Whilst in the car Rook with annoyance turned around to look at the three of them who looked back at Rook cluelessly.

“I was behind you for like a minute,” said Rook. “How come you didn’t see?”

“Mrs. Byron actually smiled and laughed,” blurted out Ned and car swerved violently.

“Watch it!” exclaimed Gars clinging onto his seatbelt.

With a wide mouth Rook turned to look at the three of them, especially Clinton and Ned warned him to watch the road.

“It’s true,” said Gars. “She has a soft spot for Clinton I think, he’s never got below an A+ in any subject.”

Ned took out his phone the time showed was less than twenty-four minutes now. Rook turned to look at him.

“What’s the address?”

“24 Bancroft Road,” said Ned zooming in on the road.

Frowning Rook overtook a car going in front by deftly switching between lanes.

“That can’t be right, check the address again.”

“I can,” said Ned. “But it won’t change, I think.”

The point they needed to reach still stayed at 24 Bancroft Road. Rook started muttering something under his breath which made Ned flash back to last night when Robbie was acting crazy, muttering and gibbering under his breath.

“Are you alright?” asked Ned nervously.

“Yeah, what’s there that has you acting like this?” asked Gars.

“24 Bancroft Road, the plot of land there was bought by Javier Jonathan in 2010 for building a hospital,” said Clinton bluntly, Ned and Gars turned to look at their new source of information.

“How do you know?” asked Ned and Gars together.

“It was in the papers,” said Rook. “That year at least anyway.”

“So, what happened to it?” asked Ned.

“The violent gang activity surrounding the area caused the builders to stop the construction and it was left as it was,” said Clinton. “As far as I remember.”

“Lockwheeler’s right, the project was abandoned.”

Ned watched Rook grip the wheels tightly as he made a sharp turn to right. Gars tapped Ned on the shoulders.

“By gang activities, you mean those people you see in the movies with big-ass shotguns, knives and axes and everything?”

“No, the construction was stopped by vandals,” said Rook. “But there are people there I guess with knives and axes and all.”

“Is it too late to just go back to class where there less sharp metallic objects being used against us,” said Gars smiling weakly.

“Don’t be and idiot Hurst,” said Rook in annoyed tone as they passed the giant ruined gateway that symbolized the entrance into ‘The Arch’.

The Arch was radically different from the rest of Trade City East where the sun shone brightly and wind was adrift with voice. Entering ‘The Arch’ a heavy mood of gloom overtook all of them as the sounds quieted down and the skies seemed to have turned darker. There were lot more vandalized buildings, destroyed houses and abandoned houses and buildings. It seemed like a large graveyard of sorts. The council of Trade City East had several times tried to make a difference in ‘The Arch’ to make it cleaner but none got far before they were hampered by the gang activities. Illegalities reigned supreme in ‘The Arch’ and they were going to give up their throne anytime soon to the law and order. They saw several people walking by who all stopped to stared at the metallic red Ford Focus RS, even some people on bikes with great bushy beards and an ugly look had stopped seeing high performance car.

“Maybe we should’ve came in some other car,” said Ned nervously.

“I agree, a lot of people are staring at us,” Gars nervously said as well as he leaned away from his window.

“Being incognito is not a strong point for such a car,” monotoned Clinton.

“Can all of you shut up,” Rook voiced his opinion. “It’s fine, I’ve been here several times before.”

“Not with us you haven’t,” snapped Gars. “I’m too young to be robbed and die.”

“It’s my car, so if anyone’s going to be robbed it’s me.”

“I’m sitting in this car and for all you know I might have valuables on me too,” retorted Gars.

“Do you?” asked Ned.

“My phone,” was Gars’ reply.

“They might be gang members and criminals but they’re not cheap, they won’t steal junk,” said Rook snorting.

“Is that so,” said Gars sarcastically. “Explains why you can move back and forth from this place, they already know your value.”

Rook angrily turned around as the speed of the car increased and Ned chortled out a laugh.

“I’m about an inch from beating you up!”

Gars smirked, “You move that inch and we’re all dead, keep your eyes on the road.”

Rook increased his power on the accelerator and car sped up another notch making Ned a little nervous.

“Gars is right, just keep your eye on the road,” said Ned quickly, “and slow down a little.”

