Ordinary Hero

by Ellis Michaels

  After using the bathroom, I went into the kitchen to make coffee. Everything looked exactly the way it did before all the craziness happened. I poured myself a cup, turned on the morning news, and had a seat in the living room.

  “Good morning, James!”

  Kasie came out of her bedroom, practically skipping. She was wearing shorts and a tank top and looked as cute as ever. It was incredibly nice to see her – the real her. Even though I'd been around Kasie in the simulation, it wasn't the real Kasie and I knew it. Seeing the real her made my heart skip a beat. I got up off the couch and walked over to her. She was in the kitchen pouring herself a cup of coffee.

  “Good morning, Kasie,” I said and threw my arms around her.

  “Well, aren't you friendly this morning,” she replied. “What did I do to deserve an early-morning hug?”

  “Nothing,” I replied. “Nothing at all. Just being you.”

  “Well, I never say no to a hug,” she said and smiled. “You want to watch the news together?”

  “Sure.”

  We went into the living room and sat down on the couch. It was so nice to have things back to normal. While Kasie watched the news, I watched her. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Even after all the sexual experiences I'd had, after all the gorgeous women I'd been with, I still found Kasie to be the most beautiful woman I'd ever met. The vow that I'd made to myself ran through my head. I needed to tell Kasie how I felt about her. But now wasn't the right time.

  “What are you up to this morning?” she asked. “You have class, right?”

  “Actually,” I replied, “class was canceled. But I have to meet with my professor in a different classroom.”

  “Are you in trouble for something?” she asked. “Why does he want to meet with you?”

  “It's a long story, one that I'm not sure I can tell without sounding crazy right now. I'll tell you all about it later.”

  “Okay. Sounds good. You can use the bathroom first. I don't have class until later.”

  “Cool. Will you be around tonight for dinner?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I should be,” Kasie replied. “Don't forget: It's your turn to cook tonight.”

  “You in the mood for anything in particular?”

  “Hmmm. I'll think about it.”

  We drank our coffees and watched the rest of the morning news together. It really felt good to be home with Kasie. Every few minutes, I'd start thinking about how I was going to tell her that I liked her and my heart rate would increase a little bit. Just thinking about it made me nervous. It was something that I promised myself I would do. But now wasn't the right time: I had to get to class. I planned on telling her at dinner.

  After eating a cinnamon-raisin bagel, I took a shower and got ready for the day. I knew that, at the very least, it was going to be an interesting one. It was a warm, sunny day and I threw on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. I grabbed my bag and headed for the door.

  “Have a great day, James!” Kasie yelled from the couch.

  “Thanks, Kasie. You, too!”

  “Oh, hey!” she said as I was walking out the door.

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  “Mexican.”

  “What?”

  “For dinner,” Kasie said. “I'm in the mood for Mexican.”

  “Okay. I'll whip up a big Mexican feast.”

  “Awesome!”

  I hopped on the Green Line and took it to the philosophy building at my school. Part of me was a bit anxious. I didn't know if Carter and Krystal would be there. I wanted to see Krystal but Carter – not so much. After everything he and I went through, it would be weird to see him, to say the least.

  I got to the building with a few minutes to spare. Usually, I showed up for class at the last possible minute but this time, not knowing what to expect, I didn't want to be late. I found the elevator and got in so I could go up to room two-twenty-one on the second floor. Just as the door was about to shut, a black high heel stepped in its path, preventing the door from closing. When I saw the long, luscious leg the heel was attached to, I immediately knew who it was before I even saw her face.

  “James!” Krystal said as she stepped into the elevator.

  “Krystal!” I replied.

  We threw our arms around each other and stood in the elevator hugging for several seconds. It was so good to see Krystal alive and well. She looked amazing, as always. Krystal was wearing a sexy black dress, not unlike the one she had on in the simulation one of the days.

  “It's so good to see you,” she said.

  “You, too!” I replied. “I take it you also got a letter from the professor telling you to come to room two-twenty-one?”

  “Yup. I sure did. I wasn't sure if I was the only one or if other people did, too. I guess now I know the answer.”

  “I wasn't sure, either. Hey, I want to thank you for what you did in the simulation. If you hadn't jumped in front of me and saved my life, I never would've defeated Carter. That all really did happen, didn't it? It wasn't just a dream, right?”

  “You beat him? I was just going to ask you how things turned out. I knew you would. And yes, it all really happened. But you really don't have to thank me. I was just doing my part. It felt good to help out, to be a part of something bigger than myself.”

