Packt Like Sardines in A Crush’d Tin Box
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
..
..
..
..
..
..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
..
.
.
..
..
..
…
….
….
…..
A box.
A box?
No…
A room?
Yes… a room.
Like a box.
A closed one.
With… walls… and… and a floor.
Smoosh…
Very smooth.
Like… Like butter.
…
Where am I?
I'd like to know that.
This box is weird. I don't recognise this place. I don't know if I've ever been here before.
The box is also empty. All there is are some nice flowers on a… dark… table, and some good-looking fruits.
What were they called again? Was it… um… a banana?
No…
Oh, oh, was it a grape?
Oh no no, that's a small thing right? Not like this. Not as big as my hand.
…
Apple?
Hmm…
Ahhh yes! An apple!
Apples!
That's it.
Some nice juicy apples sit beside me in a plate to my…
Left?
Oh dear. It seems I've forgotten the basics, haven't I?
…
…
…
What is this room?
Is there something outside of here?
There should be, right?
Maybe I should find out.
Shiver.
The room is… cold.
I don't like this.
I should go somewhere else, shouldn't I?
But I don't wanna get out of this comfortable bed.
It's all so nice and comfy…
But I don't think I would like to literally become an ice cube.
Whatever that is.
I think it's something cold.
Anyways, I should probably just stand up.
As I did, rising with my own two meaty-like legs, I could suddenly feel myself drop a little.
For some reason… It felt difficult to even stand straight.
Odd.
But I could hold.
Sort of.
As I lifted my first foot up, I started to feel anxious.
It seemed strange why my body had forgotten how to work.
I almost felt like a little baby human trying to walk for the first time.
Wait…
Since when do I say human like that?
…
Ummm… I guess I should be wary then with my speech, shouldn't I?
Anyways, as I continued to trip around, pushing my legs up one by one as they hit the stone-like floor. It wasn't easy.
But I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Slowly.
I would probably get the hang of it faster if the floor wasn't so smooth as… smooth… and if I wasn't so frigid and cold.
This wasn't cool.
In front of me, I could finally see a..
A…
A door?
Yeah… A door.
A door.
A red door.
From the small gap, I could tell that it was locked.
Looked kinda darkish, though.
Had a few stains.
Must be old or something if it looked that dirty.
As I approached the door, I stood there, observing it. All the weird stains and dust it had.
Curious how one door could get so stale like that.
Pressing my hand on it, I swiped away at it.
There was something covered by the dust.
And as I did…
A window appeared.
Within the door.
It was dirty as well, although after wiping at it a bit, it wasn't as bad as the surface that contained it.
I couldn't see much through it, however.
But the question prompted:
Could someone see me?
Curious.
This is all so… interesting.
Made me forget why was I even here.
Come to think of it, I could barely remember much.
All I knew was that I was in this room.
A tall one, as a matter of fact.
I didn't notice it at the start but this box that I was in wasn't as square as I thought.
More like a rectangle.
The ceiling was far from my reach and it only seemed to get farther the longer I tried to reach for it.
…
I didn't like it.
Feels weird.
Off.
Abnormal.
I didn't like it.
I wanted out.
I want out.
So what must I do?
…
Break the window?
No, more of the door, really.
But yes.
Break the door down.
And so out of instinct…
I thrusted my leg up and pushed my leg forward towards it.
Tried to… "kick" it down.
THUMP!
…
Huh.
Nothing happened.
Well, I did feel a slight tingly feeling. It was strange, but I couldn't understand why was it strange.
After all, it almost seemed normal.
Huh.
Now what?
Do I try again?
Maybe I should.
Like they said…
…
Try again?
No. No.
Didn't seem right.
Perhaps I should try something else.
Perhaps I can find something here.
Surely.
As I looked around, under the comfy furniture to the nice and small tables beside them, almost nothing I could find seemed to be of any help.
Except a nice granola bar I found in the cabinet.
