Reality

1

My last year. The last year before I was free. I looked at the television screen. One more year to survive. My fate would be decided today.

Every year, teens would get picked to get flung into a virtual reality to test their skill level. The government says it is to graph human evolution. Some crazy conspiracists say that the government wants to control population or even testing a serum that gives the government total power over humans.

Hardly anybody believed this. The government was helping us discover more about teenagers and humans as a whole. Ever since The Simulation started, the overpopulation has gotten better, but there was less crime, and we could learn more about ourselves. Even if I was picked this year, I would just been in for less than a year. When you turned eighteen, you were free from the game and you could live your normal life.

The elected president gave a quick speech about it. He talked about how this was helping human race as a whole. The speeches sounded the same every year. The camera changed to one in front of a screen that would tell everybody the people chosen. This was never random. Test scores, classes you took, and other variables helped them choose the participants.

I eagerly awaited to see who the subjects were. The national anthem played and everybody who was important enough to be at the actual place where they choose the people stood up during it. They sat back down as soon as the song was over.

As names were shown, you could hear people say different things about the person, until the next ones came on, they would talk about that person. I recognized some names. One was a girl in my science class that always put too much perfume on, and a guy that was in my math class who always bragged when he got the right answer. I wouldn't miss them.

We still had thirty names to go through. I yawned. In this section of the country, it was the dead of night, but I always liked to see the names when they first come out on the screen, rather than the list later. They were going in alphabetical order. They neared the s section. Then, a name popped up.

Clio Swordsman.

My name.

Yes, I am named after the muse of history. I remembered the teachers always thought my mom and I couldn't spell my name, because they always thought it was Cleo, short for Cleopatra. This used to frustrate me so much that I would sometimes ask to change my name. My mom would just smile and would just tell me to wait until I was older.

My name was on the screen for a brief moment before more names started coming up. This would mean one long year of trying to figure out puzzles, fighting, and trivia. At least I wouldn't have any homework.

I grabbed the remote and turned the television off. The house was empty, as usual. My mom had to leave the country on a three year long trip. I couldn't call her. I'll just have to tell her when she gets home.

I waited by the door. We learned the drill at school. People will come to your house to give you information you and take you to the simulation room. You would enter The Simulation and the test would began.

I heard a knock at the door. I jumped up from my sitting position on the floor, where I fell asleep, and opened the door. There, a man with a briefcase and a woman with her hair in a tight bun were waiting for me at the door.

"Hello. We are here to tell you about The Simulation," the woman said. I let them in. I sat them down at the table.

"The Simulation is a program to test human evolution. You will be tested on combat, trivia, and your puzzle solving skills. You will be in there until you complete the puzzle, someone else completes the puzzle, or when you turn eighteen, which is about a year for you," she said.