THE CONSTRUCT: In The End

PART FIVE

6.

Having walked through that door which had brought Nigel into a bar, now taking him out of it, and having entered that bright white light, Nigel is back on that train of trains and this time he is not unaccompanied. Josh Redmond has come with him.

'Wow, would you look at this place ...' Josh said with an almost childlike excitement. He is a good ten years or so older than Nigel, not that either man is completely aware of just how old each of them are. 'It looks so real and actually feels like we are travelling on rail tracks.'

'Ok, alright ... I know walking from a bar straight onto a moving train is not your average everyday kind of occurrence but what is it you mean? What is it you know that I don't?'

'I'm gonna be open and clear as best I can but is there somewhere we can go first? Can't just stand about in a corridor of an apparently moving train.'

'Speaking of bars, there is a carriage here on this train for drinking, we can head there?'

'Sure, lead the way.'

Lead the way Nigel does and when an arrival to the bar carriage is made, there is reason for the two men to pause a moment or two. Behind the bar in the drink's carriage is one man in particular.

'Is that ...?'asks Nigel.

'Steve ...; responds Josh. 'So ... it would appear, but this is your train, shouldn't you know?'

'Why should I know?'

'Two please, Steve' Josh calls across the carriage, having raised his left arm and holding up two fingers.

Steve nods as Nigel and Josh take seats.

'Alright, lay it on me ... what the hell is happening.'

'It's a little complicated and I don't have all the answers ...' Josh watches how Nigel responds as Josh himself imparts what he has to tell. 'You are already aware we are in an artificial construct. You didn't believe it though obviously you're coming around.'

Josh thanks Steve at this point as whiskey by two is delivered.

'Right ... but ...'

'Hold on a sec. I know there are plenty of questions, I have some myself. ... This construct wasn't ready for operations. It needed to be launched, or it would have been lost forever, taken from us ...'

'We're in on its creation?'

'Yes. It hadn't been tested, well, except for the bar in which we met ... or in which we reconnected. We know each other before here of course, and in an attempt to keep it all in the family so to speak, you went in ... before it was anywhere near ready for such depth to occur.'

'The bar ... tell me about it.'

'I created that room, Nigel. It is one hundred percent unhackable, impenetrable, ... as close to one hundred percent as possible. It is pretty basic, and it is far as testing took us, so your sudden entry into all this messed with your head. It is why you can't remember, I took my time coming into you but still ... I am not exactly what I am in the real world ...'

'Guess I can safely guess from what you told me and what I have experienced that we are in trouble?'

'Oh yeah, we certainly are.'

'So, what can we do about it?'

'Take one step at a time. Deal with what comes at us and keep going until we get to where we need to be or are ...'

'Are what?'

'Who knows? ... There is a certain loss for me too, not anywhere as severe as it is for you but it is there all the same. So we'll get through it together ...'