The Testers were also allowed to walk around freely on the outskirts of the building, having benches to sit and enjoy nature in. Compared to the state the TESTs were in current day... it seemed like a perfect (although a little dystopian) place to earn a little extra.


    Woodfield concluded his tour and made his way over to TEST#101. He wanted to talk to someone, a very special someone. If you travelled far enough, there was a security fence, only to be opened by the workers of these buildings, in times of need. After walking for a couple of minutes through the pine tree ¨C filled path, he made it. In front of him stood the lost TEST, TEST#101.


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    After he had made his way inside, he saw them, ¡°The Silent Duo¡± as everyone called them: Finn and Shan. Each and every TEST building tested upon a different part of the human body and mind. TEST#202 tested your physical and mental strength, while TEST#101, often called the ¡°Silent TEST¡±, tested your patience and courage. To talk anyhow was not allowed. The duo, Finn and Shan, never said a word to each other. Only using hand signals did they help the Testers with their tasks. Finn was a shorter ¨C mid body weight man who had a mask which had eyes that could glow. In a lot of ways his and Woodfield¡¯s look was similar: both wore black hoodies, covering up their whole self, head included, excluding their masks. Finn never talked though. Finn used to work alone on the TEST, but after a couple of months, Shan arrived as well.


    Shan was, as we will come to learn, a male, younger than everybody else there. This didn¡¯t make him an outcast though, as he loved talking with the other workers, excluding Finn of course. Shan and Woodfield were very close, for reasons I will tell of soon enough...


    ¡°Hey, Shan. Let¡¯s go get lunch together. The day is long, you know. I hope you don¡¯t plan on standing there forever. I would ask Finn to come with us, but he takes his role very seriously. I¡¯ll wait for you outside.¡±


    Shan, who had a very specific mask, consisting of horns, a hat and a mask which covered his full face, nodded to Woodfield, and soon enough met him outside.


    ¡°Hey... It¡¯s been a bummer of a day. All the Testers just moved on to your building, but that doesn¡¯t mean that they¡¯ve succeeded in the final TEST of our building. I guess the mice scared them a little too much, huh?¡± ¨C said Shan. It was clear in his voice that he was a positive, well educated and young man.


    ¡°Cut me some slack... Maybe if you had to explain and say the same things repeatedly every few days, you would know how hard this is on my ¡°I hate boredom¡± self. You and Finn got the easy way out.¡± ¨C Woodfield said, jokingly.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Let¡¯s head to the Main Room in the main building. I bet you that Selena is there, experimenting with the molecules of the food and every one of its ingredients.¡±


    ¡°Man... I¡¯m dying for some chicken. Perhaps her plan to create a mutant of some sorts will allow us to have a mutant chicken which regenerates itself every few days, allowing infinite chicken breasts to be eaten.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you wish. It¡¯s probably something to do with his orders. I¡¯ll be honest with you, Woodfield, something is feeling off about all this... I mean, sure, we signed up for this job, but what purpose are we working for, exactly?¡±


    Woodfield was struck as the tone of their playful conversation suddenly shifted.


    ¡°You... You have a point. But come to think of it... No, it couldn¡¯t be true.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± ¨C Shan enquired Woodfield.


    ¡°We remember starting to work here, but isn¡¯t it weird how us workers must also get our memories wiped with that chip that¡¯s used on the Testers? We keep on being told that we are to work here for an unknown period, but, what if we are being kept here...?¡±


    ¡°I... Let¡¯s not think about this now. Selena is probably waiting for us...¡±


    The doubts of the building¡¯s workers started piling up, slowly but surely... Why couldn¡¯t they remember almost anything from their life from before they started working? It is important to know that workers as well, as to keep them unknowing of the Testers identities, also went through regular memory wipes, every few or so weeks or months... Unlike the Testers, though, they had the advantage of remembering some things...

 A YEAR HAS PASSED, TEST#101 (II)

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    "Selena... We''re listening."

 A YEAR HAS PASSED, TEST#101 (III)

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    "He tried to erase my memory of it, but I didn''t let him. I still remember it... Since me and her resided in TEST#303, it wasn''t weird to go and take a walk out at night while all the Testers were asleep."


    him. Come to think of it, I''ve been creating a plan. A plan against him. But let me finish my story off first..."