Crunchy.
But let's back on track.
Oh yeah, what was that track again?
The one that led to nowhere?
Yeah, that's the one.
There was nothing useful here.
Not like I knew what could be useful.
Just looked for something like a tool or that shiny metallic thing that opens doors.
Keys, right?
Yeah, keys.
CLINK!
Something dropped.
In silence, I just stood there.
Something had dropped.
But what?
It could be an apple.
Maybe it is.
Lemme just check--
...
Huh.
It isn't.
How peculiar.
Instead of the apple that I thought had just fallen from a table, I found a weird cube, laying behind the table, where a crack between the door and the tableware was visible.
How peculiar.
I reached down for it and while it took me a while to squeeze my way through, I eventually...
YOINK!
Grabbed the little thing.
As I picked my hand back up, I noticed just how odd it was.
It was as big as the apple, yet it's the edges were sharp.
Crisp.
Refined.
It also seemed new, unlike much I found around here.
...
Huh.
Interesting, just like the door that faced me...
It was curious.
...
WAIT.
What if...?
As I stood up, that lightbulb in my head ringed, telling me what I needed to do. As I walked towards the door, I clutched up my hand, holding onto the cube, preparing it for what it was going to go through.
And in a instant...
SWOOSH!
CRACK!
It hit. The window seemingly cracked when it came in contact with the black, flying object that came towards it. It wasn't enough to break it entirely... but it worked.
That was sharp, wasn't it?
Heh heh he....
He...
...
Heh?
Something's off.
The cube...
As I grabbed the object once more, something had changed.
It wasn't broken nor did it have a single scratch on it.
Rather...
It changed.
It was no longer a cube.
It was...
A ball.
The rough edges had been dented into a smooth, round and overall, curvy side.
Now, my interest has peaked.
The ball could change form.
Shape.
Den-Densi-Density... right? Yeah, density.
That volume and space quality.
…
This was something.
Yet, I had no idea why I was amazed by this.
Probably because nothing else here could do that.
...
Should we try something else?
Like... if it can change form...
Perhaps we can change it into something else?
...
Maybe later.
Right now...
THRUST!
CRACK!
Let's get out of here.
The window finally split open. Spewing glass (so that was the material) towards the outside, which all shattered once they hit the floor, the window now encompassed itself in it's sharp remnants, no longer held by their own brethren.
That was fun.
That tingly feeling came back though.
Wonder what it must be.
Best not think about that yet.
I grew closer to the door, reaching my arm out through the window in order to find a way to open it.
From the handle outside.
It took a while for me to find it. Mostly because of my body having this sudden instinct to try and avoid the glass shards that remained on the window.
No matter what I did to try and stop this feeling, my instincts wouldn't just let it go,.
It seemed like the "why" wasn't important.
Come on...
Where is it?
I don't believe that it should take this long to open a door from the other side.
Come on...
And after a couple of tries...
I could feel something.
Did I get it?
Slowly, my arm pushed downwards and...
CREAK!
The door finally opened.
And instantly...
I felt uneasy.
The door opened me to a passage that, upon stinting my eyes a bit, seemed to lead to another door.
Nothing about this hallway was familiar to even the room I was encompassed in.
Dark.
Black walls.
Dimming lights.
And rough floors.
Cramped.
Anxiety-inducing.
But I didn't want to stick around in that strange room for much longer.
Even if everything else may be worse... better than nothin'.
I guess...
TIP.
TAP.
Each foot I placed down onto the floor, with a subtle increase of force placed upon them as I continued to better my way of walking. I was starting to remember to function.
But it comes at a cost sometimes. Especially as the door finally closed behind me, leaving me in the damp darkness of the hallway.
In a way, the walls seem to close on me, leaving me to feel cramped.
Tight.
Too tight for my liking.
I might be claustrophobic, but probably not that much.
I didn't feel like I was going to die.
