The atmosphere within the airport was full and crowded. The chatter of people filled the ears of Ivan Beck, who was sitting patiently on the metal chair. He held a large camera on his hand, and began to film the environment around him. “Why are you still recording?” Ivan’s friend, Mark, asked. He was sitting next to him and eyed the camera that Ivan held. “Sarah wanted me to film everything from start to finish. I’ve been filming since we got here,” Ivan said in a faint chuckle. “But the vacation’s over, what else do you want to record?” Mark continued to ask. Ivan gave a slight smile. “You know how we were supposed to make an interactive video in the supercollider?” Ivan asked, sensing Mark knew what he was talking about. “I see,” Mark said. “Sarah wants to see the interior of the collider?” He continued. “Exactly,” Ivan replied. Mark’s enthusiasm faded as he expressed slight concern. “Not worried about your memory card?” He asked. Ivan, already anticipating the question, confidently replied, “I have one of the best cameras. Won’t run out anytime soon.”
As the two men continued to talk, they were suddenly stopped by sounds from the television mounted on the wall. It was broadcasting a disturbing news report. “Local police in Houston have discovered three charred remains that seemed to have fallen from the sky,” the broadcaster said in a formal tone. “Unsettlingly, forensics have discovered that these remains seemed to be of human origin.” Ivan and Mark looked at each other, seemingly curious as to what the news broadcast had just detailed. “This news is everywhere on the Internet,” Mark said. “Three human remains, falling from the sky?” he continued. Ivan also wondered and theorized as to what the cause of such an event could be. “I don’t know for sure, but maybe-“ Ivan’s words were suddenly cut out as a man that looked familiar suddenly rushed up to Ivan. The man grabbed him by the shoulders, startling him. What disturbed Ivan even more was that the man held an uncanny similarity to himself. “Please! Please do not go with them!” The man plead. “Turn back now, please! For the love of God!” He continued.
Mark pushed the man away from Ivan, causing him to fall to the ground. “Please don’t go!” He continued. Weirded out by the encounter, Ivan and Mark slowly backed away from the man, as airport security dragged him away. He continued to scream and yelp, begging them to stay in the airport and screaming, “It’s a loop! It’s a loop!”. “What just happened?” Somebody said from behind. Ivan quickly turned around and saw one of his colleagues from the supercollider, Troy Burns. He was accompanied by another worker from the supercollider, Don Henderson. The two men have seemingly appeared out of nowhere and have apparently witnessed the bizarre ordeal that befell Ivan and Mark. The latter chuckled and simply brushed it off, as he approached Troy and Don to politely greet them. Ivan, however, stood still in fear and shock. When he locked eyes with that man, he felt something odd. His face, Ivan kept recalling, looked exactly like him. Nonetheless, he followed Mark and the others out of the airport, but the encounter certainly left an impact to his mind.
Ivan, Mark, Troy, and Don were now in a company-issued car. They were going down a long, rough dirt road that led away from the main road and into the forests. It was still noon as they were driving, but combined with the encounter at the airport, Ivan felt uneasy. “What are we even doing, going back to the supercollider in the weekends?” Troy jokingly asked to Don. “I don’t know, but it better not be janitor duty again,” Mark replied. Don was a higher-up amongst the group, and was more experienced in his job. Troy had only joined three years ago, but he had already gotten used to his job. Ivan and Mark were relatively new; while Mark was good in the science aspects of the job, Ivan knew only the technical and mechanical aspects of the supercollider, as he alone maintained the entirety of the supercollider’s system, aided with its AI overseer, MINOS. “I know you have just gotten out of your vacations,” Don said, addressing everybody in the car. “But relax, our job today is simple: get in, make sure all the systems are right, and get out. Simple as that,” he said. “Why won’t they just ask somebody else? It’s not like we have a shortage of workers, right?”
Troy asked, seemingly challenging Don. “I guess they think we’re the best,” Ivan said, trying to lighten the mood. The rest of the group mustered a chuckle, and as they did, they saw the familiar white sign in front of the thick metal gates. They have arrived to their workplace. The sign was a bit dusty, but it said, “Miles Under Supercollider.” Mark looked over to Ivan. “I always love how they come up with such a reassuring name,” he said sarcastically.
