“Well those are the cliff notes,” Lester continued. “Head to the door on the right.”

“...huh?” Brian let out dumbly as he was brought out of his musings.

“You heard me, interviews over. Door on the right,” Lester said as he picked up his tablet and started fiddling with it.

“But...I still have questions,” Brian said. Lester looked up and gave him an annoyed look.

“And I still have a huge pain in my ass, care to help with that?”

“Ah-”

“GIT MOVING!” Lester barked out, scaring Brian to his feet.

“But-”

“MOVE!”

Brian started going right.

“No, my right, dickhead!”

Brian slid to a stop before he turned left and speed walked to the other door.

“Um,” he stopped in front of the door. There were no handles. He turned to look at Lester to find that he was still busy fiddling with his tablet. Then Brian looked at the food on the table and felt his stomach churn. “Can I at least grab som-”

VA-RMMMMMM

Once again, he jumped at the sound. The door slid open revealing a room full of bald people wearing white, a lot of them turned to look at him. Before he could say or do anything he felt himself get sucked into the room with a loud hiss!

“WHOA!” He let out as his feet slid forward. He tried to resist in a fit of panic but he just ended up falling on his butt. He felt the impact all the way to head, he didn’t have time to process it however because even on his butt he was still sliding forward.

Once he was in the room he could hear the door shut behind him.

He looked up to see that people were already going back to minding their own business.

“Yer like the fifth person I've seen do that,” a guy said as he walked up to Brian. He was a black guy dressed in the exact same attire as Brian, bald, and very lanky(practically a stick). In his early twenties if Brian had to guess.

He offered his hand, “’ere.”

Brian accepted it and felt himself get pulled to his feet. He tried to help but felt really weak.

“What was that?” Brian asked while jerking a thumb at the door.

“I dunno man, some of the guys,” he pointed to a group of skinny people, Brian honestly couldn’t tell their gender, who were standing in a corner of the very large white room, chatting, “think it’s a vacuum or somethin’. Personally, I think it’s bullshit.”

“You got that right,” Brian grumbled in agreement, resisting the urge to rub his behind. “Um, Brian Sosa,” he said, putting his hand out.

“Ezekial Hart, but my fams call me Zed,” Zed said as he shook Brian’s hand.

“Zed?” Brian asked with a raised brow.

“Yeah, it used to be E-Z, but people cracked jokes in the worst ways, so I went with Zed,” He explained.

“Oh, you British or-”

“Canadian,” Zed replied with a smile. “Lemme guess,” he pointed at Brian with a finger gun, “American?”

“Yup.”

“Kewl. Want some food?” He thumbed at a large box-like shape in the middle of the room.

“Hell yeah,” Brian said with gusto that caused the two of them to laugh.

“Aight, man, c’mon,” Zed motioned he lead him to the square-shaped object. When he got closer, he found that it’s a container full of peanuts. Like the ones on Lester's desk, these still had their shell on...well, now I know it’s a cheap company. There was a stack of cardboard containers right beside the peanuts.

“This it?”

“And some crackers, but they’re drier than bones,” Zed replied. "Water’s right down there, in the washroom.” Bathroom, Brian thought in his head, but didn’t feel the need to verbalize it, he looked at where Zed pointed, the beginnings of some hallway that was in the middle of the room. “Long walk though.”

“Figures,” Brian said as he grabbed a container and scooped up as much peanuts as it could hold. Then he realized something, “Um.”

“Bunch of trash-shoots around,” Zed said, already guessing what Brian was going to ask. He pointed at the closest one looked like a rectangular trash can. “Though people don’t really care at this point.”

Brian could see that, the floor was littered with shells in certain areas of the big room.

“Ey, so what camp are you in?” Zed asked.

“Sorry?” Brian asked as he struggled to open a peanut with one hand.

“Which camp you in, like...you think this s’all some big joke and do you think this is some cheap-ass Afterlife Incorporated or some shit?”

“I….I don’t know man. I’m leaning more towards the jokes,” Brian answered honestly.

