Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-36393004-20180921153801

The advertisement read, ‘Game Vision – The Ultimate VR Experience.’ Jason’s finger scrolled the mouse, continuing to read the application process aloud to his friend Nate. The two had been scrolling through a news feed on their favorite gaming website. Their mutual love of anything electronic had made them fast friends in elementary school. The two sixteen year olds spent almost every afternoon looking for the newest technology and banging out as many hours on their respective consoles as they could.

“Apply now to test the next generation of virtual reality gaming,” he said as they watched a preview clip of the in-game content.

“That’s insane, there is no way it’s that realistic,” Nate responded.

“Only one way to find out,” Jason quipped before hitting the ‘Apply’ button.

The page refreshed to a long wall of text detailing the legal responsibilities of any applicant. Like most people Jason scrolled passed all the boring mumbo jumbo and finally came to an entry form. He entered his personal information, which also included his medical history.

“That’s odd, why do they need to know that?” Nate squinted at the tiny print.

“Probably just a liability thing, you know in case you are epileptic or something,” Jason replied.

“Yeah, can you imagine being in the middle of a game and just spazzing out?” Nate said with a little chuckle.

Jason was almost finished, now he only needed to check the agreement box. It read, ‘Upon checking this box and submitting this application you agree to the terms and conditions provided upon this document. To do so Game Vision cannot be held liable for any injury (mental or physical) or even death.’

Nates eyes drew wide at the last word, “Death?”

Jason jabbed him on the shoulder, “It’s just something they have to say to cover their butt, not chickening out on me are ya?”

With that he rose from his computer chair, waving a hand toward the keyboard. Nate sat down, sneering at his friend’s challenge. Once the second application had been complete he quickly checked the box and hit accept.

“There,” Nate said triumphantly, his tongue sticking out in defiance soon after.

A month later the two stood at the doorway of a rather large corporate building that had been nestled on the outskirts of town. Everyone had thought it odd the placement of the building, being the only large structure for at least a mile. The two young men only assumed it was a measure meant to keep their new secret technology out of the hands of their competition. They quickly pushed open the double doors and stepped into a large room filled with applicants waiting to be called back.

“I know they said they had a lot of applicants in the e-mail but this is insane,” Nate gawked at the nearly one hundred people that fought for places to sit.

“That’s probably why they are doing this follow up interview, no way they can have this many testers. I hope we get passed the interview process,” Jason replied as they attempted to find a space along the outer wall to stand.

After two hours of waiting and watching person after person exit the front doors with a look of disappointment, the two boys had started to lose hope of being selected. They tried asking questions of the people who passed by but only received looks of frustration. Finally, Jason pulled up the courage to stop a young female who was in the process of leaving.

He barked, “Look, we just want to know what the deal is inside before we have our interview. Anything?”

She would not say a word, only making a motion across her lips as if there was a zipper there. She shoved Jason aside and continued out the door. Jason and Nate looked at each other confused, had she meant she couldn’t say? They had no idea why no one would talk and it had no idea how long it would be before they would find out.

Thirty minutes later Nate’s name was called by a tall thin man wearing khaki’s and red pull over, his name tag dangling from the pocket. Jason nudged his friend and bid him good luck before watching him pass through the doors. When another fifteen minutes had passed and the man returned without Nate, Jason’s eyes lit up at the notion of his friend being accepted into the testing group. The man called for Jason and soon he was being ushered to a small conference room down the hall.

He took a seat in a modestly cushioned chair across from the man and a female associate who wore a lab coat. The two looked normal enough, and if you saw them they could even pass as relatives. They both were of small size, shared similar blonde hair, both seemed to have a varied shade of blue eyes. They both sat reading over Jason’s application for a few moments in silence before speaking.

“My name is Dr. Keirtch, but you can call me Susan,” the woman said without looking up, “And this is Peter Stein.”

Peter glanced up at the boy, “So you’re Jason Alvarez?”

Jason nodded as the two went back to examining his application. He had no known medical issues and had not been in trouble with the law. He had been a fare student, not always straight A’s but he did his best. The silence made him nervous, his foot beginning to tap against the bright white tiled floor. His thumbs turned around one another as he looked from Susan back to Peter again and again.

Peter broke the silence, “So, what makes you think you would be a good addition to our test group?”

Jason thought for a moment before responding, “I have been playing and researching games since I was five years old. I have owned every console ever made. I have a powerful gaming setup for PC titles and I believe I have played almost every game ever released.”