Exiting out of the car, they stepped onto the gravel path that led up to a grey, dome-like structure. “Miss this place? So do I,” Don said. Nobody in the group responded to him. As they carefully walked up to the dome, Ivan could see the all too familiar entrance to the supercollider: a plain metal door activated via a facial recognition system. The supercollider’s AI system, MINOS, has a complete database of all the supercollider’s workers, and it would only allow in those workers. Troy approached the facial recognition tab, and spoke to it. “Hey, Minos, it’s us. Recognize us still? We just gotta get in for a pointless checkup,” Troy said. The tab began to scan the face of Troy, and it beeped positively, accompanied by a green light. “Affirmative, thank you for registering, Troy Burns,” MINOS said. Don was next to be scanned, and it also beeped positively. Then came Ivan’s turn. “I suggest that you place the camera down for the scanning, Ivan,” MINOS said as it scanned him. Ivan complied, and he gave the camera to Mark.
Ivan’s scan beeped positively, and he quickly stepped aside for Mark’s scan. He gave the camera to Ivan again, and after he was scanned, the group all gathered in front of the door. It let out a hiss and it automatically opened, revealing a contrast to the entrance’s seemingly technological look. Beyond the doors was a rusty metallic elevator, that was wide enough to hold upwards to twenty people. The group cautiously entered the elevator, as MINOS announced overhead. “Welcome to the Miles Under Supercollider, the new leap for quantum physics.” Don looked at the anxious Troy, patting him on the back. “It’d be fine, it wouldn’t fall,” he said. After MINOS finished talking, the doors slammed shut and the elevator began to go down. Troy was startled as he heard the metal chains reeking. “Okay, that’s why we’re here,” Don said. “Fix this place up. Otherwise, we’re gonna get lawsuits like this,” he continued, addressing the reeking.
As the elevator doors opened, the group saw the familiar futuristic metal hallways. Ivan always thought that it looked like the interiors of a spaceship. The lights embedded in the hallway slowly lit the way for the group. “What have you been occupying yourselves with during your holiday?” MINOS asked to the group. “Me and Mark just went to a trip in Miami,” Ivan replied to the AI. “All I did was sleep in my home,” Troy said. Don didn’t acknowledge the AI, and he continued to walk ahead of the group. Ivan felt a sense of wonder as he walked in the hallways of the supercollider. He felt the faint reverberation of the supercollider moving through the hallways like a beating vein. To think that this supercollider held only a few hundred workers and almost everything was controlled by an AI seemed straight out of a science-fiction book. Of course, MINOS was far from complete, and it couldn’t fix any mechanical damage. All it could do was control the capacity and power of the entire complex, and to also override any preexisting systems if it felt like there was an emergency.
Ivan continued to film the interiors of the hallways, focusing on its rough edges that gave it a futuristic yet realistic look to it. As the group continued to walk through the hallway, Don stopped in his tracks and swiftly looked over to the rest of the group. “Alright, to cover more ground, we’re going to have to split up. You all know this place is big and was designed to be housed by hundreds of people, but today it’s just the four of us that are here,” Don said. “And I will be in any interface you find if you require anything of assistance,” MINOS said. Don pointed at Mark, and gestured for him to come with him. “I will be going with Mark. Ivan, you will go with Troy,” Don ordered. As Don and Mark rushed ahead, Ivan looked over to Troy. “So, where are we going to inspect first?” he asked to Troy. “I don’t know, you lead the way!” he replied. Ivan pondered for a while, and, almost as if it could hear his thoughts, MINOS began to speak overhead. “Places of interest that you may investigate are the electrical station and the supercollider itself.” Troy shrugged after hearing MINOS’s suggestion. “So, electrical station?” He asked. Ivan gave an approving nod, and the duo took a left, away from the main hallway.
