„And Miles to go before I sleep“
It´s getting late. He knows that but doesn’t care either. He will die, so it doesn’t matter, if he continues to look at the watch or not. That would only make him nervous. Instead, he could just as easily sit on the armchair and think of his parents. Although he has not seen them in decades, he cannot bear the thought of seeing his parents in front of his grave.
However, he does not sit there for long. Of course, he can remember some beautiful things in his childhood and youth, but so many memories have become specious. Only the echo of security and laughter remains. And the longing for the distance.
Therefore, his memories ultimately wander off to the day his world turned upside down. Literally. Then he didn't know what was happening to him. Seconds before that, the spaceship flew through the vastness of space unhindered. And then, from one second to the next, a gap opened in front of the ship and devoured it.
Today he thinks he knows that this was a rift in the space-time continuum. He still doesn't know how that could have happened. They probably knew it, but they didn't give him answers. He also no longer knows how he had previously imagined the encounter with extraterrestrial life. It didn’t look like that.
Even though he passed out only briefly, he woke up away from his ship, his comrades were gone. Later it was said that they died of a cancer. He was in a room with changing conditions. The floor and walls seemed to move like water and were as impenetrable as the sea. Without success he searched all ends and corners for an exit.
And while he was doing all of this, he couldn't get rid of the feeling of being watched. In his guess he should see himself confirmed later. They stood behind the waves all the time, watching him, while doing his job. They watched him as he thought he was going to die because there was no food or drink. They saw how he grew not weaker, but stronger. They registered how he found out how to use the room. At that time, it suddenly felt very easy. The thoughts just had to form in his head, and he could sprout whatever he wanted from the ground. When he wanted to sit down, a chair grew out of the floor.
He just couldn't make an exit. But in those days, he noticed that the walls were becoming more permeable - he didn't know if he was letting this happen or they. He was obsessed with catching their shape and he was wondering what they would do to him. When he thought of the vivisections, a cold shiver ran down his back.
Slowly he caught more and more glances at them. They seemed to look exactly as he always imagined: A mixture between Roswell-alien’s and reptilian humanoids. But whenever they disappeared from his field of vision, they began to flicker. Their shape seemed to dissolve and reassemble. It was almost more difficult for him than the rest. He began to wonder what the others would see if they saw the them.
And the longer he thought about his family and friends, the stronger waves were thrown. He believes it was ultimately his loss of control that they put him back in his spaceship and let him go. Their work was done - they no longer needed him as a guinea pig. At least that's how he explained it. He did not know their reasons; he could only ask himself repeatedly why his path led him exactly here.
Even though he should have enjoyed the freedom he had regained, the air in his chest stung, felt like poison. His mind began to clear, but every muscle screamed instead. His strength waned and his belly felt like there was a big hole in it. He inevitably wondered if he was still part of their experiment. It seems as if he has been released only that they can see how he reacts, how he feels in this strange world. And he could tell them that he was going to die.
The beeping of his bracelet watch takes him out of his thoughts. It is time to face up to his destiny. He doesn't have many minutes left. He can count down the seconds - the last grains of sand in the glass. And then suddenly everything turns upside down, before it turns black in front of his eyes. Robert Murdock was no longer there.