Haven

Chapter Seven

Ben started towards the DigitalDynamics building cursing himself for being so foolish. His head was still swimming from the liquor. He had acted like a teenager with Sarah tonight. Did he make he put tension on their friendship? He certainly hoped not. He had her notebooks tucked under his arm, keeping them pressed tightly against his side. While it was late, there was still a fairly decent crowed milling about the stone courtyard leading to the main entrance of the building.

He saw a group of adolescents sitting atop a bronze sculpture of Charlotte Hellstrom, the founder of the Corporate Council. After federal governments started auctioning off federal agencies, she had taken advantage of that opportunity and purchased a number of these in the United States, Canada, and the U.K. Everyone knew who she was. Three of the youths sat on the head of the sculpture and another was lowered down where he pulled out a can of spray paint and went to work. In a flurry of arm movements he had given her likeness an Anonymous mask.

Anonymous, a group of hackers from the past, long ago disbanded. He found it amusing that people held on to little forms of rebellion like that. The symbols they used to spread their message of non-conformity. What did they really have to complain about? People talked about freedom like it was something we didn't have anymore.

Sure we don't get to vote for leaders directly, but they are selected from the largest companies in the world to sit on the council. It seemed to Ben that that was voting. In a free-market kind of way. People had everything they needed. There was no unemployment. No one went without a meal. You are even given a list of options right out of school of employers that will recruit you based on your aptitude scores.

Of course, those were your only options. But even if you only got high enough scores for the food service industry you wouldn't go hungry. If you would be good at something else someone would have noticed and offered you a position in that field. It seemed counter-intuitive to him to want to do things you won't succeed at. Just work hard and if they want to get out of what they get put into they can always become a web sensation or get popular live-streaming games. If they get good enough they might get sponsored and be able to do that for a living. These kids here tonight should worry about test scores rather than protesting a system that isn't broken.

Ben finally made it to his cot and fell into it. Leaving the notebooks on the floor, he drifted into sleep and fell into a shimmering pool. He knew this pool well. It was the character creation step of starting your adventures in Haven. A figure stood in the clear waters looking at its reflection. It was bens face in the water, a blank expression on his face. The figures shape shifted between all the playable races of the game. Stone pedestals rose up on either side of the figure each with a scene playing out like a holo-display.

On the left a view of a sandy beach. Waves cresting on the shore and a family laughing in the warm summer breeze. On the right chaos and destruction. A world made from decay and rot. His vision went black and the sounds of a great battle rose up around him. Swords ringing out followed by grunts and cries of pain. Leaders shouting encouragement to their followers. The sounds of spells skipping across the wind. Again his vision shifted. This time he sat on a moonlit hill surrounded by thick wilderness on all sides. A gentle breeze tickled his neck. Softly and sweetly he heard a delicate voice drift past his ears. It was  sha'Lorian, the Elven Queen.  "On sparks we fly, soft steps we land, Our day to begin again. silently waited, minds created, hearts take hold in the end."

He flew out of his cot, gasping for breath. He found himself dizzy, as if he had been spinning and tried to walk a straight line. What a vivid dream! He dreamed about Haven all the time, but that was extremely detailed. He must have really been excited to finally make his personal character for the game.
Ben flipped onto the news on his holo-display to see if his excitement was shared by others.  Tomorrow was the big day. Well, tonight at midnight.

"I'm standing here in front of World-Mart looking out over a massive crowd of people! I'm guessing thousands just at this location. People of all ages have come to be one of the first to get their hands on Haven." The reporter swept his arm out to the side to show his viewers the crowd. It was a sea of people. Lights and tents were set up in front of the store. "We are hours away from the most anticipated gaming debut in memory. People can't wait to get there hands on it! Now it's also a lot more affordable, so I see people of all kinds here today. One young man I spoke with said he has been here for 4 hours already, missing his shift at Quick Burger to be one of the first to play..."

Good. Ben breathed sigh of relief. He knew intuitively that this was not going to flop, but the thought still bit at him. Seeing the crowd of people waiting for Haven gave him confirmation. He stepped towards his bathroom to get showered and kicked a notebook. He had forgotten that he had some reading to do. But he would get to that later. Sarah was being a little paranoid. But he promised he would think about it, so he didn't want to dismiss it all outright.

His holo-display lit up with a message from an encrypted source, hiding the identity of the sender. It was gibberish. No discernible meaning he could find. Just letters and symbols with a little binary mixed in. Damn hackers. He flipped off the display and got into his icy shower.