The doctor huffed a bit, a smirk forming on her lips as if she had heard that before. The continued with their questions, ranging from verifying personal information, a psychoanalysis, and various personal choice questions that Jason assumed had to be a way of determining his moral compass. This was followed by a trip to a small lab where he was asked to perform a stress test, to see how his body responded.

When they returned to the conference room he watched as the two made several marks across his application, twiddling his thumbs again as he pondered what their notes read. He had almost lost count of how long he had been there, considering there was not a clock to be seen. He was afraid if he removed his phone from his pocket it would reflect negatively on his interview, so he simply sat amongst the silence and awaited their verdict.

“Ok, I think I have all I need,” Susan finally said.

“Good, I will check back with you in a few,” Peter responded as the doctor exited the room.

Peter extended an open hand before congratulating Jason on being accepted into the program. Jason almost leapt into the air at the words and quickly asked when they would start. He was surprised to find out that they already had as Peter guided him out the door of the conference room. Peter’s hand rested on Jason’s shoulder as they walked further down the hall to another set of double doors. As they approached Jason read the sign upon it, ‘Authorized Personnel Only’.

Jason was escorted to a room that reminded him of the examination rooms of an emergency room. He was handed a gown and asked to change into it and instructed to sit upon a medical bed. Confusion rested on his face but Peter assured him that Dr. Keirtch would be in shortly to explain before leaving the boy to change. Unease formed in his stomach like a knot, but he convinced himself this was simply another examination and changed into the robe.

Dr. Keirtch entered shortly after, clipboard in hand, “Do you know what the most powerful processor is in the entire world?”

Jason thought for a moment, trying to recall the latest technology. He went to open his mouth but was interrupted by Susan’s finger tapping his forehead.

“It’s your brain Jason,” she said with a smirk, “And that’s the processor we are going to use to power our virtual reality experience for you.”

Jason was confused but the doctor began detailing an intricate procedure that would include inserting a device within his brain stem that would allow him to access the programs provided with their network cerebrally. The medical terms eluded him but from what he understood this device would access his own brain power to place him within a virtual world. He would be able to see, hear, feel, and taste everything just as he would in real life. It all seemed impossible and the explanation did nothing to aid his understanding.

When Dr. Keirtch had finished she turned the clip board over to reveal another authorization form. Jason’s eyes scanned the lengthy document and deduced that it was a clearance form for an operation. He read through the words again and again, before lifting the pen. It almost touched paper before he pulled back and looked to the doctor.

His voice filled with hesitation, “I’m a minor, shouldn’t my parents have to consent to this?”

The doctor pulled the clip board back, lifted a page and showed him a similar document that appeared to have his parent’s signature on it. As soon as Jason saw the scribble of handwriting the other form was dropped on top of it.

“It’s all there, unless you don’t want to be a part of the test group,” she said almost as a statement instead of a question.

Jason couldn’t let Nate be the only one to test this new system, he would never hear the end of it. He quickly signed along the line and placed a date to the right of it. The doctor clapped the paperwork under arm, grinning from ear to ear.

“Good, let’s get started shall we,” her voice growing with excitement.

Jason was wheeled upon the bed down the hall to an operating room. A team of doctors accompanied Dr. Keirtch and one appeared to be Peter. He had not identified himself as a physician and this struck Jason as odd. He sat thinking on this fact as one of the men in the room introduced himself as the anesthesiologist. He detailed how that Jason would receive an injection and be asked to count backwards from ten. He would fall asleep and when he awoke the procedure would be complete.

The needle entered an IV that rested within the inner portion of his elbow. He was instructed to count back as his vision started to blur. Just before he was able to say ten he noticed Nate being wheeled by the door on a bed much like his own. Instead of counting he called out for his friend, who did not respond and a second later his sight faded to nothingness.

He awoke to the beeping of the operating room equipment, the light stinging his eyes. He was having trouble focusing on any particular figure in the room but he could tell that all of the physicians had still been there. His ears rang and a pain surged from the base of his neck to the top of his skull. He attempted to reach back to investigate but his arms would not rise from the bed. Two doctors noticed that Jason had awoke and pointed this out to Dr. Keirtch.

“Don’t move just yet Jason, your body is still adjusting to the change,” her voice attempted to sound sweet.

