Chapter 6: Inside

It was Saturday.

Those whose positions had not been snatched by the machine were resting from the endless hours facing yet more machines. Typical citizens in Garlem preferred something over the usual plans of dates and travels, dinners and picnics. Nothing was better for the usual adult in Garlem than escaping the boredom and usualness of their lives by plugging their minds to the main servers of the highest rated entertainment facility, the VR World. The building usually opened around nine in the morning. Before the doors split, letting the cold wind of the morning travel throughout its vast hall, people lined up with tickets in their hands as they were waiting for their turns. The simulation servers were limited, thus users had to wait for places to be emptied. Some places were reserved for weeks. The team had already adjusted the machines for the users. The seats were aligned with each other in circles, some were left alone in the corner. The building was two stories high; the upper stage was reserved only for those with with the highest payment for an intense experience. Each machine had wires like the roots of a tree. They would spread around the user's skull, limbs and chest in order to keep the heartbeats in check. After a few seconds, the user would lose control of her limbs; her mind would drift to a world of her own choosing based on a questionnaire designed by the boss herself.

The owner of place, Louisa Rain, was known more amongst criminals than amongst those with real life concerns; she was the owner of a prostitution ring from the initial years of the city's foundation. The business was eventually shut down before the investigation bureaus could get an evident grip on her. She was a middle aged woman with the look of one in her late thirties. Her hair was curly and brown; she would always wear a long vest with gloved hands and long heeled sandals. It did not take long for Roger to figure out that she was somehow connected to the mob.

As the doors of the building were stretched to each side of the entrance, people nudged each other as they rushed inside to take the simulation seats. By the time midday arrived, the place was calmer, yet the lines were regenerating with every passing minute. Louisa stood behind the window with a cup of tea in her hand, a leg over the other, rejoicing at the climbing green digits in her computer screen. Still, her mind was half taken by her conversation that took place the prior day with the other core member of the triad, Jerry Jackson.

She hoisted her phone as to check the notification, a message similar to what he was asking her not to do at the end of their conversation.

"I hope I was clear yesterday about why I don't want you to do it, even when the boss asked you to. For the sake of those years we worked together, don't do what he asked you to do, just let it slip, please," Jerry said in his message.

Louisa smirked before she sent the notification away with a determined look in her face . Downstairs among the crowd stood one curious Roger as he held a ticket in his hand and observed how the sleeping beauties reacted in their simulations. They seemed to be in their own graves, as the only things that moved in them were their chests and the widening of their nostrils while they breathed. Apart from that, there were no movements. He gazed upon those who had just woken up. First, the wires of the machine began to retire from their skulls and limbs, letting the last wire to be withdrawn being the one considered with the heartbeats in order not to surprise the user. After that, they began to open their eyes with a hopeful expression in their faces to reuse the stimulation again, but could not since that their seats were already demanded by those that followed them in turns and already paid for the service. It was not wrong to assume that not only did workers live for the weekends, but they lived for the VR World every weekend.

The night that preceded that Saturday, Roger spent it filling the questionnaire with random answers. In his wish list, he entered the wishes of flying or shape shifting, something to fill the slots with. The main plan was to use the servers in order to reverse the process of the data input and thus find a pathway that led to the main computer, to Louisa's computer. An hour passed before the other one followed, Roger almost fell asleep before he spotted an empty spot, the spot just below Louisa's room. As he walked to the machine, their eyes met in a strange manner, in a challenging manner. Roger stepped into the machine while its roots diffused around its skull, slowly surrounding his arms and freezing his feet. The sleeping drug was released, spreading a strange coldness around his eyes and nose. He had to count backwards before he was lost in the VR World.

Just like a stream of electricity rushing through the panels to a machine, it was at that moment that a stream of superficial consciousness invaded Roger's mind. His nerves were connected to the simulation, everything he had felt or seen was within the simulation. His body was at the mercy of the branches that spread across his thin body. He did not know the amount of data that flowed within those bits of time before his eyes were opened. He found himself standing in the middle of a vast, endless and borderless, green field with a variety of colored flowers that were blooming as if someone was speeding time. A cat played at his feet while he sensed a strange coolness passing by his skin, electrifying his stance. The birds were either blue or pink, chirping as they played with their wings around him. He did not fly, he was not a shapeshifter. This world was not what he had asked but what he had imagined.

