THURSDAY


You wake up to the sound of…well you can't quite place it. White noise might be the closest thing you can think of, but that wouldn't be correct. It's like an annoying hum or buzz going straight to your head. You get up and see that the TV is off from yesterday, so it isn't that.

"Jack? You hear that noise?" you call out in a groggy tone.

There isn't any answer, just that increasingly annoying noise.

You attempt to get up and it takes you a couple tries, not because you're naturally lazy, but more because you're starting to feel nauseous. The noise you're hearing isn't helping matters.

You get up on your feet and stagger to the door way which when you get to, you lean up against and feel like you're going to puke.

"Jack…" you just barely manage to shout, before you have to stop to keep from vomiting.

You look up and down the corridor and find that the lights are flickering. Some are out completely. You have no idea what the hell is going on, but you'd probably be more scared if you didn't feel so sick.

Mustering up all your willpower, you head to the bedroom thinking Jack might be asleep in there. Nobody there, but you can't fight the sickness any longer and you run as fast as you can to the bathroom nearly falling over in the process.

You just barely manage to make it to throw up in the toilet. The lights are going nuts at this point and you notice the bathtub and sink are both on. After recovering a bit, you notice the stuff coming out of the sink isn't exactly water. It's black and tarry looking. You don't risk touching it, you just get the hell out of the bathroom.

No sooner have you done this, when a sudden loud noise hits you so hard you actually stumble and fall to the floor. You wouldn't even be able to describe the sound, it's just really horrible and even though you've just puked, you still feel pretty damn nauseous.

Picking yourself back up and leaning against the wall, you slowly try to make your way to the room where Jack was messing about with his radio stuff. You don't feel like you're getting anywhere though, in fact the more you walk, the more you feel like you're on a treadmill in an endless corridor.

You continue on, but as you pass by rooms you can swear you're seeing weird things out the corner of your eye. You then start thinking you're seeing shit in front of you as well. Shadowy humanoid figures blink in and out existence along with the lighting.

At this point the feeling of terror is becoming stronger than your feeling of sickness. The white noise is still drilling into your head, but now it's accompanied by an insane laugh, which varies in pitch and tone. When you pass the flight of stairs, you hear whispery voices beckoning you go in that direction. You're hardly enticed to do so.

As you get closer to the radio room, the shadowy figures can be seen running about in the large room up ahead. As you get closer, these figures are becoming less shadowy and more "solid." These figures are starting to no longer look humanoid either.

It is around this time that you notice your surroundings are becoming… warped. Walls are melting around you and you're seeing those shadowy figures in the next room starting to move in slow motion one moment and then other times you see them rapidly moving back and forth in a repetitious manner. You nearly jump out of your skin when several of these beings appear right in front of you and you get a good look at them now that they aren't so shadowy anymore.

They're a mass of tentacles, teeth and misshaped features that would make any horror movie demon jealous, unfortunately this is no movie. The screeching, wailing, and gibbering are bad enough, the visual is bad enough, but the fetid smell is what puts it over the top in just vile nastiness.

You see one particularly disgusting one with a mutilated face like raw meat and a the scent of a rotten corpse on a hot day, transform into something even worse looking before it opens three of its mouths to reveal its tongues which not only look infested with disease, but have ugly little faces on them.

When it attempts to lick you, you turn and run only to find yourself in a wide open space where everything now looks like it's been put through a multicolored filter. You feel like you're in a rainbow void. When you look behind you however all you see is darkness save for the creatures now moving towards you.

You don't run far when all of a sudden the rainbow filter disappears and is replaced by a flickering affect that you're actually back in a "real" location. It isn't the corridor though, it resembles more of a large college auditorium and in the center is a single figure sitting in a lotus position.

He's bald and not dressed in modern clothing and in fact looks like he's from some sort of nerd cosplay convention. He appears human however.

One thing that's about him that doesn't look human though is his eyes are completely white and not just normal "blind eyes" sort either. They're glowing pure white light.

You become very disorientated as the flickering of this reality disappears and slowly just becomes a blank gray open space with more gray as far as you can see despite there not being any more walls. You see that the creatures behind you aren't following, but they definitely want to get closer. It would seem this man's presence is at least holding them back somehow. At this point you you're completely lost to as what is going on, but you approach the man if it means keeping the monsters at bay.