...
But if I stayed for too long, I might have.
I finally reached the end of the hallway when all of the sudden...
FLASH!
A bright light appeared in front of me, highlighting something at the wall.
At first, I couldn't recognize it as my eyes stared away from the strong luminance, but as I returned to it, I continued to think to myself...
What is this again?
Tried to jog my memory again as I focused more on the clear white item right in front of me.
But after looking at it for one more second...
Something popped up in my head and I immediately thought...
A Walkman?
I had no idea what it was until these thoughts continued to come through.
An audio player?
What the hell is that?
Audio as in... sound?
Music?
Music..
Ah, music. It plays music.
As my hand reached for it, I could slowly sense something coming.
Not right now...
But it was coming.
Maybe I knew what it may be if I grabbed the Walkman.
And I did.
There, I held the electronic in my other hand, observing it from top to bottom.
Two bud-like things connected to the main machine.
It was small and compact. Seemed to fit right in my pocket.
Convenient.
Maybe too convenient.
Upon further investigation, I found out that the buds kinda fit inside something.
And considering it's audio-based...
I tested it out on my ears.
Slotting the two into the crevices, tapping my hearing from the outside, I expected that something would play already.
But nothing happened.
Did I have to do something?
I focused onto the machine. It seemed like it was missing something inside.
Something rectangular.
But what is that?
As I looked back on the light it was showcased in, I tried to find something rectangular. But there was nothing.
Or rather, I couldn't find anything.
Because it turned off.
The darkness surrounded me once again. The luminance of the light seemed to remain in my sight for a split second before the residue faded away.
And once it did...
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
The ground began to shake. Ever so slightly, the ground would vibrate below me, lifting me off my feet by only a few inches and only for a few seconds.
Once I hit the ground again, the ground seemed to shake again with even more force.
But I was no longer spooked.
Instead...
I was in awe.
The rumbling led me to look at the end of the hallway, which ever so slowly opened, scraping the ground and making the rocks fall.
And from the gap, a new light came in, and what was lit was... big.
As I walked outside, something even stranger began to happen...
The Walkman started to play.
I returned to the machine quickly before I could soak in the sight.
Out of nowhere, a black rectangular item appeared inside of the box, and only after some time, I could tell what the words said on the box.
Then the audio played and I read the words:
"Packt Like Sardines in A Crush'd Tin Box".
(AMNESIAC)
As the strange notes began to play in rhythm, I looked back in front of me to take in the sights.
The sights of a strange home.
From the tall ceilings to the omniously pleasant backgrounds to the strange icon at the middle of it all which were all outside of a set of doors, seemingly leading to even more like mine.
Immediately, the ceiling seemed to fall upon me as it seemed some sort of inverted incline coming from its roots and just barely reaching the icon at the middle.
All while the grandness of the whole thing was contrasted by the emptiness of the whole place.
No one was around. The chairs were all empty and all I could hear were the repetitious and chaotic sounds of the "music" I was hearing.
No one was around.
It was just me.
And I don't know how to feel about that.
Probably because I don't know how to feel at all.
After treading across the grand hall for a while, exploring the base with my eyes, I soon set sights on something else.
To the right -- or was it the left (wait no its the right) -- of a staircase that led to somewhere above me, I could spot a big sign with bright red markings, writing out the letters of...
K.
I.
D.
A.
Kid A.
Kid?
Who is that?
Is that... me?
I mean, it could be anyone, but considering the abandoned state of the environment, which seemed to be in utter disarray, with the chairs being all in complete disarray and with blank sheets of paper laying everywhere around the tables...
Who else may they be referring to?
As I walked to the door, I could see, through the window, that it contained a bunch more chairs in rows and a blank screen right in front of them.
Was it a place of teaching?
I didn't know.
All of these questions only continued to fuel my desire to check it out.
As I entered, I could see something behind the chairs, seemingly constructed just like the Walkman.
