Dominion

Chapter 8

"Where are we going? We've been walking for over thirty minutes. How big is this place?" I whine dragging my feet.
Mark called us together shortly after breakfast for our first activity of the day. We have been walking for practically an hour now, and still haven't gotten to wherever he is leading us too!
I may be exaggerating when I say we have been walking for that long  but seriously, my feet hurts. I really don't see myself having any energy left to do any activity that they have in mind for us.
"We are almost there." Mark replies grumpy. He must think we are all lazy peeps considering our constant grumbling and nagging.
"You said that an hour ago!" someone complains beating me in exaggerating. I turn to locate the owner of the voice, it sounds oddly familiar. My eyes widens, Leslie!
Leslie is my distant cousin. We are more like sisters that's how close we are or I will say were considering we lost contact with each other when her parents decided to send her to a University abroad. I didn't know she was back and most importantly attending this camp.
I am about to go meet her when Ben reaches out to me. "Where are you going?"
"Leslie, my cousin. I didn't know she was here." I point to her excitedly.
He looks towards where I am pointing to, " The girl on a pink tank top?"
"Yeah" I nod.
"We're here" Mark announces stopping my advances to Leslie.
I groan,"I will talk to her later."
We enter a building that seems more like a very large room. There are chairs at various corners apart from that it's empty. The walls are coated in white paint void of any stain and there are several pillars supporting the high ceiling.
"For this activity, you will work in pairs. This is just a warm-up to today's activities.This is one of our training rooms." he says walking to a corner of the room where a computer I didn't notice before sits upon a table.
I watch him insert a USB into the computer and starts to type something on the keyboard. When he is done, he turns to face us grabbing something from the table.
He walks up to us with his palm open. I get a better view of what he is holding, microchips.
"Pass this round." he instructs placing it in the hands of the guy closest to him.
"You are to place them in your ear when I give the instruction, it sends a signal to your brain that causes a controlled hallucination." he explains.
"You all will be seeing the same thing. A scene wouldn't last for more than a minute. Each pair will take turns to observe their environment and tell which place it is or whose story it refers to." he pauses, giving us time to absorb all he has said.
"You are going to feel funny since it's your first time. After the exercise, to stop it you just need to pull the chip out but if your turn is over and you want to stop it, you can. I will give you the privilege of picking your partners." Mark finishes. A girl walks up to him to give him the remaining microchips. He picks one and returns the rest to the table.
Everyone moves around pairing themselves up. I draw closer to Ben knowing for sure we are going to be partners.
A girl from nowhere appears in front of Ben, "Hey, I'm Debbie. Care to be partners?"
The nerve of her! Seriously, can't she see me standing right beside him?
"Sorry, Debbie. Would love to but I am already paired up" Ben holds my hand politely turning her down.
She looks at me like she is just noticing me standing next to Ben.
"Oh, hi sorry. Didn't see you there." She smiles at me, " I'm Debbie"
If you can shoot someone by giving the person a stink eye, she has definitely received several bullet in her head.
"So I heard." I reply dryly
She frowns at me, "what's got your panties in a twist." I hear her mumble leaving our sight.
Ben chuckles beside me, "you're a mean."
"Only to those who ask for it" I smile satisfied.
"Okay now, since you are all paired up, any question before we go in?" Mark asks.
"Do we get to have clues?" someone asks
"Yes, the Bible." he grins at us. I look to Ben in panic, we are so screwed.
"Take numbers" Mark instructs.
Every pair take turns to take number and apparently Ben and I are going last.
"Are we set?" he asks. He doesn't wait for us to reply before placing the chip in his ear and we take it as our cue to do so too.
For a moment everything is blurry but I blink several times and I am amazed how real this all look.
We are standing in a desert, at least we are made to believe so. There seems to be a mountain ahead of us with a flaming bush. I don't know if my eyes are deceiving me or this is just how the hallucination is supposed to work but the bush seems unaffected by the flames enveloping it.
Mark looks at the first pair expectantly, " this is quite easy, you should have picked it at first glance. Time is almost up."
The pair steps forward looking around. Don't worry, I am blank as you guys. Mark begins to do a countdown from ten with his fingers. Just as he gets to number five someone from the pair speaks up.
"Moses, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire."
Mark smiles and nods, they sigh in relief. The scene changes shortly for the next pair to take their turn. It goes on like that for the next few minutes, some getting their answers correct, some otherwise.
It gets to the last pair before us and I am completely nervous.
"Samson" the pair answers just as the scenes changes. Mark nods at them and turns to us, I hope he can't see me shaking.
Everywhere transforms into a beautiful garden filled with all sort of trees some producing fruits and some not. I take my time to take in my environment, we stand no chance in getting it anyway.
At the center of the garden stands two trees unmistakably bigger than the others. A river flows and parts into four heads, it's the most beautiful garden I have seen.
Ben nudges me,"Is it just me or this place has a canny resemblance to the opening scene in the film Mathew made us watch?"
My eyes widens as he states his observation, of course it is! Same two large trees in the centre and river that parts into four heads.
I rub my temple trying to remember if Mathew mentioned anything about it during our discussion. Nothing comes, I look to Ben for help.
"Do you remember him saying anything about it?" Ben shakes his head.
Mark lifts his hands to begin his usual countdown from ten.
"Come on, brain remember." I mumble hitting my forehead.
"Adam and Eve." Ben says unsurely as Mark gets to three. I look at me wondering where that came from, hope he is right.
Mark smiles and give us a nod like he did for others who got theirs right. I squeal in delight, high-fiving Ben. He is surprised he got it and I can't blame him.
We pull out the microchips from our ears and hand them over to Mark. As soon as I do, my eyes takes some time to adjust to reality, blurry images clouds my vision. I stumble but Ben is quick to catch me before I fall.
"You okay?"he hoists me up. I nod as soon as my vision becomes clear.
"Okay everyone, let's move out. Time for your next activity of the day." Marks yells, getting our attention.