Time for Trinitus

Trinitus collapsed onto the bench, hands slick with sweat, heat and cold washing through him in uneven waves. The sound of boots still echoed in his head. Somehow, he had lost them. A service door. A corridor no one used anymore. His time was scheduled for five o’clock Universal Standard Time. He had been instructed to arrive early. The facility forced every patient to sit one hour in the contemplation room before allowing them in. Most people chose to leave early and bail out.

Trinitus had chosen to take the treatment. A newly developed drug which alters your body based on real world outcomes. They said the trigger was tied to quantum noise, true randomness, beyond any classical prediction. There was no way to cheat it. The rules were clean: win the draw and the drug did nothing; lose, and his heart would quietly shut down. Survival and wealth were inseparable. That was what he was buying. The chances of winning the lottery were infinitesimally small, but there would be futures in which he got out of this shithole, out of this misery. Finally a man of means. He had tried every other way but failed.

He was thinking of all the things he had planned to do in this bright future. New house, private chef, elite school for the kids. The facility had put him in contact with a real estate agent specialized in post-treatment winners. Privacy wasn’t luxury. It was how winners survived the first years. Not even Trinitus was allowed to know the location of the mansion. He stared at the pale ceiling and wondered whether the man who woke up rich would remember this room at all. Whether that future Trinitus would feel gratitude or only regret. The crimes would already be paid for. What followed was his to justify.

His phone rang, it was Lilly. Fuck. She was probably wondering what’s taking him so long. He didn’t want to deal with this right now, he’s so close. He put the phone in silent mode and let it ring. Closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, let out a deep sigh. Am I really going to go through with this? He looked once more at the future projector to get an approximate reading of T+6, one of the likeliest paths. In the reading the police arrived at their apartment (if you could call that shithole an apartment). At first Lilly was confused. She knew what they were about to say but her body fought to deny it. It couldn’t be true. They told her what everyone already assumed. Lilly sank to the floor. The scream came later, carrying through the identical gray houses. She would now live, in this universe, poor and alone. In a few select universes he ran home to her with more money than they could ever imagine. But she didn’t care, she’s not in one of those.

Trinitus stopped the future projector and looked at his phone, 30 minutes left. There had been an article in the news the other day about the treatment. A man had allegedly undergone the treatment and woken up. The article said he went home and told his family to start packing. They were going to escape this hellhole of a district, move to the other side of the city, where the other rumored winners lived. The neighbors noticed the change and understood it immediately. In a place like this, luck looked like theft. They broke in without hesitation and stripped the place bare. Trinitus read it twice, then a third time, as if repetition could turn it into a warning he could actually use. His plan was to acquire a private safety company and get Lilly out of there before anyone noticed the change. He had the phone number ready to go in his phone. Everything had been prepared. He wanted to save her.

He imagined Lilly answering the door. He imagined a future Trinitus opening his eyes in a place like this, but brighter, quieter, untouched. He had fought so hard to live in a better place. He deserved an escape. What about Lilly? The endless versions of her collapsing in doorways, holding phones that would never ring again. They would understand, he told himself. He had decided they would have to. Trinitus pushed himself upright, heart racing, the thought still echoing.

The droid came into the contemplation room and said “time for Trinitus”. This was it. The last moment where all futures still existed.