Sgt Dean Marcus jolted upright screaming.

“Get it off! Get it off!”

Hands pulled at him as he tried to beat the flames out. There was a sharp stab in his arm, then blessed cold washed over him as he passed out.

****

There were hushed voices in the darkness, but his eyes wouldn’t open. Bandages covered his face. Had he really been hurt that bad? He tried to remember what went wrong on the mission.

The mission.

It was supposed to have been a cakewalk. The first in-depth training mission testing out a new VR system that Special Operations Command wanted to roll out. More complex and in-depth than the video-game style systems they had been working with for years. More realism at lower risk to operators.

So why did it feel like he’d been burned? Where had all the fire come from?

He tried to lift his hands to remove his bandages, but something restrained his arms.

The muttering changed. They must have noticed his movements.

A shadow leaned over him and a female voice spoke clearly to him.

“Sgt Marcus. You were injured in training and had to be restrained. If you understand me, and are in control, we can remove the restraints. Can you nod your head?”

Marcus nodded his head. It felt sore, but he could nod.

“Excellent. I’m going to remove the coverings on your eyes, so it will be very bright until your eyes adjust. Then I’ll remove the restraints. Do you understand?”

He nodded again.

Bright light leaked around the edges of the bandages, forcing him to shut his eyes tightly. Gradually he was able to open them, and the room came into focus. Standard hospital room, plenty of equipment silently monitoring his vitals, and several people in lab coats watching him expectantly. He presumed the woman standing over him was the one who had spoken.

He opened his mouth to speak, but only a croak came out. She smiled tightly and reached for a glass of water with a straw.

“Try this first. The oxygen has dried out your throat.”

He sucked at the straw, hesitantly at first, then greedily as he realised how thirsty he was.

When he was able to speak, he whispered, “My men, what happened?”

The woman looked over her shoulder and nodded to one of the other lab coats, who rushed from the room, before turning back to Marcus.

“We were hoping you could tell us that. The simulation seemed to be going fine until you started screaming and seizing. We had to pull you out before you hurt yourself. One of the other soldiers knocked his harness loose before we could extract him properly and...”, she trailed off. “We aren’t sure if he’s in a coma, or if parts of his consciousness are still in the simulation.”

She paused before fixing him with an expectant look, “We are hoping you can help us piece things together before we attempt to extract the remaining soldiers.”

Marcus stared at her as the full weight of her words settled on him.

“You mean my men are still in that...thing?” he croaked hoarsely.

“I think you mean ‘My’ men, sergeant.” the tall ramrod straight officer stated flatly as he entered the room, trailed by the lab coat.

“Sir.” Marcus straightened in the bed as best he could with the restraints.

“Are these still needed, Doctor?” the officer asked, indicating the leather straps.

“Not strictly Colonel, we were getting to that step.” the doctor answered before turning back to Marcus.

“Do you feel in control enough for me to remove these?” she asked him.

Marcus nodded, and she reached over to start loosening them. Another lab coat stepped around the colonel and got to work on the ones on the other side. Shortly Marcus was able to start massaging more feeling back into his limbs, and he looked questioningly at the officer.

“Doctor, could you and I have a moment with the sergeant?” the colonel asked politely in a way that made it clear it was a request in name only.

All of the lab coats immediately made themselves scarce and closed the door behind them.

“What happened in there Sgt? We need to know what went wrong, and we need to know it now if we’re to have any hope of rescuing the rest of your team.”

“I... I’m not sure, Sir.” Marcus croaked. He reached for the water glass, which the doctor filled. “I remember strapping in, starting the simulation. I remember walking around inside the VR space, getting familiar with the new interfaces. The exercise was supposed to be simple. My squad was to clear a building...a house. Retrieve a box, eliminate any simulated hostiles, and extract to the staging area.”

“Go on, Sgt.” the Colonel prompted.

“I left Alpha Fireteam on overwatch on the…” Marcus paused, gathering his thoughts. “…left hand side as we approached. They used a...an abandoned car as cover. Sgt Martins took the right side of the house with Bravo and I approached the front with Charlie and Delta. Our briefing stated no friendlies or non-combatants, so I kicked in the front door and let Charlie take the entry. Then everything went to shit...”

“Elaborate, Sgt.”

“The inside of the house wasn’t the way we were briefed. Instead of an insurgent hideout, it was a regular family home. There were kids playing video games on a big TV in the front room. It was like stepping into the frickin’ Twilight Zone. Outside was Kandahar, and inside was Kansas. I didn’t know what to do in that situation, so I called for an Abort to regroup outside.”

“That’s when things went to hell in a hurry. I don’t know why Alpha opened up, but they started unloading on the front of the house. The TV exploded and the kids...they got torn up. We tried to get out of the line of fire, but they hit O’Riley, sorry Cpl O’Riley. He had Charlie’s Three-Twenty and they hit a bunch of his grenades. I guess they must have lit off the grenades...and the Willy-Pete. That’s where the fire came from...his grenades started cooking off.”

“Then I woke up here...at least I think I did. I remember bits and pieces...then I woke up just now.” Marcus paused. “What the hell happened Sir?”

“Sgt, from what we can tell, we got hacked. Somehow, someone found out about a project that is behind more layers of security than the White House, and they sabotaged your mission. This was supposed to be a great success for how we train our people. More value at less risk, but instead we have a nightmare. One soldier dead, one catatonic, and the rest we can’t pull out of the simulation without risking their lives.”

“Sgt, we need to figure out what went wrong, then I need you to go back in and rescue your team.”