Tale 3 – Trapped
You wake up on a dirty mattress and must be wondering to yourself, “What did I do to deserve this?” The answer: nothing. You just fell down from an air vent as if you were disposable trash. You then shake off your feelings of tiredness and anger and take in your surroundings. The location you appear to be in is a seemingly underground building with air vents, dirty green walls and floors, and windows that lead to walls. There are live cameras on the walls as if you’re part of an experiment or show. Whatever the case may be, you give the camera the finger then look for the exit. The building’s layout is odd so it forces you to guess where to go next and yet, the colors of the floors and ceiling become light as if they’re guiding you to your destination or away from it. You notice this and follow the colors to an open elevator that closes once you walk into it.
A familiar voice comes through a speaker in the elevator. “You are now presented with a choice. This elevator can only go up and down one floor. If you choose up, a police officer will die. If you choose down, a soldier will die. Choosing neither will kill all three of you. Both are dedicated to their jobs and good people but must give their life to save yours. It’s their job to protect citizens like you, so who will be your hero?”
You pace back and forth in the elevator while cursing at the camera. You try to open the elevator doors but nothing opens them. Forced to make a decision, you choose…the officer. It seems that you made this decision because you think this’ll get you out of this underground looking place faster and that a soldier can do more good than a police officer. Someone is screaming above you and blood is bathing you as it leaks down from the ceiling. Once the elevator moves up and the doors open, you quickly rush out and wipe the blood off your face and guilt off your mind.
This floor’s colors are rusty, brown and the layout is different than the last’s. On this floor, you find a mother who is cradling herself in a corner. She has just gone through a choice similar to yours. One that has scarred her for life. She loved her kids equally so she couldn’t get herself to choose one or the other, which lead to both of them dying and her being covered in their blood as they screamed for her. You try helping her, but she is in too much shock to move so you make your way through this floor’s maze and make it to the next elevator.
The voice speaks through the speakers. “Another choice is presented to you. This elevator is the same as the last but with different choices. If you choose up, a murderer who avenged their child by killing a teenager will die. If you choose down, you will go down a floor. Choose neither and you will both die.”
You think for a second before choosing down. After the last question, it looks like that you don’t want any more blood on your hands even if the person might deserve it. Again, you go through the same floor you just went through and enter another elevator.
The voice says, “Let me tell you something that that mother you met doesn’t know. One of her children did survive her non-choice. It was just a test to see what she would choose, but now you have a choice. Save her by going down. Save the child by going up. Choosing neither will kill both and reunite the family in the afterlife and will force you to go to a newly revealed elevator on this floor.”
This difficult choice makes you walk back and forth a bit before you choose to go up. You close your ears to her screaming before you run out of the elevator in her blood. On this familiar level, you see the face of someone new. Someone who has made similar choices and is coated in the same colors as you.
“Hello,” you say.
“Hey, do you know what’s happening around here?”
“I have an idea, but I don’t know more than you.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.”
“You think it’d be a good idea to stick together?”
“Yeah, I guess, but I don’t know what the upside is.”
“We could make the decisions together so it’s easier to choose.”
“True, but we’re still deciding on someone’s life.”
“Hmmm. You’re right.”
“But we can still escape here together. I’d rather be with someone rather than no one.”
The two of you shake hands then walk together through the maze of this floor.
“So, what’s your story?” you ask.
“I don’t really have an interesting one. I’m just a normal teacher at a high school.”
“Oh, well what do you teach?”
“Mathematics.”
“I won’t even comment about that.”
“What do you do then?”
“It’s a long story, but it’s nothing too special.”
“So, we’re basically both normal people.”
“Mostly normal.”
“Right, I wonder who would kidnap mostly normal people.”
“I don’t have a clue.”
“Me neither.”
The next elevator you go to is one that has a cage for both of you. One side is green, the other is blue. You both pick a side to stand on with you choosing green. The voice comes on once you are both in and says, “Since you two are here together, you’ll have a unique choice to make. One person must decide to sacrifice their life for the other. The person on the green side is making this decision. Up makes the decision maker live, down makes you die. Pushing neither makes both of you die. You have five seconds to choose.”
“I thought something like this would happen! So it comes down to this,” your friend says.
“What are you talking about?”
“Press up.”
“Are you sure?”
“Just do it already!”
Without time to think, you press up and the elevator is split in half with your friend’s half falling down to the bottom floor. You’re glad that you didn’t choose to end a life, but at the same time, you did. The elevator goes up and presents to you a new floor with a different design. It has a crimson color to it and there are cell doors blocking some of the rooms. One of the doors open and you enter it to find a room filled with red lights. You look to your left and see another person who’s in a similar room though you can’t see their face.
The voice comes on from speakers in the room. “Your fate will be decided with a race. You two will run through a maze and the first person who gets to the elevator goes up while the person who loses will have to go down. Good luck.”
You quickly face the door and wait for the door to open. Once the lights in the room go green and an air horn sounds off, you start to run your ass off. Despite the fact that you’re competing with a police officer, you manage to stay ahead of them. The fear of staying in this underground facility pushes you forward until you eventually make it to the elevator first. The elevator moves up one floor before it stops. You walk around the elevator and try pressing the buttons in it, but nothing happens. A scream is heard below you and you jump in response. The elevator then resumes its climb upward until it opens at the top floor. You enter what looks to be a control room with cameras, switches, and other such mechanisms operated by people whose faces are cloaked in darkness. A bulletproof glass wall separates you from them, but what you are most focused on, is the person who is looking at you and ready to answer your questions. That person, which is me.
You step forward and ask, “Why?”
“You’re not going to try to attack me like last time? That’s progress,” I say.
“Answer the question.”
“Okay. We do this to test human decision making when they are faced with difficult choices that are in the gray area.”
“But why did you have to make people decide on killing each other?”
“Because that’s what makes it difficult. Every choice saves, spares, or kills a life.”
“You’re sick for making people do this.”
“Am I? I said the choices kill people but did they really die? No, they didn’t. It only seemed like they did to you so you would feel something after making your decision. No one here dies unless they killed themselves or killed each other with their own hands, which has unfortunately happened.”
You appear to be shocked. I don’t blame you.
You then ask, “So…What happens now? I reached the top. I went through whatever experiments you were conducting. Do I get anything?”
“Yes, you get your freedom.”
You get shot with a tranquilizer dart and get carried out of the building and into a car to get sent back home. You’re going to wake up in your room and maybe think the entire experiment was a dream. If you didn’t, it’s not like you can prove any of this exists. Some people have tried, all of which are helping with this experiment. Nevertheless, I hope you have a good life and I thank you for your involuntary service to humanity.
For me, my day has only just begun as another person gets sent through the vent and falls on a mattress. They groggily get up and must be wondering to themselves, “What did I do to deserve this?”
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