The Differents | ✓

T W O

A/N
Sorry for the super long first chapter! With some advice, I've decided to cut down chapters to make them easier and less tiring to read. So this chapter is shorter, and hopefully significantly shorter ahah. Chapter three is definitely shorter though so stay tuned x

*****

We were right. There was something useful in the figure in the distance after all. And that figure turned out to be a small settlement, with a small group of people there. Captain took the lead and started interrogating them, asking them questions and figuring out where we were, when we were, and why. After finding the leader of this small settlement, he told us it was the year 2120 and that the place we were was notorious for being a place of refuge and solidarity, and people from around the world came there to meditate and cleanse their souls. But, he told us, there was a problem. Recently, a group of people had come to the forest and had started causing a disturbance. They had disrupted the natural way of the forest and had started bringing invasive species into the ecosystem. They were cutting down the trees and using them for their personal benefits, and they were forcing the native inhabitants of the forest to give them whatever they wanted. He asked us to help, and, recognizing this as the main problem of the simulation, we kind of had no choice.

"I will show you to where they have the main settlement," the leader told us, and showed us to a twisting staircase set into the side of the cliff. He started down confidently as if he'd done it a million times and gestured for us to follow him. The stairs were partly carved out of the side of the cliff and partly made of planks of greenish wood. It seemed like the staircase had been there a while, and the planks were starting to look old and mossy. I wasn't sure how sturdy they were.

Bear took one look at it and turned to me. "We climbed that entire cliff and risked dying when there was a staircase all along?"

"I didn't see it from the tree," I said, shrugging.

"Also you risk dying every second of your life," Sniper added. "Not to mention we're in a simulation." Laughing a little.

We started down the staircase, being careful not to steer too close to the edge and risk falling. We all knew that even if we did fall, we wouldn't die, but the VR suits we were required to wear had sensors all over them, so whatever you were supposed to feel, you most definitely felt. I have only fallen from a high place in a simulation once before and trust me, even though there was no actual wound when I took off the headset, it felt like the suit had grown knives on the inside and was stabbing me mercilessly until I peeled it away from my skin.

Arriving at the bottom, the leader pointed down a stone path that snaked through the trees and disappeared around a bend. It looked newer than the other two trails, who had a look about them that made you feel like a small, young thing, staring down the trail that ancestors had walked on before you.

"This is as far as we go down this path," he said. "We want to avoid contact with the hostile people as much as possible to keep peace." He gave a small salute and started back up the stairs.

Captain glanced behind her at the receding leader. "Year 2120... oldies..."

"I wonder if this place actually exists?" Sniper said. "It's beautiful."

"Probably not," I said, a hint of sarcasm in my voice. "The Instructors wouldn't want us to go and try to get out and find it."

"Don't say it like that," Bear said.

"Like what?" I asked innocently.

"Like we're being trapped and to become a Normal is to 'get out'."

"Think what you like, Bear," I mumbled.

"And tell us one more time why you won't stop cutting down trees and forcing the natives of the forest to give you everything?" Captain sighed.