  “Well, I might not have to thank you, but I'm going to, anyway. Again, thank you.”

  “You're very welcome,” Krystal said and gave me a peck on the cheek.

  “Hey,” I said, “about what happened between us in the simulation...”

  “What happens in alternate, simulated realities stays in alternate, simulated realities,” Krystal said with a wink.

  “I couldn't agree more,” I said and smiled. “It sure was fun, though. I want you to know that I had a great time. We made a great team.”

  “We sure did,” she replied.

  The elevator got to the second floor and the door opened.

  “After you,” I said, holding my arm out.

  “A hero and a gentleman,” Krystal replied as she walked into the hallway.

  I eyed Krystal's flawless body up and down as she walked out of the elevator. Knowing that I'd seen her naked drove me wild. Her butt swayed from side to side as she walked and it looked amazing. We walked to room two-twenty-one together and, when we got to the room, the only person there was Steven Burgeson, the professor's research assistant that we talked to in the simulation.

  “Hi guys,” he said to us.

  “Hi,” Krystal replied.

  “Hi, Steven,” I said. “How's the research going?”

  “Honestly,” he answered, “I couldn't tell you. I haven't talked to the professor yet since the simulation ended – or seems to have ended.”

  “Seems to have ended?” Krystal asked. “You think we're still in it?”

  “No, I don't. But it's possible. I guess we'll all find out now, though,” Steven said, his eyes looking over at the door.

  “Good morning,” Professor Amundsen said as he walked into the room. “We're one short. Who's not here?”

  “Carter,” Steven answered.

  Just as Steven said Carter's name, he walked through the door.

  “What?” Carter asked. “What about Carter?”

  “Oh, good,” the professor said. “We're all here. I bet you all have a lot of questions for me.”

  I couldn't speak for anyone else but I knew that I did. The professor closed the door and had a seat at the desk in the front of the room. Professor Amundsen was tall and thin with long, grey hair tied into a pony tail. He was in his sixties and had lived an interesting life. In class, the professor told us stories about how he'd moved to San Francisco in the nineteen-sixties when he was only sixteen years old. He hung out with the Haight-Ashbury crowd and did a lot of hallucinogens. That's where he went to college and earned his PhD in philosophy.

  Professor Amundsen was as eccentric as he was interesting. He had a lot of str
ange mannerisms. Sometimes he'd flail his arms while making a point or his voice would go up two octaves when he got excited about something. He was certainly a strange man but also a brilliant one. I loved his class and had already learned a lot from him even though it was still early in the semester.

  Carter came into the room and had a seat at one of the desks closest to the door. Krystal and I were sitting in the middle of the room and Steven was at a desk on the far side. Professor Amundsen took off his sport coat and hung it up on the back of his chair. He walked around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it, facing us.

  “So,” the professor asked, “how are the four of you doing?”

  “Good.”

  “Fine.”

  “Well.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good,” he continued. “This was the first time we've done an experiment like this. Well, second, technically. But it was the first time we've done it the way that we did it. You're probably wondering how we did it – how we got you to transition from reality to the simulation so seamlessly.”

  “Yup.”

  “Yeah.”

  “It wasn't easy. In each case, we needed to recruit the help of your roommates. Your roommate,” the professor said, pointing at me, “was particularly difficult. Initially, she was reluctant to the idea of helping us get you into the simulation. It took a lot of convincing, even after we showed her a copy of the permission slip you'd signed. I'm not sure how the graduate assistant got her to say yes but, eventually, she agreed.

  “The roommates' job was to give one of our graduate research assistants access to you after you were asleep in bed. That's all. Our graduate students did the rest. The first thing they did was administer a paralytic so your bodies wouldn't move. Otherwise, you would've been physically acting out everything you did once in the simulation.

  “Once your body was paralyzed, the research assistants hooked you up to a device that I, unfortunately, can't tell you very much about. All I can tell you is that it's incredibly sophisticated.”

  “Why can't you tell us about it?” Carter asked.

  “Because it involves cutting edge virtual reality technology that will soon be worth billions of dollars. I'm not withholding information here – I know very little about it myself. This wasn't my research project. I'm just a part of it. There are several departments involved.”

  “What is the intended purpose of this technology?” I asked. “Entertainment?”

  “Yes, that's one application,” the professor answered. “But it's certainly not the only one. This technology can be used to assist in psychotherapy, it can be used by law enforcement and emergency personnel, and a million other things. If entertainment was the only purpose, there would've been no need to secretly get you into the simulation. I'm not sure what the purpose of that was, exactly. Like I said, there are a lot of different interests at work here.

