Interlude- Brandon (17 page)

Chapter 46

“Good place to take a nap?”

Brandon jumped in surprise. “How do you always manage to do that?”

Carl smiled as he walked up behind him. “Do what?”

“Sneak up on me like that,” Brandon said. “There are very few people who can sneak up on me. Cooper, Thorn, Kay… yeah, I think that’s about it. Oh, and I guess you.”

“I’ve just got a gift for moving quietly,” Carl said. He squatted down beside Brandon and poked his head around the corner. Brandon quickly yanked him back; immediately a small feathered dart whizzed past the space where Carl’s head had been.

“Whoa!” Carl exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Brandon said with a grin. “Things are not going so well at the moment.”

“Where’s the rest of your Hand?”

“We split up. At first this seemed like an easy contest, so we decided to split up and meet at the goal.”

“Then the pixies showed up?” Carl smiled.

“Yes… then the pixies showed up.” Brandon nodded toward the far corner of the room. There were three tiny figures lying lifeless on the ground, tiny people about the size of Carl’s hand, with wings and colourful clothes. Each one had a small bow in their hands. Tiny feathered arrows were scattered on the ground beside them. The wall above them had a dark stain on it — a combination of blast powder and blood.

“You catch ‘em by surprise?” Carl asked.

Brandon nodded. “Surpris
e, followed by a blast,” he patted a nasty looking shotgun lying on the ground beside him. “They had another group around the corner, though; almost returned the favour of surprising me, clever little buggers.”

“It’s clear where I just came from,” Carl said.

“That’s the wrong direction,” Brandon said. He continued to scan the room as he spoke, his gaze freezing when he looked at the ceiling. Pointing towards the far corner, he said, “What do you think that is?”

Carl squinted to get a better look. “It’s too far away, is what it is,” he said. The ceilings were quite high in this particular game. If he had to guess, he’d estimate that it was at least forty feet above them.

“It’s an air duct or something, right?”

“Yeah,” Carl agreed.

Brandon nodded and carefully took a step backwards before standing up. “Okay, Carl, I need you to do something for me.”

“I don’t think I can throw you that far, Brandon.”

Brandon chuckled. “I need you to turn away and close your eyes. Then count to ten before you open them.”

“Why?” Carl asked.

Brandon looked at Carl silently. Carl remembered that Brandon was the leader of one of the best teams in the Sim, and he nodded his head obediently. “Okay, fine,” he said, turning his back and closing his eyes.

Carl felt a disturbance in the air behind him and was sure he could hear wings beating. Carl frowned but kept counting. When he got to ten, he opened his eyes and looked behind him. Brandon was gone! Quickly looking upwards, Carl saw Brandon holding onto the grate and turning the screws to loosen it.

“Hey!” Carl whispered as loudly as he could. Brandon looked back at him. “How’d you get up there?”

Brandon held his finger to his lips as he smiled.

“Did you fly?”

Brandon looked surprised. “Did you see me fly?”

Carl was confused. “This isn’t a flying map.”

“How do you know?”

“They would have told us.” Carl said.

Brandon chuckled and shook his head. “Carl, you’ve been playing for a little over six months now and doing amazingly well. Don’t make the mistake, or it will ruin you.”

“Which mistake?”

“
THE mistake,” Brandon said. “There’s one thing you have to remember above everything else.”

“What’s that?”

Brandon dropped down and quickly activated his wings, landing gently beside Carl.

“I like you, Carl. Every time we’re in a game together, you help us out. I’ve never seen anyone become a ghost like you; it’s a great talent. I hope you don’t join another team and have to play against us very often, ‘cause I think you would make life more difficult for us.”

Carl swelled with pride at the compliment; to have one of the best in the Sim praise him was a big deal!

“So let me tell you something I don’t tell many people,” He leaned in close as if other people could hear them, then he whispered, “The biggest mistake you can ever make is to believe that anything they tell you is true.”

Brandon leaned back and flashed a grin, waiting for Carl to react.

Carl nodded slowly, “Okay, I’ll remember that. Thanks, Brandon.”

Brandon turned back to face the grate. “No problem, Carl.” With a tap he popped his wings again and said, “and as soon as you can, be sure to get yourself some wings. They come in handy a lot more than most people think.”

