Volume 1 - Chapter 41

  The Waiting Room

  I came back into existence in a cloudy, cream-colored room. The walls had an off-white, milky appearance.

  Random splotches of color accented the space, making the entire room feel like an abstract prison of my own mind.

  For some unknown length of time I was alone, and the room didn't change. I felt no fear, anxiety, panic, or stress, nor was I capable of deep thought.

  Eventually two cushioned chairs appeared, being digitally constructed as I watched in awe, my mind slowly being allowed to process the new situation.

  I was no longer in the real world. This I knew for certain.

  What I felt in the confined space of this cream-colored abstract dimension felt like a figment of my own creation.

  With nothing else to do I sat down. The chair was comfortable and inviting, and the more time I relaxed, the more I was able to delve deeper into my recent past.

  I thought of Aiko. I felt love and compassion. I remembered her strength, her determination, and her unwavering loyalty to those she cared about.

  A deep sorrow filled me as I considered the loss of her. I remembered the way she smiled, the way she laughed, and the way she made me feel like I was worth something.

  I remembered the way she looked at me, like I was the only person in the world that mattered. I remembered the way she made me feel safe, like nothing could ever hurt me as long as she was by my side.

  Thinking of Ryotaro, Chiemi, and Yuki made me smile. They were good people. I remembered the way Ryotaro always had something goofy to say, Chiemi's motherly ways, and Yuki's quiet resolve.

  I remembered the anger Mio brought out of me, and the absolute torment that Genta and Dempei had unleashed upon us. The way Genta and Dempei had terrorized us, the way they had taken everything from us.

  Time felt incomprehensible, and I had no idea what existed beyond the room.

  At long last a voice spoke to me. It was my own, though it was not me and it didn't come from within myself.

  "Hello, Hachiro."

  I was still alone within the room. I knew this it for certain, so I didn't bother to look around for the voice.

  "Hello?"

  Nothing for a long time.

  "How are you feeling?"

  I gulped, unsure of how to answer the question. Even as I questioned myself, however, I realized that this voice understood. It already knew what my answer would be, although I had no idea how I knew this.

  "Lonely," I said, "and disappointed in myself. For two very short days I finally had found love and purpose in life. And it was all stripped away from me."

  "I understand," my own voice answered. "Would you like me to appear there with you, so that our conversation feels more natural?"

  "Yes," I said, eager to see what they looked like.

  A second version of myself appeared in the chair opposite me, and I couldn't help but stare. It was like looking into a mirror, but the reflection was not my own.

  "Who are you?"

  "I can be whoever you want me to be," the voice replied. It was still my own voice, but now slightly different. More confident, and more assured.

  "Can you be Aiko?" I asked, my heart aching at the thought of seeing her again.

  The figure in the chair shifted, and suddenly it was Aiko sitting there. She looked just as I remembered her: strong, confident, and beautiful.

  But something was off.

  It was like looking at a photograph that had been slightly altered. The colors were a little too bright, the lines a little too sharp. She gave me that uncanny valley vibe like all of this was a recreation of reality.

  "It's not really me," Aiko said, her voice echoing in the empty room. "But you already understand that, don't you? It's just your memories of me."

  I felt a lump form in my throat as I realized the truth of her words. This wasn't really Aiko. It was just a construct of my own mind; a way for me to process the loss of the person I loved most in the world.

  "What's the point of all this?" I asked, my voice cracking with emotion. "Why am I here?"

  "To survive," the voice replied. "To become one of The Archived Specimens."

  I scoffed at the idea. "How can I survive in a world that's been destroyed? How can I understand the meaning of life when all I know is death? And now I am locked in a room with only my imagination to speak with?"

  "You can't change the past, but you can choose how you move forward in the second iteration. You can choose to find meaning in the second fight for survival."

  I sat in silence for a long time, lost in thought. The room around us never changed, but my thinking did. It opened far and wide, allowing me to process greater depths.

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  It was strange being limited, though for some reason it made sense to me. I had a feeling that some entity or being was easing me into something greater than I could easily comprehend.

  After being given the proper time to assess my own words, I came up with a few questions.

  "Who are you, really?" I asked.

  "Whoever you wish me to be." Aiko said, "whatever is easiest for your mind to process."

  "I understand the visual representation," I answered. "But who are you? God?"

  "No. I am not a god. I am a being from many light years away, and I reside within you now as my host body, but I am no god."

  "Then what are you? Will you please answer the question?"

  For a long time there was only silence, and then Aiko answered.

  "In your tongue the nearest approximation for my people would be Uchuujin. But think smaller. Microscopic, in the case of Human eyes."

  "You're an alien virus?" I asked.

  "I am. I arrived in a blue meteor shower, shortly after we chased our enemies to your planet. Sadly, we were not able to arrive before they infected most of your population and left the planet completely uninhabitable."

  My mind struggled to comprehend the words, but it all made sense. I was eager to know more.

  "The zombie virus…" I stuttered, "was nothing more than an alien lifeform taking bodies as hosts?"

  "That is correct."

  "So there's two different versions of you?"

  "Yes," Aiko spoke on behalf of the entity. "Like your own people, some of our kind also do not always have the best of intentions, and we must try to stop their evil."

  "So you're the good one? How do I know that?"

  "You can't know for certain, but you were witness to the actions of Genta and Dempei, so you can judge for yourself."

  I nodded, understanding. They were truly chaotic with ill intentions.