The man suddenly speaks as you get close to him. He's not really looking at you though, more like looking through you.

"You…I…don't belong here…everything changes…so many changes…been here…before…somewhere else…so much to do…bring balance…the future is beautiful…the past is beautiful…everything is ugly…corrupted…it's beautiful…" the man utters in a fragmented way and you have no idea what the hell he's talking about.
"Where is Jack?! What's going on? Who are you?!" you ask trying to figure out this situation.

To your horror you notice your hands and arms become weathered and wrinkled. From what you can tell, your hair has gone completely white as well. With some hesitation, you feel your face and it definitely doesn't feel smooth anymore.

"Oh my god…" you utter.

"…time is short…fleeting life…the others do not like this place…disrupts balance…" the man says still not moving from his spot.

You then notice your hands and everything else have gone back to normal. This entire situation is very fucked up, and you don't have the faintest idea what's going on, but you hope that "Mr. Lotus" has some answers with all the cryptic shit he's spouting.

"Look! I need answers! What is going on here and who are you?!" you ask again while still looking back to make sure those creatures are still staying away from you.

"A footnote…forgotten… traveller…cursed…blessed…nobody… you must choose… Suzy…" the man utters.
"How did you know my…" you start to ask before you're interrupted.
"You must choose…the others…they come…"

You turn your head and see that the monsters and the darkness are indeed starting to move towards you once again.

"Choose? Choose what?! What are you talking about?!" you ask again.
"You must choose…" the man says again with less of an air of indifference and more of one of authority.
"What am I choosing?"

The area surrounding you and the man begins to darken and now you're getting creatures starting surround you as well.

"You must choose or die…" the man says again.
"Alright! Alright! I choose! But what the fuck am I choosing!?!" you shout with a mixture of fear and frustration.
"You'll know when the time comes…" the man says.

For a brief moment your surroundings change from that of the large classroom auditorium again with the man still in front of you. The blackness has disappeared, but the monsters have not as you see several floating tentacle creatures in the room with you. They aren't quite as disgusting, but they're still dangerous and giving off that aura that's making you feel nauseous again.

Just as you think you see a more humanoid figure enter the room there is suddenly a blinding flash all around you causing you to shield your eyes. Everything goes completely white, to completely black and then when you open your eyes again, you find yourself in the large front room of the building. Items are no longer neatly stack and are instead scattered about all over the place, some of them probably broken.

Still completely baffled by what the fuck is going on, you look around for something to protect yourself with amongst the junk all over the floor. You eventually see a sturdy looking bat and pick it up. Upon inspection you notice the words "RUTH" on it, no doubt one of Jack's valuable purchases.

Speaking of Jack you still haven't seen him, but you soon hear him.

"Suzy?! Suzy? Are you here? Where are you?" you hear him call out. Sounds like it's coming from the corridor, but you don't see anyone. Maybe he's upstairs? You haven't been up there yet, but given what you just experienced, you're a little reluctant to go deeper into this place.

You remember Jack said he was going to tell you something about this building before you fell asleep, well whatever that was, it's apparent that you were right that something about him was weird. Not just weird, but dangerous.

You don't think you're ever going to quite get some of the images out of your head, you even feel a little different. Maybe the sensory overload has made you a bit numb rather than reducing you to a gibbering wreck.

Numb or not, you still have a good mind to just walk out the front door and get the hell out of here.

Maybe this was the "choice" that strange guy was talking about.

You go to Jack

Maybe this isn't a good idea, but considering Jack did save your life a couple times, it seems like a pretty shitty thing to do if you just left him.

With bat in hand, you head towards back to the corridor and call out to Jack.

"Hey Jack! Are you upstairs?" you say.
"Suzy? Yeah! I'm up here! Be careful though, there's still a bunch of weird shit going on."

Not terribly descriptive or encouraging. Weird shit could literally be anything, and in this case probably is.

