Caelus! I consumed my first ‘other self’. Weird huh? Wait till you find out what was in that mind. I need to know what you guys think. If you all could drop a rating, doesn’t even have to be the long kind, I’d appreciate it.

If all else fails, it will at least help me in the next Loop to make a better story.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 1

Damn! I feel the hunger. I want to consume more souls. More versions of me. I need to eat more-

I shudder. I force myself to control the feeling. I erase it from my memory. Conceal it. Contain it. It’s gone.

It only takes a moment to fully synthesize the information my other self remembered. His memories are odd. He starts like me, making the peanut butter sandwich.

His life is different though. He started on 6/24/2015. He saw a sudden vision. I know what it is, but he does not. He is seeing the vision that Original wanted him to see. He murders Chelsea, by slicing open her throat.

His mind is in the Abyss, but he doesn’t remember it. It is like something forces his mind to forget it every instant.

His Era is a simple one. But interesting. Everything he does ends in Chelsea’s death. Every time he causes her death. In the first Loop she dies by the bombs. In the second he gets angry while trying to tell her about the bombs. He kills her accidentally because she won’t listen.

In the third Loop he kidnaps her, and is driving crazily to avoid the cops, so they could avoid the bombs. He gets them both killed by skidding off a cliff.

In the fourth Loop he somehow winds up in a hostage situation, Chelsea throws herself at him to protect him from getting shot. He learns how to block out the memories in this Loop.

The fifth Loop abruptly ends with him deciding to seal all of his memories, and end the ‘First Era’. When he thinks of sealing his mind, it is assaulted by another presence. It is the Original. The Loop fades as the Original completely absorbs the other me.

I see the memories as if I am reliving them. Every excruciating detail is like I’m actually living through it. I see what I saw. I hear what I heard. I feel what I felt.

I feel myself yearning for Chelsea. The feeling overwhelms my senses. I MUST SAVE HER. Before I realize what I am doing, I notice I am sprinting up the stairs. With great effort I stop myself.

Is this what it’s like to consume another me? I learn from this mistake. I will remember to steel myself before reaching for the memories of another me.

But I still feel it. The need to protect Chelsea. The need to make her happy. I haven’t felt that for several Loops now. Is it because I improperly consumed the memories of another me? Or is it because he felt such strong emotions toward her that they seep into my mind?

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 6

I win the lottery again today. I make all of the necessary preparations for my underground shelter. After that I have a plan. I am going to enjoy this time with Chelsea. Fusing with the identity of another me has reminded me of the good times we used to have.

Over the past five days I’ve come to grips on what happened, and why I suddenly care so much about Chelsea again. It was the fact that he cared so deeply for her. Of course a bit of it was improper fusing techniques. By examining his memories of the fifth Loop, I can see exactly how the original isolates parts of his memories. The original then takes them each apart, and slowly absorbs them. It actually takes several Loops to do.

Neither one seems aware of the Abyss. Is it something unique to me? No that doesn’t make sense. They are me. Then is it because LE absorbed too much of my soul? That could be it. The previous ERA me did say he could hear voices. Maybe I become more in tuned with the Abyss the more of my soul is taken away.

I have the souls of three other versions of me. They have become who I am. For some reason I didn’t get anything bleeding into my mind from the previous two versions of me. Maybe it is because we are so similar to start with? Possibly.

I tell Chelsea I won the lottery. She doesn’t believe me at first. I show her our house. She is awestruck. I usually can’t keep a secret. We speak about that while deciding how to decorate the house. We are extremely affectionate while we decide.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 85

I am going on a date with Chelsea. I take her to an expensive Italian restaurant, her favorite. When we get home I shower her with gifts. I propose. I show her the diamond ring, stylish but not overly exaggerated. Just her style. She says yes!

I know she wouldn’t marry me for my money, so I made a clear distinction between winning the lottery and asking for marriage. A 79-day distinction. Our wedding is in two months. I am enjoying my life. I feel things that I haven’t in a long time. It is like a dream.