Rook clicked his tongue irritated as he turned around and slowed down a little as he drove aloof to the stares he received outside from some undesirables. Ned too was having second thoughts at this point much like Gars. He looked at his phone and the timer showed just five minutes remaining and the destination was fast approaching. They turned onto Bancroft Road and drove down. Ned counted the numbers as they slowly moved up to number twenty-four and they finally stopped outside a large half-finished building under the darkening sky. The walls had graffiti all over, there was waste strewn across the floor and the grass was yellow turning brown.

“Wow, I’m getting a horror movie feel here,” said Gars. “Anyone else getting that feeling.”

Rook pulled over to the side next to the large fence wall and as they got out there was not a soul to be seen in sight. Ned looked up at the darkening sky as a somewhat dreary feeling rose inside him.

“It’s going to rain soon I think,” he said and then he looked at the large building that was to be a hospital.

“Ned, forget everything I said about coming here, why don’t we just go back,” said Gars walking up and standing next to Ned.

He looked at his phone and the time was counting down there was barely a minute left now and on the screen, it displayed:

Walk into the building and meet Alpha Eye.

He showed Gars, Rook and Clinton the phone and asked them, “You got the same instruction on your phone?”

Clinton was the first to take out his phone and he nodded whilst the rest fumbled around inside their pockets.

“We’ve got barely a minute left,” said Ned. “What do you guys think, should we go inside?”

“I still don’t know what on earth this is all about,” said Rook. “But I’m friggin’ curious.”

“My curiosity just died down as soon as I saw the building,” said Gars, “but I’m not leaving alone, if you guys are going to go in then I’m going to follow.”

The rest turned to Clinton who seemed to be finely examining his face. As they looked at him he looked up and adjusted his glasses.

“Well, I propose we should go in, there appears to be nothing dangerous about this place at first sight.”

“Nothing dangerous?” asked Gars. “Are you kidding me, every inch, right up to the skies look lifted straight out of a fuckin’ horror movie, not the cheesy ones with lot of blood but those genuine ones that give you the chills.”

“Do you watch a lot of horror movies?” asked Clinton.

“Yes,” answered Gars.

Ned grabbed him from behind by the shoulders and slowly pushed him in through the gates. “Then you should have no problem going in, just pretend you’re watching a horror movie.”

They moved in with Ned still pushing Gars and Gars muttering sarcastically. “Sure, just pretend it’s a horror movie until it actually turns into one.”

The winds started howling as they moved up to the glass doors, part of it had glass panes but part didn’t, the panes looked to be broken.

“There aren’t any gangsters living inside, right?” asked Gars nervously. “Cause I see in movies all the time that real bad guys take up residence in abandoned places like these.”

“You watch too much movies,” said Rook with exasperation clearly showing on his face as he looked at Gars.

They walked in through the door with the broken glass panes and entered the hospital when all their phones started vibrating at once and making beeping noises and then the most unbelievable of events happened right in front of them. There was a flash of light and in front of them appeared a pale blue ghost like figure. It looked humanoid and was floating in mid-air with pretty much the base aspects of a human figure. They all scrambled back in fright.

“Ghost!” exclaimed Gars and on this point Ned was inclined to agree, what else could the giant blue humanoid that suddenly appeared in front of them be.

The most shocking thing however happened next when the thing opened its mouth and words came out.

“Hello players, my name is Alpha Eye.”

Gars turned to run but Rook caught his arm tight and held him in place. Ned moved back a little further as the figure calling himself Alpha Eye came forwards.

“I am the artificial intelligence in charge of administration facilities of Future World, a game that is the first of its kind augmented reality multiplayer game.”

Ned trying to retain his calmness looked down at his phone which suddenly had the instructions.

Please follow Alpha Eye to start your tutorial.

Terminate the tutorial?

Yes/No

“Your tutorial will start here in this environment but to initiate please follow me,” said Alpha Eye and it turned and floated off towards the stair case.

Ned turned to look at Gars, Rook and Clinton. Gars and Rook had pale white face, Clinton however stood there curiously. When Alpha Eye realized that the players weren’t following it, it turned around at the stairs and waited for them.