You head towards the stairs and go up for the first time. As you going up, you have this fear that you're going to start sinking into them, that doesn't happen and when you arrive to the top, you find yourself exiting into a corridor that's laid out very much the same way as the first floor, the only difference is you're across from another set of stairs on the opposite side.

You look to your right and hear some noise causing you to ready your bat, though you soon see Jack exiting room of the side rooms.

"Suzy! I've been looking all over for you." He says approaching with an axe in hand.
"Hey! Keep your distance!" You shout and raise your bat
"What?" Jack asks as he stops in his tracks.
"Sorry, it's just, well there has been as you put it, a lot of weird shit going on and for all I know you're some horrible monster. Not to mention you're coming at me with an axe in hand, though I suppose given the shit I've already encountered, you probably wouldn't have bothered to even stop." You reply lowing the bat.
"Well, you probably were best to err on the side of caution. I've just spent what I believe to be an hour or two looking for you." Jack says.
"I was in your living room downstairs asleep on your couch. Right where you left me last night." You reply.
"Yeah, and you weren't there when I checked on you later this morning. I called out and looked in every room on the first floor. I heard your voice coming from the second floor so I went up there and that's when things started getting weird. (Sigh) and I thought this place was done with all that…should have known better I suppose…"

Jack trails off, but at this point you're demanding an answer.

"Jack, you've saved my life twice, but if I'm going to hang out with you, you better start explaining what the hell's going on with this place. I'm not sure what weirdness you've experienced up here, but what I just experienced downstairs was beyond weird, it was fucking terrifying." You exclaim.
"I know. I know. I should have told you about this place yesterday. Well let's head into this room and talk about it."

Jack heads into a room down the corridor and to the left. You follow and find that it's another living area furnished in a similar manner as the one downstairs. Jack was really like consistency. The pair of you sit and after you tell Jack what happened with you downstairs, Jack apologizes that you had to go through it and then tells you a little about what he knows of this place.

Jack goes on about how he bought this Gray Building years ago for cheap and figured it would also be good to store all his stuff along with being a place he could live and thus no longer living in his mom's basement.

He then mentions he went to check out the place after he bought it and right away he experienced weirdness. He said the first time he opened up the door to the place there was a jungle village inside. He mentions that upon entering the building seemed to whisk him away to this place and his surroundings completely changed.

"Curiosity got the better of me I guess. However it wasn't just a jungle. I found out later when cannibals were chasing me, that I was on an island made of Styrofoam and held together by hemp rope. Barely escaped." Jack says.
"What?! That's…incredibly random." You say.
"That was just the beginning. Of course any right thinking person, would have just written this place off, but I couldn't help but find it fascinating. Of course I found it less fascinating the second time I went in, when I was attacked by these shadow wolf things. Barely survived that too."
"Why the hell did you keep coming back here?"
"Well I actually stayed away after the second time. Though after a few months, I felt drawn to the place again. I can't explain it, but as it turned out third time was the charm, well maybe not entirely, but the place started to become more accommodating. In time, I started to encounter less dangerous shit and the place became more normal, well as normal as it could ever be I suppose. Still, I was never quite willing to go all in and actually live in this place until recently and that's only because of some positive weirdness that I experienced when in this building a few months ago."
"What happened?"
"Well I saw a glimpse of the future and in few days I believe this world as we know it is going to start resembling Road Warrior. Of course even without seeing the future I was listening in on some pretty scary radio broadcasts before the Ground Zero corporation started cracking down and scrambling the airwaves."
"Wait, you say you saw the future, like how exactly? In your head or what?"
"No, it was a portal or rather a small window that opened up on the third floor. Happened rather suddenly while I was up there deciding on where I should put more of my stuff a few weeks ago. I saw Security City get nuked. The town looks like it survived, but I saw that overrun by mad people, like rabid or something. Given how the people in town have been acting and the world situation lately, I'd say what I saw was on the mark. It was then, I decide that I might actually be safer in here."
"Doesn't seem like it, by the look of things." You say.
"No, apparently I was wrong about that. (Sigh) I dunno, I'm sorry I got you involved in all this."
"Well it's done now and it seems like I was fucked no matter what this week. So, is there anything we can do? I mean we can't really stay here I think you'd agree, but if the world is doomed like you're saying, where could we go?"
"Know where there is a fallout shelter?" Jack asks.
"Yes and no. My older brother made one a long time ago back home, unfortunately its entrance is a bit of a mystery now since he's dead."
"That would mean going back to town anyway and with the National Guard and the rabid there I imagine it's going to resemble a warzone."
"Well there has to be somewhere we can…is that snow?" you say noticing the hallway.

