The Other World

Archon - Part 1

Sara's eyes shot open. She quickly sat herself up on the VR lounge's leather couch.

"Welcome back, Sara."

Sara's chest heaved  while her eyes darted around the lounge.

"Orion, give me the name of the last game I played." Sara closed her eyes and buried her face into the palms of her hands. Please tell me something. Anything to let me know I'm not going crazy.

"Certainly," stated the VI. "Trees versus Undead. A frightfully humorous strategy game brought to you by the makers of...

"No!" Sara looked up and interrupted. "Just a minute ago. What was I playing?"

Seconds of silence passed, yet they seemed like hours.

"I am unable to determine the answer to your query," replied Orion. "Would you like to contact a technical support representative?"

Sara's head spun. It didn't make any sense. What happened in the game in a game couldn't possibly had any effect in real life. Even "Warp VR" as it was called — VR games or programs that made the user question reality itself — couldn't pull of something like this.

Could it?

A sudden knock at the door to her right snapped Sara out of her bewilderment.

Ugh! The last thing I need right now is company!

Sara looked over and saw a name flashing in green letters over the door. Annie Grant.

"It's too late now," she sighed. I need to change my online status to 'busy' after this.

"Come in," Sara said.

The doorknob twisted and Annie's head peeked from around the side of the door.

"Hey," Annie waved shyly and walked in. "You waiting on the update too?"

"Oh, yeah," she nodded. Honestly, Sara had forgotten about her homework.

Annie sat down on a chair next to the couch and sighed. "I wonder what the update could be this time. I really hope it's not more realism." Annie made a disgusted face. "The other day I had a patient with head trauma and..."

"Annie, don't," Sara's stomach began to churn. Images of the incident flashed inside of her mind.

"I'm... is everything ok, Sara?"

"Did you hear about what happened in town? At the bank?"

"No," Annie gasped. "What was it?"

"Well, there was a guy holding the people inside hostage but he, uh..." Sara stopped and pointed two fingers at her temple.

"Oh wow! Was anyone hurt?" Annie pressed.

"No. I don't think so." Sara stared into the empty space in front of her, but all she could see was a replay of what happened earlier. 

"That's good!" Annie breathed a sigh of relief.

"Excuse me, Sara, but your update has finished," Orion's smooth, synthetic voice chimed in.

"Lucky," Annie folded her arms. "Your internet speed is so much faster than mine." Annie could see Sara was still staring blankly into space. "Are you ok though? It is kinda crazy that it happened not far from here, isn't it?"

"I'm fine," Sara snapped out of her trance. "I should probably get started on the homework though."

"Okay then, Miss overachiever. I was thinking I should give Akira a visit anyway." Annie stood up and waved goodbye. "Good luck," she gave a half smile as she walked to the door.

"Thanks. You too."

The door closed silently as Annie shut it behind her.

What is wrong with me?!

Sara grabbed one of the pillows that sat on the couch and hugged it tightly.

Why is it bothering me that he did that? Everyone else is perfectly fine with how it happened: Mom, Jace, Annie, the reporter. He was the bad guy, right? He had it coming; you can't just hold up a bank and take hostages like that.

Sara's mind raced as she tried to calm herself. After all, she was just a bystander in all of this.

If it was real.

There's no way it can be real, though. I've lived here in Easton all my life and the town in the game looked nothing like it. It was just a one in a billion coincidence and I'm overreacting, that's all. Even if it was real, I... Dom did what had to be done. No one innocent got hurt.

Sara sat for a few minutes and mulled over all of the scenarios she could think of. The only rational explanation of what happened was coincidence. Everything else was complete nonsense.

But what game was it? Sara kept track of the program library on the VapoR account she shared with her brother, but she didn't recall seeing anything like this on the game list. Sara scratched her head.

Why didn't I bother pulling up the game menu while I was playing it earlier? That would have answered a lot of things. Sara rolled her eyes. Now that I think about it, it was probably because I was being pushed through the stupid tutorial so fast, I didn't really have time to think.

An idea popped into Sara's head.

"Orion?"

"Yes, Sara?"

"If I asked you to run the last game I played, would it be Trees Versus Undead?''

"No," replied Orion.

"And what was the last game I played?"

"Trees Versus Undead. A frightfully humorous strategy game..."

"That is too crazy," Sara said aloud while Orion droned on with the games description. "Maybe it's a type of Warp program after all. No wonder they banned most of those before I was even born." Her curiosity began to get the better of her. Sara decided that the best course of action was to get more information. First she needed the name of the game. From there she could contact tech support or search for the game on the web.

"Orion, boot up the last game I played." Sara was now determined to figure out what was going on. The way Sara saw it, everything needed to have an answer, because surely there was an answer for everything. Now she just had to find it.

"Right away. Prepare for transfer."