Virtual Reality Simulation System (VRSS) – Episode 3 (A Short Story)

‘Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, and people watching at home, I would like to welcome you to the first ever final of the Verses Tournament,’ the announcer’s voice boomed all around the arena, shaking my ribcage and dislodging any nerves free so they could run around my stomach freely.

‘We have seen twenty-four contestants battle each other in the most advanced gaming system in the world. Twenty-four contestants entered the tournament, twenty-two walked home. The remaining two will battle it out one final time on live TV, in front of the entire world. Only one can win and be crowned the first ever Verses Champion. My name is Phil Pack, and let’s get battling.’ He stood in the middle of the stage, with two gaming pods next to him. I had a quick glance at the arena when it was empty, and it didn’t look that big. But as soon as the people started arriving and filling up the seats, it suddenly grew twice its size, and now I’m positively shaking in my boots.

I have my friend to thank me for standing where I am. He joined the tournament because he believed he could win. He persuaded me to join because ‘it would be fun’. For the life of me, I cannot remember the conversation that happened then, but now I’m standing in the finale, waiting for my name to be called to enter the arena. I am petrified. I thought I couldn’t get more nervous than when I was waiting for my first battle ever - and that really was my first battle ever. There was a moment when my friend thought we would be battling each other in the semi-finals, but unfortunately he was defeated during the last match of the qualifying rounds.

How I was able to win all my battles up to this point, I will never know. I told my friend that and he glared at me for saying something that clearly wasn’t true, except, it was. I really do not have a clue how I was able to defeat my opponents, especially the ones who had plenty of experience before me. My first match was against someone who had battled twice before me, and so had some knowledge of what to expect and what to do. All I had to back me up was one giant learning curve that I had to make sure I stuck to no matter what or I would ultimately fail.

In most competitions, the first load of rounds is the easiest, and it progressively and fairly gets harder with each round, but with the Verses Tournament, all bets were off. As well as all the weapons that you find across the map, there are these other weapons that are much rarer than all the rest. People like to call them, Secret Weapons, and once activate they can unleash some incredible force towards their opponent – or in other words, give the user an incredible advantage. My friend said that, whilst he couldn’t accurately give me the odds of finding a secret weapon, they ‘are extremely hard to find, so don’t get your hopes up.’ Fair enough, and so I went through the entire battle without my opponent or me finding one. That is, until the very end, when I found something strange on the floor that looked like a button of some sort.

I was standing in a nice-looking house at the time, in the living room. I reached down and picked it up, and was surprised by the lightness when it looked as if it would be a dense piece of metal. It was just a strange black box with a white button on top, which I gingerly pressed. There were no words written on the box, there was no clue surrounding the box as to what it would activate, if it would indeed do anything, and for a couple of seconds after I pressed the button, there was nothing but curious, tense silence. The unpredictable nature of the situation provoked doubt in my mind; I shouldn’t have pressed it because I simply didn’t know what was going to happen next.

The box opened. The top lifted up, revealing a small screen on the underside with some controls inside. A screen showing the ground outside with red words written in the middle saying: ‘bombs are ready. Fire at will.’ My opponent was nowhere to be seen. During our recent confrontation, many bullets flew in several directions, hitting everything and anything except for our targets. Somehow, I was able to escape and run away, but it wasn’t without some extreme close shaves. I never run so fast in my life, dodging this way and that. I had run out of bullets, and now all I was carrying were some useless objects until I find some more bullets. I kept one eye on him as I ran, making sure that he wasn’t following or doing anything suspicious to try and catch me off guard. Unfortunately, he knew what he was doing, and I hadn’t a clue as to what the heck I needed to do, except just find a weapon of some sort, and from the looks of it, I believed I had found that, and so I trusted it.

I had no choice but to trust it, to be honest, even though there was still some strong doubt in my mind from the lack of information I’ve been given, but yet I still grabbed the controls and figured out that I was supposed to be finding my opponent, which I conveniently knew was currently residing in the small corner shop just down the road.

All I had to do, apparently, was press that small red button to the left of the joystick on the right. With the shop in sight, I pressed the button.

Silence. Seconds passed. Sudden faint whistling sounds that quickly grew louder as something fell from the sky… and then the shop disappeared in a huge thick cloud of smoke. I will never forget how loud all the explosions were, nor will I forget the creeping dust cloud that eventually engulfed me just before the world unloaded and I was back in the real world. As my senses came back to me one by one, the clapping and whistling and cheering of the crowd grew louder and louder. I only won because I luckily found a secret weapon in a not so very secret place. I don’t know how long the battle would have lasted or what would have happened if it had continued. My second match, I was standing on the other side of a secret weapon, and one that was obviously worse than the one I found. So much for being rare. Two battles – two secret weapons.

Running away from an unexpected helicopter attack was the most intense moment I’ve ever experienced throughout this entire tournament. I thought I couldn’t run any faster than before, but I was happy to find that I still had some more speed in me. The adrenaline coursing through my body, propelling me faster and faster with each step, knowing that if I move in any direction I would slow down substantially and therefore get hit by the stream of bullets that rained down from above.