At this point Jack stands up and you do too, both with your weapons ready as you approach the hallway where white flakes are falling from the ceiling and snow is starting to fill up the hallway. Jack looks to the left and right and then speaks.

"Well I don't see anything else out of the ordinary except the snow, but I think we better get the hell out of here and take our chances with the outside world, whatever might happen to it." Jack exclaims.
"Don't need to tell me twice." You say and the pair of you run as quickly as you can back down to the first floor.

When you get to the first floor, you and Jack make your turn towards the large front room and that's when reality starts warping and you're getting disoriented again.

"Shit…" Jack says tripping over. You go to help Jack up and that's when you see them again. Those tentacle things coming at you down the hallway, which is once again increasingly being enveloped in darkness. There's no magical bald guy around this time to save you either.

'Oh fuck, we need to move!" You say and start running towards the front room. Jack follows along.

When you get the front room the lights flicker. Junk is still scattered all over the place and there is also no front door now, but TWO open doors.

"What the fuck?" Jack exclaims and then the lighting gets even dimmer and soon you'll be left completely in the dark save for the illumination coming from the open doors.

At glance, one door is leading to what looks to be a tropical area since you're seeing vines, trees and such. The other door is leading to a snowy area and you can even feel the cold air whipping in from that one.

And those creatures are still in pursuit behind you with darkness ever encroaching. You're starting to hear them now in your head, howling, chattering, gibbering. It's madness and you need to leave now.

"Shit, my head…" Jack says staggering.
"Come on! This way!" you say and start heading towards the jungle.
"Wait! That's a fucking jungle, and I know nothing ever good comes from entering one! Remember my first trip here?" Jack says.
"Well, it's either that or the fucking artic and we're not exactly dressed for that!" you say.
"I'd rather take my chances with snow than a jungle."

"It's pointlessss….death…isssss everywhere…embrace madnessss and ssssave yourself… embrace usssssss…" a voice in your head suddenly interjects this is followed by hideous mocking laughter.

Maybe you're getting resilient or something because you manage to keep it together. Jack isn't looking as great though which is odd since you figured he'd be used to something like this. He's having a hard time standing up and you're having a hard time keeping him from falling.

Either way, you're making the decision on which way to go.

The jungle

Jack may have had a bad experience with the jungle before, but you're going to have one infinitely worse you don't get the hell out of here!

You don't know where you're going to end up, but you figure at least there is more chance of survival in the jungle than the tundra or artic or wherever you might end up with the snow door.

Since Jack isn't exactly in a position to argue, you continue heading towards the jungle.

You're almost at the door when everything goes dark. You feel like those things are almost upon you and you can only hope they stop pursuing you when you go through the door.

With a boost of energy and a shove, you and Jack both tumble through the opening and into the jungle area. Soft muddy ground gets all over you both.

You recover as quickly as you can, fearing that those creatures are still right behind you, but when you get up you find that not only are they not, but the Gray Building itself is gone. Nothing is behind save for more jungle.

"Where the hell? Where did it go?" you say.
"It's gone. We're some place completely different and who knows where the hell that building is now. Shit…my head is still throbbing and all fucked up. I still don't feel quite right. Just let me rest here a moment." Jack says still sitting on the ground.

You look around and you have no idea where to go next. You look at the trees and ground and for all you know you're in the Amazon. Certainly feels hot enough and you're already starting to sweat.

"Goddamn, it's hot. Jack I'm going to tell you right now, I MIGHT be taking my shirt off at some point and I can only hope you're a gentleman enough to keep your eyes at least focused on my face when you're directly speaking with me." You say.
"Fuck, with the way I feel, I dunno if I'm even up for that sort of stimulation. Besides, I'm going to be keeping an eye on everywhere else given that we're in a jungle. Ohhh, I really wished you went towards the snow, I got a bad feeling about this."
"What are the chances we're on another Styrofoam island?" you ask.
"Well, I dunno, but it still doesn't change the fact we're in a jungle where all manner of animals, bugs and plants can kill you. I guess we better pick a direction and hope we find friendly civilization." Jack says and gets up.

