Chapter 7 – Answering Questions

*NOTE – Hello, everybody! I am TheManFromMudos, and we're back once again with another installment of 'Oddworld: Al's Exoddus'. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, I've been very busy lately, but I should be back on schedule soon and posting new chapters every Wednesday, so look out for chapters 8, 9 and 10 in the coming weeks, as well. Thanks again for not being too impatient, folks. Read on and enjoy, it's 'Oddworld: Al's Exoddus'. THANK YOU!*

"You woke up?" I said again, for the seventh time. "Where? When? I need to know, Abe."

"I was in a wagon of some kind," he explained, "It felt like I'd just awoken from a dream. At the time, I don't think I could remember dying. It was like… like I'd lived an entirely different life. I had memories of the past, but it felt like I'd never actually experienced it. I'm trying to think of a good analogy. It was as if… as if…"

"As if you'd been forced into someone else's body?" I asked.

"Exactly." He replied. I was beginning to catch on now. It seemed that after Abe had died, his conscience, his 'soul' if you will, had been relocated into a different person.

"A wagon, you say, Abe?" I inquired, only just realising what he'd said.

"Yes." He replied simply. "There were a lot of animals in there, Fleeches, Paramites, although they were all a little… different. And the driver of the wagon was a Clakker."

This all seemed quite familiar to me. It was almost as if Abe was describing… Dave.

"This Clakker, Abe," I began, "Was his name Clakk, by any chance?"

"As a matter of fact, I think it was." He replied.

"And your name, it wasn't Abe anymore, was it?" I continued.

"No, it wasn't." He explained. "I seemed to remember the name 'Dave'." Of course. It all made sense. Well, kind of. The premise, that after Abe had died, his mind had been transplanted into Dave's body, was not completely implausible.

"What happened after that?" I pressed. Abe continued to describe the adventures that I had experienced with Dave to the exact detail. The run-in with the Wolvarks, meeting Fope, the trek along the Mongo River. But something was still bugging me. The Mudokon that had been with me at the time was quite simply, Dave. He had an altogether different personality, different characteristics, to Abe. How could Abe's mind have possibly been in Dave's head the whole time? I asked him this, but he could not come up with a reasonable theory, either. We were well and truly stumped.

The day continued to drag on as we pondered over what could have possibly happened to Abe, and Dave for that matter. We'd established that Abe had memories that only Dave could recollect, but what had happened to Dave's conscience whilst Abe was occupying his body? And why Dave's body at all? Why didn't Abe's conscience die with him?

"It's getting late." Abe said after a while. "We'd better find somewhere to spend the night." I agreed, as it had only just occurred to me that we'd spent the whole day stood out in the open outside a massive, high-security laboratory filled with Vykkers. After a short walk in the opposite direction to which we'd come, we discovered a small village. It seemed that it was made up of basic worker's houses, with the odd convenience store dotted here and there. Of course, we wouldn't be spending the night in a four star bed-and-breakfast. A clearing between some rocks would have to do.

As I lay on the ground and looked up at the stars, I felt a sort of excitement. Tomorrow, we'd be breaking into Vykkers Labs. For real this time. We'd finally have the answers we so desperately sought after. I was eager to know what had happened to Abe after I'd shot him, what had happened to Dave when Abe's mind had taken his place. Tomorrow, at long last, we'd know.

The following morning was not the brightest nor the best I'd experienced on Oddworld. Rain drizzled down the rock faces at the sides of the clearing, creating a small puddle where we lay. I woke Abe before the two of us got too soaked, and we set straight off for Vykkers Labs. Luckily, as the laboratory was just at the edge of the desert, the rain wasn't so bad during the walk, and we had more or less dried off by the time we arrived.

"OK, Abe." I said when we were within a hundred feet of the building. "You know what to do, right?" Abe nodded, and moved closer towards the building. A group of Interns stood outside. He hid in a dark recess in the wall of the compound, and began to chant. Even in the pitch darkness of the recess, his face was illuminated by the orb which formed before him. It then drifted towards the closest Intern, and without further ado, he was possessed. That was my cue. I walked up to the group of Interns, who barely even acknowledged me. Being a Slig, I wouldn't draw too much attention. I guess that was an upside to being a sadistic, cold-blooded killer. You got into places.

I nodded to the Intern over which Abe had control. He nodded back, and we both split from the group, heading into the laboratory. The lobby was packed with Vykkers just coming in to work, and other Interns, too. A huge electronic display above the heads of the crowd indicated the different sections of the facility. One sign read 'Animal Testing' whilst another bore the words 'Artificial Diseases'. There were also signs for 'Narcotic Production' and 'Weapons Development'. Finally, my eyes met a sign which said 'Technological Advancements'. This piqued my interest. The image of the silver and blue tablet device appeared in my head once again. That was where our answers would be.

"This way." I told the Intern. He nodded, and we pushed through the crowd towards the Technological Advancements department. We were first met with an incredibly long corridor, followed by a flight of stairs and another corridor. As tiring as this was, we still pressed on, and eventually reached a vast room with a countless number of doors along the walls. The room was more or less empty, but a couple of machines stood in the centre. I stepped towards one machine, and the Intern took up position at another. It was a small pillar, about four feet high, with a large slab of metal on the top. There was a screen set into the metal, along with numerous buttons, displaying every letter of what seemed like every alphabet in existence, and the numbers one to ninety-nine.

I pressed the power button and the screen flickered to life. It displayed a homepage which read: Vykkers Laboratories TA Department Catalogue and the word 'SEARCH' in the text bar. I typed in the word 'tablet' and was presented with a huge list of results. There were countless devices that Vykkers Labs both manufactured and sold. I was going to have to be more specific. I tried 'ultra slim tablet', and was presented with a much shorter list. I cycled through the pages, looking at the attached photographs of each tablet. I remembered distinctly the vivid colouring on the device. Finally, after a brief spell of tablet shopping, I came across it. The exact same tablet which I had been posted not three days earlier. It was listed in the reference index as 8282-9g:7. One of the doors in the room also displayed the number 8282. I knew that this was where the tablet was from.

"Come on, Abe." I said to the Intern, still flicking through search results. He looked up, and followed me to door 8282. It was a pretty standard door, with no special locks or any kind of security, which seemed odd. I placed a hand on the knob and twisted it to one side, pushing the door open. Stepping into the room, I saw that it was more like a long, thin corridor, with the walls completely obscured by lockers. Each locker had a number, starting from the very first one in the room, labeled 8282-1a:1. The lockers stretched up a good ten meters, and there were no ladders to reach the upmost ones. I felt dwarfed by the extensiveness of the room. I looked over at the Intern, who looked similarly in awe.

"Well," I said enthusiastically to the Intern, whom Abe was still controlling from outside the complex. "Let's start looking!"

*NOTE – Well, that's all we have time for in this chapter. Sorry if it may seem a little all over the place. But what happens next? Will Abe and Alan ever find out the truth about the tablet? Will Alan finally figure out why Abe's conscience never died? Will I stop asking all these questions? Find out next time, in 'Oddworld: Al's Exoddus'. THANK YOU!*