Alena found herself standing in front of the refrigerator feeling its cool air on her face which was a welcomed contrast to the hot and humid breeze coming from a nearby window overlooking the ocean. What did she need from the fridge? Her memory was fuzzy. The last thing she remembered was going to sleep in her own bed, in her own apartment on the 19th floor, which was nowhere near any ocean.
As she closed the fridge door without taking out anything she saw a picture held up by a magnet. A picture where she was in an elegant wedding dress standing next to a man she had never seen before.
Who was that man? And where in the world was she? What had happened to her memory? Why was everything so garbled up?
Alena had a lot of questions but no one to answer them. She started exploring the house to find anything helpful. While her search did not lead her to actual answers, she did find some photo albums. There were pictures from her childhood and she felt relieved when she was able to identify everyone in those. But her confusion resurfaced when she reached more recent albums with photos with the same mystery man she saw before.
There were more wedding pictures. Other albums were from different family gatherings. Some were from vacations. She went through each album. Saw each picture. But instead of giving any answers, they created new questions for her.
As Alana finished the last of the photo albums, she heard someone coming down the stairs. She jumped in fear and was frantically looking around the room to find a good hiding spot when she saw the same man from all those photos entering the room.
Before Alana could say anything he said “Its You. I saw you on the laptop wallpaper. You are in all those videos with me. Do you know whats going on?”
Great. He seemed as confused as she felt. But on the bright side, there was a laptop somewhere with videos she could watch. After going through all the photo albums, videos were the last thing she wanted to see. Maybe he can summarize what was on them, so she didn’t have to watch them herself.
“I found these boxes full of photo albums. We both are in them. What did you find so far?” She asked but she wasn’t much hopeful.
“Well, the videos are either from the wedding or some vacations. They don’t tell much. I found wardrobes with both our clothes upstairs. It seems like we are married. But why can’t I remember anything? And from your expressions, it seems like you too don’t remember anything. Is it due to some kind of gas leak or something?”
Alena was already freaking out and now there could be a gas leak or something. Well, that would explain why two people are suddenly experiencing amnesia. They both got out of the house and found themselves stuck on a tiny island. As they checked everywhere they realized that there was no one else on this tiny island and they didn’t know any way to contact anyone for help.
That night they stayed outside fearing whats happening in the house. By morning they concluded that outside is no safer than the indoors. Mosquito’s attack may have something to do with their change of heart.
Feeling more confident, they started exploring the house in greater details. They found food, water and other essentials. They found laptops, tablets, even phones. But no way to communicate to anyone outside the island.
Eventually, they settled in their comfortable routine. They would eat. Watch movies and TV Shows stored on laptops. There were a lot of books so there was no dearth of entertainment.
The more time they spent with each other, the more they got to know. They found out each other’s preferences, their likes and dislikes, their fears and dreams. Basically, they were on their way to becoming the happily married couple the pictures and videos showed them to be.
Alana was happy. She still didn’t have all her answers. She still didn’t have her memories back. But she was making new memories now. The answers didn’t matter to her anymore.
Just as when she was getting settled, things changed again. This time she woke up in a chair staring at a bright light. Some weird contraptions were attached to her head and she heard some computerized voice speak some message over and over again as she tried her best to focus on it.
“This completes simulation #327 with match number #28. Please press #1 on the number pad next to your right hand to accept this match. If you want to experience more simulations with the same match, press #2. Press #3 to find a new match. Press #9 to end simulation mode and talk to your assigned AI bot. Hope you had an enjoyable experience and find your soul mate through the advanced AI technology brought to you by Love Match Inc.”