virtual reality

A story about a very disturbing virtual reality game that challenges the main characters ability to see the difference between reality and virtual reality

THE GAME IS ON. Quickly has technology advanced beyond what many of us ever imagined...
Me and my friend have been so lucky to be invited to participate in the trial of a new virtual reality videogame, we are so excited to do this, to play this game they provide a transparent helmet, it sends neurological signals to our brain, to allow us to feel in our bodies what we experience in the game, if we grab something, we would only be making the motion and feel the object in our hands even if it isn't there, the helmet is made of a clear material that covers our face and portrays a realistic image of what happens in the videogame, the objects the characters and anything that has to do with the plot of the game, it cannot however give a realistic illusion of space , it is necessary to enter an empty room of specific dimensions for each scene, and all that is shown in the game fits exactly where it should be in each room, so we are led to a very big empty building, the walls are white to have a clean slate for the colors that the game has been designed with, so it doesn't mix with any real color the wall might have been painted and so on, we are greeted by some executive looking men who put the helmets on our heads, they tell us that this game is not cooperative so we would have to go in different directions to not interfere with the other's game, they explain how every room we enter is a real room and that any movement we make is a real movement and aside from that everything else we see or hear or sense in anyway would not be real, they explained briefly the plot of the game, it is about human experimentation , we act as workers of the facility to which human beings are taken after captured to test inventions and weapons on them, and it is our job to dispose of the subjects when they are of no more use and to hang them on hooks that transport the bodies to an incinerator, it seems very gruesome, they explained that it might seem like real ,and that we may feel it is too much, but that if we want to be paid at the end , we must reach the final chamber and we sign a contract, the first chamber is empty, it is for us to switch on the device and prepare our minds to what would come, I am alone in the first chamber, my palms are sweaty but I am excited to begin, I am ready,my device on, I open the first door... DESENSITIZATION
This is unbelievable, I enter a reception and I am greeted by a man who says : "you are right on time, right this way please" he tells me he will guide me through the different experiment chambers in a sort of tour of the place to be familiarized with the procedures that take place before I can actually go and start my actual job that would be the final challenge in the game, we enter another chamber and there are two naked humans right before my eyes, they are blindfolded gagged and bound, they seem very scared ,it all looks so very real, there are two workers that are dressed in the same impermeable suit I've been given, and they are wearing the same helmet as me, this gives me an illusion of authenticity, because the characters are wearing the same uniform, including the clear helmet, the man that's guiding me tells me I seem pale, and I tell him Its all so real I lost the notion of it being a game for a while, he gives a small smile, and I remind myself that this man is also part of the game and he doesn't know what I'm talking about, his only reply is "no worries , new employees often feel a little unnerved at the first sight but I was told you are fully qualified to do the task that has been appointed to you, you must remember this is for the good of human kind, this specimens help us perfect inventions and devices that will help humanity In a long term, you must keep in mind that the specimens we take are of no value to our society and will not be missed by anyone," I take a deep breath and say to myself "its not real" he asks "are you ready to continue?" I nod ,he says to the workers "please proceed" there is a square pool filled with water in the middle of the chamber in which I can see there are already two people, there is a table next to the workers and the prisoners, or as the man calls them : "specimens". There are two very strange items that I would not be able to give a name to, they look very similar to the roots of a medium plant, but they are made of something cartilaginous looking, they are white in color, one of the workers takes one of the specimens and removes the gag in his mouth, he seems very weak even to scream, he only mumbles things like "what are you doing to me?" And "please stop, I'm so scared" while crying ,he is injected with a green fluid in his stomach and then he seems to not be able to speak anymore , the worker then proceeds to take one of the cartilage root looking items and opens the specimen's mouth, he then shoves these branches into his mouth with no mercy while the other worker holds the specimen's head steady, the branches of the root like thing immediately begin to pull their way into the body like tentacles,the specimen seems to be having trouble breathing, he is gasping for air , he is going to die! This is terrible to watch, he seems to be in a lot of pain, then he is pushed into the pool in the middle of the room, they point at some monitors in the far end of the room which I did not notice before, there I can see what is happening inside of the pool , the three specimens seem to be breathing...under water? Then my guide tells me "these devices ,as you may have deducted by now, were designed to allow a human to breathe underwater, they make