7 doors, 7 minutes, 7 phobias... Nobody has ever made it. Dimash Kudaibergen seizes an opportunity to become 'humanity's bravest person' by taking part in a simulation experiment. He faces his worst nightmares that seem to be even more real than him...
Two buttons glued onto my vision field. One says safety lock activated and the other shows the time that has started running backwards like the sand in an hourglass.
My first thought is: Am I blind?
I float in the darkness that has engulfed me. No gravity, no physics, nothingness. It's a dimension of my imagination beyond any limits where the creations of my mind roam freely. I feel weightless and heavy at the same time as if I have a stone in my stomach that is light as a feather.
I should be scared but at the moment my mind is completely empty. My face is being caressed by complete blackness, my best friend, which is oddly reassuring.
In the distance, I see the second door. Almost automatically, my legs start carrying me there, anxiety growing more and more with each step I take. Instead of lapsing into premature gratitude, there's a spark of apprehension smouldering. I'm aware of the danger lurking in the inkiness even though I can't see it. I just wait for it to attack. My mind is ready. My body is ready. I am ready.
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No solid ground below my soles, no total emptiness either. My lungs absorb oxygen that my heart is now pumping into my veins. The place feels so real. Even more real than reality sometimes. It finally dawns on me why people like simulations and get carried away by them.
It's a way to escape their true selves. They can be anyone in the world of pixels. When was the world driven into this state where no one feels good in their own skin?
The silence is so dead and deep I think I've become deaf. It is crawling under my skin like an insect. The only thing that breaks the illusion is my heavy breaths. I approach the door so easily, the feeling of security is trying to lull me into a lie. I don't let it.
The door grows bigger in size, hypnotizing me with the faint glow coming from the crevice underneath. In this dimension where even the tiniest drop of light is dead, it is like a lifeline. My only guide.
Soon I'll be close enough to open it. I stretch out my white hand, glad to see it's still there. I partly feel like I'm out of my physical body. Something akin to a soul drifting aimlessly in this nonexistent space. It makes me question: Am I still alive? I don't feel so.
Out of the blue, I hear a voice from behind. A familiar one. "What are you doing, Dimash?"
I turn around, utter confusion catching up with me. My mother is standing a few meters away from me with her raggy overhanging clothes and dreary gaze. Her cheekbones are trying to break free from the paper-thin skin that is even whiter than the purest snow. I blink a couple of times just make sure that this isn't an illusion. Which is stupid because all of this is nothing but an illusion.
The button on the left tells me that I have forty seconds left.
My mother wobbles forward like that of a zombie. Her legs are like two sticks covered with a thin layer of saggy grey skin. I am surprised that she can still walk on her own. "Why did you leave me when I needed you?" she asks.
