Prompt Lost
Alt-F4
Hal woke up in a cave.
He did not go to sleep in a cave. He went to sleep – he was almost certain – in his bed. But now, he was in a cave, and it was cold and he was alone.
Hal got up and looked around. Seemed like a fine cave, though pretty dark. As Hal saw his laptop still open to the last page he’d visited, its screen the only light in the cave beside the sunlight of the distant entrance.
Hal walked to that entrance and peaked outside. In the distance – though not nearly distant enough – a Brontosaurus trudged through a broad leafed forest. A Brontosaurus.
Hal ran back inside the cave and tried to figure out a course of action. None sprung to mind. He searched for a hint, of any kind, of how he might escape his situation, or, alternatively, how he got into it in the first place.
Although Hal was inside of a cave, apparently millions of years in the past, his computer was also there. Of course, the wifi signal on the lower right hand corner of the screen indicated there was no wifi.
However, the browser window open to the last page Hal had been on before he went to sleep, indicated that there was still, somehow, a live encrypted connection to the website. That was totally impossible, but, Hal thought, there was also a Brontosaurus walking around outside.
Careful not to close the window and risk losing the meager connectivity, Hal instead navigated to the community forum on the website and posted a brief explanation of his current situation. It all sounded insane, of course, but Hal had no idea what else to do.
The forum post seemed to go through, and then Hal waited for a response. Amazingly, one came very quickly.
Holy shit dude, it sounds like you’re seriously fucked. But then again, for someone who’s stuck in a cave in prehistory, you seem to be connecting to 4chan pretty well.
Hal responded as best he could. Hal realized it didn’t help his credibility that Hal’s account was completely new. Hal only just made it for an article he was writing on cyber bullying. Hal typed in a reply and posted it.
I know this sounds insane. I don’t know how I’m connecting to this forum, but I need help. Please have someone track my IP address or something. maybe if someone can trace whatever signal my laptop is using then they could track me down too and figure out what’s going on.
Again Hal waited, a little longer this time. But at last the response came.
I can try to check ur IP dude, but you need to turn off your security first or I won’t be able to hack in. If you’re on a Windows machine, just press alt-F4 to shut off the security suite and I will do my best to find you.
Even this small act of kindness was reassuring in the insane situation Hal found himself in. He responded with a small answer – “Thank you so much. Shutting down my security now.” Then Hal held down the Alt button and pressed F4 and the browser closed.
“What the fuck?!” Hal tried to open the browser again, but it would no longer connect. There was nothing left to connect too. Whatever ephemeral link to the future was once maintained, it was now well and truly broken.
Three hundred million years in the future, in a small apartment in Detroit, a 13 year old burst into laughter.
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