“Huh, guess you must’ve been like me then.”

“Sorry?”

“You know, average. Not built or fat, just average enough not to notice how skinny we got.”

“What?” Brian looked at his arms. Now that he wasn’t completely panicking he did notice that they were indeed thinner.

“Yeah, didn’t notice either until I looked at my hands,” Zed said, prompting Brian to look at his own free palm. “I’m a youtuber artist, you know, trying to make it big. Mostly I just play the guitar, so I have calluses on my fingers, but look,” Brian looked up to see Zed’s hand, “no Callus. Hell, the cut I got yesterday is gone too.”

Brian looked back at his palm. He didn’t play an instrument but he did use his hands a lot at his job which did result in calluses on his palm. Calluses that were no longer there.

“I dunno about all this,” Zed continued, “but for now I’m just trying to figure out how to get out of this shit.”

Brian nodded a bit to that.

“So...you really think we’re dead?” Brian asked.

“Honestly? I kinda hope this s’all some sick joke and ya’ll are actors someone paid to pull one over on me, but so far I got evidence to the opposite. Um, I ah, I died in a car accident, ‘parently.”

“...They tell you that?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, he quirked a brow, “same wit you?”

“Yeah,” Brian nodded, “drowned in my own vomit, if you can believe that. Like, I remember going to a party, having a few beers, shots, but, I, I don’t remember anything after that.” Brian explained as he went back to trying to open one of the peanut shells with a single hand. It was needlessly hard.

“Huh.” Zed let out mild surprise. “With me, I was just takin’ my show outdoors. My account was shut down for some bullshit ’n I needed cash. Figured I could get live feedback, loose change, and meet the fams. Crossed the street and saw a huge semi run a red light. Froze like’a deer en headlights.”

“Whoa,” Brian said as he stopped what he was suspected to be a pointless task, “you mean, you actually remember-”

“I remember the semi, not the dyin’,” Zed clarified, “if it’s real it must’ve been instant. And if that’s the case, then I think we got off lucky.”

“Really?” Brain asked with a raised brow as he finally managed to get one peanut shell opened. Zed shrugged as Brian popped the peanut into his mouth.

“I didn’t feel pain and you don’t even remember it,” he began, “if it’s real then it sucks, but we’re better off than them,” Zed nodded to a group of people who sat at a nearby table. He could see people trembling and shaking, from the few faces he could see clearly he could tell that a few people have been crying.

“I’m guessing they remember how they died,” Brain said as he stared at the group, working on opening another peanut.

“Got it in one,” Zed said, “thank god for da bullshit that makes everything silent,” Zed said as Brian nodded.

“...Wait what?”

“...You didn’t notice?” Zed asked with raised brow but Brian could see a smile tugging at Zed’s lips. Once more Brian looked around him. He could see mouths flapping, people arguing, people emoting laughter without a sound. Then he spotted-

“Are they playing video games?” Brian pointed to a group of people huddled over a large tv. He spotted another such congregation in the opposite side of the room.

“You betcha,” Zed snorted, “and trust me, they are loud and pact together. It's just some racing kart game, I mean it has good graphics ‘n good tunes, but nothing I’d personally get excited over. Though if I got a turn I’d definitely play,” he admitted.

“...” Brian looked at zed in the eye. Either they were all paid to be mimes or this bullshit was real. “How the fuck is this pos-”

“I dunno,” Zed quickly cut Brian off while raising his hand in surrender. “Best I figured is that everyone’s got a bubble, you know, personal space and all that. You won’t hear anything unless yer inside that bubble. Or hear da door open,” Zed briefly pointed at the door that sucked Brian in, “that ya always hear.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Brian nodded, still trying to get the shell off the peanut, processing everything and wondering how he was missing such obvious details. Then his stomach grumbled.

“Oh fuck this shit,” Brian picked a peanut, brought it to his mouth and bit into the shell. Not the best plan, some of the shell fragments broke in his mouth, but it was a hell of a lot faster than trying to open it with one hand.

