10

Alex pulled the casque off his head and threw it away like it was made of snakes. His heart was beating like mad. Every nerve in his body was going haywire. His fight-or-flight response had kicked in at full throttle. The reality of the horror and the pain was quickly fading–but it was so real!

He had to run.

He had to get away.

He bolted out of his room, startling officer Carpenter who happened to be doing her rounds nearby. For a moment, they locked eyes. Then, quick as a cat, the grim-faced woman drew her gun and aimed it straight at Alex’s chest.

“Slow down there, new guy! Don’t make me shoot you.”

Miraculously, Alex found the presence of mind to stop dead in his tracks and raise his hands in the air. Getting torn to shreds by ghosts was bad enough as it was. He’d rather not get shot at, too.

Carpenter got close, turned him around, slammed him in the wall face-first a bit harder than it was strictly necessary, and cuffed his hands behind his back. Alex didn’t resist.

“Wanna tell me what the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked as she dragged him back to his room. “Were you trying to make a run for it?”

Alex forced himself to breathe. He needed to calm down.

How was he going to explain that?

“I died in Elderpyre”, he finally managed to say.

“Jesus Christ, already? Shit, Rulin, you must be even dumber than you look.”

Despite giving him shit, Carpenter visibly relaxed.

“I’ll remove these, but you better behave, alright?”

He nodded. She uncuffed him, and he collapsed on his bed like a sack of potatoes.

“It was… so real, you know? I mean, even the pain.”

“Yeah. It’s a bitch. You’ll get used to it.”

Get used to it?

His heart still hammered in his chest. His breathing was quick and shallow. He felt exhausted, and it was all he could do to keep himself from vomiting.

Get used to it?

Get used to what, being murdered?

Carpenter hovered over him, looking very concerned, but not at all certain of what she was supposed to say or do.

“Hey. You’ll be alright. Look, I gotta move. I’ll drop by later to check in on you. If you need anything, pick up the phone and dial zero. Just don’t go all apeshit on me again, cause I will shoot you.”

He nodded yes. Going apeshit would require a level of energy he simply didn’t have, anyway. He was dead tired, pun intended.

She gave him one last look–half concern, half indignation–and left, pulling the door behind her and leaving Alex alone.

For a while, Alex simply lay there and counted the cracks in the ceiling, trying to empty his mind. By the time he finally mustered the courage to get up, it was already late in the evening. He was really thirsty, he realized. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a glass of water, grabbed a bite, or used a toilet. He’d have to keep these things in mind, log out of the game and take breaks.

That thought gave him pause. Did he really want to log back in there–back where he’d just been killed? It wasn’t real, he knew, but it certainly did feel real. All the feelings, all the pain, all the fright was real. After what he’d been through in the hands of those misty bastards, he was glad he hadn’t wetted himself.

He took a leak, drank three glasses of water, brushed his teeth, and went back to bed. He was getting tired. He needed some sleep. Sleep was good. Sleep was nice. A chance to shut his head down and do a soft reset after all… that.

As long as he didn’t have any dreams, of course.

***

Mercifully, Alex slept through the night like a log. He woke up at six in the morning, got permission from some sleepy guard on the other end of the telephone line, and went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. He was starving.

The cafeteria screamed old roadside motel as much as anything else in the place, and so did the food. Alex was alone in there, save from a guard who paid him no attention apart from a curt nod. He filled a plate with toast and hardboiled eggs, grabbed a cup of hot black coffee, and started wolfing down his breakfast.

Now that the whole death-by-mist-stalker incident was in his rearview mirror and already growing distant, Alex found out he was no longer shocked or terrified by the experience.

No, his feelings had changed.

Alex was pissed.

How could anyone greenlight this kind of virtual reality experience? That shit was traumatic. Sadistic, even. Was it even legal? Wasn’t there some kind of human rights legislation in place that prevented this kind of thing? No wonder they were testing it on inmates and had them sign waivers, those bastards–whoever they were.

This was some MK-Ultra level of fuckery.

He was still there, hovering over his third cup of spectacularly bad coffee, when Officer Carpenter walked in.

“Penny”, said the other guard, greeting her with a nod.

“Bob.”

She grabbed some toast and coffee, walked over to Alex’s table, and sat across him.

“Seat’s taken”, he grumbled, worked up by all his ruminating and kind of itching for a fight.

“Good morning to you too, Rulin”, she said and took a big sip from her cup, not taking the bait. “I see you’re feeling better.”

“I wanna talk to Grimm.”

She scoffed.

“Yeah, and I want a French croissant and some joe that’s actually worth drinking, but you can bet your ass neither of us is going to get what we want.”

“This is bullshit. I didn’t sign up for this.”

“I don’t know what you signed up for, and I don’t really care, either. It’s not my job. I came over to see how you’re doing out of politeness. Seeing how you’re being an ass about it, though, I’m already regretting it.”

Alex got ready to spit out a heated response, but decided to bite it back. Despite her poise, Carpenter had been decent to him–more so than she strictly had to. He had to give her that.

“Look,” he said, “I’m sorry. That thing… it did a number on me. There was this big-ass stone in the middle of a forest clearing–”

“Christ on a cracker, Rulin” Carpenter cut him short, rolling her eyes. “We don’t talk about these things around here. Haven’t you signed a non-disclosure agreement?”

“I, uh…”

“Anyway, it must have been pretty bad. I get it. You startled the shit out of me, you know, bursting out of your room like a bat out of hell.”

“Sorry about that”, said Alex.

“Nah, it’s alright. Looking back at it, it was pretty funny.”

Funny wasn’t exactly the word Alex would use.

“Say, were you really going to shoot me?” he asked.

Carpenter let out a short, amused chortle.

“They’re only rubber bullets. They’re very unlikely to kill you, but they still hurt like a motherfucker. Boss man won’t let me use the real deal, no matter how much I nag.”

Alex didn’t know whether the woman was serious or just joking, but he made a mental note to actively try and avoid pissing her off in the future. He appreciated the fact that she was taking the time to check up on him, and she also seemed the wrong kind of person to get on the wrong side of.

“Miss? What happens if I don’t log in?”

“Nothing” Carpenter shrugged. She gulped down the rest of her coffee and stood up. “But what would you do, Rulin? Spend the day sitting around in an empty room, staring at the ceiling? Knock yourself out, it’s no skin off my teeth. But really, is that what you want to do?”

Alex wondered, too.