I was on my way to class when it happened. I felt a great weight come over me which brought me to my knees. I felt an intense gravitational pull deep in the pit of my stomach. I looked up to see other students and faculty around me hunched over in a fetal position. I was afraid and unsure of what was going on. It was getting harder to focus on my surroundings. My vision got blurry as tears welled in my eyes as the immense pain grew in intensity. I felt like my insides were trying to rip a hole through my torso. The streets were filled with chaos as cars slammed into buildings, structures, other cars and people on sidewalks. The sounds of screaming and groaning in pain and the crashing of cars filled the air. I tried to put my arms in front of me to brace myself from falling further but they buckled and only slowed my descent. The pain from my head hitting the ground just barely relieved my of the pain in my stomach but only for a second. I watched as the people lie sprawled about on the ground clutching their stomachs as if their lives depended on it. 10 feet from me I saw my girlfriend, Tara in pain but staring and focusing on me. In her eyes I saw great fear but even more I saw her will to live. The longer I looked the greater that will became. I felt entranced but could not look away. The intensity of the pain and our mutual acknowledgement encouraged each other to persevere through it. Her eyes pleaded for me to stay with her and I tried to encourage to do the same. The sounds of the tormented people around us began faded as we held each other with our eyes. Then abruptly, it was over. The pain relented and I greedily gasped for air. Tara and I looked around and all of the people that were around us were no where to be found, only clothes were the people once lay. Then there was a flash of light that dwarfed the sun and I whited out.

"Vince, Vince are you OK? Come on, you can't leave me here by myself. Wake up!" Tara yelled as she shook me awake. I opened my eyes to see Tara sitting beside me on her bed in her dorm room. I tried to speak but couldn't and immediately needed to vomit. Tara already had a garbage bag ready for me as I threw up what felt everything that I've ever eaten. "Feeling better?" she asked as she rubbed my back and handed me some paper towels. "Actually, yeah, I am" I said. "What was all that? Where did everyone go?" I asked. Tara smiled at me and said, "It hasn't come back to you yet? Don't worry it will. For now let's just get you feeling better again." Annoyed I replied, "Tara, I don't want to play games with you. Everyone just disappeared and we're the only ones left for who knows how far. We could be under attack, or the rapture could have come or..." "Relax," Tara calmly replied. "Everyone's fine. You should know Vince, you claimed more than I did." I froze and tried to comprehend what Tara just told me. "What do you mean by claimed?" I asked unsure if I wanted to know what it meant. This time Tara smiled deviously and took the garbage bag from me and tied it up. She looked back at me and asked, "What do you think I mean?" I was unsure if this was even the Tara that I knew while considering the implications of what she said and what occurred.

<Of course I'm me.> I heard clearly from her but her lips didn't move. She looked at me again with the same intensity as she had outside. I recoiled back against the wall on the far side of her bed. <Of course, you are still you too. Now, you're just more you than you were before. Or rather you're back to the you that you once were.> I was afraid, but I wanted to know what was going on. Tara sat on the bed and moved close to me and asked, "Who are you?" I was about to reply but she put her finger to my lips and shushed me. <Tell me who you are.> I was sure that she knew who I was because she just said my name minutes earlier. I thought to myself, <"My name is Vincent/Daniel/Eric/David/Bryan/Michael/Edward...> I stopped, because I was unsure of which name was mine. Each one felt like me and it seemed like I could go on with name after name. <Good, you're beginning to remember> Tara taunted. <Get out of my head!> I yelled my thoughts to her. <Great, you're reconnecting your link with me. Let me help you remember.> Tara thought to me. Now, I could hear her thoughts too, only they felt like they were my own. I felt like she was a part of me and I her as one entity in two bodies, distinct yet the same. We grew to know each other once again as we had so long ago. With Tara I remembered that I am all of those people since they were originally fragments of my true self. I remembered that Tara and I were once one being since split into one pair among 50 on this planet. I remember that this is the 99th time that we've reset and this is our last chance to get it right. As we send out this link to you 49 pairs we implore you that we must do better this time using the knowledge that we've acquired to rebuild better, more efficiently, and in better harmony with this planet. It will not allow us to fail again.