Brian was so absorbed in his task that he barely registered that Zed was chuckling. Brian glanced at him as he worked another peanut open with his jaw.

“Did the exact same shit when I realized a lot ah things went over my head,” he explained when he calmed down some. “C’mon, let's grab a seat and I’ll fill ya in.”

----------------------------------------

“Well that can’t be good,” Brian muttered to himself as he tried the other door in the room. Like the door in the room Lester led him to, there was no handle. But unlike that door, this one has a white pad right by the door.

According to Zed, the pad lets out a green glowing O and red glowing X. Turns out there’s another huge room connected to the unisex bathroom. Zed didn’t have a definite answer but he reasoned that when the time came, one would have to exit the room on the pad that gave the O.

He had gone to the other room, practically a mirror of the room he met Zed in with some differences. He put his hands near the pad of the door of that room and a red X appeared on the pad. He walked back to the room he was in earlier and touched the pad on that. It was a green O.

Seems like Brian’s supposed to leave through what he dubs "The Left Room."

This gave rise to a very important question.

“Am I in the right room?”

If you’re supposed to go out through a certain room, did that mean there was a good room and a bad room?

Thoughts like kept popping up in Brian’s head. Sure he could be jumping to conclusions and Brian didn’t mean to be assuming, but it felt like Lester was that way with everyone...but Lester did seem very irritated with him.

After Zed left to do his own thing, Brian chatted with a few other people who seemed more put together. At least better than he was at the moment. He found that it was random. People had been in the other room only to find that the door that gave them the green O was in the Left Room, some found that the door was in the same room they were sucked into.

Some people waited by the door, others walked between the two room constantly. It was something to do.

Besides video games that were constantly being fought over(physically even), there were stacks of grid paper and bundles of led pencils with replacement led along with the odd sharpie.

Brian had tried doodling earlier to keep his mind off stuff, but he wasn’t anywhere near decent at doodling nor did he have the patience or concentration some people with the same idea appeared to have. He was calmer though. Still unnerved, frustrated about his lack of artistic skill and ability to do anything about his situation, bordering a full-blown panic attack...but calmer.

He walked by one of the areas with videogames set up. Like Zed said, it was hectic. A bunch of skinny, bald people getting loud and crazy over virtual go karts. He could barely see the screen over the screaming bodies, but he noted that it wasn’t any brand he could tell. It wasn’t like Disney’s Mickey Karts or the horrible Mario knockoff. He couldn’t even tell who the characters were, they were like the crappy Wii Avatars Micky Karts did of the users who went through the hassle of making them.

After getting a few accidental elbows in the face he decided to go to the bathroom for what he was sure would not be the last time until...whatever is supposed to happen happens.

He looked around the room as he made his way to the hallway. It was a large rectangular room that looked like it was made of white plastic but it felt like he was walking on smooth stone. Marble maybe. There were no visible light bulbs or any light source, the room just had natural light for no apparent reason. Something else that was tacked onto Brian’s mental list of weird shit happening to or around him.

He entered the hallway that for some weird reason had artificial lighting that winked out every once in a while, again, with no light source or apparent reason.

Brian shook his head trying to clear his mind. Then froze.

“Oh c’mon,” he said as he brought up a hand to help him ignore the fact that there was a couple having sex in the hallway. And it wasn’t the first time he happened upon such a sight. Apparently knowledge of your own demise and uncertainty about your future can be an aphrodisiac. Who knew?

“Thank god for the bullshit that keeps everything silent,” Brian quoted Zed as moved past the couple who seemed content to stick to one side of the wall in the hallway.

After the second time he caught people having sex, a weird threeway that excited him, grossed him, confused him, and even interested him in ways he couldn’t understand, he thought about doing the same only...more vanilla and limited to two people, but he honestly didn’t feel like it.

Nerves, frustration, whatever you want to call it, it was bothering him and he doubted that busting a nut with some random bald stranger who is probably feeling the same way would make it go away let alone distract him.

