Writing Prompt

I remember the first time I heard of the concept, Virtual Reality, but this was the first one of its kind. It wasn’t just some goggles you put on, it was more than we would have ever though. Doctors visits, therapy appointment specialty doctors, labs, you name it. Those who sought these games belonged to one of two categories; your first group wanted thrill, adrenaline.. he second group wanted a better chance at living, one they could actually control through a selection that would guarantee happiness, success, sex, family and a way to die of your choosing without having to stop breathing. There were also two other things these groups had in common, we wanted something more than our normal lives could offer and these games would end up being much more than we bargained for. My game was supposed to be like an advanced therapy session, a medication guaranteed to work. Just like any game ours had bugs too, but these were much more than a glitch in a code, these glitches altered the brain through wiring in the gear you were attached to. They tried to say they fixed it and gave warnings of what to look out for so you could immediately return but some of us never did, no matter what ‘Game’ you were in it would all start the same and not how they warned. The screen would go black and then a blinding light that gave the sensation of looking into the sun while simultaneously being blasted by a winter blizzard in the tundra. Once things began to darken, I can almost certainly say that anyone in the game was filled with dread. I know it’s cliche but being dropped into a zombie Apollo series game is much more terrifying that it seems, especially when you add in the very real consequence of dying in real life if you are killed in the game and it doesn’t end there. If you DIE there, you will live in the game as undead that can still hear and remember who you used to be.. but the game controls you. They are still trying to figure out how to disable the console without killing the human brain whether the player is a human or a diseased, we are able to hear the outside world and the conversations like a telepathic second voice, we all hear it at the same time which also increases risk of becoming one of the diseased because you absolutely CANNOT take your attention off of the new world around you. I should have been my 87th birthday today but I’m still 26 in here. Maybe we will reach the end of the hoard someday and begin our own lives, because the ones we once lived before VR are approaching their ends, maybe we will live forever if we don’t die in here. Every so often I recall the slogan and I chuckle at its irony. “Let our Console, console you!”

"W-we need urgent medical help!" Said a female teenager as she stared at her bite-mark on her leg. It was pale green and had blood emerging from it rapidly. All of a sudden, the phone from her hand dropped to the concrete ground and shattered....

Making it from our base in the dam to the town of Elektrozad was a weekly occurrence. Doing it more frequently would represent too high a risk, but too infrequently would represent the equal but opposite risk of starvation. The risks were tenfold; infection, bandit gangs, ghillie snipers and zombies. Instead of banding together, as you would expect of a country where the group is paramount, it had become every man for himself.

Dilkov and I walked along the tree line to mask our visibility. Concealing yourself was of the utmost importance as the gangs and the snipers were not necessarily after your resources. The apocalypse had them filled with nihilism and resentment for the world and therefore they hit back at existence in the best way they could postulate: making sure as many people die as possible.

In a way I could understand it and was even tempted many a time. These people have most likely seen family members die at the hands of other people and believe that the best solution is the join them. It makes sense. There is only a finite period on which human survival on our island is realistic, therefore acting as if there is meaning is difficult as you really will not have to face the consequences. No one is coming to save us so you will never be held accountable. People are just making justice prevail as they see fit.

As we walked along the tree line Dilkov scanned the hill with his binoculars. Having such chronic anxiety regarding being hit with a .50cal bullet for so long meant that we were adept to seeing Ghillie snipers outlines where the untrained eye could not. Dilkov signalled with his palm to get behind a tree. I squinted to see what he was seeing. It was a sniper, moving position. We watched him set up on the hill opposite us. As he was setting up, we begun to jog further south-west so we could head towards Elektro but also over the peak of the hill and out of the snipers line of sight.

As we got over the hill, a thud kicked up the mud between us. That was a sighting shot. We sprinted over the hill and to safety.