Cloud Chasers

fifteen | a million miles away [pt. two]

They approached the Reality Fountain and stared at their reflection in the artificial water. The water flowing covered the eerie music, allowing Joyce to close her eyes and take a deep breath. "Our world, Chase. Picture our world. As hard as you can. Actually, harder than that," she said.

Chase closed his eyes, too. "Our world," he repeated. "Our world..."

They heard the background music fading away and, when they opened their eyes, they found the purple clouds dissipating and uncovering the gray sky.

"What happened?" Chase said, scouting the rooftop.

Joyce squinted at the inscription by the door. Eden. She blew out her cheeks. "We spent five minutes in the Lobby without vaping," she said. "We can't let these stupid mistakes happen, not now. I need a refill," she said, shaking the vaping device in her hand.

A muscle in Chase's jaw twitched as they emptied their bottles out into their devices. "This all that's left. I think we have, more or less, four puffs each and that's it," he said.

"Then we have to make the most out of them," Joyce said, worry snaked through her.

"We go back to the Lobby, now. And that's one puff gone," Chase said, vaping along with her.

They made their way back to the Virtual Plaza as fast as they could.

"Alright," Joyce said by the Reality Fountain. "Our world, our world."

With their eyes still closed, they grabbed each other's hand and clumsily made their way into the fountain. Our world, our world, not other worlds, our world, wonder what other worlds would look like, our world...

They opened their eyes when they felt the ground beneath their feet. The gray sky did a poor job at hiding the sun, and momentarily blinded them. When their eyes got used to the new brightness, they looked at each other first, and then around.
They were still on the rooftop, and sure, everything looked the same. But was it really?

They ambled toward the door, and already they could tell something was off. In the place of the inscription was a torn flyer.

As they approached it, they could make out a face with red horns drawn on it with a marker. The face was that of a gray-haired, older-looking Hitler. In the bottom left corner was a Nazi swastika under which "Fifth German Reich" was written.

They looked at each other with baffled expressions. Chase tried the door but it wouldn't open, so he used the key. "It's blocked from the inside," he said, banging the door a couple of times.

Joyce pointed at the flyer and swallowed the lump in her throat. "This must be a joke, right? This can't actually be the reality we're in, right now," she said.

Chase sighed. "I'd like to say that it is a joke, but I don't think so," he said, nodding in the direction of the sky behind her.

She turned around and, navigating through the gray clouds in the distance, she saw a large airship hovering over Okin's skyline. Joyce squinted and saw a couple of Nazi swastikas on it; fear twisted her gut.

"Let's get out of here," she said, resting her hands on her thigh to stop the tremor. "This is worse than the Cyberspace."

"Because this is real," Chase said and puffed from the vaping device.

"Two puffs gone, two remaining," Joyce said, back in the Lobby. The background music turned off the panicky thoughts, as they made their way to the Reality Fountain.

"Helios wasn't kidding about this being hard," Chase said.

"Don't think about that." Joyce leaned over the fountain to catch her breath. "Think about our world. Think about something specific, maybe, like, I don't know, the streets."