Part One (633 KB) - Whoa is (Not)

What kind of idiot calls his rat ‘Trevor’ Neo wondered, gazing at the note. He turned back to the box
with the rat’s halfway-decomposed carcass in it, used his shoe to nudge it closer, and dropped the note
back in. Kicking the box shut, Neo placed it in a far corner of the shelf before going over to the small
sink by the cabin’s door to give his hands a good wash.
He then regarded the remaining pile of boxes with considerably less enthusiasm than before, not that he
had had much to begin with. The second box looked the same as the first from the outside – as did the
other two beneath it – and Neo opened it with some trepidation, holding it as far away from himself as
his hands would reach.
The box’s interior was green and fuzzy in a Yoda sort of way. It also stank, but it was a different kind of
stink from the first box. While the latter had been the stench of death, this was the stench of life: the
stench of undesirable little organisms growing in areas they ought not to.
Neo decided that it was no business of his if his room’s previous inhabitant had decided to try his hand
at gardening, but then he saw the note in the box, taped to the inside of the cover and filled with the
same tiny handwriting.
DAY ONE: Dumped th e remains o f my dinne r in her e. I was going to throw i t down th e
toilet, but I thought that I might as well keep it and see what happens after a few day s.
DAY TWO: Still looks the same.
DAY THREE: It’s kind of starting to stink a little now.
DAY FOUR: It’s turning yellowish brown, and several green spots have appeared here
and there. And we eat this stuff. I’m going to show it to Morpheus if it gets any worse.
DAY FIVE: Bigger green spots. I showed it to Morpheus. He said that all food goes bad if
you leave it in a box for several days. Git.
DAY SIX: I thought I saw something move, but maybe it was just my imagination.
Neo looked at the green fuzz that covered most of the inside of the box, and decided that any further
reading of Lyman’s experimental report would only serve to put him off dinner. He shut the box with a
grimace and placed it on top of Trevor’s remains.
Two more boxes remained on the floor from the few he’d taken off the shelf. Might as well get it over
with…
The third box also had a strange smell, but one that had a familiar quality to it. The inside was smoothly
coated with some reddish-brown substance, and Neo reached out a finger to touch it. It felt plastic-y.
He prodded it, and it depressed under his touch.
Then the words on the note taped inside caught his eye:
‘Trevor, you have not di
ed in vain. Your blood will remain here forever to remind me of
you. –Lyman’
Neo hurriedly pulled his finger away and slammed the box shut. Rat blood. He supposed it could be
worse, though… but whoever this Lyman fellow was, he sure had some serious issues, Neo thought, as
he washed his finger in the sink, realising that if he kept on like this, sooner or later someone was going
to complain about him using up the water supplies on the Neb.
One last box lay on the floor now. Neo had more than half a mind to put it back on the shelf without
opening it, but his curiosity wouldn’t let him.
Why not he asked it.
Because, his curiosity replied. OPEN IT. OPEN IT NOW.
Neo wasn’t one to argue with the voices in his head. Besides, he had gone through three boxes
already… what was one more Hesitantly, Neo picked up the box and opened it, expecting some other
weird odour or other to emanate from its depths.