Directly in front of me was a Land Rover that, even with the little attention I gave it other than it was a place to hide behind and hope for the best, looked brand new. With one huge jump, I tumbled over the bonnet and fell hard on my back on the ground, knocking all the wind out of my system. The helicopter kept advancing, but it was too close to slow down, so it had no choice but to keep going and turn around later, but that didn’t mean it stopped shooting. Loud clanging noises echoed all around me as hundreds of bullets hit the Land Rover all at once, breaking the glass, popping the tyress, piercing the metal and the interior, and even running freely around the engine block. Some made it out the other side and dug small holes in the ground on either side of me. All I could do was stay where I was and hope for the best. One bullet punctured the ground right above my head. Never have I ever came so close to losing the battle before or since. But then the bullets stopped and the helicopter flew overhead. I had survived, but it would be turning back as soon as possible and going for another run, meaning I had to run and find better cover, or at most, something to take that helicopter down.

In the heat of the moment, all other thoughts except the ones focusing on that particular situation leaves your mind. Your brain forces you to think of one thing only. I’ve never known it had such a strong survival mechanism built in.

In that brief moment of relief when you knew you had survived for another few moments allowed for some thoughts to return. One thought in particular was a memory of where one weapon sat. I had walked past it at the beginning of the battle. I didn’t pick it up because I thought it would be too heavy for me to carry around. The other thought focused on recognition. I know this place, because it’s close to where I spawned in, which means that the weapon is close by, and I know exactly where it is. All I have to do is pray that I will survive until I get it.

I moved. I was still winded, disallowing me to breathe as normally as I could, but one fleeting glance at the fast turning helicopter in the sky was all my adrenaline needed to kick me up the backside and get me moving again. Scrambling to my feet, I ran down one side of a building, where my left foot caught something sticking up, tripped me up. I fell face first onto the ground, but it was exactly where I needed to be. To the right of me, sat the weapon I needed, and there was one round already primed and ready to fire.

Standing up. My ankle aching with pain and my knees protested against my actions, I forced to keep moving and picked up the weapon. I was expecting it to be a lot heavier than it was, but I’m putting that down to my adrenaline helping me instead of anything else. I’ve never fired one of these before, which added pressure on the one shot I had.

I turned around on the spot just as the helicopter was passing by, probably getting ready to look down the alleyway. I wasn’t sure what would be the best plan of action, and there was no time for me to conjure up one. All I could do was fire and hope for the best.

That’s exactly what I did when I had the chance. The helicopter did as I had predicted and stared down the alleyway. There was no one sitting in the driver’s seat, telling me it was controlled remotely. My opponent was somewhere, controlling this helicopter in some safe place. If I’m successful, that battle would continue.

Lifting it up onto my shoulders, hand on the trigger, I fired the rocket launcher. The rocket flew out of the end at incredible speed. The recoil was so strong, I flew backwards and landed painfully on my back once more, this time on something else that was sticking upwards, piercing my back. I yelled with pain as the rocket flew in a direction.

Then I heard the explosion, followed by a crash, and the world unloaded. It happened so fast, I had to take a moment to figure out that the helicopter had somehow crashed on top of my opponent. Completely coincidental…

Completely convenient.

Twice I won through convenience. Today would be my third and final battle. The person I am facing has played in several battles before entering the tournament, and… well, let’s just say that he’s conveniently got a lot more experience than me during the live finals. I would almost laugh out loud if I weren’t drowning in my own nerves and the sound of the clapping and cheering people behind those curtains.

‘For those that are tuning in for the first time, or have skipped from the qualifying rounds to the finals and need a refresher, here are the rules,’ the announcer said to the camera that was also on stage and I somehow missed. ‘There are no rules,’ he smiled. ‘The map will be completely random. No player will know where they are until they start exploring. Hidden throughout the map are weapons – every single weapon is available in that map, somewhere, all they have to do is find one. But that’s not all. Somewhere hidden also, are a few secret weapons that if found, would make their opponent quiver in their boots. Nearly all the secret weapons have been found throughout this tournament, which even the developers of the game thought were rather defying the odds, but then again, there were plenty of battles.

‘Once the battle has begun, it won’t end until someone is victorious, and the two finalists won’t be able to escape if they are scared because the ability to bring up the main menu has been disabled. Only the people monitoring the situation, and who is sitting behind me has that ability. If there is any problem, the battle will immediately be stopped and depending on the situation, a decision will be made with what to do next.

‘For those of you in the audience,’ he started to slowly spin around on the spot to talk to everyone at once, ‘all the action will be presented on those large screens. These intelligent people will fly drones all over the map, hopefully capturing awesome camera angles, but more importantly, all the action.

‘And for you at home,’ he returned to staring at the camera, ‘once the battle has started, it won’t jump back to me until when necessary, and to keep things as atmospheric as possible, I won’t be narrating at any point during the battle except when necessary. You are really in for a treat tonight.’ He raised his free hand up into the air and shouted.

‘So, are you ready for the final of the Verses Tournament?’ he rhetorically asked to an excited crowd. They clapped and cheered louder than ever.

‘So without further ado, let’s introduce the finalists.’ Oh, here we go. My nerves bubbled up to my throat. I was certain that I was going to throw up, but that sensation was immediately halted when my friend slapped me on the shoulder.

‘Oh, you’ll be fine, mate,’ My best friend, and the reason why I even entered the tournament in the first place, Johnny E. Park, said, smiling. ‘You’ve done miles better than me so far, so keep that spirit up and you’ll be walking home with the title of Verses Champion.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, genuinely pleased he had my back.

‘I’ll be watching with my fingers, toes, arms, legs, and… no, I’ve run out of things you can cross,’ he said thoughtfully, making me chuckle, relieving my nerves slightly. ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘good luck out there, OK. I was going to say break a leg, but that’s not exactly the best advice, is it?’

‘Not really,’ I said.

‘Then break his leg,’ he said.

