Stuck.

Stuck

My grandmother used to read me stories of what life used to be like. It all seemed so simple, so…primitive. They used to drive in their little cars on the roads, and dream of space. They used to go and watch animals, in something called a zoo, I don’t know but it would have been cool to see something like that. To see real animals. Life seemed to be less complicated then. I always wanted to experience our world like that, where everything can be seen with your own two eyes. Now…now everything is artificial, we look at the world through VR lenses that were implanted into our eyes when we turned 10, of course we had to get yearly updates to them. Before you turned 10, you had to wear these dorky glasses. I guess they don’t want us figuring out how bad our world really looks.

My great-aunt told me when they first left the bunker she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was all gone, her world as she knew it was gone. It was like the Earth itself had died, she cried when she was telling me this but “it was important for me to learn our history, our true history.” The fallout turned the sky different shades of yellow, and in her words a very uncomfortable thick smell of smoke. The air was so thick and so polluted that they had to wear oxygen masks. My great-aunt was always withdrawn, empty look in her eyes every time I visited her, but when she talked about the old earth, she looked alive, happy even. So every time I saw her I made sure to bring it up. That's why I was her favorite.

“Cindy! Cindy, wake up!” A hurried voice brings me out of my sleep.

“What? What do you want, Marge?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.

“Jenkins is about to make a speech! So come on, you know what would happen if we missed his speech.”

I get up and Marge drags me outside where we can finally tune-in to the broadcast. Our reception is so bad inside. I blame the stupid robot who tried to fix-it, I’m like 90% sure it just made it worse.

“Attention all citizens, this your leader Augustus Jenkins speaking. We have had an increased amount of people escapi-leaving to Geova without permission. We’ve also had more of you people illegally reprogramming your lenses. Allow me to remind you leaving to Geova or anywhere that is not within your legal boundaries without permission is punishable by a 30 year imprisonment. Reprogramming your lenses is punishable by death. Let these 10 here serve as a reminder of what happens when you break our rules.” Jenkins’ voice booming voice fills my ears.

The image projecting into my lenses switches from a close-up of Jenkins to a panned out view of 10 people kneeling with their heads up and defiant looks in their eyes. I look over at Marge in fear, and the horror that shows up on her face represents what I feel inside. The man who was standing behind Jenkins steps out from behind him and slowly walks over to the first person. I was expecting him to carry a syringe or a gun but he’s carrying a…scalpel? How can you kill someone with a scalpel? When the man brings the scalpel near the guy’s eyes I immediately understand what he’s about to do. I close my eyes and burrow my head into Marge’s shoulder but I can’t block out the sound of their screams, Marge shakes beside me, I can feel her trembling as the man goes down the line of people. The sounds of 10 different people screaming in agony is so horrific I already know I am never going to get over this, it is going to haunt me till the day I die. The broadcast seems to go on for forever, the screaming finally ends when the man grants the people some mercy by executing them. I open my eyes after the screaming stops and Jenkins face just shows up in my vision with his unnerving look of pleasure in his eyes, and a sickeningly cheerful smile.

“We have to leave.” Marge looks up at me with desperate eyes.

“Marge?” I exclaim, “Shh, keep your voice down! You’re gonna get us in trouble.”

“Cindy, it’s only a matter of time before the next raid happens, and it’ll be us up there!”

“We can’t. Did you not see what happened to those people?!?” I whisper yell.

“That's exactly why we have to!” Marge grabs my hands, “We are going to die if we stay here. We might die if we got caught escaping, but we will definitely die if we stay here.”

I hesitate, “It could get better, he said-”

“ ‘He said’?! Are you really going to trust a leader that tortures his citizens for wanting a better life. We don’t have a choice, you have to understand that. It’s us versus them.”

I look out the balcony, my heart is already starting to race with adrenaline. She’s right. We have to leave, and I was stupid enough to almost believe that a man like Jenkins would change.

“You’re right. We’ll leave, but we have to go soon.”

“Tonight then.”

“Tonight.” I echo.

