[Republished] A World Gone Virtual (8 in Science Fiction 3/8/13)

Chapter Twenty

For the next five weeks, Jacob stays away from people. His averts his eyes when people pass him in the hallways and on the streets, and only speaks when spoken to, if then.

I talk to him. His friends talk to him. If his parents were still alive--they were soldiers in the US Army and died in the first wave of machine-human conflict--they would be worried too. One day, we find him simply sitting in the corner of his room, on the floor, staring blankly into space. He doesn't acknowledge our greetings or concern, completely ignoring us. He refuses to shower, and when he is prompted to do so, he has an apparent meltdown. We leave him alone after that.

Gradually, Kristen, his girlfriend, works out what's wrong, coaxing him to talk to her about what he went through in the Penitentiary. It turns out that Jacob has an intense fear of drowning, which was brought on when one of his childhood friends drowned in a pond while they were swimming together. Jacob has never mentioned it, not to us, anyway. Poor guy. Then we learn what the machines did to him in the Pen.

He was hooked into a simulator system not too different from the one I used to semi-permanently jack in last summer, with a waste-collection system and nutrient IV. Then he was just left there for three days. The rooms are apparently all sound-proofed, so no one heard him scream. In the stand-alone simulation, he was treading water in a vast ocean. I don't know how they found out, but everything is monitored now, so I'm sure they know everything about anyone.

Jacob, despite his traumatic experience when he was younger, is a strong swimmer. But no one can swim forever. Eventually, he drowned, only to respawn in the ocean again, treading water. Only to drown again, always experiencing everything as though it were real. And again. And again. Over and over, for three days, he died a simulated death--his worst fear made a reality in virtual reality.

Major overkill. I mean, yeah, he committed a crime, but this might have scarred him for life. If this is what you get for pretending to menace someone--who is in on the joke--with a fake gun in public, I'd hate to see what you'd get for a crime like theft or something more severe. A real crime.

I can only imagine what a full year must be like...and shudder. I've never seen a more effective punishment. No wonder the crime rate has dropped to practically nil. People know this is what you'll get, sentencing to your own personal brand of hell. Plea bargins are a thing of the past. So are prisons. Death Row no longer exists. The Pen is the justice system. You go in, you come out, and hopefully you never go back in again.

They will find a way to break you.

. . .

When I tell AJ about the Penitentiary, she shudders.

"Urgh. I read that book '1984' in high school--no, wait, I just have a memory of doing so," she mutters. "Anyway, I remember reading it. Room 101 scared the shit out of me, the idea of it, you know? So they took that idea and made it real for you guys?"

"Yeah. Hope I never get sent in."

"Damn."

"Yeah, the Pen is a scary place."

"What would your worst fear be, if you got sent in?" AJ's question is quiet, thoughtful.

"Being buried alive in a pit full of scorpions," I say nonchalantly. She laughs.

"No, really."

I consider it for a moment. Actually, the scorpion idea is really terrifying. But...

"Having to watch you die," I say slowly. "If they created a copy of you in the simulation and made you die in front of me...over and over...I don't--I'd probably lose it pretty quickly."