The building is all tan inside. The walls are tan, the windows seemingly made of white paper, letting diffuse sunlight through. The atmosphere is frightningly still. Yet there is activity inside. The people are building something. The enemy is Chinese. The prisoners on the top level are made to work for them. As I make my way upwards I know the people from the lower level are catching up to me. It is just a matter of time. I have a gun. I don't want to shoot anyone, though. I just want to escape.

I make it on to a medical or research level. There is laboratory glassware everywhere. I capture what I assume to be a Chinese doctor and nurse. We don't speak the same language but he sees the gun and can tell that I'm desperate. He leads me to a room. He shows me some silver tripods lying on a table. They are bandaged, as if he just created them, or they're just out of surgery. I grab one and start climbing a black rope leading up to the next level. The doctor is upset. Evidentally there was some miscommunication. I motion for him to keep quiet but he is making a ruckus.

On the top level there are lots of people. Some of them want to escape with me. I tell them all to put their keys on the table. The keys are placed on the table in batches. They are all tiny, circular, about 1/4" in diameter, reminding me of earrings. They are all different, but fall in to categories, in to which they're subdivided by the people as they put them down.

I ask for some people who can write quickly, and a judge to select the fastest. The fastest writers will write what each key is for. There are hundreds of keys by then, though. It will be impossible for people to recognize their own keys and tell them apart.

Ash is in a canal in the jungle. He is panicking. He knows he is going to die. The other soldier still has control over himself. He asks Ash if he wants to kill himself with his gun. He doesn't. So the soldier takes the gun away. This scares Ash, because he is now even more helpless, and he wants the gun back. He stops panicking and becomes calm, following the soldier as he crosses to a parallel canal.

Ash is being pulled backwards, face-down through the water by a silent boat. His arms are folded. The water is murky, scummy, but parts are clean and they're washing him a bit. He is enjoying this, as much as he can under the circumstances. It is meditative.



NOTE: Please follow the hardlinks for possible symbol interpretations.

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