Bill looks at the flash drive kept on the table. Staring at it for a good amount of time, he makes up his mind and gets up from the chair, “What the hell, why am I doing this?” he says as he plugs the flash drive into an adapter and then connects it to his phone. Issac notices this and says, “Curiosity is the ultimate killer, that…and the search for the truth. Take a look and tell me what’s inside it.” he nods and looks at the contents inside the flash drive. The drive has a single document file. He opens it up and starts reading.

“Logan Residence Fire Report”

“The fire that took place at the Logan Residence, House #78, Lakemoor Drive, located on the suburbs of Hawkesbay was an unfortunate event. We were too late to reach the location as it is quite far from the city. Almost all the house is burnt, nothing remains. The worst fact of this report is that Hope Logan, aged 37, and Leah Logan, aged 14, both residents were also burnt to ashes. In all my years as a firefighter I have never seen a fire like this.”

“One thing is clear to me and the department. This was no ordinary fire. It was caused by Benzene which is a deadly chemical to keep at your house. The sole survivor of the resident is 7 year old Bill Logan. The child will be given to child protection authorities and will be sent to a better home.”

“During the scrapping of the burnt house, we came across an underground opening beneath the house. Going inside the opening we found nothing of interest and decided to fill it with sand. Although I’m sure no one would want to build a new house here, now that the city has more and more apartments and better living conditions. I conclude my report, hoping that Bill will go on to have a great future, I also pray that Leah and Hope find peace in the afterlife.”

Reading the fire report Bill’s eyes were blank, tears soon followed and he could not hold back anymore. Issac saw him cry and rushed towards him. He took his phone and started reading the report himself. He sighed after finishing the report and patted his shoulder.

“I’m sorry Bill, but this report...it’s giving us clues. Benzene at home, opening beneath the house, I think we should look around the place.” Bill wipes his tears and nods. A few minutes later they ready up and teleport to the address. They reach the location where Bill’s house was burnt; the ground was clean only dirt remained.

Looking around Issac could only find abandoned old houses, “Looks like everyone left to live in the big city!” he says. Bill ignores this and says, “Now what? I don’t see the point of coming to this place. The opening had nothing of interest as it said in the report.”

Issac goes to the empty space and starts stomping his feet right and left, judging the impact his feet has on the ground he stops when he stomps on soft land. “Well, looks like this is where they poured in the sand, rest of the lot is solid ground. Now we just need a shovel.”

Bill looks at him with an annoyed face and says, “Let’s just go back, no need to dig. I don’t want to deal with this!” Issac disagrees and says, “I will help you Bill, but you have to help yourself too. It’s important to close this chapter of your life if it bothers you this much. Let’s find out about your asshole dad, maybe we can track him down and make him pay for leaving you all like this.”

Bill takes a deep breath and says, “Alright, let’s search the empty houses maybe someone was generous enough to leave behind a rusty shovel.” They split up and looked around different houses. After a while, Issac shouts, “Hey I think our friend knew we would come.”

Bill follows his voice and sees a shovel with a note saying, “Knew you would come!” Issac takes the shovel and hits it on the soft spot.

He starts digging out the sand, after a while he gets tired and hands over the shovel to Bill. Taking turns they dig an 8 feet hole until the shovel hits something metallic.

Listening to the sound Issac looks down the hole and finds Bill digging with his hands. After digging enough he takes out what looks like a lockbox. Bill throws it to Issac and climbs out of the hole. Issac looks at the keyhole and says, “Well, now to find the key.” Bill takes the lockbox from his hand and uses his plasma gun to heat the keyhole and break the lock.

“No time for that!” he says to him. Inside the lockbox is a small memory tape. Looking at the memory tape Bill says, “What the hell? These didn’t exist in that year. This is new technology!” Issac asks what a memory tape is and he explains, “Well, suppose someone close to you is going to die in a few days, so what you do is transfer their memories and a small part of their consciousness to this memory tape. All you need is an Artificial Reality simulator to read this tape and you can see that person and talk to them. Find out what life was through their eyes.”

Issac opens his mouth and says, “Fuck! That’s amazing!” Bill looks at the memory tape and says, “Let’s go back and see if the digging was worth it!”

They both teleport back to the safe house and Bill buys an AR simulator online. The delivery drone drops the package at his doorstep in about 20 minutes. He opens up the AR simulator and inserts the memory tape. He wears what looks like some flashy goggles.

He closes his eyes and lies down on the couch. He says, “Play memories!” and the tape starts playing someone’s memories. He opens his eyes in his old house which was burned. He finds himself sitting on a chair and looks at the sofa to find his mother sitting there smiling at him, his heart starts pounding and he gets up and says, “Mom!” She gestures him to sit down and says:

“Unbelievable what the future will hold, amazing things like the memory tape and tools of destruction like the normalizer. Before your father left me he told me to record this and hide it in the hole he dug in our basement. I met your father at a local diner after Leah’s father passed away. He was a kind-hearted man with sorrows of his own. Anyways, we started to see each other often. I told him about Leah and how lonely I was, in a matter of weeks we had gotten very close to each other. He soon married me and we started a life of our own.”