But it seemed to serve a different purpose.
As I closed the door, I must've set something off as I could hear a small TISS to my right.
It was the machine, and something was rolling on top of it.
In response, the music ended.
(STOP/PAUSE)
And in return, something else played.
Out of nowhere, the blank screen in front of the room filled itself with a man, wearing a black sweater and blue pants. He was surrounded by others in white vest, who tinkered around in the background.
It seemed like I was watching a film...
A video.
The video continues playing.
"Hello there. If you don't know who I am to you, call me your boss. If you are someone else... call me Heisendurg, the lead engineer of Project RH-001, also known as Kid A." The man stated his first words.
The first words I've ever heard from someone else.
Kid A.
Does it have something to do with me?
And if it does…
What does that suggest? What is this project they're talking about?
"Kid A is, of course, the project you're employed to. I know you have a lot of questions. And in time, you'll get your answers. To start, let's talk about the project. Kid A is an ongoing project, currently 8 years in development, and is based upon the psychological experiment of isolation and anxiety. Throughout this experiment, you will take care of small tasks, like keeping the site you're in, the EIRP, safe, secure, and in tip-top shape."
EIRP? What does EIRP stand for? Equally Idiotque-like Reclusive People? Because it seems like it.
"Now, you may wondering, "What is this experiment for?" Well, to be completely honest, this is more of a job than an experiment. It only gained its recognition as a experiment through one factor: The test subject, who gives life to the project."
Wait, the test subject?
Wait, but... Who is the tes--
"We refer to this... thing, as Kid A. Kid A is a special one. You know why?"
You don't mean… me, right?
Why… Why am I so special?"
"Kid A... Kid A is the first human clone ever made."
...
Clone?
"That's right. Kid A is the first human clone. And as a clone, Kid will go through something that many of us never consider, yet never want to come across... being alone."
Wait... No... It can't be.
"Kid A will be set unto this base and set alone in this base for an undisclosed amount of time, although the base will provide plenty resources for it to survive. But if you need further summarization on what the project is..."
No...
"Yes. Kid A is about the first human clone and how he lives in an isolated and barren location."
TISS-TA.
The film ends abruptly. It seemed like there was more to it than where it ended.
But it was enough.
The Walkman continued to play, although softer.
[RESUME ALTHOUGH SOFTER]
I was in... shock.
I…
I couldn't believe it.
But for some reason…
I'm not fully surprised.
The sign.
The way everything is left.
The lack of people.
My memory.
A lot of it made sense.
But I just...
Am I really going to be alone... forever?
It can't be.
I...
No.. No. No no no no no no.
It can't be.
It shouldn't be.
No…
No.
Suddenly, this... This anger grew out of me.
Trotting up to the wall next to me, I slammed the wall with my fist, hard and sturdy.
THUD!
The stingy feeling came back, stronger than ever, but I didn't care for much.
Better get used to it, because it ain't going anytime soon.
As I sulked to myself, dropping to the floor, I tried to reflect on myself to see what things I would be missing.
Imagine…
I could've had a life.
I could've been with other humans.
And the things I could have done…
The places I could have been in.
But I have nothing.
I have nothing.
I have nothing other than me wanting to sulk and drown myself in my misery.
Unless I drown in questions first.
The Walkman stops playing.
(END)
What kind of world did I just enter?
What kind of world did I just get myself into.
Not like I ever had a choice in it.
And as far as I can humanly know of…
It ain't supposed to be cold, alone, and strange.
Unfortunately, I ain't human.
I'm just a copy.
A decoy.
A clone.
...
You know something?
You wanna know something that I just remembered?
You know what they call someone when they've lost all of their memory?
An amnesiac.
I guess that's what my name means.
Kid Amnesiac.
....
....
....
...
...
...
...
..
..
..
..
..
..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[KID AMNESIAC - Packt Like Sardines in A Crush'd Tin Box]