Queue

• Table of Contents
• Limbo: The Approach
• Wrath: The Wait
• Treachery: More of The Wait
• Canto XXXIV: Freedom

Limbo: The Approach

As I see the queue at the far end of my vision, terror strikes, but I collect myself and observe it. This step is important as it gives me a mental picture of the queue move to time ratio (QM:T). A measure of how much the queue moves forward over a given period of time.¹ Allowing me to prepare for what’s to come.

Specifically, millimeters moved per minute 

Wrath: The Wait

I pull out my phone and pretend to be busy with it to fit in. I periodically raise my gaze to the line ahead of me, as if knowing the remaining length of the queue every 30 seconds would somehow make it more bearable.

Treachery: More of The Wait

The QM:T is very small. This is the worst case scenario. I can’t estimate how much longer I have to wait. Seconds feel like hours and minutes like days. It is like being plunged into the icy depths of Cocytus. Conscience fading, sinking forever, with no trace of hope.

Canto XXXIV: Freedom

I look up and see that I’m almost there, the end of the line (in a good way). I do not know how much time has passed, only that not much more has to pass until I’m free.

I’m there at the end of the queue, exhausted. And now I have to pay them?. Blasphemy. But fine, I’ll do it. I pay what I owe and I move to collect my bounty.

It was there in the maw of Vega City Mall that I lost all hope. As I bit into the soggy ‘Korean Spicy Burger’ from Burger King, I felt what could only be described as the mushy remains of an eel slide around in my mouth. It tasted awful, nothing that should be edible, like industrial grease with a sweet aftertaste.

I realized that I had not escaped the 9th circle, but simply, that I had walked right into the jaws of the Devil.