"Oh man, I can't believe this, the whole thing is… wonderful. Why didn't I ever come with you here, Jeremy?" Roger said with a smile, releasing short genuine chuckles . He raised his head and shook his vocal cords with a rattling scream of joy. His arms were lifted in the air with excitement as he danced around with dancing rabbits that followed his trail. The sky was overall blue yet the stars were visible around the edges with a glowing redness that inspired two rising suns from opposite directions. At the very end, the night was creeping on his world yet that particle of time was suspended just like his mind was suspended in that bit of happiness. As he turned behind him, he watched as flocks of red birds traveled to a far place behind him. As he turned around, his eye bulged at the sight of far sky scrapers that dug through a colorless sky. Beings of shortness out of a sudden grabbed both of Roger's hands as wings breached their ways out of their backs and ruled the skies. He was already floating in the air as the wind took color, a red fragrance that crawled its way around his body like a patient snake. They placed him in a gentle manner beside the gates, his feet dancing atop the asphalt.

"Garlem," Roger uttered in disbelief. He put his hand on the gates, reading the huge writing that was marked with colors with black backgrounds and white lines. As each feet followed the other, he was already roaming the streets of a city that seemed widely different. There was not a single sound in the city, nothing but the whispers of the traveling wind. The latter carried a page out of a newspaper that seemed somewhat ragged, as if it was flying for a long time. It found its way to Roger's hands who held it as he sat on a bench with his eyes skimming through the headlines. There was this one title that dominated the page.

"After three years of social uprising, three years of struggling to achieve true social connection again, the city council has finally agreed on banning the usage of smartphones inside in the city. Same as the other important decisions of banning robots and the centers for VR Worlds, there was no form of opposition whatsoever. Last week, the mayor issued a decision to elevate practical arts by raising a fund to build two other Art academies in the city and offering the students scholarships in Italy. The details are below," Roger read with a sprawling smile that kept climbing up his face as tears escaped his eyes and went around his lips to stick around his chin.

"I can't believe this, this… my world, this is my world," Roger spoke with happiness before a rushing air of laughter escaped his lungs as he raised both of his hands, watching how buckets of different colors were thrown on buildings, varying the windows in color. People came out of the buildings, people of all kind. He stood in the middle of the crossroad while they danced and ran in circles, filling his ear with innocent childish laughter. There was talk all around, people looking into each other's eyes; they listened to each other, acknowledged each other, there was not a single screen to ruin the whole of it.

"Roger," a sound came from behind him. Even though it was distant, Roger sensed the breaths of a near humming that played with his ears. He turned around in a state of bliss, it could be told through his dull eyes. There she was standing behind him, there she was wearing that shirt with her flowing hair that traveled the air. Her smile heated his chest, propelling his heart to gallop faster.

"Our dream has come true, darling. We fought for so many years, and now everyone can see the world as you and I do," Tamara muttered, holding both of his hands as she crossed the sea of the dancing crowds with him. He would turn to see the climbing waves of smiling civilians atop each other.

"Do you not remember? Do you not remember how we initiated the movement to retrieve humans' ability to perceive actual beauty? Do you not remember the wave of criticism, rejection, hatred against us? Even our parents fought us, but we managed to achieve our goal, now they all understand. You have no idea how much I am proud of you, proud of what you have done," Tamara continued, almost whispering as Roger enjoyed every bit of it. Still, there was something that rung a bell a bit too late for him to grasp.

"Wait? You said our parents? But my father is dead, I know he is dead," Roger said, halting in the middle of the road. Tamara stopped too, turning around as her eyes met his.

"Is this about your dream again?"

"Dream?"

"You have been dreaming of your father's death, of a chip planted in your brain. That was just an illusion, something you'd see in a dark VR World. This is real, 'us', what binds us is real," she said, dragging him along with her as they reached a building. They took the stairs, landing one foot after the other before Roger watched his Tamara gently knock on the door with her middle knuckles. It was Cindy Polion who had opened the door. Roger was blind to her wrinkles, her face was shinning as if it was dropping oil while reflecting a distant light. They walked the young adult inside as red balloons circled around him in celebration. Jeremy was playing the guitar. Uncle Derek was caught in the kitchen, cursing as usual. In the living room around the table, sat the two old friends with Roger's mother, his beloved mother. He sat there motionless as the lady left her seat and surrounded him with her arms, holding him tighter with every passing second. He put his hands on her upper back, closing his eyes as he felt the warmth.

"I missed you, mom," Roger said with a tear falling from his left eye while the other was stuck. Isaac put his hand on his shoulder as he put his arms on top of his wife's, holding his son. The polions came from behind him, putting their hands on his chest and abdominals. Tamara held her parents while Uncle Derek and Jeremy came from both sides and held the family. They all closed their eyes as if it was an important afternoon ritual, something that was necessary to keep the warmth, a warmth that was lost during the years of technological invasion. It was all blissful with no phone to be seen on sight.

"This can't get any better," Roger said, felt himself tingled once a set of words crossed his memory. Was it his father who had said it? Was it something that had crossed his mind at that specific moment? He could not care anymore. He set his lips apart as he muttered the sense that initiated an ongoing glitch.