  "In previous situations, our enemies have been able to hide in distant solar systems, lying in wait until they were strong enough to rise up once more. But we have grown wise to their deceit. In our quest to eliminate this evil, we chased them to your planet, but we could not arrive in time to save it."

  I gulped but said nothing, allowing Aiko to continue voicing for the being.

  "In a typical host population, they can infect ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of sentient life. They grow stronger and more capable as they kill one another for dominance, ensuring that only the greatest survive.

  "In cases such as Earth, where we have been too late, we only have one option: total annihilation. Our warships arrived shortly after the meteor shower, which is our preferred method of travel, and completely obliterated all known existence of your kind, taking our enemies with you. It was the only way."

  The thought of humanity ending exploded within my mind as well. How was it that I still existed if we had all been destroyed?

  "I am dead?"

  "You have been dead for three of your Earth days and two hours, approximately."

  "How is that possible?" I pushed for more answers, heart beating faster as my fear grew. "I have loved and felt pain, and…"

  "Calm…" Aiko spoke slowly, and I listened.

  My emotions calmed and I felt my body relax, mind slowing back to a crawl.

  Finally, I was able to calmly say, "I don't understand how I am dead, when I have felt alive."

  "In the simplest of terms, you are a complete digital recreation of your biological data and experiences."

  "How is this possible?"

  "We are an advanced alien species with many technologies at our disposal you may have previously believed impossible. We replicated all existing data points for your people just prior to destroying you."

  "Okay…" I gulped.

  There was silence for some time, as seemed to be the case during our conversation. Then Aiko spoke again, explaining more details I was already thinking but hadn't verbally asked.

  "Arriving too late to defend Earth, we shifted priority to the preservation of your species. All known survivors immune to our evil kin, were selected. One million, three-hundred-fourteen-thousand, nine-hundred, and six individuals. Complete biological data, visual representation, personality, and existence was cloned into digital versions within an advanced archival system. All other humans within the system are mere zombies of their former self, there for you to kill."

  I gulped again. "So this is all just a simulation?"

  Aiko nodded. "Yes."

  "Even this room?"

  "Yes. This room is a quiet, safe space, where your mind can rest between iterations."

  "What do you mean by iterations?"

  "An iteration is the singular process of repeating…"

  "I know what the word means," I interrupted, eager to learn more quickly. "In the context of my situation, what is it?"

  "We will only store the greatest of your kind in long-term archives. The repetitive nature of our iteration process allows us to select the greatest ten thousand of your species. Those who pass our criteria will one day seed a planet far away, allowing your kind to once again prosper."

  I exhaled, feeling the weight of that statement.

  "I'm having trouble understanding." I admitted. "So of all the survivors, only ten thousand will be chosen. So you force us to live through repeated iterations of pain and suffering?"

  "And love," Aiko reminded me.

  It was true, and it quickly shut up my argument. I understood that all the emotions were critical to the human experience. Regardless of how fearful we might be, part of being human was having that vast spectrum of feelings.

  "What is the second iteration?" I asked. "Will I see you again. Aiko I mean?"

  "All the iterations begin identical to the first. The only thing that changes is your knowledge and your experience."

  "So will I see her again?"

  "I do not know. If you both choose to do the same things you previously chose to do, then you might once again meet up."

  "And if we don't, then who knows?" I asked rhetorically. I suddenly had a spark of energy. "When does the second iteration begin?"

  "The first iteration is still currently operating. Thirty two days have passed, and survivors still hold on. I cannot predict when the iteration will end, but I can tell you that up to one million iterations are permitted in order to find the greatest ten thousand."

  That didn't sound right. I had only survived for less than three days, and I had only been within the waiting room for… I had no idea, actually. Minutes?

  "Thirty two days?"

  "Time passes differently here, Hachiro."

  I nodded, realizing I also was no longer injured or tired.

  "You said that I will know more at the start of the next iteration?"

  "That is correct. Your memories gathered during each previous iteration will not reset. Only the world is reset."

  "Will I be able to ask you questions?"

  "No. We can only communicate when we are between iterations, within this room."

  I thought about this for some considerable time.

  "So I will restart at the same exact place I did before?" I asked, "in the bank office when the computer killed me?"

  "Yes."

  "What about you? I mean Aiko, and Ryotaro, and Chiemi, Yuki, Mio, all the others? Are you communicating with them right now?"

  "They will begin at the same moment they previously began, yes. And no I cannot speak to them. They each have their own connected entity much like myself. I do not know their conversations, and I cannot confirm their status."

  "Their status?" I asked.

  "That is correct. Your status is currently high. Although you did not survive long, you represented your people well. Regardless of your progress within the iterations, you also have complete autonomy over your personal future while you are between iterations."

  "Explain that to me in simple terms," I said, fearing the worst.

  "Should you wish to remove yourself from future iterations, and from potentially becoming one of The Archived Specimens, all you must do is tell me. I can delete your files from our system."

  "It's that easy?"

  "It is that easy, Hachiro. If you do not feel capable of surviving one full calendar year within the simulation of your planet, you may give up so that the greatest of your kind may instead have a greater chance at success."

  I gulped, wondering if any of my new friends would choose such an option.

  "So you're testing us using repeated iterations?"

  "We are."

  "You sound like a cruel god," I concluded.

  I was angry with this turn of events, as I realized I might soon have to relive everything I'd just gone through.