‘That’s a bit dark,’ I returned just as simply.

‘Oh, you know what I mean,’ he said, tapping me on the shoulder again just before the announcer began to introduce the both of us – me and my opponent.

‘Our first finalist,’ I had the pleasure of going second, which I wasn’t sure was bad or good, ‘he’s come all the way from Spain and has shown some remarkable talent with a sword,’ I wasn’t sure if that was a good piece of knowledge or not, ‘but doesn’t shy away from snipers,’ well, now I need to keep my eyes on the far surroundings at all times, ‘please welcome to the stage, Mr. Isak Andersson.’ The crowd went wild as he stepped out from the curtains on the other side of the arena. He didn’t look as if any of it phased him, but that might be just my nerves talking, and they were rocketing skywards now that I was only seconds away from stepping out onto the arena myself.

‘In all seriousness, though,’ Johnny said, ‘I do wish you luck out there, and I do hope you win. I can see that you are nervous, but nerves aren’t designed to hold you back, they are designed to help you analyse the situation and make sure that you make all the right decisions. Trust me, once you’re inside the pod and inside the virtual world, you will forget all of this, and when you’re in the middle of a lot of heat, the fact that it’s being broadcast all around the world won’t even cross your mind.’

‘Great, thanks,’ I said, emphasising the fact that he probably didn’t have to include the last part.

‘You’re welcome, mate,’ he tapped me on the shoulder for the third time, just before the announcer started to introduce me.

‘The second finalist comes all the way from England, and has proven that experience doesn’t mean everything,’ well, that’s one way of putting it, ‘please welcome to the stage,’ oh, is that all the introduction I’m getting? ‘Mr. Carl Ozone.’ I stepped out onto the arena floor. The crowd went wild, but, they would do so for anyone. My legs were on automatic mode as I walked towards the announcer. My heart was pounding furiously, as if it wants to escape and go back to standing behind the curtain. I kept walking forwards until stopping in front of the announcer, and Isak, who nodded in greeting to which I smiled back.

‘Now you know who will be battling tonight, let’s get to the battle itself. So if you wouldn’t mind climbing into the pods,’ the announcer spoke to us, but also in the microphone so everyone could hear, ‘and get yourselves comfortable.’ We did just that. Mine was a casual red colour that wasn’t too overpowering, or too dull, and his pod was the same shade but in blue. As soon as I climbed in, all I could see was a small portion of the audience in front of me, which waved and cheered me on. I couldn’t acknowledge them because one of the people assigned to the technology side of things came over and made sure that I was in properly and once satisfied, closed the door, plunging me in total darkness for a couple of seconds before a screen flashed on.

‘Welcome to the Virtual Reality Simulation System,’ a disembodied woman’s voice said over the speakers, ‘the most advanced gaming machine in the world.’ She didn’t say anything else because everything has already been programmed in and so after a couple of seconds of silence, she said.

‘You are now about to enter the virtual world. I hope you enjoy.’ And the screen went black before a series of numbers flashed up, counting down from five. I could hear the audience being encouraged by the announcer to count down as well.

‘Five. Four. Three. Two. One.’

The first time I entered the virtual world, it was no different to falling asleep, but waking up in a dream that you knew you were in complete control of… sort of. The second time was no different to the first, and I am pleased to note that the third was no different to the second. My eyelids closed and I could feel myself dropping into a deep sleep as my mind was whisked away into a virtual world that lay waiting for the two of us.

***

 

A brand new world loaded in all around me. I watched as a cul-de-sac built itself from the ground up, and all the houses spawned in starting from the outside, before finishing with the front door neatly slotting into place. The road under my feet, covered in leaves, dirt, but otherwise undamaged weaved its way into the distance. A couple of cars were parked on the road and in the driveways.

I was able to move freely. I was now completely in the virtual world. Everything that happens from now on is down to mine and my opponent’s decisions. All the houses in the cul-de-sac weren’t in a rough state at all – almost as if they were brand new and freshly built. Certainly different to the ones Johnny found himself in, where they were practically falling apart. I think I struck lucky, but the real question is how long they will stay like that?

The rest of the world was behind me. There was no predicting what I would be seeing once I turned around. We weren’t told if it we were battling in a small map, medium sized map, or a large sized map. My two previous battles were both on a medium sized maps, because there wouldn’t be room for a proper tournament battle with a small one. This was the finals of the first ever Tournament, and so my prediction would be that we are battling within a large-sized map. With that in mind and being happy with the prediction, I turned on the spot and my mouth dropped. We were certainly playing in a large world, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this massive. This cul-de-sac is only a minute portion; a city sat in the distance, filled with plenty of skyscrapers and office blocks. The only way to reach it would be to descend the steep hill in front, and to walk it would take a while. Two people, one large map, tasked with finding each other, and once together, we must battle to find who is victorious.

It almost feels illogical, if I’m honest. Two people in a world as big as this, there’s going to be a lot of time where nothing happens as we’re searching for our opponent’s. He could be hidden somewhere in one of those office blocks, trying to find me, and not even noticing the cul-de-sac in the distance. I could literally wait here and do nothing whilst he runs around like a headless chicken waiting for him to find me. Or I could do the same whilst he’s waiting for me to find him somewhere. For all I know, there’s another cul-de-sac on the other side of the city, and who can tell how big the city really is from this distance. It’s a little overwhelming, I will admit, but I guess that’s the idea of the finals: Chucking you into the deep end and letting you make your own way from there.

