Drew paces in his cell, having just confirmed the communication software in his cybernetic eye worked. He wondered if he could send a video signal back. That was the last function he tested, so as far as he knew it was possible. He leans back and uses his cybernetic eye to access this worlds version of Netflix, and starts watching his favorite show, Trailer Park Boys. Meanwhile, to an outsiders eye, he's just leaning back on the bed in his cell staring into the void.
Jai walks into the observation room, pissed. "I thought for sure he would have tried to escape by now." He says to no one in particular. "What is your plan?" He asks himself.
Drew stands up suddenly, still staring at the wall. He then sits back down, laughing to himself.
"What the hell is he doing?" Jai asks, confused. "He must be trying to mess with us, that's the only answer that makes sense."
Drew sits up again, and walks to the door. He starts pounding on it, demanding food. Finally a slot opens in the door, and he sees Jai standing there.
"If you give us information about how you were able to escape the first time, we'll consider giving you food."
"Like hell I'll tell you about that. I know the beast you serve, and damned if I'll try to help you wake him."
"Oh but don't you see? We already possess that knowledge. We don't need you to further our plans. All my lord wants is to make you suffer for trying to stop them."
"Can't he change your reality just by shifting in his sleep? How do you know that it wasn't him that caused you to forget everything?"
"That may be the case, but how do I know you aren't just messing with me? That seems far more likely." And at that, Jai moves to leave the room. "I'll see that you're brought some food." Drew sits back against the wall, browsing Netflix again, and finds something interesting to watch. His meal from earlier sits half finished and discarded by the bed.
"I can't believe we let this guy just come in and take over." Jai shakes his head. "He's such a... Loose canon type, you can't trust someone like that." He shook his head again, watching him on the camera. It was only a matter of time before he tried something, Jai just knew it.
Meanwhile, Drew, while browsing Netflix, was also casually probing the cults computer network, looking for any vulnerabilities. They had been smart, after he left they reworked most of the system, so his backdoors we're all but nonexistent. He knew if he kept looking he'd find one though.
After two days of eating and searching for backdoors, Drew was almost ready to give up. He hadn't found a single unprotected access point. He'd have been done faster, but it took some time to map out who was accessing the system at what times so he could disguise his activity. He was also no closer to physically escaping his cell. They were super careful to not give him anything that could be used to escape.
Drew leaned back, sighing. He wished that he could communicate for more than a few minutes at a time. He sighed. "It won't matter in a few days anyway." He said to the wall. He went back to finding the backdoor into their computer system again.
Drew heard a commotion outside his cell. He looked out, hoping to see if he could figure out what was going on. If he strained a little bit, he could hear what sounded like "he found it" and "on schedule" but he still didn't know what they were on schedule for. He redoubled his efforts, this time being less cautious but still disguising his tracks.
Drew jostled as the truck bounced. He finally figured out where they were going, too little too late. He guessed they were about half an hour or so out from their destination. He sat back again, trying to gain a last little bit of sleep.
Jai climbed up the cliff face and rolled over onto the plateau. He stood up slowly, extremely tired, hoping that this cave held the answers he was looking for. Moving slowly, he stepped further and further into the cave until all he could see was the otherworldly light coming from just around the corner. Awash in the light, he gasped. His search was finally over.
Drew blinked in the ethereal brightness of the throne room. The throne was surrounded by hooded cultists, and on the throne itself was seated Jai, with Jamie nearby. He took all of this in, noting also that over the sounds of the cultists chanting there was an ethereal flute tune playing over drumming.
"Welcome, noble sacrifice, to Azathoth's Throne! You'll be meeting with him in just a moment. Do you have any last words?"
"Yeah, three. One, Fuck you. Two, you're an idiot. Three, this won't end the way you think."
"That's what you think. Place him in the center of the circle." Drew was shoved rather unceremoniously into the center of the circle. The chanting gets louder.
"Do you hear that? The dark fire rises!"
"Well that's melodramatic."
The chanting intensifies.
"Now! Azathoth our lord, be awakened by our gift!" Jai moves towards Drew, runed knife gleaming in the ethereal light.
Drew dodged the knife and grabbed Jai's wrist and tried to wrestle the knife away from him. He managed to get the knife to drop, but Jamie swooped in and just as she raised the knife, the cave rumbled and a loud roar could be heard.
Drew takes this time to run, and manages to escape the cave.
Reality starts crumbling around the throne, and as it does, everything disappears around it. First the throne, then the cultists, then Jai himself all disappear.
Drew hopped in a truck and took off, driving in the same direction reality was disappearing towards, doing his best to outrun it. He looked over his shoulder to see if he was getting away, and slammed into a tree. Reality bubbled around him, and then the bubble popped.