I also have the many bots I have created begin building a self-sustaining bunker near the portal. I will need an extensive suite for my plans. I make sure to keep the research a secret from Chelsea. She would only be sad to know about it.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 145

Today is our wedding! Lilies are the flower of choice at the venue. Originally we only invited our closest friends and family, but now it is a large event. It probably has something to do with the fact that I have hit it big on the stocks. I ‘just happened’ to invest in a few companies before their stocks jumped.

I secretly pour some of my Immortality Elixir into the wedding punch. At least everyone here will be able to enjoy a youthful last few months. I cry as Chelsea walks down the aisle. I can’t believe I haven’t married her before. What was I waiting for?

Chelsea is beautiful. Her elegant dress falls perfectly on the floor. It looks like a princess’ dress. She is a princess to me. We say our vows. We promise to love each other forever. It means more coming from me, but she means it just as much. We kiss.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 150

We are on our honeymoon. I’ll omit the details. It was a wonderful time we spent on the beach.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 180

I have several bombs placed around our hometown. I set them off as if I were a terrorist. In my spare time I have created AI again. She says she has some crazy demands, then begins bombing places. Chelsea and all of her friends and family are told they are welcome in my underground bunker.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 200

Since some of her family didn’t want to come, I’ve forced some people to turn into the irregulars. It isn’t hard. My research into the Immortality Potion has opened my eyes to many things. Including how to stall the progression of the eventual zombification of people. Or how to cause it.

It has never really proven good in knowing that information, but now it is. As more and more people begin to ‘turn’ more of Chelsea’s family and friends ask to join my bunker.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 220

Today the last of the people Chelsea wants to keep safe are in my base. We have everything down here. This time I make sure the bunker has all of the amenities to make staying happy extremely easy. I don’t like many of the people here, but Chelsea does. That’s all that matters.

AI is slowly siphoning off all of the resources I need from other places. Since I know where basically every important source of mineral wealth is, I easily have my bots bring it to me. AI occasionally hacks websites or news shows, and uses the time to promote my messages across the globe.

The base near the portal is finished today. It is fully automated, and can house up to a few thousand people.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 301

Chelsea is sad. We can’t have children together. I should have seen this coming. I could have switched out my sperm with someone else’s. Maybe artificially inseminated her while she slept?

I don’t want her to be sad. I’ve got to find a way to make her happy again.

That’s when it hit me.

I begin operation: Transport.

I have the many vents full of knockout gas fumigate the entire base, excluding my room. In seconds every living being, besides me, in the base is knocked out. The bots pick them all up, and begin loading them into an aircraft for transport.

I kiss Chelsea on the forehead before she is sent away. I accompany the lot of them to the new base. The new base is identical to the old one, at least above floor 5. Below that is inaccessible, except by a secret entrance in my personal room.

Below that is the most extensive lab in history. It is about a hundred stories deep, with all manner of testing apparatuses. The eighth floor is actually about five stories deep itself. It stretches for miles, and is constantly being expanded in all direction. It is meant to simulate a pre-bomb environment. I want to see how society would grow if starting from basically nothing.

Each level can accommodate between one and ten thousand subjects.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 302

Everyone is awake. No one can tell the difference in where they are. I also had the bots substitute the pure water in the facility with Immortality Elixir. There are vents near the portal, constantly drawing in the substance released from it.

I’m hoping this will approximate actually being near it. My ultimate goal is to make sure everyone here becomes immortal. That way Chelsea never loses a friend or loved one.

The Elixir doesn’t work on pets though. I’m sure she is going to be sad, but I’ve put several cats on the eighth level of the experimental portion of the facility. They will be able to breed free. I will find a way to occasionally get her one.

Loop 84 Year 1 Day 356

The bombs drop today. I let everyone see it happening on the monitors. They are silent the rest of the day. Chelsea is predictably sad, but this will help her accept her lot in life more easily I think.

On a positive note, I have about a hundred thousand test subjects that usually become power users. I also have tens of thousands that don’t. I am using them as a control group. If I can find someone with a unique power from among them, I will consider it a success.