"If something—"

Jeremy and his Uncle were the first to disappear.

"—is too good to be true, then—"

The Polions, followed by their daughter, disappeared as well.

"—it probably is."

His parents were the last to dust into a wind that did not even exist. In a blink of an eye, buildings and fields also turned to dust while the stars in the sky morphed into lines that spread towards the horizon. The overall color shifted to darkish blue with straps of lines from each side, moving in varying motions. The ground glowed under his feet as he walked across its infinity. Something had awakened him; something had reminded him that it was a simulation, something he did not know. He sat with his legs crossed and his wrists rested on his knees, thinking of how the process of illusion happened while the sky above would glow.

"This was really unexpected. I didn't think that I would find myself immersed in the VR World, so deep that I forgot the truth about the real world. Based on what Jeremy had been telling me, users were aware that they were inside a fictional world of their own creation. For me, it seemed as if it was all real. Besides, the results of the questionnaire were clear enough to explain that what I craved was flying or shape shifting, not this… new version of Garlem. If I had to guess, once the branches of the machine were on my head, the simulation was directly connected to my chip. The chip gave the machine access to my memories, my wishes, the things I crave for. Still, something is truly intriguing. By my calculations, my time in the simulation is supposed to be over. Either that or my perception of time is being messed with… again," Roger conjectured.

At the very top of the glowing sky above, there were two lines that flowed in a different manner than the others, like ropes that were thrown to the ground. They connected both heaven and earth. Roger surrounded one of the glowing ropes with his fingers, sensing a sort of bombardment in his brain once his grip was tightened. The shock was so strong that he retrated.

This is it; these lines represent the connection between the simulation machines and the owner's computer. If my mind could survive this loop, I'll get the evidence.

All he had to do was to tighten his grip again before his body would fly alongside the white lines up in the sky. There was a sort of hesitation in his voice; he remembered the words of his father warning him about breaking walls. This time multiples walls would collapse one after the other like domino stones.

"Either ways, this looks like my only chance to exit the simulation. The lines fell to the ground for a reason, either a glitch or something else. It's going to be painful, may lead to… I should stop worrying. Here we go!"

His skin shimmered as it turned to flying cubes, smaller cubes that would be mistaken for balls because of the light. He was infused into the line as the whole of his parts traveled the panel while he screamed. His perception level was being modeled per second. He could see, hear, even feel what others felt in their worlds on his way to the main computer. Pictures of distant yet vivid memories were played in front of his eyes like a movie ten times its usual speed. There was a constant cycle of loudness and whispering that followed each other. Heat and cold met each other at the same marks in his body. His whole being was shaken, he seemed to be impersonating over thirty people at the same time. It was as if he was no longer Roger, he was everyone else with a bit of fragments from Roger's memories since he was in the simulation as well. In a blink of an eye, his body was shaped again yet his mind was fried. He found himself floating in the middle of a sea of memories, a sea of openings to different worlds that contained a different sense each. His hands and legs stretched far while he flew with a dropped jaw and bulging eyes. His soul returned back to his body as he absorbed breath like a sponge, and coughing afterwards. In the real world, the machine was painted with the blood that came from his eyes and nostrils. His own memories were the ones that followed, the lightning inside his eyeball was absorbed by the darkness of his eyes. Language found its way to his tongue as he began muttering in a hysterical manner, finding sense only after the passing of a few seconds.

"I've seen them all, I've seen what they experienced. People are… people…" he was stuttering. He put his hand on his chest as he oared with his hands in the sea of the simulation, searching for the intended opening. Each opening portrayed an entrance to a different simulation of its own. His sea was the chip's inner zone to contain his own consciousness away from the others'. It was the only way to stop before he had lost his mind or sense of self. Lose it or not, he was stuck in the simulation because the chip no longer answered to the amount of data the simulation streamed into the chip's source of power, Roger's brain.

"All that drivel, all that cruelty, people come to the VR World for this reason," Roger said as he floated towards a bundle of different panels, flashing images of falling bodies and torture chairs, images from one of the user's machines. The screams rung in his mind, either the screams of the nonexistent tortured or the plainly existent torturers. Everything seemed to be blackening and narrowing towards a single point, every river dropped in that one shared pond, a pond that would seem to be an extending ocean if looked upon from the other side. The wild energy absorbed his hand first before it swallowed his legs and torso. He was finally on the other side of the owner's computer with her files upon each other.

"I wonder how many walls I have broken through my travel across the cyberpanels," Roger muttered, changing between files as he searched.

"Not enough, I assume," a voice trailed him, followed by the sound of heels rambling the ground beneath their feet. Roger turned around, looking at Louisa rain walking towards him. She wore a dress, made of light bulbs, showing a wave of light each time to step forward. Roger took a step back in fear of her. She smirked before she stopped. Her eyes were half closed. She was hairless, and her face was not brushed with makeup as it usually was.

