James Prell woke with a start. His clothes were wet with sweat, clinging to his body in dark patches. His chest was heaving as his heart slowly returned to a normal pace. Looking out the window, James saw the sun slowly setting into the hills.

He had fallen asleep, but he couldn't remember when. In fact, the last thing he remembered was sitting in his car, driving home in the rain from yet another long day at his place of employment: Big Burger Boy. How had he wound up from his car to being asleep in his bed without knowing about it?

James rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He knew he shouldn't have had that burger before he left; any processed meat that's been lying around for a good three weeks cannot be good news.

He rolled out of his bed and walked down the hall to the small kitchen in his equally small apartment. He opened the refrigerator and was greeted only by disappointment.

Funny, he remembered a little bit more than a can of tuna fish and a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel's. James shrugged the empty refrigerator off, grabbing the beer and sitting down in front of the television. He tipped the bottle back, gulping down the contents as he fumbled for the remote control.

His hand found nothing but empty air.

James slowly lowered his beer, his curiosity piqued. His eyes lowered to the spot where he always had the remote control resting on the little table next to his chair. The remote control wasn't there.

Neither, for that matter, was the table.

James' face twisted and he turned his head, looking for his table and remote. He found it, next to the television, well out of his reach.

James shook his head in confusion.

Number 36 stared at the viewscreen. It displayed Experiment #60,232. So far, it was completely captivating Number 36.

Number 29, one of 35 superiors to Number 36, entered the sphere, checking up on the Experiment's progress. "Is all well with the Experiment?"

Number 36 nodded its head. "Yes, very interesting. It seems as thought the individuality of," Number 36 looked down as its notepad, "James Prell allows him to have quite fascinating responses to varied situations."

"Hmm," Number 29 commented, mimicking one of the human's traits. "Interesting. Shall we see how the termination of James Prell affects other individuals in his environment?"

Number 36 said nothing, it was already thinking the exact same thing.

The gas truck swerved madly on the wet pavement as the driver tried to regain control. His attempts faltered however, and truck swerved off the road, crashing into an apartment complex.

Seconds ticked slowly by.

The truck exploded in a plume of gaseous flames, the apartment building erupted and slowly burned to the ground.

Number 36 stepped out of its sphere heading for the file room to log the results of Experiment #60,232. As it passed through space to reach the desired sphere, Number 36 thought the same thought that all the Numbers were thinking at the moment . . .

Cloning the universe so that we might explore our past. Explore individuality. Genius, pure genius.