ACT III: TO THE MOON

"A comprehensive study on the Brain: Reading Brainwaves to Memory!"

"Edgar get out of that wretched bedroom and help in the chores." yelled by a lady down the stairs.

"Okay ma! I'll just finish this, it's important." Edgar replied.

"Mom can I go to Michael's house tonight we'll need to sleepover to finish our project?"

"You…" faintly replied by Edgar's mother. "Mom?!"

He goes out and as he opened the room a bright light blinded him for a moment, when he opened his eyes he sees a blurry picture of what it seems to be a stair with pictures in it. A lady and a man on their wedding suites, a piece of frame with an indistinguishable piece of brown paper, and lastly a picture of the couple with a little boy and girl in the center. He continues down the stairs and sees a living room, unlike the stairs it was not blurred out. He sees a fully furnished part of the house, a book case filled with books and magazines with blurry titles except for a thesis on brainwaves and a magazine on Cumber Corporation. He opened both, but all contents are blurred out. "Why does these have clear titles?" he thought.

He went to the kitchen and saw a blurry image of what his alternate younger version of himself called mom. She was as his tall as him, chubby but her face was blank like it was erased. But as soon as he touched the image it immediately collapsed. The ringing sound pierced his eardrums while the whole image of the house crumbled and was sucked with him at the center of a dark vortex.

The sound has finally stopped, left him limp and his ear dripping with blood. He knelt into the very clean white tile now stained with drops of blood. He caught his breath and looked around a room full of lab equipment that surrounds every corner of the room. Erlenmeyer flasks full with red fluid, test tubes full of green chemicals and bottles filled with blue boiling goo stands in the northern part of the room. The southern parts are filled with containers that contains animals like rabbits, frogs, snakes and a big bottle with a big platypus in it.

Microscopes, petri dishes and advance computers fills the western and eastern part of the room. At the center a big cylindrical object that was labeled "CUMBER Quantum Computer" with sophisticated UI marked "Lock v.2.0" and holographic screen in the middle. The blue light of a button shone in Edgar's eyes, with curiosity he softly touched the holographic button marked "SIMULATE". The light in the room instantaneously shuts off and a noticeably loud buzz is heard at the bottom of the room, the blue screen started projecting a rendered animation of nerve synapses and brainwaves at the top right have been displayed. After few minutes of observing the simulation, the lights turned on again illuminating the whole room. He searched for the four direction in the room for anything that will tell him where he is, a clue for his escape. Edgar saw and managed to boot one of the computers in the western side and it suddenly emitted green lasers that was focused in the room. It welcomed him in a robotic voice,

"Hello and welcome User0104. I am the company's AI, FAQA, short for Fully Autonomous Quantum Assistant. I will assist you for only today, at your first day. You are working with us now, CUMBER CORPORATION. We are the leading company in making "DREAMS" and "AMBITIONS" come true. For you to start, I will introduce you in your workplace. This is the "LABORATORY I" or mostly of our employees call "SIM LAB". Specimens in the southern part of the room is for your eyes only. The northern part is for neural tissue sampling, testing and confirming for neural defects that may alter results. The central computer is a "Quantum Computer" it is designed to simulate the activity of the Central Nervous System by using the "Observation Data" collected in the testing area which are located at the eastern and western direction. Do not install applications not needed or unnecessary! If you're ready to start your work, please be in your "PROTECTIVE GEARS" to always avoid sanctions and for safety protocols. GOODBYE! Lock Laboratory v.2.0"

The computer automatically shuts off after an introduction of the workplace when suddenly the Quantum Computer began emitting red light saying "Neural Activity Unstable" and the room starts to crumble. The quake lasted for a minute and left broken lab equipment and containers in the floor. The room was filled with odors produced by spilled chemicals and formalin treated specimen that preserved them for years in the containers, and also the red light coming from the open door of the laboratory. He got out of the room and found the controls. He locked the door to seal of the disgusting image of dead animals and the odor of the chemicals that have made him very sick.

Outside the room is a long hallway brightly lit by white light and walls of glass where he can see figures of what it seems people in bunk beds, one person for each window. The room seems to have complete hospital equipment's, but it seemed abandoned because every piece of equipment is in bad shape and some tools was used but was never washed that the stain turned moldy. Labels of "Observation Pod I-X" are put in monitors beside the glass where the whole room can be closely watched by the person in the balcony. He jumped back when the speaker screeched, and the monitor began playing a video of two man speaking inside the room.