98'00

back in the game

"Look, you came here begging yesterday, and the day before that. The answer is still no." The man at the register brings over the security guards and drags me out of the room.

"Please, please I'm desperate. Isn't that what you want? I have that mentality," I fall to my knees. The only reason, and I mean the only reason I'm on my knees begging to a man is because I have no other option. We have nothing, me, my mom, my sister and I. Absolutely nothing. We need a new life and this is the only way to truly obtain that.

"You're a girl." the man says in my face before shutting the glass doors.

"No, no please," I reach out to grasp the door handle but the guards shove me away.

"You'll be severely punished if we see you here again," he says.

I swallow my pride and I turn and walk away, my jaw clenched.

fuck. this. system.

I catch the next public transport back to my faction-- seventh, the second lowest on the pyramid. Society is physically split on who has money and who doesn't. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer, and those rich people don't want to be within two meters of someone of small class.

I turn the corner back to a section of run down apartments. It's pitch black, because nobody has the money to pay for electricity.

I trudge up the steps to the third floor, where my family is crashing.

"Min Soren. Where have you been all day??" My mom rushes towards me just as my younger sister is falling asleep.

"...."

"Don't tell me you're still trying to get a ticket to that ridiculous simulation," She says.

"Don't you want to start over? Don't you want to stop living like this??" I shout.

"You think I'm not sick of this life?" She asks, tears brimming in her eyes. "But I don't want you ten feet within those people and that world. Not after your father...."

she trails off but she doesn't have to finish. Years ago he entered the sim himself. He won, actually. But decided to take all the money for himself and was able to get to the highest faction, where he's living his best life without us anywhere near it.

It's not that my mom thinks I can't survive Maverick even though I'm a girl, it's that she's afraid I'll betray her like he did.

"Well you'll be happy to know they denied me again." I say.

".... it's for the best," She says quietly.

"No, it's not," I say and I brush past her to the other side of the dark room. From the small window, you can see up the streets. You can see the gate where the lowest faction is separated from ours. It makes you feel grateful when you see that there's still people living worse than you.

But the window on the other side of the apartment is facing the gate of the faction above us. I look through that window a lot. It's a driving force.

_

I never went to sleep last night. I was busy sewing up a black bullet proof vest, a copy of those who enter the Maverick sim.

As the sun rises, I sneak out of the house and I take the earliest bus back to the station. I sneak into the doors behind a group of guys entering and I slip into the nearest bathroom.

I grab a pocket knife out of my pocket and I grab a handful of hair.

After I finish cutting off my hair just to my chin length I flush it down the toilet. I stuff the remaining dark brown locks into a baseball hat and I wear a black mask. The only way you could possibly tell I'm female would be... okay there's two ways, but the only way would be to see my eyes and how cautious they are because I'm not supposed to be here. But that's okay, I don't plan on looking anyone in the eye.

Just as I'm putting the mask on, a stall opens and a boy comes out from it. He walks over to the sink next to me and splashes cold water on his face. His hands are shaking and his eyes are red from crying.

He takes a deep breath before looking at me. "They scan your vest, by the way." He sniffles.

"What?" I ask, trying to make my voice deeper.

The boy reaches up and grabs the hat off my head and my hair is an obvious give away.

"Give that back," I reach into the fake vest pocket and pull a small knife out.

"Don't attack me, I'm trying to help." He says. The boy is quite pretty, with large eyes and long eyelashes. "Listen, I don't want to be here." he whispers.

"You should be lucky you could even register legally," i tell him.

"Whatever." The boy says. "I know how I can help both of us. Let's switch."

"Switch?" I ask.

"My dad forced me to come here so I could get the 'manly experience' that he did." The boy explains. "We don't actually need the money."

"Are you kidding me??" I ask. "What are you, third? fourth faction?"

"Second." He says.

"Are you fucking joking??" I ask. "I need this way more than you do,"

"I know!!" He says frustratedly. "That's why I'm trying to help you dumbass, so shut up and let me speak. Take my vest, let them scan it and they'll give you a collar. Meanwhile I sneak out the side door and hide in the nearest faction, got it?"

"Uh, okay?" I ask. "Is this a prank or something? Are you actually helping me?"

"Do I look like the type of person who would willingly go into this sim?" He motions to his slim figure and unathletic abilities.

"fair enough."

"So you in?" He asks.

"Of course," I grin and we shake hands. He takes his black bullet proof vest off which has the number 98 on the chest.

I take my fake one off and put his on. The boy helps me stuff my hair back into the hat.

"Oh, and I registered under the alias New, by the way," He says.

"Thanks New," I say.

"You're the new New." he grins. "And good luck out there."

"I don't need luck. I've only been preparing for this my whole life" I say.

"Yeah well I heard it's a lot more brutal than you think, and that you really need a good team with good team dynamics." New says.

"We'll hope for that," I say. But when it comes down to it, I have no problem going solo.

"Ready for the fight of your life?" New asks as he puts his hand on the exit.

"Born ready."

MIN SOREN
PLAYER: 98
FACTION: 7th