Possibilities

Faith

I walked into work on May seventh, 2136 thinking it was a normal day. I had forgotten about how important that day was going to be, and all the work that had lead up to it. I took my time in the coffee lounge, chatting and gossiping with the other women. One story I heard is still stuck in my mind, to this date.

Katherine, a particularly annoying special events planner, was bragging about a gaming console she had bought for her son Chase, it was the latest model. No one was very interested, kids were always getting some new gadget. Just to be polite, I inquired further about the device. After all, it was my job to know about the latest and greatest devices. It was made by the Xbox brand, a company that I had actually worked with before to develop a safer simulated reality games.

That's when I remembered, this was the biggest day of my career! I ran to my office and turned on my computer. The screen lit up and I spent the remaining few hours until 1:30 answering e-mails.

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Finally, it was time. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... All now-open simulated realities began shifting. Slowly, players were being sucked in to the games. A warning message popped up. It said, 'WARNING! Potentially fatal situation IP address: 75.19.146.139' Underneath the warning was a link 'Click HERE to view.'

Obviously, I clicked the link. I didn't want anybody to die! A real time video showed me what was going on. Four teens were playing a game of 'fight to the death'. Since they were being sucked into the simulation, if someone died in the game, they would really be dead! Panicked, I clicked the 'close session' button, but it was no use. It was as if the computer had been programmed so no one could escape a simulation, no matter how hard they tried. I stared at the screen, helpless. A girl with blonde curls that fell all the way down her back stabbed a boy with short, black hair right in the stomach. He fell to the ground, sputtering. Blood oozed onto the stones beneath him.

The dead kid's face looked familiar. Where had I seen him before? The lifeless brown eyes seemed to bore into my skull, daring me to guess who he was. Was he a famous person? No. Was he one of those teen inventors? No. I tried and tried to place him until it clicked: This was Katherine's son, Chase. I had seen framed pictures of him in her office before. No. I thought No. No. No. No. No. I wished that there was a way to turn back time, to fix my mistakes.

A single tear rolled down my cheek. I wished I could tell Katherine the truth, and apologize, not just for killing her son, for always being so rude to her, and thinking of her as annoying.

Up until that moment, I had never felt such crushing guilt in my entire life. A teenage boy was dead because of my efforts in a stupid, pointless experiment. I watched him fall to the ground, replaying the scene on my monitor over and over. The girl who had accidentally killed him sat on the ground, staring without emotion at the carcass. She believed that she was the one that brought on his demise. I wanted with all my heart to tell her that it was my fault, to scream out the truth for all to hear. What was the truth? Even I didn't know anymore.

I remember the day I was hired for this job. "Assistant Director of Military and Technological Advancement". I really didn't have much of a choice. The government said they wanted me, and once I was given the details of the top-secret project, it was impossible to say no. It was either take the job, or be killed to protect government secrets.

Walking into the weapons lab, the director of the department, Dr. Joseph A. Smith, explained the latest project. We were working on creating teleportation devices for soldiers to use, and later, the general public. Dr. Smith thought that the first step was to make it possible for gamers to actually be sucked into their simulated reality games, instead of just playing from inside their device. Who was better to test the new technology than gamers themselves? Of course, no one would volunteer willingly, so we set a date and time for a few years later, the seventh of May, 2136 at 1:30 PM. After explaining all this, Dr. Smith deposited me in my office, so I could settle in.

If I'm going to be honest, from the very beginning, I knew there was something corrupt about this experiment. I mean, you can't just experiment on people without their permission! It's probably against the law. Fear for my life kept me working. I think everyone is afraid of death. That still doesn't justify my actions. I am a stupid, selfish and a poor excuse for a human being.

My name is Faith Miller. Faith, isn't that an ironic name for someone like me? Someone who caused children to die. Someone who was persuaded to do the wrong thing with death threats. No, the name does fit. I blindly put faith in others. If anyone ever found out what I've done, how could they ever have faith in me again?

Now hope, that is a word very close to faith. They are similar. I wonder what it would be like to loose hope. To feel empty inside and just know that nothing in this world can ever give you any joy or happiness or strength to keep going. I wonder what it's like to want to leave this world, and give. I have never experienced this but I now know what it looks like.

On May seventh, 2136 at 1:54 PM, I watched as three teenagers lost all hope. And It was the saddest thing I ever saw in my entire life.