Brian, after sticking to the wall and walking a curve, made it to the bathroom and he had to hand it to the magical shady company, they have a decent bathroom. It was by far the biggest bathroom he’s been in, 35 toilet stalls on both sides of the wall with another wall in the middle of the bathroom with 35 sand-toilets on either side. Again white walls and floor. Not only that, the bathroom had stayed white and didn't smell even remotely bad for what Brian could only assume has been hours of use.

The only downside was that the water was inside the bathroom instead of outside by the door.

He walked to the wall that had ten water dispensers in a line, basically the dispensers you see in fast food joints, there were cups on either end of the line of dispensers.

But again, it was in the bathroom. Not by the door, not in a separate room in the bathroom, it was in the bathroom where you could see the sand toilets and toilet stalls.

Sure Brian knew people who just drank water from wherever but he’s always been the type to use a filter whenever he could. But it wasn’t like there was a water source anywhere else and he sure as hell wasn’t drinking from the sink, even if it was more than likely that the dispenser basically served the same water that was used to flush the toilets. So he sucked it up and went for a cup.

He found a guy already drinking water by the dispensers. He was white, maybe a bit more on the pasty side, average height, young-looking, and wearing the same outfit as everybody else. He leaned against the wall and just stared at the stalls and the walls.

He glanced at Brian and gave a nod. Brian politely gave it back and proceeded to get a cup of water.

He got his water and turned around to look at the bathroom. Mildly better than watching paint dry, considering you see people coming in and out. For a minute or so he drank the water in silence, a few more people slipping by and grabbing a cup of themselves.

“Out of curiosity,” Brian turned to look at the man who gave him a nod, “do any of these paintings look familiar to you?”

Brian raised a brow but turned to look. Right, a detail he didn’t really register were the paintings on the walls, it just sort of fell in as bathroom decoration. Slightly better than just white walls but still pretty bland. From the dispensers, he could see the back wall, passed the sand toilets, with five paintings. The one on the far left looked familiar to him.

“Ah...um, yeah,” Brian pointed to it, "the dragon one looks familiar.”

“Oh,” the man let out, Brian glanced at him to see him nod to himself while he looked at the paintings. “The one on to the right of the middle one, with the horse and the two horns, whatever you call that. I saw that in the hallway before I had the interview.”

“Wait, really? Brian asked, “like the long hallway?” The man nodded. “Ah, that’s where I saw that dragon one.”

“I see,” the man said, glancing at Brian then went back to looking at the paintings, “Who’d you have?”

“Sorry?”

“The person who interviewed you. Who was it?”

“Lester,” Brian answered with a tight smile. He always had an easier time remembering people like that.

“Ooof,” the man let out, “poor bastard, I heard he was an ass.”

“Yes, he really was,” Brian agreed as he took another sip of the water.

“Oh, I’m Andrew but I rather you just call me Andy,” the man suddenly said as he outstretched his hand. Brian took another long sip before he shook it.

“I’m Brian, um-”

“Tell me, Brian,” Andy cut him off, “do you follow politics?”

“Um...” Brian paused as his mind tried to process what he heard and come up with an intelligent response, “I...I just, it, it’s not my thing. I can name the president but I’m not on either-”

“Hughe Pattersworth, right?” Andy asked. “The E in Hughe is silent,” he added.

“...yeaaaaaaaaa,” Brian trailed, was anyone else the president?

“Who’s the VP?” Andy suddenly asked with a smile.

“Um, fuck,” Brian cursed as scrambled to remember the vice president’s name, “ahh Jimmmmmmmmmmm-Lumbard-lumgrat!” Brian snapped his fingers. “Jim Lumgrat’s the vp!”

“Alright, and a movie came out last month, some comic book one, do you remember which one?"

"The Batman Beyond one?"

"I don't remember, I just know its the original batman actor from the 70s who returned and trained a kid to be the new Batman in a city with flying cars and laser guns."

