First contact. Testimony to the General Staff.
“My name is J. […].
Where did I enter it? I remember taking an elevator to get to car park -1 of the […] . And even if there were slight electrical disturbances in the light bulbs of the elevator car, how could I have thought that my descent would take me to a place that was neither a parking lot nor an underground. Was it underground? I couldn't see either the outside or the upper floor where I ended up. How do I know if I was on any level of the building?
When I got out of the elevator, I didn't realize at first that it wasn't an underground car park. The walls, the parking spaces, everything seemed to be there, except for cars. There were even numbers on the floor, and I was just looking for mine thanks to that. I was looking for place 1024. I remember the first 2 numbers that I saw at the exit as they surprised me: 1420 and 4210.
When I finally realized that something was wrong, that there was no vehicle, no living soul and that my place did not appear around the places numbered in 1000, I turned around to see from where I was coming.
That's when I started to panic that I wasn't where I thought I was, and I had no way to get back. Because in the opposite direction, the empty parking lot stretched out for hundreds of meters as if there was nothing to pull me back.
In panic, I started running in the opposite direction, trying to find the number of seats I had seen earlier when I got out of the elevator, 1420 and 4210. But while I was certain to get closer, light bulbs flickered everywhere, and whole swathes of this place plunged into darkness. As I thought I would soon get there, a strange and stressful noise echoed in the growing darkness in the distance in front of me.
Listen
I did not know what to do. My heart rate was accelerating, and out of breath, I gathered my courage and tried to arrive at the only destination that should have brought me back to the starting point. There were only a few steps left... In the end, seeing the numbers 1402 and 4102 at my feet, I was relieved for a moment, then terrified a second later when I remembered that these numbers were not in the right order. .
Darkness surrounded me...
Darkness envelops me. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't hear anything, I was paralyzed, standing, in total darkness. I gritted my teeth and prayed that nothing would appear, that nothing would touch the tips of my limbs and that it would all end like waking up from a nightmare. I closed my eyes, because even if I couldn't see anything, I was afraid that something appeared, that I could distinguish the origin of this abominable noise.
Then…
[…]
In an instant, my body went through the ground as if it were just a thin layer of water and I found myself a level lower. How to describe it, it was no longer a parking lot, but simply an empty space, corridors in all directions, blue on a smooth floor without imperfection. Strange spheres embedded in the many pillars around me seemed to support this strange and heavy space. I spent a few moments wondering if it was reasonable to move away from the one place that seemed to be closest to my arrival. Thinking about it, even if the scenery had changed, I myself had, I thought, little or no movement. But my senses were shaken by this indescribable and immaculate environment. I pivoted in place to observe each direction and I saw this strange phenomenon where halos of light illuminated the place without any light fixtures on the ceiling being present. Nothing could justify that I was in a structure created by man. Not even a screw, a piece of plaster, a crack or a joint in the floor would bring me closer to what I could have recognized.
There was nothing to do, and since I clearly wasn't asleep, it wasn't good for me to sit still like this, without food and water. All I had with me was my phone, disconnected from the network and whose battery, my faith, was perhaps the most precious thing I had left then, allowing me to record what I thought was important. I could neither mark my passage, nor did I manage to damage these strange spheres of an alloy which had neither heat nor smell.
[…]
Hidden behind a pillar, I observed the scene and heard a thud, like a deep breath. The sound was way too deep for it to be just a man, and since I hadn't come across anything usually so far, I preferred to stay hidden until I was clear of it.
That's when...
Watch
[…]
I can't say how long I was still, convinced that my time would come around the corner of the pillar if I dared even move an inch. But nothing happened. Nothing happened and the noises did not return in front of this number 1024.
I slowly approached this landmark until, at the end of the corridor I was taking, purple luminous halos appeared. […]
As I walked slowly along this corridor, bathed in less and less bright and more and more glaucous light, I saw patterns on the floor, even traces. Was that… no, I didn't want to think about it.
Looking up from the depth of the hallway, I saw a luminous number, it was a 1042, dazzling what appeared to be a room… or else… the exit, I thought. And the closer I got, the brighter the light became. I was convinced then that it was the exterior. I had to reach it, at all costs. 1042, so close to my parking space number, 1024, it couldn't be a coincidence.
A few more feet, and the lights faded into darkness for a blink of an eye before they came back on again. Finally, dazzled by the outside, I opened my arms to take in the fresh air and the relief of finally being out of business.
Was I safe? ”
[…]
Watch