“Maybe I don’t even need them,” Carl said. “Why believe they’re required to fly inside the Sim, Brandon? That’s something they tell you, isn’t it?”

Brandon’s body whipped around. Taking a quick step closer to Carl with squinted eyes, he raised his hand, but said nothing. Finally he smiled and wagged a finger at Carl. “Carl, I think you just blew my mind.”

“Hey, what are you two doing standing here yipping at each other?”

The boys looked towards the front doorway. Tony stood there, a dead pixie dangling from each hand as he panted heavily. “It’s clear up ahead,” he said. “Let’s move.”

Brandon nodded and walked past Tony, slapping him on the back as he did. “Good stuff, Tank. Come on,
boys, lets finish this. I’m getting hungry.”

Chapter 47

“How long we been in this time, Brandon?” Easton asked.

Brandon finished his set with the weights and placed the bar on the rack. He looked at Easton, then each of the other Hand members. They all watched him expectantly, but he shook his head.

“Are you kidding me?” Alan asked. “We’re for sure in the Sim right now Brandon. It’s been days since they put us inside.”

“We’re in the Dream,” Brandon assured the group as he grabbed a towel and wiped his face.

“I’m not so sure, Brandon,” Kay said. Brandon started to reprimand her but saw that she was serious and paused with concern. There was no joking when it came to calling out the Blurr; determining where they were was the key factor to everything they did. Brandon knew the controlling powers were trying to do something dangerous that depended on players losing their perception of reality. His group’s primary concern was to always know which side of the veil they were on, and they’d never once been wrong. Kay and Brandon had always been able to tell the others exactly which reality they were in, but Brandon could tell from Kay’s confused look that even she wasn’t sure. He shook his head softly to confirm he was right and she swore under her breath.

“They must have brought us out while we were sleeping,” Tony muttered. He accepted Brandon’s call on this without question; they all did.

“I don’t know,” Easton said.

Brandon noticed Easton’s demeanour was… different. He walked quickly towards the mat room. “Follow me. Now.” 

They got to the mat room and formed a circle with Brandon sitting cross-legged in the centre.

“Ten minutes,” he said, “then we re-assess the call.”

Everyone nodded and closed their eyes. Brandon examined them as they began to meditate; he wouldn’t be meditating with them. He would be watching.

He’d recognized that look in Easton’s eyes; knew the older boy was close to cracking. Brandon pursed his lips in concern. He wasn’t going to lose one of them like this.

Brandon was now twelve, which meant the others were all close to their magic number of eighteen. Easton would hit it first, at the end of this year. By the old rules of the Centre, they would leave when they turned eighteen, but there was rumour of new rules allowing expert players to remain at the Centre and play in the Sim.

He shook his head and stopped thinking about the future; he couldn’t change what was going to happen then. He just wanted to keep his team healthy and effective right now. That’s all there ever was…right now.’

His watch chirped, announcing
the ten minutes had passed. Slowly the team opened their eyes. Brandon watched, scanning them closely for signs of confusion.

Easton kept his eyes closed a moment longer than the rest, then took a deep breath in through his nose, and a long breath out. The corners of his mouth turned upwards into a smile and Brandon relaxed. Easton’s eyes opened and he looked at Brandon. “You’re right,” he said. “The smell and background vibe is distinct. We’re definitely in real life. How could we have missed it?”

Brandon shrugged and Alan answered. “We get used to stimuli, and soon can’t sense the finer details, which is the only way to be sure. Slowing down our minds and giving them a break from all thought and perception is the best way to reset and help us sense where we really are.”

“It’s a tough battle,” Kay said. “We know how to meditate and why, yet we still find reasons to put it off. What about all the others who don’t have a clue that they should be doing it?”

“They get Blurred,” Tony said. “I wonder what happens then?”

“Nothing, most of the time,” Brandon said. “But I think every once in a while… something bad happens.”

“How do we fight this when we’re no longer together?” Kay asked.

“We don’t know when that will be,” Brandon said. “I think they’re gonna let us stay together.”

“That wouldn’t be normal,” Easton said doubtfully. He was worried about having to leave his friends behind.

Brandon smiled. “We aren’t a normal group,” he said. He shrugged his shoulders, “Don’t worry about what might happen; we do our best by
being in the moment. Let’s just keep doing that and see how it goes.”