As Jack gets up while you look around again and decide on a direction.

"Well at least you've still got your axe and I got a bat. The jungle doesn't look as heavy in that direction I suppose. Guess we're going that way." You say.
"I suppose it's as good as a direction as any." Jack replies.

You and Jack begin your trek through the jungle…

Despite the jungle not being as thick in this direction, it's still not an easy walk. The only upside, is the canopy of the trees is at least shielding you from the sun directly. You can honestly say you don't remember when the last time you had to deal with this sort of heat. All that time spent in the cool basement has made you a little less resistant to it you guess.

Jack and you continue to keep your eyes and ears open. So far you've not seen any signs of civilization, but at one point a small purple furry rodent like animal walks by and you can honestly say even with all the animal and nature shows you've seen, you've never seen something like this before. It sees you and squeaks causing you to raise your bat before it runs off.

"What the hell was that?" you ask.
"I dunno, looked like some sort of rat, but purple though." Jack replies.
"Well don't you think a purple rat is a little strange?" you ask.
"Well of course I do, but given that this is where the Gray Building sent us, is it really surprising?"
"I don't mean just that though. I mean before I thought that maybe we were at least still on our world. Weird looking purple rat like creatures aren't exactly native there. Is it possible it sent us to some alien planet?"
"Suzy, with the Gray Building anything is fucking possible."

It's at this moment you lose a little hope. Its one thing to possibly be lost in a jungle on Earth at least there would have been a slim chance of survival if you somehow made it to civilization. The idea of being on some sort of alien planet is a lot more disheartening.

"Great, we are so fucked." You say.
"Probably, but we have to keep moving."
"What the hell's the point? For all we know this whole damn planet is jungle and uninhabited and if it is inhabited I can't imagine the natives are going to be friendly!" you exclaim.
"We don't know if this is an alien planet! I mean maybe we got transported back in time to the Mesozoic Era, we don't know what the hell sort of creatures lived back then or what color they were."
"Oh, so we're in the time of dinosaurs? Yeah, don't think that's any better."

Jack at this point wipes his face and closes his eyes.

"Suzy, it's too hot for us to argue, but I told you I didn't want to go to the jungle anyway!"
"There it is. I told you so. Thanks. Real helpful. (Sigh) Okay, look I'm sorry I'm just…"

At this moment you hear a rustling noise and then a whizzing sound is heard just before blood splatters on you.

Jack looks down briefly to see the top of a spear through his chest. He coughs up blood and falls to his knees looking at you the whole time.

"Oh shit Jack…" you utter and then another spear just narrowly misses your head and hits a nearby tree.

Then you see your assailants coming out of the undergrowth. Several small bipedal lizard like creatures armed with spears. They're not even as tall as you, but they certainty look more than capable of killing you. They hiss at you and one proceeds to finish off Jack who was already dying at that point.

You turn and run in the opposite direction ignoring the fact that you're going to only get yourself further lost in the jungle, you have to escape these things. They screech and they run after you.

Another spear nearly hits you and despite the very real fear of death you're experiencing, the only thing going through your mind is how you curse the day you went out to go get a real job. One day you were living comfortably in a basement and now you're running through a hot ass jungle being chased by fucking lizard aliens.

You already know this isn't going to end well for you. You've been pushing the odds ever since you left the damn basement, and it's only a matter of time before those lizards get you and…

Suddenly you feel a sharp bite to the side of your neck. It isn't a spear. It's some sort fauna that resembles a snake with legs. You didn't even see it, but even if you hadn't been so focused on running, you still wouldn't have seen it due to its camouflage.

Then before your eyes several of these creatures seemingly blink into existence and they're all jumping on you and biting. You've just run into a nest of whatever these things are and you fall to their onslaught.

The only upside is their deadly poison kills you before they can start eating you alive.