“He told me that he had a special purpose and that our son, you, have a special purpose as well. Your father was a confusing man too, he always insisted me to continue using the name of my dead husband. Even after your birth, he told me to name you Bill Logan which didn’t make any sense. Soon he changed into a man I didn’t recognize anymore.”

“He started to stay away from home for months. He called me once or twice asking how you and Leah were doing, but that was it.”

“He never came to your birthdays or school meetings. I thought he didn’t want to be with us anymore; so I decided that we didn’t need him too. I always waited for him, looking at the door, hoping that he might just come through and hug me; take you and Leah in his arms. But he never did. One day he came out of nowhere in all black clothes and a weird mask on his face.”

“I started complaining and scolding him but all he said in return was “There is no time left” that’s when he told me about time travel, multiple universes, you. All these years he was busy setting things up for the future, that he wasn’t interested in the present at all. He even married someone else and had a son named David. He told me that the sole purpose of his, your, and David’s existence was to avert total annihilation of the universes.”

“Sometime in the future, nothing will exist, the moments we lived, the paths we traveled, all of the strides we make for the future. It would all be for nothing because that is what our world is. Nothing! I was shell shocked when he showed me the video, a giant black substance in the sky sucking everything inside it. It kept pulling everything inside it till there was nothing left. Take a look at it yourself.”

Hope shares her memory with Bill who is dumbfounded by all the things she has told her. He looks at the video and confirms that his mother is indeed telling the truth.

He says to her, “He calls himself the Overseer. I have met him a number of times. What does he look like mom…show me a memory of him, what’s his name? Please mom I need to know who he is!” his mother shares a memory of his father, but for some reason, his face is glitched out. He asks his mother to show him some other memory, but in the other one, it’s still the same.

He gives up and says, “He must have done this to hide his identity, that bastard!” Hope takes his hand and then plays the last moments of her life.

“These are the last moments of my life son, let’s head outside.” They both get out of the house and his mother starts crying, “When I was a young girl I thought that I was special, but as time passed I realized that I was just an ordinary girl. A normal nobody who wasn’t important, but your father told me that even if I am nobody…I could still special. If my death would pave way for the betterment of all the universes, I was going to do it!”

Bill looks at his mother going inside the house, his eyes wide open, his heart pounding even faster. He sees his mother locking the door of the house. She starts spilling Benzene all over the floor, and asks Leah to come downstairs with a shaky voice.

Bill slams the door and screams, “No! No! Mom…don’t do it please!” he starts to cry and keeps screaming in despair. His mother lights a match and throws it on the floor, he hears her screams and shouts even more, for a while he keeps crying in agony, “I don’t want this future, I don’t want you to die. I...I...I will travel back and save you…yes...that’s it, Fuck the Overseer and his plans! He has played with our lives long enough!”

Suddenly he hears a warning, “Memory tape ended, self-destruct in 20 seconds please eject the tape to avoid damaging your AR simulator!” he quickly exits from the AR world. When he takes off his AR goggles he finds the Overseer and Issac sitting in front of him.

In a flash he throws the goggles from his hand and furiously jumps at the Overseer. The Overseer gets up and points his finger at him, and he freezes in the air. Issac looks at both of them in confusion. “Ok, so what the fuck is happening now?” he asks. The Overseer looks at Bill and says, “No matter how much I try you always jump at me. I know you want to kill me right now and I know you want to go back and save your mother, but remember even if you save her and prevent her death, it still doesn’t change the fact that we are on borrowed time here.”

“Listen to the voice of reason! If she didn’t die you wouldn’t be here. You’d be a fucking clerk or an accountant, a fucking nobody.”

“Right now you are the reason a selfish billionaire trying to manipulate time is sweating balls sitting on his chair. If you save her there is no telling how much you’ll fuck up this already fucked up universe. Please! I have worked hard to get these outcomes. I would have hidden all this from you, but I decided not to because I trust that you will make sane decisions even after knowing my connection with you.”

Issac stands still scratching his head, trying to make sense of what is going on. After a few minutes, the Overseer decides to unfreeze Bill. He falls down to the ground and starts crying, “She didn’t deserve this...you asshole...you...I hate you!” the Overseer sighs and says, “No one deserves this but this is the only way I found, give her death a purpose, please Bill believe in me as she did. I am tired of doing it again and again, I want some peace too! But before I tell you the complete story of who I am, you need to save David and Anna.”

“Dorian is on the hunt for them and he will soon find them. I think the preparations for the end have already begun. I will reveal everything to all of you the next time we meet. Till then, please...son don’t undo all that we have done!”

Hearing their conversation Issac’s mouth opens wide and he appears to be speechless. The Overseer looks at him and says, “It’s alright Issac, there are still a few surprises for you down the road which will widen your mouth even more. I’d like to thank you for pushing Bill to do this! Now both of you need to save Anna and David from Dorian…be very careful, Dorian doesn’t leave people until they are dead!”