“So, have you wondered about the history of this place?” Ivan asked to Troy, who was walking ahead of him. “Of course, I know the history of this place. We work here for God’s sake,” Troy replied. “Nerd named Miles Under founded this place, got hired into a company, helped them build a supercollider and it was almost shut down, but here we are now,” he said. “You don’t know about the company’s history, though?” Ivan asked. Troy seemed confused, and inquired to Ivan about what he meant. “The company had a weird history: it was a drone manufacturing company, then a delivery service, and then a science institute managing a whole supercollider. Weird, I know, but interesting.” Troy looked amazed at the facts that had been brought up by Ivan. But during their conversation, they were suddenly disturbed by a loud bang coming from the room next to them. It came from a worker’s lounge.
“What was that?” Ivan asked, partially unsettled by the sound. Troy stared at Ivan, and gestured for him to go inside the room. “Maybe something’s damaged?” Troy said. Swiftly, the duo entered the lounge. The lights suddenly flickered inside the room, and the duo heard that the banging stopped. They instinctively looked to their right, where they believed the banging to have come from. “MINOS, scan the worker’s lounge,” Ivan said to the AI. “There is nothing inside the worker’s lounge,” MINOS replied after a few seconds. Suddenly, they heard a loud bang come from the wall. The banging grew louder and louder, and it gradually became more and more chaotic. The duo were no longer weirded out, but rather afraid. Then, as the banging grew so loud, it just stopped. Silence befell the room, as if nothing happened. “What on earth happened?” Troy said, terrified as he continued to stare down the wall. “I don’t know,” Ivan said. Quickly, the duo exited the room.
“Can we talk about what just happened?” Troy asked to Ivan. The duo had run so fast, they realized that they have arrived to the electrical station. The wires shone themselves like slithering snakes, wrapped up into almost one big amalgamation. “Look, I don’t know, and I’m afraid as well, Troy,” Ivan said. His hands were shaking while he still held his camera. “Look, Troy, I need you to just get in there and fix anything wrong inside. The faster we get out, the better. I’ll wait over here and call the others,” Ivan continued, sounding shaky. “Why do we have to split up?!” Troy shouted. “You’re good at your job!” Ivan said. He grabbed onto Troy’s shoulders. “Listen, I’ll fix the supercollider, you just fix the electrical station. Alright?” Ivan said. Troy gulped and nodded, and he went into the electrical station. Ivan pulled out his phone and typed in Don’s number, and called him. “Hey Don, we just arrived to the electrical station. Can you all converge into the supercollider room? It needs fixing. Me and Troy would get there as soon as possible, once electrical has been dealt with,” Ivan said.
Don grunted from the other side of the phone. “Alright. But make it quick. We’re done with our inspection anyways, so unless you want to keep things longer than it should be, then finish up the job,” Don replied. Ivan typed in another number on the phone. It was Sarah’s number, and he began to call her. Nobody seemed to be there to pick up, so Ivan went straight to voice mail. “Hey, Sarah, sorry I just called you now. I’m just finishing up a check on the supercollider. Be there in a few hours. Love you,” he said before sliding his phone back to his pocket. Ivan then stared into the interior of the electrical station, and shouted. “Troy, are you done? If there’s nothing to fix or if it’s something MINOS can fix, then just get out,” he shouted. Ivan was no doubt getting scared. The banging noise seemed unexplainable, but he refused something paranormal occurred. He works in a supercollider after all, he no longer believed in old mysticism. But this encounter felt real. That and the man that approached him in the airport made Ivan shudder. “Troy, are you in there?!” Ivan shouted again. He was feeling more panicked now. Where was Troy? “MINOS, scan the electrical station. Is Troy Burns inside, and if so, where is he?” Ivan said with visible fear in his tone. MINOS’s reply stopped Ivan in his tracks.
