/Under simulation

/Aptitude test

I wake back in the hall. It is now empty and silent. In front of me lie two baskets. The first contains a large slice of cheese. In the other lies a knife with a seven inch blade. I instinctively reach for the knife and it sits snugly in my palm. It feels powerful under my control. Behind me, a door creaks open. As I make eye contact, the dog snarls. I rotate my body, swing my arm, and the dog drops dead. Its body crashes to the ground. When I turn back, the baskets are gone.

I steady myself on the bus and grab a metal pole. Behind me a man reads a large newspaper, today's Morning Star. I recognise the fields of grain on the front. The man peers over and beckons me closer. He points to a face on the page and enquires as to whether I know that man. I tell him I don't, but he insists that if I did, I could save him. It suddenly strikes me that I do know this face, but I cannot put a name to that face. So, I tell him that the face is familiar.

The newspaper, the man and the bus fade, and I realise this simulation is over.

All that remains is blackness.

So dark.

Endless darkness.

I can see nothing around me.

And nothing of me.

And silence.

So much silence.

Shouldn't I have come round by now?