I could start walking towards the city, but that could take a while, and I’m here to battle, not to get bored doing nothing. Is there a way I can get there faster? Well, there’re a few cars around here, maybe I can take one of them into the city. If they work, that is.

I will also need to find a weapon. With a map as big as this, I could go a long way before finding anything. A weapon would be extremely helpful, but I’m going to make an executive decision and say my main priority at this moment in time is to make my way down into that city.

A Mitsubishi Evolution 5 sat half on the pavement and half on the road. Grabbing the handle, I unfortunately discovered that it was locked, and trying to find the keys would be a nightmare, if the keys are here in the first place. They could be hidden somewhere in that house the car’s parked in front, but I’m not wasting my time. I need something to protect my fist, and there doesn’t appear to be anything around. I’m not punching that window with my bare hand for fear of getting severely cut. Looks like I will have to venture inside one of the houses anyway to find a towel or any piece of cloth of some sort. Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and look for a weapon as well.

 

That sounds like a plan that might work, and so I left the car and started making my way towards the front door, which I also found locked. I sighed with that, ‘of course,’ expression on my face. Either one of these houses could be unlocked, or they could all be locked. The only way of knowing that is if I check each one. Well, I do have the time, but is it really worth it. All I want is to find a piece of cloth so I can break the window of the car. I could be missing a good weapon if I don’t look. That’s just a chance I will have to take, but first, there’s only one way I’m going to get inside this house, and that’s to break down the door. 

Shoulder or feet? Shoulder might be painful; feet might be more effective. I took a couple of steps back and prepared myself to slam the base of my foot against the lock of the door as hard as I could. I’ve never done this before, but even though it’s in a virtual world, I’m fully expecting the door to be just as solid as in the real world, and probably just as painful, but if it means getting inside the house, then I’m sure it’s worth it.

In one, surprisingly smooth movement, I lifted my foot up and kicked the door, which made a loud rattling sound as the lock fought back and stayed in place, but it did move a small amount, meaning I might just be able to do this. Kicking it again, with the same strength, the door remained in place once more, but the rattling sounded louder. On my third attempt, I saw that the doorframe was starting to splinter as the screws holding the lock in place were forcibly being removed. It was on my fourth attempt that the door finally flew open and slammed against the wall, echoing all around the house. Pieces of wood lay scattered all over the plain beige carpet, along with a single, bent screw.

I stood up straight and discovered that my foot was pulsating slightly. I’m sure if I walk about it would right itself eventually. Now let’s get that piece of cloth.

It was almost comical with how much effort I’m putting into getting something so simple, but I think I’ve justified my actions by also searching for a weapon as well. If I don’t find one; I’ll cross that bridge if and when I get to it, but for now, I need to find the bathroom because I reckon a large towel would be best suited instead of a small hand towel. Heading upstairs, turning right and entering the bathroom, I was quite pleased to find a towel, after everything I’ve just been through to get it. Heading back downstairs, and entering the living room which was strangely at the back of the house, I wondered why I didn’t search for a weapon upstairs before coming here, but now I am here, I might as well try and find something.

It was a cluttered living room. So much stuff was piled up everywhere. Books, DVD’s, magazines, and even a bunch of board games, ornaments, pictures. If I were to guess the person who lives here, I would say it would be a collector, or a light hoarder, if that is a recognised thing. Looking through this lot would take a very long time, making me wonder if I should just abandon this room and go look somewhere else, but that thought was quickly thrown out of the window when I saw something shiny hidden beneath the large pile of ornaments. It looked like a handle of some sort, and it was far enough away for me not having to stretch too far to grab it. It could be anything, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a look anyway. I do have the time.

Making sure that my feet were planted firmly on the floor and my balance was strong, I reached over the books and ornaments, stretching out my arm and fingers as far as they would go, lightly brushing against the shiny object. After realising that I wasn’t going to get it, I stood up straight with the wandering thought that questioned why I didn’t just move everything out of the way to begin with, and so that’s exactly what I did. I picked up and moved the stuff to one side so I was able to step closer towards this object. However, the more I got closer, it doesn’t actually look as if it would be of anything useful. Well, I’ve done this much to see what it is, I’m not turning back now.

Reaching forward once more, I was able to grab the object firmly and pull it from under the ornaments. I was disappointed with the result. It was just a shiny handle with no blade attached. What would be the point in that?

‘Well, that sucks,’ I said, throwing it to one side where it landed on the sofa with a soft and barely audible slump as the cushions absorbed the impact. I admitted defeat and turned back around and headed back to the car, wrapping the towel around my wrist and fist as I walked down the small path. Making sure that the towel was stable, I prepared to launch my fist towards the car’s window, but that wasn’t before I realised that I still don’t have the keys. How hard can it be to start the car up by that wire trick? Well, considering I called it the wire trick, probably rather difficult. I had better look for a key, and the chances of finding one is… I guess I could look in the glove compartment or some other place. I guess it wouldn’t hurt. I have time.

Pulling back with my towel-covered right fist and launching it forward as hard as I could, fully expecting the glass to stay intact because I either wasn’t punching hard enough or I underestimated the strength of the glass, it went straight through catching me off guard and the momentum of the surprise nearly pulled me forward and landed on the broken spikes of glass that were still attached to the door. Sighing with relief and righting myself, I knocked the remaining glass free and reached in with my free hand and pulled up the lock and opened the door. Brushing the glass from the passenger seat, and making sure that it was clean, I sat in and opened the glove compartment, where I almost laughed because there was nothing but gloves. Pulling each one out individually, I wasn’t disappointed that there was no key, but then, in my peripheral vision, I saw something lying beside the cigarette lighter in the small cup holder.