“All right,” Easton said. “So what do we do now? They think we believe we’re in the Sim, right?”

Brandon shook his head. “When it comes to this particular game, we play the same way as always; we know where we are, and we act that way. If you were operating as if we were in the Sim, then change that mindset. We’re in the Dream and we all know it now, right?” he looked around and everyone nodded confidently. “Then that’s how we interact with everyone. Games within games won’t help here, so we won’t pretend we think we’re in the Sim but really know that we’re in the Dream… it’s too confusing. Work out and get caught up on our fitness level so we can get back to the Sim as soon as possible.”

The team nodded and began to walk towards the exit. Brandon stopped them to make one more point. “We should be proud that as a team we’ve been able to stay unblurred all this time. I don’t think there are many groups who can say the same thing. We continue to fight the Blurr. It would be very bad for our group if we lost our grip on reality. I think that would be the end of us, so let’s keep working together to stay on top of it.”

The group nodded and left the workout room.

In a room far from the facility, a technician watched them leave the room on a view screen. He made note of their activities and conversation in his log book.

Chapter 48

“I have a new challenge for you and your team, Brandon.”

Brandon sat across from Thorn in his office inside the Sim. They never spoke outside of the Sim in order to remain safe from the prying eyes of the General.

“What kind of challenge, Father?” Brandon asked. He’d been expecting a meeting like this for a while. Easton would turn eighteen the following week, and would be leaving the Centre.

“What I’m about to tell you must remain a secret,” Thorn said.

“Between the three of us?” Brandon guessed. “I assume that what you’re telling me, you’ve already told Cooper?”

Thorn shook his head. “Not yet. If you agree, then I’ll talk to him next.”

“Okay… what is it?”

Thorn brought an image up on his large monitor. It was a city, clean and bustling with people. “We’re ready to release a civilian version of the Sim to the public,” he said. “Regular people will subscribe and pay a fee to play. Preorders started a month ago, and the numbers are huge. Beta testing will last for two months, and will consist of a small number of lucky people selected to help us play inside to test the mechanics and systems of the game.”

“How many testers will you have?” Brandon asked.

“Ten thousand,” Thorn said.

“Are you kidding me?” Brandon’s eyebrows raised at the thought of so many individuals inside a VR program. “What’s the population of the Sim at any given time?” he asked, “a few hundred?”

Thorn grinned, “Two hundred thousand.”

Brandon was stunned.

“Officially,” Thorn said, “there are only three thousand players inside the Sim. I’m counting all the NPC’s inside as well. Each non-player character is considered an individual by the computer.”

“But they aren’t real,” Brandon said.

Thorn laughed out loud, and Brandon smiled at the humour behind his comment.

“The NPC programs have evolved like bacterium over the eight years that the Sim has been online,” Thorn said. “We’ve instilled artificial intelligence into them and allowed NPC programs to live complete lifetimes. They have also been given the capacity to procreate, passing on their learning and traits to their offspring. Plus they have the ability to bond with each other and form relationships. In many respects, they are identical to us.”

“You mean there are generations of NPC’s inside the Sim that have lived and died and had families?” Brandon wasn’t sure exactly what Thorn was saying to him, but it sounded complicated.

“Yes,” Thorn nodded. “When you walk through a city in the Sim to play a game, the population exists before you get there and after you leave. If you stop to buy a newspaper at a store, or to eat at a restaurant inside the Sim, those NPC avatars are living their lives and you’re just another customer in their day to day existence.”

Brandon looked at Thorn seriously. “You’ve created a real world, full of thousands of real people.”

Thorn began to shake his head, then paused and nodded as he shrugged his shoulders. “Yes, I guess you could argue that’s what I’ve done. Unlike the real world, however, I could turn it all off and wipe them out with the flick of one switch.”

Brandon decided to let this issue go. “What do you want us to do?” he asked.

“We now know from our experience in the Sim that we can populate a virtual world with realistic and richly interactive NPCs and accommodate a large number of player controlled avatars as well. What I need is experienced eyes and ears — veteran players inside the new world. I want to send groups of Sim players in to observe and give me feedback so that we can catch glitches and make improvements to the game before it goes fully live.”