After several hours in recovery, Jason was finally able to step from his bed. They tested his cognitive ability through various exercises that seemed like children’s games to Jason. He was able to complete them at a pace they expected of a person of his age. There seemed to be no visible side effects of the procedure, which seemed to please all of the physicians. Susan even seemed a bit surprised at this revelation, causing Jason to seriously regret having the procedure.

Jason was then placed in a wheel chair and taken to another room at the other end of the hall. As the door was opened, he immediately noticed a bed, nightstand, small desk with a chair, and a small wardrobe.

“This is where you will be staying for the duration of testing,” Susan was still trying to use her motherly voice.

Jason looked around the room a bit, opening the wardrobe to see the five sets of clothes that hung within it were white, just like everything else in the room, “So, when do we actually start testing the system?”

“As soon as you are ready,” she quickly replied.

Jason turned to her quickly and with a youthful impatience, “Now?”

She nodded, “If that is what you wish, simply lie down on the bed.”

He did as instructed, placing his head upon the pillow and staring up at the blank ceiling. Susan approached him and removed a thin black band with a pale blue light emitting from the clasp from her lab coat. The band was placed around Jason’s forehead and as the clasp was pressed in place an audible beep rang out behind his ears.

“Now, the headband is an activation switch that not only helps engage the software but allows you to terminate when you are ready. If at any point you are ready to stop, especially if you become ill or disoriented, reach up and undo the clasp and you will return to reality,” she explained.

Jason’s forehead wrinkled a bit, “That’s it?”

Susan nodded and sat at the desk next to him, “Just lay back and close your eyes and we can begin.”

Jason shuffled in the bed for a moment, attempting to get comfortable then laid back his head. His eyes drifted shut slowly and his vision plunged into darkness. He felt a tingle at the base of his neck that seemed to vibrate throughout his body. Then he felt weightless, almost as if he were drifting back under the anesthesia. Then the darkness was illuminated by the same pale blue he had noticed upon his headband. It came from a horizon in the distance and approached rapidly, then images of three scenes appeared amongst the light.

The three images were completely different regions in the world, based on the scenery. It was like looking through the clearest window pane out into different parts of the world. One appeared to be a bustling city, the second a heavily forested area, and the third seemed to be a small room not much different than the one he lay in. Above the three scenes letters appeared that read, ‘Choose Your Destination’.

When his eyes rested on the last image, words above appeared that read, “Tutorial”. Jason had never really been the type to learn the mechanics of a game before diving in, that was part of the fun for him. He enjoyed learning as he went. He turned to look at the forest scene and attempted to enter but nothing happened. A message relayed across the horizon that stated, “You must complete the tutorial before you can progress to other levels.”

He sighed a bit, not wanting to waste his time with something as boring as a tutorial. He simply shook his head and looked toward the scene of the small room and figured he would just knock it out as quickly as possible so he could get to the real game. As he thought about entering the room it appeared around him. The floor, the walls, and every piece of furniture seemed to be just the same as the one he actually resided in.

A feminine disembodied voice spoke softly within his mind, “In this tutorial you must complete a simple task, and it will allow you to familiarize yourself with the basic mechanics of movement and manipulating the world around you. The physics of this world will be just as that of Earth. You simply must move and interact with this world as you would your own.”

“That sounds easy enough,” Jason said as he took his first step forward. It really was just as simple as thinking he wanted to move forward. This was far easier than he thought it would be and everything seemed just as real as anything else he had encountered in real life. He reached for the door knob and it turned easily. It lead to hallway that seemed to extend forever, doors on each side for miles. When he turned the other direction it was just the same.

The voice came again, “The object of this game is to find the correct door. Each passage will take you to another point within the hallway, but only one will take you back to the home screen where you can choose your next scene.”

“Ok, so I just have to find the right door,” he mused while looking around.

He turned back around toward the door he had just exited, it was now red. He attempted to open the door but it seemed to be locked.

“You may not re-enter a door once you have passed through it,” the voice chimed.

He examined the door closer and at about eye level was a very small metal sign. He had to almost touch his nose to the metal to read what was printed on it but once he could read what appeared to be stamped in the metal. It was a series of numbers, five digits long, but on this particular door it was all zeroes.

He turned and approached the door across from him and read the numbers upon it. Then he moved to the door surrounding him to check those signs. It appeared that moving out from the door of origin was a sequence of five numbers from ‘00000’ all the way to ‘99999’. Just the thought of one hundred-thousand doors to search through brought Jason to his knees. This tutorial would take forever. He thought for a moment and decided to see if Susan could allow him to bypass this tutorial all together. He reached for his head band, pressing upon the clasp and to his horror it would not open.