‘Well, what are the chances,’ I said to myself, almost in disbelief. There was the car key. It was just the one key, sitting comfortably in the cup holder. Now that I have it in my possession, I shouldn’t waste any more time and get driving towards the city. I haven’t found a weapon yet, but in a city as big as that, I’m sure I’ll find at least one somewhere obvious. Maybe in a bin, or in one of the office blocks under a desk, or in an alleyway where I found the rocket launcher.

Even though I kept saying I have the time, I still can’t believe how much I’ve actually spent already and all I’ve done is break into a house and a car. I guess both were useful towards finding my opponent, considering I am going to drive the car towards the city. Well, if it works that is. I’ve only just considered the possibility that it might not start up due to various reasons. I guess there is only one way to find out.

Climbing over into the driver’s seat, I slotted the key into the ignition and turned it. There were a few coughs and splutters, which indicated it had petrol, but amazingly, it actually started. The engine didn’t exactly roar into life though. It was as if I was waking it up after a long sleep, but once it had fully awoken, it sat there comfortably, waiting to be driven. I checked all its vitals and saw that it had half a tank of petrol, but the engine warning light was on. Well, it’s turning over nicely enough so if it can get me to the city, then I’ll be pleased, then it can break down and never work again.

I don’t know anything about mechanics, and so if there is something obviously wrong with the sound of the car, then I will just have to dismiss it and move on and hope that it can get me at least to a spot where I won’t have to walk far from.

Shutting the driver’s side door, reaching over and closing the passenger’s side door, I put the car in gear – which made a very loud, crunching sound – and slowly pressed down on the accelerator, hoping the car would move forward, and luckily, it did. I was finally on the move. All I needed to do was turn it around and head towards the city.

***

 

I have gotten extremely lucky so far, and being the type of person that believes that with every bit of good luck you have, there is always an equal amount of bad luck to even the scales, I am wary with what may happen next.

I’m currently driving down the hill, passing all these houses and cars. Each and every one of these houses and cars could have something useful to me inside. If I think I’m going to look in every single one, then I’ve got another thing coming. Let’s just get to the city and then I can figure out what to do from then on.

I’m going faster than I would like so I pressed gently on the breaks…

They aren’t working. The brakes don’t work. The car is gradually speeding up, and the hill has just grown twice as steep and twice as long as it looked only a second ago. Why I tried pressing harder on the brakes when I knew they weren’t going to be any more effective, I wasn’t sure, but I had to do something to try and get this out of control car to stop. If I keep it as straight as possible, maybe I can let it coast down where it will roll to a natural stop. That or jumping out, but considering one option has a much higher percentage of me getting hurt, I opted for the first one. I wrapped my hands around the steering wheel as tightly as I could, and kept my concentration firmly on the road, making sure that the car stayed as straight as possible. Unfortunately, my plan would be overruled by a single and deep pothole in the road which my car’s wheel had to hit and send my car swaying slightly to one side, and whilst gradually speeding up. Once you’ve started swaying, trying to correct it only makes the car sway even more, and the faster you go, soon, you’re praying for the hill to end. On one particularly large sway to the right, I clipped a parked car, which for a fraction of a second, I thought would slow me down, but in the other fraction of the second, I realised that I had to brace myself for a large impact. The car spun out of control, jumping up onto the curb, and through a garden fence, breaking in such an awkward fashion that several pieces of wood covered the entire front window screen, preventing me from seeing what was to follow, and therefore disallowing me to brace. The car lifted up off the ground and started to roll side over side until eventually all the kinetic energy was wasted via the crunching of the metal and the breaking of the glass and the dislodging of the front passenger seat.

Eventually I came to a stop, but it wasn’t without any pain. My head slammed against the roof of the car as it collapsed from rolling. Could it be considered a miracle that the car landed on all four wheels? But that didn’t mean I could get out of the car easily. The door had bent in such a way it had essentially locked itself shut, and my arm had been pressed up against a particularly awkwardly bent piece of door that it was able to pierce my arm, sending a small amount of blood trickling down onto my leg, which I attempted to move but discovered that my ankle had twisted itself under the peddles. I was in pain and the world around me was spinning uncontrollably.

This battle will not end if I haven’t lost, and I haven’t yet. I’m currently trapped inside this car. There was no way I was going to get out other than by force, and I there was no telling how much more damage I would do to myself if I did that. I tried lifting my leg up once more, and my ankle did move slightly, but it hurt a massive amount. A sharp pain shot through my leg. I yelled out to vent as much of it as I could. I can’t sit here for the rest of the battle. I have to get out. I just have to grit my teeth together and bear with it. Once out, I can start attending to any damage done. I was breathing heavily; knowing what was going to happen made me scared. Knowing that a lot more pain was going to come, made me stall and sit here for many more minutes.

Once counted to three, I’m not stopping until I’m fully out of the car, no matter the pain. There’s no way I’ll be able to get the driver’s side door open, meaning I will have to climb over the middle and out through the passenger’s side. That’s going to make things much more difficult, but I must do it.

One.

Two.

Three.