“How the heck could you have lost Troy?!” Don screamed at Ivan, who simply stood in a mix of fear and embarrassment. Don made his point clearer by needlessly smashing his fists onto the metal wall. Mark, who was standing across the supercollider’s control room, watched as the scene before him unfolded. “I don’t know, alright!” Ivan shouted back at Don, in a shaky voice. “We were talking a second ago, and then the next he just disappeared. I asked MINOS to scan the room again, and it said nobody was inside.” Don gave a frustrated look. He pushed Ivan away, and secluded himself to a corner. Swiftly, he pulled out his phone from his pocket and typed in Troy’s number. Meanwhile, Ivan grabbed his camera and swiped through the footage stored within it so far. “Troy? Troy, do you read me?” Don asked. As Ivan checked the hours of footage in his camera, his mind began to wonder about the bizarre events that had occurred today. Three bodies falling from the sky in Houston, a crazy man approaching him in the airport telling him ‘not to go’, weird banging in the worker’s lounge, and now Troy suddenly disappearing out of thin air, with MINOS unable to find him as well. Mark slowly approached Don, who was clearly agitated and frustrated. “Look, Don,” he began, “we can try finding him. The facility is big, but Troy definitely knows his way around. If he got lost, he could ask MINOS, right? And if he didn’t, he’s probably waiting by the elevator.” Despite Mark’s calm reassurances, Don replied to him in a hostile manner. “That’s exactly what I feared!” Don shouted. “Now we have to find this dumb nitwit and waste our precious time! I do not want to get called by our supervisor if we somehow lost Troy!” he continued. Ivan looked towards Don, feeling sorry for Mark but also feeling bad for himself.
The electrical station was not even large. Ivan feared that maybe Troy fell through the floor? Like into a vent or some other chamber? Ivan’s thoughts were stopped as Don suddenly approached him again. “And are you still recording your stupid video?!” He screamed. Don hit the camera away, and it fell to the floor. The impact was so hard that the camera shattered, the glass of its lens spreading everywhere and the lens cap popping out. “You lost Troy, and you think it’s fine to record?!” Don continued, increasing his tone. Ivan, feeling pissed about Don’s behaviour, stood his ground. “You don’t care about Troy anyways! All you care is about how it would affect your reputation and how it would affect the company! You just care about your friends as long as it benefits your selfish needs!” Ivan shouted. Don punched Ivan in the face, knocking him back against the control panels laid throughout the room. “Don’t talk to me like that, you annoying bi-“ Don’s words were cut off as Mark dragged him away from Ivan. “Calm your nerves, Don!” Mark said as he stared down Don. “It’s not the end of the world! Troy couldn’t have gotten lost. He’s forgetful, but he knows his way around this place. We’ll find him, even if it takes an extra hour or two. And at least we got some things done. We’re in the supercollider control room anyways, so at the very least we can fix any major problems here.” Don began to calm his breathing down. “And we can just call other workers available today to help finish our jobs. Sure, management would question us, but I’m sure they’ll understand the delay if an employee was injured or missing.” Don looked over to Ivan, who was still processing what just happened. Finally, Don gave a relenting sigh. “Fine. We’ll calibrate systems to the supercollider while we’re here in the control room. And we’ll try finding Troy along the way,” he said. He then stared at Ivan in a still hostile manner. “And I expect you to help, Ivan, and not sit around like a coward.” Ivan simply nodded. He crouched down to collect the pieces of his broken camera, with Mark helping him. Beyond the glass of the control room, the supercollider emitted loud hums that shook through the facility. Ivan found it soothing, somehow. “Thanks, man,” Ivan said to Mark. But he didn’t respond.
The trio walked through the metal hallways once more, with Don occasionally asking MINOS to scan the entire facility for any signs of Troy. Oddly, MINOS kept repeating that Troy could not be located. As they walked, Ivan pulled out his phone and typed in Sarah’s number. “You calling Sarah?” Mark asked. Ivan looked towards him, and gave a nod of agreement. “I need to tell her about the things going down here,” Ivan said. Suddenly, Don turned around and took Ivan’s phone from his hands. “No telling anybody of this problem,” Don said. Ivan was bewildered about Don’s behaviour. He thought Mark had calmed Don down, but apparently, he acted the same. “I was just calling Sarah,” Ivan said. Don ignored, and slid Ivan’s phone into his pocket. Mark seemed to have disregarded Don’s actions, and attempted to strike a conversation with him. “Look, we’ll be more organized next time. At least the supercollider’s fine,” Mark said as he patted Don’s shoulders. Ivan began to walk slower as he distanced himself away from Mark and Don. “What bothers me is something else,” he said to Mark in a quieter tone. Mark seemed confused, and inquired about what else he was worried about. “Did you at least fix any problems inside the electrical station, Ivan?” Don asked, dodging Mark’s inquiries. Ivan hesitated to reply to Don knowing his emotions, but replied anyways. “I think so,” he said. Don stopped in his tracks and began to sound furious again. Great, what else did I say this time? Ivan thought. “What do you mean?” Don asked. Ivan knew where Don was going with this. “Look, I don’t know, Troy was the one fixing things up,” Ivan replied. Don chuckled and shook his head. Mark didn’t do anything to help Ivan. “And what were you doing, Ivan?!” Don shouted, his voice echoing through the hall. Ivan realized Don had a point. He was so freaked out that when Troy disappeared, he didn’t bother to enter the electrical station, but rather asked MINOS to scan for him. “I won’t be surprised if management wants you fired tomorrow,” Don commented.
