Shadow of Resistance

Chapter Twenty Two

Back then, I remember a day when he woke us all up suddenly and told us to get ready. He refused to tell us where he was taking us as he didn't want to ruin the surprise. He loved surprises, always dragging us out of bed with some grand mystery waiting on the other side.

We all got ready and he drove the car. He dropped mum and the young girls at a shopping mall then stopped in front of a new cyber. He wasn't a gamer, but he played with us sometimes. We entered and I was shocked when he asked for the VR, which I have never played before.

We entered a small room with dim light where futuristic headsets were lying on the ground beside their controllers. I saw hundreds of videos of VR and heard a lot of stories about it from my friends, but finally I could try it firsthand. We started with a shooting game, it is a gun game where we played against each other.

We wore the headsets and adjusted the straps and all we could see is black until we started the game. I found myself in a forest during the night and could hear scary sounds like deep croaks of ravens and wolves howling. Everything looked very real from the details of the trees' barks to the small grass at our feet.

I looked at my hands and saw myself holding a gun in each hand, and when I rotate my hand the guns rotate with me. I looked in front of me and found Omar and dad still looking around themselves, so I started shooting at Omar, killing him the first kill. We continue the game running after each other and hiding between the trees to assassinate each other. We played easy on my father, as he wasn't able to understand the controls completely.

We then played a zombie game in the same environment, but we were all together against the zombies. It was way scarier and funnier. Zombies were coming at us from all directions, each one of the zombies having a terrifyingly realistic face and body, making the experience feel incredibly intense.

When we finally finished the game, Omar bursted out, "Wooooow, what was that?!"

"Yeah, that was insane!" I responded, still catching my breath from the excitement.

"I really enjoyed it." Dad said.

"Let's go find the girls," he said, his footsteps echoing as he moved away, while I was still surrounded by the virtual forest.

"Wait, how do I get out of this? Help me get out?" I called out, extending my arm as if he could actually help me out.

"What do you mean? Just take off the headset," Omar replied.

I felt so dumb when I realised I'd forgotten I'm wearing the headset. Quickly, I removed it, and saw them looking at me confused. I can't blame them after what I just said, their reaction is more than justified.

It was an unbelievable experience and what made this experience that crazy was that when one of us jumps or crouches, the camera goes up and down with him, and that when a zombie attacks one of us his controllers vibrate strongly. I thought that VR experience is based on the fact that it immerses you into a new world by just showing you a 360 view of this world but what happened in this room exceeded my expectations by far.

We went to the car and picked them up to go to our next stop, Maldive Gaza. It is my favourite restaurant in Gaza because it has its tables in open air that has a wonderful sea view, and the food there is unimaginable. We arrived there and ordered the food. I ordered seafood pizza as usual. I believe they make the best seafood pizza ever. I think my mother won't like hearing that as she believes the food she makes is always better than the food from any restaurant. She actually makes great pizza but not as great as this place.

The sound of footsteps echoes nearby, pulling me harshly back to the present. My heart tightens as fear creeps in, what if he's coming for me? I hold my breath, frozen in place, every muscle tensing as I listen for the next step. I feel relieved when I hear the footsteps sound weakening and I try to sleep.