I yanked my foot free from under the peddles. Incredible pain shot through my foot and leg. I yelled aloud and tears fell from my eyes. My arm came free from the door and a large amount of blood spilled out onto the seat. The collapsed roof proved difficult to manoeuvre, because whenever I did, the top of my head would hit the roof. Pulling myself along the car as far as I could with one hand, I was lucky enough to avoid the gear stick as much as possible, but it did poke me in the side a couple of times, but that was nothing compared to the torture of moving my damaged leg. I didn’t check to see if I was able to move it or not, I just wanted to get out of this car. Pulling the handle of the passenger’s side door, it swung open freely and I pulled myself until I flopped limply on the grass outside, shoulder first. It clicked as it’s forced to take my weight before the rest of me falls out and I collapse onto my back. My face automatically screws up as pain shoots through my entire body. The blue sky does look beautiful, I must admit. Not a single cloud in the sky. The sun is somewhere over the city, behind a few buildings, dampening the light by a subtle amount. I finally stopped yelling, but the pain was agonisingly pulsating through my foot and leg, head and arm.

The towel I used to smash the window laid beside me. I grabbed it with my other arm and as best as I could, wrapped it around the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Next, I checked to see if my ankle was broken. It was incredibly painful, but I was able to bend my foot a bit backwards and forwards, so it was just severely sprained. I don’t know how to attend to a sprain. I could make some sort of brace, but if I do it wrong, I could end up doing more damage. I really don’t want to take what is slowly becoming the only option of just getting up and limping through the rest of the battle in intense pain.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat here for, but I knew that if I remained here for any longer, I wouldn’t be going anywhere. I had to get up and move. I had to take the same brutal method as I did before, and just grit my teeth and get on with it, not stopping until I’m on my feet, and that’s exactly what I did. On the count of three, I forced myself to get up, only stopping very briefly when on my knees, but after what felt like an hour, I was finally upright, but leaning on the roof of the car. With one final push, I had let go of the car and soon I was standing freely, but all my weight was on my good foot, and my injured ankle dangling in the air. I do not want to put that on the floor. Any amount of pressure will probably send me straight back down to the floor, but I can’t hop for the rest of the battle. Bits of fence panels laid scattered all around me, some broken, but some intact. If I can trust its strength, I could use one of those to use as a walking stick. I’m afraid I really don’t have much choice, and so, bending down as best I could, I somehow without falling down, picked up a piece of wooden fence and tucked it under my good shoulder, which was conveniently on the same side as my bad ankle, so I was able to put pressure on the stick instead.

I looked ahead and saw that I wasn’t as close to the city as I had hoped. I looked back at the mangled car and thanked it for nothing. I should have walked. A fleeting thought entered my mind: Everyone’s watching this. They just watched me crash my car. But that thought quickly left my mind when a sudden strong wave of pain rushed through my leg and arm at the same time.

***

 

Building up a rhythm when walking with a crutch, injured leg and an injured arm isn’t easy. Ever other step, I nearly fall over forwards or backwards because trying to balance on what is essentially a piece of flimsy wood is extraordinarily difficult. I barely made it ten metres before I had to stop and sit down again. My plan is working, but I can’t give up. I haven’t broken my leg, just badly sprained it, so maybe I can forge a brace or something that will give it some support.

I shouldn’t have sat down. Now I have the struggle of getting back up again. I’m going to be no use in the heat of battle. In the middle of the city, Isak could be doing anything to prepare himself, and here I am, lying in pain. If he attacks me now, that will be the end of the battle. I won’t be able to walk, let alone walk away, and I’m not going to be any use to myself if I stay sitting here complaining about not being able to move. I doubt even pain killers will be able to mask the pain, but even if they do, and I don’t feel it anymore when I’m walking properly manoeuvre myself. As I pulled and strained and climbed, I tried thinking about other stuff to dampen the moment as much as possible. I could do with some painkillers right about now. Why would there be any painkillers in this virtual world? I don’t know the technicalities behind it, or the science, but even I know that having pills that absorb in your gut wouldn’t be possible in a virtual environment. In video games, they do have health packs. Would this world have those? I haven’t found anything during my two matches, and neither has anybody else during the entire tournament, so I have no choice but to accept that I shouldn’t get my hopes up. None of that is helping. If anything, the thought of wanting to get rid of the pain is making it hurt more, somehow.

I should focus on finding a weapon instead. I can do that whilst heading towards the city. A row of houses sat on the other side of the road, and a few more sat behind me. If all the doors are locked, I am not going to attempt to get inside. I will just have to look outside instead.

I know what would be a massive help right about now, and that’s one of those motorised chairs. I can sit on that, rest my foot, and power it via the handlebars. I chuckled to myself; having that thought for the chances of finding one of those is pretty minute, so I should abandon that idea immediately. I could do with one of those secret weapons right about now, preferably the same weapon I found during my first match. I’m letting the pain get to my head. I need to focus on the main priority, which is finding a weapon. It’s really quite hard to conquer matter with your mind, I’ve just discovered unfortunately.

It would be nice to know where Isak is right now, or more importantly, what he’s doing. The odds are that he’s not doing much, but just searching for me, but I can’t be so sure of myself. Seriously, though, why make the map so massive during the finals. Surely the audience wants to see action, not me struggling with a sprained leg. If I were watching this at home, I would say this was a boring match because nothing’s happened so far, and with how things are going, I doubt much will happen when they do, because it’s not as if I am going to be able to fight, am I?

I shouldn’t have taken the car. I should have walked. Foresight is a wonderful thing.

Come on, stop complaining and just get on with the battle. If I put more effort into moving and doing what is necessary, such as finding a weapon, as I do with complaining all the time, I probably would have already found one by now. One step at a time, or should I say one hop at a time. Either way, just keep moving; that’s all I can do. I’m going to head over to that house in front of me. Maybe there’s something inside that can help me, I don’t know.

