The Coward's Escape
I don't know how I ended up here, or even where here is. What I do know
is that the only way out of this room is through the skylight and I
have no way to reach it. It's probably twelve feet high and the crate
in the corner next to the corpse will only put me eighteen inches
closer to freedom. It may as well be a mile away.
There's something oddly familiar about the corpse and I don't think
it's just that we're both wearing the same orange jumpsuit. Am I in
prison? Is this some sort of bizarre solitary confinement? But then
why would I be sharing my cell with another prisoner? Wouldn't that
defeat the whole purpose?
There's quite a lot scratched into the walls: it seems like someone was
obsessed with the many-worlds interpretation, a fringe theory that
attempts to unify quantum physics and general relativity. The formulae
are brilliant and seem to answer quite a few questions that have
confounded me for years.
Odd. I think I'm a physicist and it seems judging by his notes that the
corpse was as well. The last note he left was written in blood and I
suspect it was his own.
"The coward dies a thousand deaths before he can escape."
I need to know who he was. It won't help me escape but I need to know
which of my colleagues killed himself here in this prison. Rolling him
over I am careful to avoid looking at the bloody ruined mess that was
the back of his head before he used the pistol still gripped in his
rigor mortis locked fist.
And now I know why he looked familiar before -- somehow, impossibly but
truly -- I find myself looking into my own death-glazed eyes. The full
weight of my situation crashes down on me - not only is there no way to
get to the hole in the ceiling, but even death is not an escape!
I pry the pistol out of my own dead fingers and press the muzzle to my
temple. This is madness! Just a quick pull and it'll be done.
•••
I don't know how I got here, or even where here is. What I do know is
that the only way out of this room is through the skylight and I have
no way to reach it. The pair of corpses in the corner seem oddly
familiar, but offer no help...