their way into their lungs and cling to the bronchial tubes making it possible for the oxygen in the water to be metabolized by the lungs and transported into the body, you can see how useful this would be for military or naval forces? this item combined with some other that can help the bearer to move freely in water , would give anyone a chance to perform attacks no one has seen before, when we perfect our products, not only this one,but many more that would help humans survive and perform tasks in an environment they normally can't , then the government who is the higher bidder will be granted the opportunity to win any war they set their minds to, anyone who acquires our inventions will be unstoppable, and the amount of money some people would pay to be unstoppable is beyond words" of course this is all about money, for what more reason would someone do such horrible things?, my guide tells me "we need to be sure you can desensitize yourself, I think it would be good if you insert the next one" i step up to the remaining specimen, he seems to be crying, I have to keep reminding myself that none of this is real, though it does seem like it, I can smell him , it smells terrible in here, I am given a pair of gloves and I am instructed to take the cartilage branches and insert them into the specimen's mouth, I take off the gag and he doesn't make any noise, as though he knew we had injected something in the previous situation when the other specimen started to talk, but from what I can see his facial expressions is that of a person crying, as I hold his face he tightens his jaw, I cannot open his mouth, I am given some sort of small Crow bar and some type of hammer and a clamp to hold his mouth open, I freeze , I am standing in front of him with this instruments, the man signals one of the workers to take the crow bar and hammer from me, he gives me a disapproving look, he says to me : "the other worker will open the specimen's mouth and you will quickly insert the clamp to keep it open and after that insert the breathing device" the specimen is fighting for his life, he is crying with quiet sobs, before I can figure out what will happen, the worker takes the crow bar to the specimen's teeth he bangs it with the hammer and the teeth break , he screams in pain, the worker screams "Now!" And I quickly insert the clamp and his mouth is held open by it, then I proceed to shove the breather in his mouth, it crawls into his body, he can't breathe, he is pushed in the pool and it's all over, it happened so fast, I didn't even think of what I was doing while I did it, it seems all it takes to be able to do this is a little pressure, I look at the screens again to see how the specimens are doing inside the pool, the last one we pushed in there is bleeding from where his teeth where knocked down, and the water is turning red they are still tied up but seem to be conscious, trying unsuccessfully to break out of their restraints, the guide tells me:" you just witnessed and participated in the first trial of this device, as you can see they are fully capable of breathing under water, we will keep them under observation and see if they don't die after a while."
ETERNAL DARK
He opened the door to the next chamber and we both went in, there was a woman sitting naked in a chair in the middle of the room, in the same restraints I saw on the previous experiment, the guide explains: "on this trial we will insert lenses between the eyeballs and the eyelids of the specimen, this lens is being developed to be able to make the wearer see in the dark,we do not know if it is safe to insert over a human eye, but we will find out shortly".
I notice a small table next to the worker as before, on this table there are two transparent membranes and the worker removes the specimen's blindfold and she looks around in terror, she is crying as well as the other specimens, she looks at all of us with pleading eyes, the worker then takes one of the membranes and instructs me to do the same with the other one , he opens the eyelids on her right eye and I know I'm meant to do the same with her left eye, he says that the membrane lenses are to be inserted at the same time, he says "do it now" we both do it at the same time, this membranes ,as the breather I saw earlier seem to cling to the body part they are applied to, she immediately starts grunting with pain, it seems to be progressively hurting her more, as seconds go by she starts to scream through her gag, screaming the most terrible scream I have ever heard, she starts uncontrollably moving trying to make herself free, I have never seen such desperation, she shakes her head and tries to move her arms and legs, she keeps screaming, the worker holds her head to be able to see what is happening, she won't stop moving so he takes a needle and injects her in the stomach with a yellow liquid , she becomes as though paralyzed, every muscle tense, it is only then I see the blood that's pouring out of her closed eyes, the worker opens the eyelids and the membranes seem to be crushing the eyeballs , they are purple and smaller and the membrane is pulsating , it's still crushing the eyeballs and we hear a small pop sound and the eye bursts, the experiment failed miserably, the guide tells me, " as you can see this device wasn't as successful as the previous one, it is still being developed, we have multiple tests going on at the moment ,I will show you one more and then you can proceed to do your actual job"
By forcing myself to do all this things I do feel bad but not as bad as I did when I walked in, I seem to be getting used to the idea that this is just a game and none of this is real, I don't feel so sickened by this, or maybe I've just gone into a state of shock.