***

 

It took me a while, but I eventually made it to the small house. I did try the door, but it was, as expected, locked. There was a stone sitting on the doorstep by my stick. I decided to risk it and pick the rock up, and to my complete amazement, a key was underneath. I had to kneel on my good knee in order to pick the key up, and put all my weight on the piece of wood to lift myself back up again. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard the wood cracking. I have to find something stronger because I can’t trust this piece of fence panel anymore. If it breaks when walking when I’m in the middle nowhere, it’s going to be rather difficult to crawl towards anywhere where I can hide.

Stabilising myself as best I could, I inserted the key into the lock and turned. For a moment, I was expecting it to be the wrong key, but it turned all the way round and the locking mechanism clicked, signifying that it had successfully unlocked, allowing me to enter the house. This was much cleaner and tidier than the one I was in before. It was practically empty. I limped over the threshold and entered the house, not knowing what I’m really looking for in particular, other than just a weapon of some description. But, the reason why it looked empty, was because it actually was empty. No furniture, no pictures, no stuff anywhere, except for a few odds and ends here and there that upon closer inspection was just a bunch of rubbish. This must be so boring to watch.

This place doesn’t have an upstairs, which I guess is helpful because I can search in every room, but each room was just as empty as the last, just with a bit more or less rubbish. Of all the houses I had to enter, I entered this one. My hopes were diminishing, which only allowed for the pain to increase once more.

I had only one room left. From this angle, I can already see it was empty as all the rest, but I would kick myself if I didn’t check it and it had something useful inside. I have to take any opportunity I can given the situation I’m in.

‘I do not believe it. I seriously do not believe it,’ I said aloud. It wasn’t a weapon, but it was the next best thing. A walking stick. A nice and strong walking stick, which I immediately picked up, tossed the piece of fence panel to one side and felt the considerable difference the moment I put my weight on the handle. I was able to stand up so much stronger and straighter than before, which actually relieved some of the pain by a substantial amount as well. Checking the room over once more before turning back around and leaving the house, I wasn’t quite sure what to do from now on. I could search more houses or I could start making my way to the city. The scales are rather evenly balanced. Or in other words, I could be walking by many useful items, or walking by completely empty buildings. Giving the situation I’m in and the unpredictability of Isak’s movements, I can’t risk taking the long way round and searching every house. No matter what way I look at the scales, both options have strong positive outcomes, and equally as strong negatives. I’m just going to make my way to the city. If I find a weapon, I do; if I don’t, then I will just have to deal with that later. Besides, exercise is one of the best medicines, right?

***

 

I was moving faster than I had expected now that I have this walking stick, almost reaching the same speed if I were walking without an injury – although the more I study my limping, there’s a chance it could be an illusion. I was able to pick up and maintain a strong rhythm and the momentum kept me moving forward. I was keeping an eye out for anything useful, but unfortunately, all that I was able to see were just a bunch of houses, a couple of cars, and well, I don’t need to analyse the entire picture, I know what to expect.

To be honest, I’m getting rather bored with nothing happening as well, and I can only imagine how slow this must look to the people watching. The question is, how long will this silence go on for, and will the people in charge get bored themselves that they will start manipulating events, if that’s even possible? ‘Well, of course it’s possible, they are in charge of making sure everything works smoothly, and so if anything goes wrong, they will step in and sort it out immediately, so of course they are able to change things around if there’s too much nothing happening. Did that last sentence make any sense? Well, it did to me so what’s the problem. Well, the problem is, I’m talking to myself and everyone can hear making me look like a mad man. I’m still doing it. I should stop now.’

Didn’t even know I was talking aloud. That’s a new one. I stopped walking to focus on how far I had come and how far I have yet to walk, and I discovered that I wasn’t actually too far away from entering the city. I had a quick glance back and to my amazement, I really had walked quite some distance, and down a rather long hill. The car was sitting at the point before it steepens. I thought I was on the straight part, but it turns out that I was tricked by the illusion of the steep part of the hill making the gradual part seem flat. Keep this up, and I’ll be making good progress. I guess the map isn’t as big as it looked from atop of that hill.

I checked the towel around my arm that I only now realised had stopped hurting. I slowly unwrapped the towel and happily discovered that the bleeding had indeed halted. I was also able to see how big the cut actually was. It was merely just a small cut, but in the wrong place. I do have to make sure I don’t knock it or move wrong because I could open it up again, but for now, I am able to leave the towel off.

Throwing it over my shoulder just in case, I carried on forwards, finally entering the city. It was deserted, and I don’t mean of people because that’s obvious, but I mean of vehicles. From what I can see in the distance, the streets are bare. Very bare. Large office blocks and towering skyscrapers surrounded me, almost giving me a sense of claustrophobia after being in the open for so long. And they looked brand new as well, as if they were built, but then just left alone. I remember watching one of the battles in the semi-finals and seeing a rundown city, that has been abandoned for quite some time. I guess, because this is the finals, they want to make things look nice.

Isak has to be in here somewhere. He has to be roaming around, looking for me, looking for a weapon or – worst case scenario – have already found me and has prepared for an unexpected onslaught that I won’t be able to defend myself from.

It’s too quiet. I don’t like it. I should be hearing strange noises, sudden, unexpected noises, or at least any indication of someone roaming around behind me. The thick silence only increases the threat.

There are so many places you could hide here, and you don’t have to be so far away either. Office blocks, skyscrapers, alleyways, all can be used to mask your movements and keep people guessing where you actually are. The fact that I am not getting any of these signs, or even a mystery to begin with; that’s what I don’t like.