His chest began to rise and fall sporadically as he struggled with the thin piece of rubber that now appeared to be permanently attached to his skull. No matter how hard he tried the clasp would not open and the band would not slip from his forehead. His vision began to blur and he dropped to his knees, still raking at his face and screaming into the endless hallway until he passed out.

He awoke an hour later, staring at the blank ceiling again. He slowly rose to his feet, his eyes landing on the hallway again. It had not let him out even after being unconscious. He felt his anxiety creeping in again but he tried his best to subdue it. Getting emotional would not help him in this situation. His only option was to try each door until he managed to find his way out.

Time was hard to measure within the hall but Jason felt as though he had been opening doors for a whole day. By this point he had deduced that each door was about four feet apart, which meant that the hallway would have to be over in four hundred-thousand feet in length. He sat in the middle of the floor, trying to remember the conversion from feet to miles. At this moment he was wishing he had paid more attention in school.

“Hey!” he yelled out into the empty hall, “Can anyone hear me???”

When his plea received no reply, tears began to streak down his face. He pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around them and buried his face within his arms. He sat sobbing amidst a sea of white, with only the occasional speck of red from his attempts at escape. His body was weary and his sorrow drew out the last of his energy. He drifted off to sleep, huddled in the middle of the hall.

When his eyes fluttered open, feeling as though he had been in a terrible dream, he realized his true nightmare was that it was real. He rubbed at his eyes, brushing away the dried stains of his hopelessness. He stood, shakily, trying to decide what to do next. He was in a game after all, it had to have rules and procedures.

“HELP!” he yelled out into the void.

A holographic image of a woman that resembled Dr. Keirtch appeared before him.

“I am the help assistant, how may I be of service?” the image of light responded.

Jason almost giggled in excitement. Finally, someone who could help, he thought, “How do I get out of here?”

“The object of this game is to find the correct door. Each passage will take you to another point within the hallway, but only one will take you back to the home screen where you can choose your next scene,” it repeated the prompt from earlier.

“I need to get out now,” Jason demanded.

“If you wish to terminate this gaming session simply remove your headband,” its response emotionless.

“The damn thing won’t come off!” he screamed.

“I apologize, I do not understand the question. Please rephrase,” it seemed to frown as it said this.

Jason pulled at his hair, a scream erupting from his mouth and echoing through the hall.

“I apologize, I do not understand the question. Please rephrase,” it repeated.

“Which door leads me to the home screen?”

“I apologize, I am unable to assist you in completing your task. I can however assist if you are having difficulty with movement or the manipulation of objects. Are you having operation errors?” It quizzed.

Jason was ready to pop, this thing wasn’t much help for being the ‘help assistant’. Then his eyes perked, an idea forming in his mind. He stood completely still in front of the hologram.

“Yes, I am unable to move or manipulate objects, please send me back to the home screen to reboot,” he said, a smirk forming on his face.

“I am unable to send you to the home screen until you find the exit, but I can restart you from the first room. Please wait,” it said before disappearing.

“No!” his voice rumbling just as his body reformed within the very first room he had started in. He quickly jerked open the door and looked down the hall. All the doors he had already passed through had been reset and he could not remember which ones he had already tried. He stepped across the hall, trying to open the one he currently stared at. The door would not open and the voice returned, “You cannot open a door without closing another door.” He looked back at the first room to see it was still ajar. He stepped back, closed it and watched as the white shifted to red again.

Dr. Keirtch pages Peter to observation room 102 and he arrives in a few minutes. She questions the benchmark time for completing the tutorial.

“We set the mark at twenty minutes,” he replies.

“It’s been thirty for test subject G12, how are the other twenty-nine?” Susan replied.

“All but subject G12 and G11 have completed the tutorial and have begun the next scene,” Peter answered. “Isn’t G11 this one’s friend?” her eyes furrowed and Peter nodded in response.

“Bring him in here, I will monitor these two and you can focus on the rest,” the words coming out almost in a sigh.

Peter quickly left the room and requested the assistance of an orderly to help him move Nate to the room Jason had been in. After placing the beds side-by-side Peter stopped within the doorway to look back at Susan.

His voice quaked a bit as he finally said what many of the people of GameVision had started thinking, “It’s been almost an hour, what do we do if they don’t wake up?”

“I will talk to legal, but that’s what they agreed to in the waiver, remember?” Susan said, in a matter-of-fact tone. 