PARTING LIMBS
We proceed to the next chamber , there are 3 specimens standing, held by their wrists and ankles, the guide explains, "this is a weapon test chamber, in here we are testing this" he gestures toward a silver ball with straps and a small hole, the worker then straps the ball to his hand and points at one of the specimens wrist, the worker advises us to stand back, he then squeezes the ball slightly and out of the hole a green light issues and cuts right through the skin and bones, within a few seconds the severed hand falls to the floor , leaving the specimen's arm free but bleeding violently ,as he waves it madly blood splatters all over the room and I understand why we were advised to stand back, the specimen screams madly in pain and he is just left there as the worker moves on to cut off the next specimen's foot, the guide tells me " as you may have deducted this is a weapon designed to cut through organic tissue, specifically made to stop the coagulation process in the wound, this weapon is basically designed to make a person bleed to death no matter what measures are taken" he stops abruptly looking annoyed at the now two people screaming senselessly , he gestures me to the next door, with a last glance over my shoulder I see the second specimen waving her leg around splashing as much blood as the first one
BECOMING A WORKER
Now I am in a bigger room, when I enter I fall on the floor out of shock, the sight is terrible, there are about ten workers in there,each holding a big curved blade, there is a shoot in the wall at the other end of the room where the now useless specimens arrive some looking severely burned , some with holes in their bodies, some with organs or eyeballs hanging out, all of them bleeding profusely , most of them still alive but some of them already dead, from the left side of the room there is an opening from which come hanging hooks that move slowly across to the right side of the room and out if sight, it's a slaughter house, the dying specimens are piled on the floor some still screaming some merely moaning all too weak to get up or move too much, the workers pull the specimens and slash them carelessly somewhere around the neck or face to kill them, then hang them by the roof of their mouths like a hooked fish, and transported out of the room; the guide grabs my arm and pulls me up, he looks at me disapprovingly and says "you signed a contract saying you would do this, if you weren't ready you should have walked away" I say to myself "this is just a game, you can do this" he shoves one of the curved blades the others hold, into my hand and says "you chose to become a worker, you where not forcibly brought here and you were explained what your job would be, there is no turning back now" my hands are shaking very badly, he points at a female specimen who is lying on the floor "take that one, it's already dead" as I walk closer to her I notice her arms and legs have been cut off ,"how am I supposed to pull her if she has no limbs?" I pull her by the hair, she's heavy "slash her" the guide says, "she is obviously dead but we need to make sure so we cut them all with no exception" I see his face and its frightening , I take my blade ,close my eyes and just wave it in her direction, I slashed her neck but there's not much blood, I guess she has already bled out when they cut her limbs, the guide says "now hang her" I pull one of the hooks with shaky hands and pound it to the roof of her mouth with more strength than I intended and I feel and hear the crunch of her braking, and the hooks goes up and she is led out of sight to the incinerator, how much longer will the game continue? "Now try a live one" says the guide "that one" he points at a man who is screaming wildly and whose arms are crushed beyond recognition, I pull him closer and look into his eyes, his eyes beg, for what? For life? For death? I slash again with my eyes closed , damn it , I've cut right in his mouth only separating his jaw further from his head, I stand watching him shocked as blood pours down his body, he is making a strange noise however he can with his jaw hanging, his head almost split in half horizontally ,the guide says carelessly "good, you're ready " now just hang him and keep doing that with the others, I will come get you when the day is over " and just like that he walks out
REALIZATION
I keep looking at what I've done to this man, he is still alive lying on the floor,looking at me, pleadingly, blood sputtering, helpless, I have to hang him, I pull the hook and insert it in his mouth, he is taken away by it, I can't do this anymore, I throw up where I am standing, the smell of blood is too real, I've got all the vomit in my helmet, I have to take it off I don't care if I'm on the last stage of the game and I don't get paid, I'm done, I go to a corner of the large room sit on the floor eager to take this helmet of, I want all of this horrible images, the sound of the screams and slashing and the sound of the hook transporter, the smells of blood and urine and feces will disappear, I take the transparent helmet off with my eyes closed , but the screams don't die away, what is this? Is it a residual sensorial illusion ? I'm afraid to open my eyes, but I do it either way... I feel the blood drain from my face, this cannot be, what is happening? I've been deceived , this was all real, it was real, I've killed so many people, what have i done, how could we be so naive? These workers slaying people have no idea what they're doing, standing there with these helmets on ,thinking they're playing a game as I did only a few seconds ago, these people deceive us to think we are playing so they can use us as workers to do manual labor in their experiments and kill the specimens and then let us out of the building thinking we have been lucky enough to try this amazing piece of technology that allowed us to visualize everything as if it was real, at this moment my ability to make reasonable decisions has escaped me, all i know is I need to get out of here...but my friend, I can't leave without him, I find a door at the other end of the room, and go through it without my helmet, running around and crying like a wounded animal, leading its predator straight to itself , the next room is a circular room with glass in some of the walls, through which I can see all the dead specimens hanging ,a few of them still twitching, I circle around desperately, still crying ,I enter one of the doors and there is a slaughter room similar to the one I was just in, I can't find my friend in this room, I go back to the circular room and open another door, I immediately see my friend hanging a body and I pull him by the arm, back to the circular room, he looks at me and asks "where is your helmet? Put it back on before anyone sees you" I tell him "I don't have it , I left it, but you have to listen to me, we're not in a game all of this is real take of that helmet you'll see for yourself" he says " I know!! Stop screaming or we'll both be killed! You should have kept your helmet on and waited and do as you were told, they'll let us out at the end of the day" at the end of this sentence the door I came through before leading to the circular room we are in burst open, one of the executive looking men from the beginning came through it, some of the workers were starting to poke their heads through the door curious to see what was happening, my friend's face went pale, he said "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do now" the man approached us and said to me quietly "stop crying now!" But I couldn't , I couldn't stop crying and screaming for what I have done, he then took out a needle and injected me in the stomach I felt my self go limp, fading away , I was still mumbling "I killed them, so many of them, he was still alive and I hung him" my friend caught me in his arms before I fell and said "I know , I know" this is the last of all I ever heard , the last of all I ever saw, I could not have lived my life after this experience and not have it haunt me every day, maybe it was for the best, the last I wondered was what would happened to my friend, a question for ever left unanswered, for in the next few minutes i would be hung on a hook by some unknowing worker thinking I'm only one more useless specimen in a very realistic game.

Author's Note

English is not my mother language but I think this is pretty good

Reviews

[Orca]

Holy cow! This is scary.
And awesome!