I am standing in the middle of the open. I would be contradicting myself if I weren’t going to find somewhere to settle down and devise a plan. The always unpredictable nature of my opponent will make it almost impossible for me to plan my steps – I will have to find him, or at least know the area he’s in before I can do anything specific. All I can do is keep my eyes peeled.

Looking from side to side, all I see are two entrances leading into the office blocks either side of me. I don’t really think it would be a good plan to venture forward any deeper into the city without having at least an inkling of what to do. Staying on the edge may give me more opportunities, but of course that entirely depends on what actually happens.

It doesn’t matter which building I enter, so I picked the one on the left because that’s my strongest hand, and the one foot that isn’t injured – I had to pick somehow.

As I was hobbling towards the revolving door, I heard a loud bang in the distance, followed immediately by my body being jerked backwards, right shoulder first. I landed hard on my back, grunted as my leg was forced to twist in directions it couldn’t handle, and that’s when my brain eventually caught up with what’s really going on. White hot pain shot through my entire arm. I couldn’t move my body without screaming in agony, and when I tried moving my arm, I found it remaining limp. I was shot in the shoulder. It was hard to analyse the full seriousness of the situation; all I could do was lie there. My walking stick had fallen beside me and the towel was nowhere to be seen.

Another bang, this time missing me by millimetres. The ground popped and dust flew in the air. I’m still alive, but if I lay here any longer, Isak would surely win the battle. I have to try and move indoors somehow, even if I have to drag myself inside.

Another bang, another pop of dust, this time closer. I felt the bullet pass by my ear. Some of the dust fell into my eye, rendering me blind, tears streaming down my cheeks, falling to the floor. I can’t give up and wait for him to finish the job, but I don’t know if I can make it inside before he does. I lifted my head up as far as I could, but the muscles in my neck pulled me back down. When my head landed, I felt a wet sensation sticking to my hair; blood had spilled out of my shoulder, telling me the bullet went straight through, but it would have been much better if it didn’t. If it remained, less blood would be lost.

Another bang, but there wasn’t another pop of dust. Instead, I heard something entirely different, and only felt my already injured leg hurt more. It was vastly reaching the point where my brain was unable to handle this much processing in one go; I could feel myself slowly fading away. If I pass out, I may wake up in the real world. I must at least try and make it indoors.

Generating every ounce of will power I had left, every molecule of energy I had remaining, every fibre of strength still left in my muscles, I agonisingly rolled over onto my front, my injured arm flopping underneath my body, getting crushed by my weight, unintentionally creating even more pain. I couldn’t stop moving. If I did, I would pass out. If I kept moving, I could keep pushing myself further and further towards my ultimate limit. With my free hand, I reached out, grabbed all that I could and slowly, with everything that I had left inside myself, pulled myself forward.

I didn’t even want to join this tournament. I came to watch my friend who was eager to test what he has learnt during his many games. He persuaded me. He talked me into signing up. He told me that it was going to be fun. My experience in this world is far less than anyone else’s. I won my previous two battles through luck, and luck alone. I found that secret weapon, giving me the advantage I needed to pull off a victory, and the second I somehow shot down a helicopter. The helicopter wasn’t even piloted by my opponent, by when I fired my rocket launcher, hitting it square on, it landed on my opponent. Of all the places it could have landed, it did so on my opponent, securing my victory, and a place in the finals.

What was I thinking? Of course Isak would have much more experience than me. I’ve seen his battles on the big screen – he has incredible skills. That sword fight in the carpark, that gun fight in a hotel lobby, the way he chased down his opponent through many alleyways, knocking him down to the ground. What the hell was I thinking, believing that I had even a sliver of a chance. I did absolutely nothing useful throughout this entire battle. All I did was crash my car, injure myself. Isak has found a sniper, and knows how to use it. Of course he does. He’s someone who truly deserves to be a finalist. Not me.

There has to be some collection of thoughts hidden at the back of my mind somewhere, determined to keep me moving, never wanting to give up. Those thoughts are in charge, giving me all the resources I need to keep moving. If it was up to me, I would have just laid there, waiting for the battle to be finally over, succumbing to my defeat. Isak deserves to win this tournament, not me.

Why hasn’t he fired another shot? My hand hit the glass of one of the sections in the revolving door, and Isak hasn’t fired another bullet since I started crawling towards safety. What was he up to? To be honest, I don’t really care. I don’t even care about surviving. I don’t know why I’m pulling myself forward, trying to get indoors. I just want this to be all over, now. Isak is making me suffer.

I have no strength left in my body to push the revolving door around. I’ve pointlessly made it this far, and now my mind has to accept the fact that it’s all over. Even if I did make it inside, I wouldn’t have been able to recover from this. I need serious medical attention. I have a bullet hole in my shoulder and leg for heck’s sake, there’s no way I would be able to stand up, let alone perform any such medical procedures on myself. I don’t even know where to begin.

I could feel my body weakening as I continued to bleed out. I rested my head on the ground, waiting patiently. This is a fictional world. Everything about this isn’t real, but it feels real. It couldn’t be any more real. The feeling of the rough ground beneath my cheek, the dust in my eyes, the pain in my body, the metal smell of my blood, the air gently brushing through my sticky hair. All of this is fake, bFut it’s real enough. I now understand why this has caused so much controversy throughout the world; why people have started campaigns to shut down the games. I now understand it all perfectly.

My body grows weaker. My eyelids begin to close. My body begins to relax. I drop into unconsciousness.

 

TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 4.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)