Tension continued to linger amongst the group. Despite Mark’s best efforts to calm Don down, no method seemed to work. But as the trio continued to walk, Mark noticed something. “Hey look, it’s the electrical station,” Mark said. Ivan realized it, too. But something felt a little different. He didn’t know if it was the wires that changed position or what, but he definitely felt like something changed. “Well, Ivan,” Don said, slowly staring at him. “Why don’t you take another look inside by yourself and find Troy, hm?” he continued. Mark then asked MINOS to scan the electrical station once more, and after receiving a negative response, Don pulled Ivan and pushed him to the electrical station. Ivan fell to the floor once again. But he quickly stood up and brushed himself off. “Fine, but you’ll eat raw meat if I don’t find Troy inside,” Ivan said. Don laughed it off, and he kicked Ivan further inside the electrical station. The entire room seemed oddly dim, as opposed to the other rooms in the facility. Ivan ignored Don’s further comments, finding him irritable enough today. Ivan then turned on his portable flashlight, shining its light onto the lower level of the electrical station. Finding nothing there, he proceeded to climb upstairs. As he did so, he felt an intense aura befall him. He could just sense something was off. His heart began pounding, his mind racing. And he soon realized why. When Ivan reached the upper level of the electrical station, he let out a terrified scream. “Mark! Don! Help me!” He screamed.
The trio simply stood in shock at the scene before them. It felt straight out of a bizarre dream, or a nightmare even. Mark was paralyzed in fear, and so was Ivan. But Don seemed to be mute of the scene before him. Nonetheless though, the trio all saw the same thing: sticking out of the metal wall, was a human hand, embedded into the wall. And eerily of all, the hand had a ring. The ring belonged to Troy. They had found him. Or at least his hand. Don immediately approached the hand, and tried his best pulling it out. Mark followed suit, and tried to help Don pull the hand out. “Hang in there, Troy!” Mark shouted. In the midst of the chaos, Ivan’s phone dropped out from Don’s pocket. Ivan, also in a state of panic, grabbed his phone and attempted to call Sarah again. But to his horror, he realized that there was no Internet connection. But it didn’t make sense, right? The facility had a good Internet connection, but why did it shut down? Ivan then looked to Mark and Don trying to pull Troy’s hand out. He stood up and tried helping them as well, pulling along Troy’s wrists. But it would not come out. Ivan heard the bones crack from the hand. The hand was almost as if part of the wall itself, rather than sticking out from within the wall. Ivan also began to realize the improbability of the event in front of him; taking into account the location the hand was and the way it was sticking out, Ivan rationalized that the rest of Troy’s body must be deeper in the interior of the wall. Otherwise, the bones in his body would have cracked. As fast as the situation unfolded, the hand simply disappeared. Mark and Don were pulling it so hard, and when it disappeared, they fell backwards. Ivan suddenly felt shivers across his body. The trio wondered what just happened. “Did Troy’s hand just…?” Mark attempted to find the right words for it, but couldn’t. Ivan was in shock. Troy’s hand disappearing into nothing in front of their eyes was obviously unsettling. Don, who seemed oddly calm, brushed himself off, but still seemed startled nonetheless.