“An AI with such a grand coding, it appeared to be a hologram of sorts, though I don’t see the device which generated such a realistic hologram, or perhaps it isn’t a hologram,” said Clinton thoughtfully as he put his hands to his jaw thoughtfully.

“It isn’t a ghost?” asked Gars uncertainly.

“Certainly not, though it has not been proven false, the theory of how ghosts come to be and the existence of ghosts is a widely disputed fact, if there has not been one proper sighting in all these years then a ghost it is not,” said Clinton. “Besides all that, have you ever seen such a human being, he is the base model of a male human body, this is most certainly not a ghost and I am inclined to believe that this Alpha Eye is however real, a real AI appearing in front of us using some sort of technology that twists with the color spectrum.”

“I did not get any of that,” said Rook outright. “But I did get the fact about artificial intelligence.”

Gars paleness seemed to be disappearing slowly as he took in a breath of relief. “I’m just glad it’s not a ghost, even so how the hell did it suddenly appear in front of us.”

“Should we follow it?” asked Ned.

“Regardless of whether you wish to, I am,” said Clinton walking forwards.

“Hey,” called out Gars. “Let’s discuss this, this thing doesn’t seem like your run off the mill game, it could be like one of those games where it slowly turns into a horr-.”

Gars suddenly stopped as he got the death stare from both Rook and Ned.

“Though I hate to admit it, Hurst might be right,” said Rook. “We don’t anything about anything?”

“You said Robbie was playing this game, right?” asked Gars walking up to Ned who nodded. “There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him?”

“Apart from his usual craziness, nothing,” assured Ned after a little thought.

“Wait a second, Robbie, you mean that freak Hudlow?” asked Rook. “He was playing this game, what is this game?”

“It’s a long story,” said Ned. “But he didn’t say anything about this before he uh…jabbed me with the needle.”

“What…he jabbed you with a needle?” asked Rook walking up to Ned and towering over him.

“Yes, that’s how all this mess started…and look he’s going with that blue thing,” said Robbie warning them of Clinton’s following Alpha Eye.

“Ah screw it,” said Ned and ran after Clinton leaving Gars and Rook alone behind.

Gars turned to look at Rook but then he quickly took off after Ned and Rook followed shortly behind. Alpha Eye started moving again up the steps and as he moved he talked.

“Future World is an augmented reality game that has a hundred percent immersive rate, it is a game that however feels very real and it plays by using science beyond human comprehension or imagination at present.”

Alpha Eye turned the steps as the four followed behind it and they arrived at the half constructed second layer of the building with heavy graffiti on the walls and several construction tools laying strewn across, out of the semi built windows Ned saw drops rain falling from the sky, it had started raining.

“You will be instructed and I will walk through your account making process, your tutorial will officially start after that.”

Alpha Eye climbed the third floor and then fourth finally reaching the topmost floor of the half-constructed hospital and they turned the hallways walking into a large dusty room with cobwebs. As they entered the door shut automatically behind them making them all jump and also darkening the room. Gars went to try and pry the door open but Rook again stopped him and forcibly turned him to face Alpha Eye who appeared to have seen Gars’ movement.

“The door has been shut for your safety, it will be opened once the tutorial starts.”

With that Alpha Eye snapped his translucent fingers and the lights turned on.

“Astounding,” Clinton said. “Your intelligence allows you communicate freely with humans and you must have also trapped into the electrical grid for this building, this is simply earth shattering, the repercussion for the creation of such an AI could bring humanity into its next age, whoever created this is a genius.”

“Stop praising the blue alien in the room,” muttered Gars and then he turned to Alpha Eye. “We just want answers?”

“Certainly, as the administrator AI for Future World, I am duty bound to answer any question you might have.”

“Good,” said Rook. “I just want to know, what’s the conspiracy?”

The AI appeared to be frowning. “I’m sorry, I do not understand?”

“He means, what is all this about?” said Ned. “This game, Future World, the thing with Robbie, everything.”

“You will have to ask me questions for an answer,” said Alpha Eye.

Clinton stepped up, “Explain to me the events regarding this game starting from how this came onto Edward’s phone.”

Alpha Eye nodded and stepped forward reaching his fingers towards Ned’s eyes and a cold feeling gripped Ned from the tip of his hair to the base of his foot. Then it stepped back to start answering.