"I reckon you are the owner of the establishment," Roger said, "I hope you're not another illusion."

"Oh I'm not. The simulation was connected to the chip, I'm not an important one in your memories. You didn't even know what I look like before you met me here."

Roger raised his hands before he sighed as he watched all the files fade away. It was a facade since the start. "I guess it's not a coincidence I met you here, it's not a coincidence that one of the glowing lines was streaming into the ground for me to catch, and I also guess it's not a coincidence that while I was being overwhelmed by my own illusions, someone whispered something in my ear to pull me out. What the hell is this, Miss Rain?"

"You are asking me, how funny. I should be the one to be so surprised that someone with your abilities, first exists, then plugs into my machine for the sake of reaching my computer. But I'm not surprised, I know about it all. I knew that you went to Jackson' house in search of Owinson's scandalous past and that would eventually lead you to us. I placed the leads on purpose, so you and I can have this conversation."

"Why is that? I see you want something from me," Roger said.

"I sure do, and you will do what I ask of you. My only hope is that you do it elegantly and with secrecy or else I will not be so gentle as I may seem. There can no room for errors, which is why I am asking you for help, because Owinson believes in you."

"Owinson contacted you?"

"Owinson and I go back a long time, but that's another story."

"Couldn't he ask you to destroy the so called 'evidence'?"

Louisa giggled, almost holding her stomach as laughter escaped her. "You really don't know Owinson. He doesn't care about the evidence. Even if word of his past goes out to the public, no one is capable of bringing him down, no, not after building a whole city in US, a city theorists still contemplated how its soul was made different from the rest of the cities in the world. I did offer to destroy the file though, but he requested to use you for the errand. Make no mistake, neither Jackson nor the boss know about this part."

Roger looked at her, trying to read something in her intriguing smile. "So what do you want from me?"

"Well, nothing hard. Help me get rid of Jackson."

"What? He's your partner, why would you want that?"

"I don't have to explain it to you, but here's a glimpse of what is going on," Louisa said, pointing at a large portrait. It showed a man sitting inside a muffled shade, showing only the sides of his cheek and forehead as light was shed from behind. " Our Boss is technically stepping away from the family. After over twenty years of experience, he is going to leave the triad for good. His health is deteriorating. Only one of us can be in charge of the family. I reckon it'll be me."

"He's my friend's father. I can't do this to him."

"I'm afraid you are not in the position of bargain, Mr. Garaldson. You can't exit the simulation and if you don't get to the evidence, Owinson will tend to have… a proper conversation with your Uncle," Louisa said with a smile.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"I need you to get me enough evidence on Jerry's… illegal activity."

"You plan on jailing him?"

"No, just blackmailing him. Unlike me, he has a family and thus something truly precious lose. I worked with Jerry for a long time; I wouldn't want him to rot in jail, only to step out of my way. Don't take my decision as selfish; I'm doing my best for the family. With your chip, I can guarantee a better future using this technology. I'm sure someone from your generation will understand. Jerry's not an animal, but he just doesn't have a vision that suits this time. Soon, every city, not just in North America, but around the whole world, will turn like Garlem."

Roger took his time in silence as he looked around searching for a line to hold on to, something to pull him out of the simulation. "Okay, I'll do it. Just let me out of this place, I need to leave," he said before he walked away from the one in the opposite direction, rumbling the floor with each step away from the owner.

"I'm afraid I can't do that now," Louisa said with a ginger, swabbing her bald head with her palm. Roger flinched, keeping his distance away from her.

"You see, the whole of your arrival to the VR World is a plan to catch you. Our deal is only possible if you manage to break your way out of the Pacific's grasp. I can't visit the boss empty handed, can I?" Louisa said with a crack up in the sky that showed a blinding light behind. The crack would soon spread across the whole world from up and below. The quaking of the VR World vanished Louisa's figure while Roger couldn't keep his balance before he fell into one of the cracks. He didn't know whether he was dragged by gravity or elevated by an air he had not come to perceive. He was just floating into an infinite whiteness with only a bit of glimpses of the blue world above.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

As if someone had pushed the switch, the light was stripped off his eyes. He was a stiff body with a beating heart and a wild brain, far from conscious. Outside of the simulation, Louisa was looking at the sunset from her window while the staff closed the doors, forcing one of the addicted adults into the streets after he had almost ripped the branches of a simulation machine. At the very left, four server workers adjusted the branches' depth into Roger's brain while two others pulled him out of the machine into a moving bed while his eyes fidgeted. His fingers were twitching. Then, Louisa sat while watching her team take the unconscious Roger through an elevating darkness where no sound could be heard except for his murmuring.