The trio were now racing back to the elevator. They were all speechless as to what happened. “Hands don’t just get embedded to a wall that’s not even hollow!” Ivan said as he tried keeping his pace with the others. “Smart observation, Sherlock,” Don replied. “Look, the faster we get out of here, the better,” he continued. Ivan looked to Mark, who had remained silent since. He tried calling MINOS for whatever reason, but the AI didn’t respond multiple times, as if it was shut down or offline or something. “You think somebody’s messing with us?!” Ivan asked. “Yeah, I do think the same, Ivan! And that’s why I just want to go back to the damn elevator!” Mark replied swiftly. Don brought up another strange occurrence as they ran. “I don’t understand why MINOS is acting quiet!” he said. He continued to explain how MINOS always had response delays, but in a matter as serious and unexplainable as this, it would have definitely responded to the trio’s cries for help. “Stop talking and just keep moving!” Ivan said. The trio rushed past every room they saw, and the sounds of footsteps on the hard metal floor reverberated across the hall. But suddenly, the lights to the hallway flickered on and off, before suddenly going dark. The trio were now plunged in darkness. “Holy cow! I can’t see!” Mark screamed in fear. Don pulled out his flashlight, and the light shone across the now dark hallway. “Come on, the elevator is just straight ahead! I know it!” They continued to run like lightning speed. The trio acknowledged a sign plastered on the metal wall which said “ELEVATOR”, with an arrow pointing ahead. But just a few minutes later, Don’s flashlight turned off. “You ran out of power?!” Ivan said in the darkness. Mark turned on another flashlight, and the trio, without saying a word, continued to sprint ahead. “Wait, what?!” Don screamed. The trio stopped to their tracks, and they realized that they had just passed the ELEVATOR sign again. The trio walked just a few steps more, but then they found themselves at the ELEVATOR sign again. “How are we looping?!” Ivan asked. “Ivan! Where’s Mark?!” Don said. Instinctively, Ivan turned around to where Mark should’ve been, but found nobody. “Mark! Mark!” Ivan shouted. Ivan then noticed Don running ahead of him, and not wanting to be abandoned in the dark, Ivan caught up to him. “Wait for me, Don!” Ivan shouted. “Hurry up, Ivan, for the love of God!” Don shouted. Suddenly, he grabbed Ivan by the hand, and the pair then quickly enter a room to their right. Entering the room, Don quickly shut the door manually, and the two sighed relief. The pair did not even talk for a few minutes after, as they tried processing what happened.
“So, we just got to stay here, huh?” Don said as he calmed his breathing. Ivan looked to Don, who was barely visible in the dark. “What just happened to Mark?” Ivan asked. Don seemed confused as to his statement. “What do you mean, you didn’t here Mark screaming?!” Don said. Ivan also felt creeped out, and replied back to Don. “You heard him scream? I heard nothing behind me!” Ivan said. Don simply sighed, and the pair now sit side by side against the wall. Breaking the silence, Don looked over to Ivan. “You think the same thing that happened to Troy also happened to Mark?” He asked. Ivan felt alarmed at Don’s question. “I do not want to imagine Mark being embedded into the wall, Don!” Ivan shouted loudly. “Look, after we catch our breaths, we’re gonna try getting out there, run straight ahead, reach the elevator, and get the hell out of here! Leave management to find out what happened here,” Ivan suggested to Don. “But what if we loop-?” Don suddenly stopped his sentence, seemingly cutting out what he wanted to say. “We’re just gonna run straight ahead, Don! And pray to God that we reach the elevator,” Ivan said. Don sighed. “I just want to go home, Ivan.”
The pair now exit from the room, and enter themselves once more into the dark abyss of the hallway. Without having second thoughts, Ivan and Don began running straight ahead. Their rapid footsteps were the only sounds accompanying them in the darkness. The duo once again run past the ELEVATOR sign, and Ivan could sense Don praying that they don’t end up in the same place again. But suddenly, the duo see light ahead of them. It emanated from what seemed like a flashlight. Ivan increased his pace, and he bolted to the flashlight without questioning. But then he stopped right at his tracks once he realized who held the flashlight. “Don…” Ivan slowly said. Don also stopped in his tracks, and looked in disbelief. In front of the duo, holding the flashlight, was another Don. He looked exactly like the one besides Ivan. Don’s hand shook in fear, and so to did the other Don with a flashlight. As quickly as he came, the Don with a flashlight suddenly materialized out of existence, dropping the flashlight. Without thinking clearly anymore. Don grabbed the flashlight without questioning that it belonged to a doppelganger of him in the dark, yet Ivan also didn’t question it. The duo continue to sprint, but then saw something that discouraged their journey. They found themselves back at the ELEVATOR sign. Don simply gave up, and he went inside the room they went in earlier. “What are you doing, Don?! We gotta keep moving!” Ivan said to Don. But Don hushed him away. “Ivan. I need to tell you something.” Don said, His words seemed to echo through the dark hall. “What are you talking about?!” Ivan said. “Ivan, I know what’s happening,” Don said.