Of course LE and his family are here, they are on the very bottom layer. His mother sort of reminds me of Chelsea. She begs me to release them. I have to kill her. If I fall for her tricks because she looks like Chelsea, then I won’t be able to do anything to LE.

I feel a pang of guilt at the thought, so I make AI do the dirty work.

Loop 84 Year 2 Day 152

Surprisingly, today is the first day any sort of outbreak happens in the top five layers. One of Chelsea’s family members, an uncle by marriage, decides he wants to leave. Some people try to stop him. He hits a young boy that grabbed his arm while crying.

I have AI unlock the door for him, as I walk up to him.

“If you want to go, then fine. Leave. But I won’t open the door for you to come back in.”

Chelsea’s aunt is crying, but refuses to leave with him. Her son shouts and cries for his daddy.

He hates his mother for stopping him from leaving.

Loop 84 Year 2 Day 159

A week ago the man left. He tried getting back in after he realized we were on an island. I had the turrets gun him down. No one else knows.

His son has shown disruptive behavior. At night I have a bot secretly show him ‘a path outside’ to look for his father.

The path was created to go directly to the eighth floor. I wonder how he will affect the groups of people already in there. It will be interesting.

Loop 84 Year 2 Day 160

More of the people leave the bunker today. Chelsea is sadder each time, but for some reason she doesn’t want me to stop them. After the boy ‘finds a way out’, the others are all worried about his safety.

They want to leave to live with him. It seems they want an excuse to leave the safety of the vault, but just don’t know it. I let them leave.

The door to the vault is a double door, after the first one is opened, everyone walks through, then it closes. It says ‘Decontamination in Progress’. Of course that is bull. They are sprayed with the knockout gas.

After the elevator to the eighth floor, is an identical set of doors. They wake up there, with a sound going over the intercom saying ‘Decontamination Failed, Please Exit’. That way I can bring them back if I need to.

After all, the point of making it like that, was that I could bring people into the vault if I choose.

I spend time with Chelsea. I only need to review the results of the tests about once a week or so, everything else is done by AI.

It seems like the Elixir is working fine. I have the entire portal surrounded by vacuum fans at this point, so all of the liquid substance is absorbed into our circulation environment. The Elixir is no longer put into our water, only because I don’t know what the long term effects of constantly drinking it are.

The Elixir takes about a year to show its full purpose since I am simply venting the liquid into the base, not living a few feet away.

Oddly enough, no one on the top five floors have shown signs of powers. I am researching the reason. I have changed the tests of the sixth floor to mimic the living conditions of ours, i.e. liquid from the portal is pumped into their cells, and they are given Elixir to drink.

The Elixir isn’t the problem, Wormy and Wormy2 both drank it. Maybe the fact that the portal liquid is pumped in instead of being direct? Maybe the HRL, the liquid from the portal, is diluted by the time it gets to us?

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 142

Chelsea want to leave the vault! I find an excuse that works for now, but she seems adamant about leaving. I can’t let her leave! She can’t!

Wait, maybe she can. Since we are on an island, maybe it’s ok? But what if she doesn’t want to come back into the vault? What if it gives her such great depression that she tries to take her own life? I can’t let that happen.

The excuse I gave should be ok for a while, maybe a few days.

I set up an operation to implant AI into my body again. Most of my body is going to become robotic I guess. I have to be able to sense the data as much as possible. Robotic eyes to watch the cameras, robotic implants in my ears to hear AI. Robotic implants in my mind help send the data stream to me faster.

I hope Chelsea decides to stay, but if she doesn’t I’m ready to leave with her.

I don’t know why Chelsea wants to leave this quickly. She usually waits a long while. That’s ok though, she is happier than she was in any other Loop. Maybe this is for the best.

Loop 84 Year 3 Day 152

We leave today. Just me and Chelsea. I guess we are going to see how this goes. Chelsea and I are gassed. When we wake up we hear that the decontamination failed. When we are ready, we leave the vault behind, Chelsea with an obviously perturbed mentality about what just happened.

AI informs me about what has happened on this floor in the recent months. Apparently some of the people that left the vault actually gained powers!