"That's the one," Brian said with a small smile. "People say they're making that one wolverine comic where he's old into a movie because of it.”

“Sorry, I don’t know which one you are talking about, I don’t really follow that stuff,” Andy admitted.

“Fair, but ah, no offense, but isn’t this pretty random? I mean going from politics to movies?” Brian couldn’t help but ask with some amusement.

“Yup, and it was worth it,” Andy said as he tossed his cup at a nearby trash shoot.

“How so?” Brian lifted an eyebrow.

“Oh-I had a theory that people from the same Earth saw the same person or at least the same painting. Didn’t go anywhere, it seems like they’re doing things randomly.”

… Brian went still, his lip touching the cup.

Same Earth? There’s more than one? Jesus Fucking Christ! WHY!? Brian couldn’t help but freak out a little in the privacy of his mind as he did his best to keep calm on the outside. He wondered how the hell he failed to catch that, especially since he talked to a decent amount of people. He did find that some of the things they talked about, mostly related to movies and stuff, to be a little off but he didn’t think much of it at the time. Honestly, considering all the bullshit that piled up already he really shouldn’t be surprised. Still though-WHY!?!

“...So,” Brian began as he put the cup on the bottom of the dispenser, his thirst suddenly quenched, “satisfied?”

“Ehh,” Andy shrugged, “not really. Thought I had something, but at least I found someone from the same reality I’m from. Not much but it's a bit comforting,” Andy admitted.

“...Actually, fuck, yeah, that is a bit comforting,” Brian agreed, running a hand through his head, tensing a little when he realized his hair was still gone. It wasn’t much but somehow knowing there was someone like Andy around made things slightly better in a way Brian didn’t quite understand at the moment.

That admission earned a small chuckle from Andy.

“Nyeah,” Andy nodded.

“So, have you just been asking these sort of questions to everyone?” Brian asked.

“And then some,” Andy replied with a sigh. “See, I’ve been here for,” he paused when he tried to look at his wrist, probably looking for a watch or something, something Brian understood considering he still reached for a phone that wasn’t on his person. Andy then grunted before he ran a hand through his face, “hours I’m sure, but I still can’t find what the Interviewers are looking for.”

"Probably cheap muscle and scientists, maybe survival nuts," Brian said, recalling what the business was.

"Colonization," Andy echoed his thoughts, "but the thing is Brian, there are no scientists here. Or doctors for that matter."

"...what?" Brian let out dumbly.

"I've talked with a lot of people, and so far I have not run into someone with that kind of profession. I did find a few who had interesting hobbies, but nothing along the vein of helping us colonize. Heck, I haven't even seen a dentist let alone a surgeon or a mechanical engineer. Just clerks and accountants."

"...huh," Brian let out as he processed what he said, "Yeah, I've only met youtubers, artists, warehouse workers, and maybe a librarian, she didn't confirm."

"See, that begs the question, what are they looking for? I don't know what they look for in 'muscle', as you put it, but there's an overabundance of thin people and, clearly, they separated us."

"Um...emotional people are out?" Brian ventured.

"Maybe but there is a reason I’m lurking in here. See, there was this group of people who made this place their headquarters of sort. I marked a few of their members' clothes with a marker and now they're gone."

"Gone? As in-"

"Nowhere to be seen," Andy clarified, "not in either room. They just,” Andy lightly shook his head with a tight smile, “vanished into thin air."

Brian stopped to think about it. If there was a group of people who hung out in the bathroom and yet disappeared….

"You can see it right?" Andy asked with a toothy smile. “A huge pool of people with less than stellar skills and work experience to sort through, interviews at our most vulnerable, old or secondhand information, short interviews for a long and probably extensive project, and a group of people disappearing in the bathroom; either I wildly confused the situation and it’s a suicide pact, or-"

“There’s way out through the bathroom,” Brian couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Exactly,” Andy said with a smile and nodded, “probably better than going through those doors. Question is though,” Andy turned to look at the painting, Brian did the same only with a bit more focus, “how did they do it?”