“The Miles Under Supercollider, it wasn’t built by Miles Under nor the company,” Don explained, his voice hanging in the dark. “We discovered it. In the 19th century, Ivan. Technology like this, found miles under the earth, in the 19th century. We didn’t build it, we found it.” Ivan simply stood in confusion and fear. The events that had happened occurred so fast, that Ivan couldn’t keep up anymore. And now Don was saying that the supercollider was built in the 19th century and was not built by humans? Either way, Ivan simply let Don talk. “And this facility, it was not built to let us see atoms smashing together. This facility was built to analyse the supercollider itself. But still, we don’t know how it got here, and who or what built it.” Even though Ivan couldn’t see Don clearly, he seemed to notice that Don was moving more erratically. “This supercollider distorts time and space itself. Anything that touches this time-bending and space-distorting aura becomes distorted. Mark and Troy, they didn’t disappear; they got transported to the past. And I’m sure you know at what time they ended up in,” Don said. “It’s all over the news this morning.” Ivan suddenly froze in place. “You mean… Mark and Troy… they’re… the bodies that fell from the sky?” Ivan said. At first, Don didn’t make sense, but after hearing this information, Ivan found himself strangely making sense of this ordeal. “That’s why Troy got embedded in the wall; the supercollider itself teleported and materialized him into the wall. That’s why we just saw a version of me holding a flashlight; that was either a Don from another universe or from another timeline,” Don said. Ivan stood in a mix of awe and disbelief. “How did you know this?” Ivan asked. “And weren’t there three bodies that fell from the sky? Who’s the third-?” Ivan’s words got cut out as the hallway lit up again. And where Don should’ve been standing, there was nobody there. Ivan looked around and called out Don’s name, but he was met with silence.
But as Ivan was left in the facility, the walls of the hallway began to shift and distort itself. And in the blink of an eye, Ivan found himself in a dark place once again. It felt cold, like space, and as far as Ivan could see, it was darkness all over. “Where am I?!” He asked in a panic. He looked behind him, and he saw the frame of a large metal wall. It looked like a wall from the facility. In a state of panic as to where he is, he rushed over to the wall and banged on it. He banged it so hard, it echoed through the void. “Hey! Hey!” Ivan shouted. He didn’t know who would hear his shouting, but it was instinctive anyway. Ivan continued banging on the metal wall, but as he began to bang faster and louder on the metal wall, the space around him distorted and shifted once more. Ivan was suddenly blinded by light. He had just appeared from a dark space-like void, and now he was suddenly exposed to light. He heard a familiar dinging noise, like one you’d hear from an airport announcement. Ivan stood up from the smooth white ground, and looked at his hands. They looked dirty and rough. As Ivan stood up completely, he suddenly realized where he was. It was indeed an airport. But not just any airport. It looked like the airport he was in this morning. The people around him gave him weird looks. And then, Ivan saw something that made his heart stop: just in front of him, sitting on a metal chair and holding a camera, was Ivan himself. It looked exactly like Ivan earlier this morning.
“What did Don say? Transported to the past?” Ivan thought as his mind tried to rationalize this. Without thinking clearly, Ivan rushed over to his past self and grabbed his past self’s shoulders, locking eye contact with him. “Please! Please do not go with them!” Ivan said to his past self. “Turn back now please, for the love of God!” But airport security guards suddenly grabbed Ivan from behind. They began dragging him across the floor, dragging him away from his past self and past Mark. “Please don’t go!” Ivan tried shouting. In a last-ditch effort, he screamed, “It’s a loop! It’s a loop!” But to no use. He was dragged away, further and further from his past self and past Mark.