The night sky is black, they haven’t even bothered to put up the stars anymore. Margo creeps down the stairs, while I follow close behind, scared, terrified that we’re going to get caught. I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. A part of me feels like this is a dream. A horror game I can’t escape. We move through the slums, quiet and quick. We’re practically jogging at this point, my heart beats faster and faster as we get closer to the border. My body shakes with adrenaline, as my mind fills with hope of what could be when we get to Geova. When we get to the blind spot in the border, Marge crawls through first, with me following close behind. Oh my god, we did it, we made it! I crawl through, practically shaking with excitement. As I get up from the hole, I hear a loud POP! To my left Marge has fallen, her mouth open, with blood spilling out of it. Her eyes, dulled now stare up at me, her face forever frozen in fear. Two soldiers start to walk closer to me, pity in their face as I back away. The fence digs into my back and stumble as my foot sinks into the hole I just climbed out of.

“Sorry kid.” One of the guards raises his gun.

I scream as my whole world fades to black. I hope it haunts them forever.

I sit up gasping, clutching my chest.

“So, what did you think?” Dr. Coles asks me.

“Delete it. That was the most horrifying game I’ve ever played.” I say, still clutching my chest.

“That’s only because you made the wrong choices.” He says.

“There’s a happy version?”

“Of course there is.” He says with a little smile, turning to type up something on his computer.

“That’s gonna give like 7 billion people PTSD from a war that’s not even real.”

“The point of my game is to have an immersive experience of what it would be like for us if some nuclear war happened. It’s educational.” He says defensively.

“It’s traumatizing.”

“Educational.” He says hunched over his desk.

I get off his couch and place the vr set down next to him.

“I transferred the money to your account.” He doesn’t even take his eyes off the screen.

I lean on his desk and look at him “Hey, you hired me for my opinion as your beta tester for this game and I think you shouldn’t release this game.”

“I-” he sighs. “I put a lot of work into this, I spent years on this, and its going to take me months to go through the entire game.”

“You know what?” He looks at me with such expectation I can’t help but, “You should release it.”

“As is.” He says with a dorky smile.

“As is.” I smile back.

“Alright, thanks Amber.”

He gets up to hug me but when he gets closer the stench radiating off of him makes me gag. “Ohh noo I’m okay. When was the last time you took a shower?”

He sniffs himself, shrugs, and offers me a sheepish smile. Ugh. I leave his apartment not too soon after that. I just got half a million testing that game, I’m surprised he even has that much money considering how beat up his apartment was. The sun hits me, temporarily blinding me as my eyes try to adjust. A woman rudely shoves past me, not even looking up from her phone. Looking around, I can’t help but pause, I have this uneasy feeling in my gut, like something just isn’t right. I just don’t know what.

I go to cross the street, a car whizzes by, would have hit me if someone hadn’t pulled me back.

I turn around to thank my savior but the words die in my throat. What the fuuu-.

“You alright miss?” This handsome man asks me, his green eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Jenkins?” I gasp, stepping back from him.

“Do I know you?” He asks, whilst fixing his tie.

“Err. No. You just look like someone I know.” I squeak out, trying to compose myself.

In the corner of my eye, a very tall building seems to almost be glitching in and out, it fades in and out so quickly, in a blink of an eye. On the building there's a holographic screen with big bold letters in red. Reading ‘Chapter One: The meeting. Mission: Guide Jenkins. 2090, t-minus 4 years and 5 months before the nuclear fallout.’

“No no no no. I thought this was over.” I moan, grabbing onto a nearby railing as waves of nausea crash over me.

“Miss? Miss, are you alright?” He looks at the building with furrowed eyebrows, but I guess I was the only one that can see it.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.” I groan.

He checks his watch, “Ok. Fine. Come with me, I’ll take you to your home.”

I let him guide me across the street, into a parking garage where his car is parked.

Damn it Dr.Coles! When I get out of here I am going to kill him. That means I’m going to figure out how to leave. If I can even leave. As younger Jenkins drives out the garage I have the most miserable, wretched realization that I could be stuck in this VR game for the rest of my sorry life.

“Miss where’s your address?”

“I don’t know.” I groan, on the verge of tears, as if it weren’t bad enough that I am completely lost in a fake dystopian world.

I’m stuck here. Maybe even forever.

No, I can’t. I can’t accept that. I will do all those stupid missions and get out of this crappy game.