Where am I? (Shucks, running on 4 hours of sleep)
Chris McCandless inside a Best Buy in 2018:
Tired, hungry and dying, I look around at the inside of the Alaskan bus for what seems to be the last time. My eyelids turn to anvils, falling, and darkness consumes my vision.
I wake in a cold sweat, a strange thing to experience when one is surrounded by temperatures consistently below zero. The air feels warm and smells some what sickly, almost like someone dumped hot tar around the bus. I open my eyes to find myself in a completely foreign setting: a massive parking lot. Anxious and awestruck, I look around and take in my surroundings. Stores and restaurants surround me, some familiar like REI and Toy's R Us, some I have never seen or heard of like "Shake Shack". A massive building looms overhead, "Best Buy". Something draws me to the doors and I walk inside.
Instantly, I am greeted with blinking lights and technology around every corner. Primal anger climbs its way from my stomach into my throat. This entire store is a scab on the beautiful body of nature. I can't comprehend how someone could enjoy being here or not feel completely revolted by its unnatural and alien presence.
I examine every inch of the mysterious room. The walls are lined with televisions that made the ones back home seem dated and obsolete. There are tables with little screens on top. They almost look like mirrors, cut square and polished. A massive logo of an apple with a bite out of it stands high and proud to my right, watching over the rest of the store. I decide to start walking around, feeling the same urge to stare as one would when presented with a train wreck. Taking slow and methodical steps I make my way away from the entrance, opting to investigate the giant apple logo that looms overhead to my right. I turn the corner and an army of little glass boxes greets me. It strikes me that I must have been transported to the future because I recognize these devices from a show I used to watch, Star Trek. That, or life must have dramatically changed while I was in Alaska. I keep walking through the store, passing by more screens, new technology and computers that make my Dad's IBM at home look like a beige kids toy. Despite being filled with blinking lights, Star Trek technology and televisions the size of my Datsun, this store still freaks me out more than it impresses or intrigues me. I turn and walk back towards the door, trying to figure out when I ate the bad mushrooms that were giving me these enigmatic visions. I reach the front doors and spot a man to my left restocking a shelf. Trying come to any conclusion, horrible or not I ask: "Excuse me, what year is it, where am I and how did I get here?" He gives me a strange look before he replies. "I believe its... 2018, sir?" My eyes widen, heart races and throat closes. I sprint out of the store, thoughts racing and legs pumping. Although I came close to dying last time I was there, the only familiar place I can think to go is back into the wild.
Tired, hungry and dying, I look around at the inside of the Alaskan bus for what seems to be the last time. My eyelids turn to anvils, falling, and darkness consumes my vision.
I wake in a cold sweat, a strange thing to experience when one is surrounded by temperatures consistently below zero. The air feels warm and smells some what sickly, almost like someone dumped hot tar around the bus. I open my eyes to find myself in a completely foreign setting: a massive parking lot. Anxious and awestruck, I look around and take in my surroundings. Stores and restaurants surround me, some familiar like REI and Toy's R Us, some I have never seen or heard of like "Shake Shack". A massive building looms overhead, "Best Buy". Something draws me to the doors and I walk inside.
Instantly, I am greeted with blinking lights and technology around every corner. Primal anger climbs its way from my stomach into my throat. This entire store is a scab on the beautiful body of nature. I can't comprehend how someone could enjoy being here or not feel completely revolted by its unnatural and alien presence.
I examine every inch of the mysterious room. The walls are lined with televisions that made the ones back home seem dated and obsolete. There are tables with little screens on top. They almost look like mirrors, cut square and polished. A massive logo of an apple with a bite out of it stands high and proud to my right, watching over the rest of the store. I decide to start walking around, feeling the same urge to stare as one would when presented with a train wreck. Taking slow and methodical steps I make my way away from the entrance, opting to investigate the giant apple logo that looms overhead to my right. I turn the corner and an army of little glass boxes greets me. It strikes me that I must have been transported to the future because I recognize these devices from a show I used to watch, Star Trek. That, or life must have dramatically changed while I was in Alaska. I keep walking through the store, passing by more screens, new technology and computers that make my Dad's IBM at home look like a beige kids toy. Despite being filled with blinking lights, Star Trek technology and televisions the size of my Datsun, this store still freaks me out more than it impresses or intrigues me. I turn and walk back towards the door, trying to figure out when I ate the bad mushrooms that were giving me these enigmatic visions. I reach the front doors and spot a man to my left restocking a shelf. Trying come to any conclusion, horrible or not I ask: "Excuse me, what year is it, where am I and how did I get here?" He gives me a strange look before he replies. "I believe its... 2018, sir?" My eyes widen, heart races and throat closes. I sprint out of the store, thoughts racing and legs pumping. Although I came close to dying last time I was there, the only familiar place I can think to go is back into the wild.
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