Brandon thought about it for a few moments. “Sounds boring,” he said.

Thorn chuckled and shook his head. “It will be far from boring, my boy,” he said. “There is a main area where the players and NPCs will be able to to interact and live, but there will also be a lot of player created areas — small islands, dimensions, and instances that subscribers will be able to buy, where they will be able to create their own content. It’s my hope that these designers will attract other players to come mingle and interact.”

“You’re going to have people pay you to create their own adventures and rewards?” Brandon asked.

“In many cases, yes,” Thorn smiled.

“Sounds like a powerful idea. Hackers will have a blast with it.”

“There’ll be very strict and specific rules governing the core functioning of the simulation,” Thorn said. “That will keep it manageable and as simple as can be. But people don’t like simple. They can’t wait to complicate things, which we will allow them to do. The best designers will thrive, and the bad ones will disappear.” Thorn smiled wickedly, “Hackers will regret trying to tamper with the system.”

Brandon thought about it for a few moments, then nodded. “Sure, we’ll give it a spin.”

Thorn smiled. “That’s great news. Before I put you into the Beta test I have one other new simulation that I want you to try for me. It’s identical to the new game world in most ways, but very different in one aspect.”

Brandon shook his head, looking puzzled. He was quick and adaptable, but Thorn seemed to be throwing many things at him today. “You want us to play in a new VR simulation, but before we do that, you want us to play in… a different new VR simulation?”

“Exactly. I want to put you and your team into a new simulation for three weeks. No coming out or going back in, you’ll be in there solidly for three weeks.”

“Are you going to try to Blurr us?” Brandon asked with concern. “I don’t want to find out you’ve been switching us back and forth.”

Thorn shook his head. “I don’t agree with Blurring, Brandon, that’s the General’s project. This isn’t his VR I’m putting you in, it will be mine. I won’t try to Blurr you, I promise.”

Brandon looked uncertain and Thorn could tell that he was doubtful.

“Listen to me carefully, son,” Thorn said. “Until now the only VR simulation that you’ve been in is the General’s Sim. That’s because all of you belong to him, and that’s the only VR program that I was given money and time to work on. I’ve learned valuable information from developing the Sim to his specifications over the years, and now I have enough money, experience, and time, to build my own programs. I don’t have the same agenda that the General does, and I promise not to try to purposefully Blurr you.”

Brandon thought about what Thorn was saying. “How will you be able to place us in other simulations without the General knowing?” he asked.

“The General has made false assumptions over the years. He doesn’t understand that I control the game facility, and although he sees a lot of information, he sees only what I allow him to see. I’ve made the process so complicated and full of information that it’s easy for me to lose players for a few weeks at a time. It’s quite simple, since I can show them to him in simulations and deliver false reports that he can’t verify.”

Brandon nodded thoughtfully.

“Here’s the major difference with the new simulation I want to put you in. Your avatar will age and you will only have a vague memory of this reality. Time will pass differently; you’ll live thirty years during the three weeks that you’re inside.”

“What?”

“That’s right,” Thorn nodded. “You’ll go in as you are now. You’ll live for what feels like thirty years. Your body will grow and age, and you’ll gain the life experience from thirty years of living. Then you’ll come out of the simulation and wake up with thirty years of memories, but you’ll still be inside your body as it looks now, and only three weeks will have passed.”

Brandon considered what Thorn was asking him and his group to do. “Why would you do something like that?” he asked.

“There are many reasons,” Thorn said. “Maybe when you come back you’ll be able to give me some of them. It’s an incredible opportunity to become experienced but keep your youth. Trust me, Brandon, if someone had offered this to me at your age, I would have jumped at the chance.”

Brandon thought about the offer. “All right, Father. I’ll ask my Hand if they want to try it. If they say yes, then we’ll do it.”

Thorn nodded. “You’re not the first group to do it, if that makes you feel any better. Cooper has already done this process three times.”

“So he’s a thirty-something-year-old man with ninety extra years of memories and experiences?” Brandon asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, that gives him a big head start on me,” Brandon said. “What do you call this new VR simulation which the public will be playing in? Sim 2?”

Thorn shook his head. “I don’t want it named after anything the General has had a hand in. The new simulation is called Tygon.”