  “The simulation included game elements, like levels, skills, stats, and quests. But, keep in mind, this was just a very-early test of the technology. That's why only a few small game elements were included – just to test them out.”

  “Who funded this research?” Krystal asked.

  “Now, that's an excellent question,” the professor said. “This research is being funded by two different sources: a major video game company and the federal government. That's why it included elements of game play but also instructional and educational elements, too. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that the carfentanyl attack in the simulation didn't happen by accident. I think it was intentionally worked into the simulation to see what it would be like if it actually happened.”

  “Which video game company?” Krystal asked.

  “I can't say,” Professor Amundsen replied.

  “Can you say which government agency?”

  “That, I can. But not agency – government agencies. The Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency both contributed a significant amount of money to this project.”

  It was all starting to make sense. After I fell asleep that Sunday night, Kasie must've let the professor's graduate assistant into our apartment. He – or she – came in, administered the paralytic, then hooked me up to the simulation machine. When I woke up that Monday morning – or thought I woke up – I was in the simulation and so were Krystal, Carter, and Steven.

  “What about everything that happened in the simulation,” Krystal asked. “Was it all just created from our brains or were we playing some sort of pre-made game?”

  “You're full of great questions, Krystal,” Professor Amundsen said. “That's why I love having you in my class. The software we used is capable of extracting your memories, hopes, fears, and dreams. It takes them and analyzes them along with the hopes, fears, dreams, and memories of everyone else in the simulation. Then, it combines them and creates characters and a narrative. However, like I said, I suspect some things were planted in the simulation, like the use of carfentanyl.”

  That made sense, too. Just like Steven had told us in the simulation, it combined all our fears and dreams into a story. That's why I was the hero – because I'd always dreamed of being a hero. I'd always wanted to know what it felt like to save the day and now I did. Krystal wanted to know what it'd be like to contribute to a greater cause, to be a part of something greater than herself. Now she did. And I guess Carter wanted to know what it'd be like to be a super villain. We'd all gotten to live out our fantasies in what felt like the real world – but wasn't.

  “Steven,” the professor asked, “did you do as I asked you to? Did you pay close attention to everything that happened in the simulation?”

  “Yes, professor,” Steven answered. “I did.”

  “Excellent. I want you to hang back after the others leave so you can tell me about it,” the professor replied, then turned toward Carter. “And you. You haven't said very much. How was your experience in the simulation?”

  “It was awesome, for the most part,” Carter answered, glancing at me briefly. “I figured out right away that I was in some sort of fake reality so I started having fun right away.”

  “You have a disgusting idea of what fun is,” I said, surprising myself.

  Normally, I wouldn't have said anything. I would've thought it, but I wouldn't have actually said it.

  “Watch yourself, Callahan,” Carter said, pointing a finger at me. “This isn't a game anymore. This is real life. And, in real life, you ain't shit.”

  Krystal opened her mouth to say something to Carter but the professor spoke before she got the chance. He took a few papers out of his briefcase and walked around the room, handing them out.

  “Gentleman, there's no need for any unpleasantness. Now, I want you each to write up a couple pages about your experience in the simulation. There are a few questions on this sheet that I'd like you to answer. You can hand them in to me in class on Wednesday morning.

  “And, before I let you go, I'd like to thank all of you for participating in this research. You'll each be rewarded with a generous amount of extra credit. Does anyone have any other questions?”

  No one said anything.

  “Okay. You all enjoy the rest of your day and I'll see you in class on Wednesday.”

  28.

  Carter was out the door before I'd even gotten up from my desk. Krystal and I walked out at the same time with Steven and the professor staying back and talking in the classroom.

  “What a crazy experience, huh?” I said.

  “I know,” Krystal replied. “It all seemed so real. It's hard to believe that it was all in our heads.”

  “Well, not exactly. We all shared the same experience, which means it couldn't have been all in our heads. Whatever machine we were hooked up to linked us all together.”

  “So, it was more like a shared dream?” Krystal asked. “Kinda?”

  “Yeah, kinda,” I replied. “I guess.”

  We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulder
s, and smiled. Krystal and walked down the stairs to the first floor together. As we were walking toward the exit, we saw Carter getting out of the elevator just ahead of us. He immediately noticed us and started talking.

  “You know, Krystal, you sided with the wrong guy in the simulation. Me and you could've had some real fun together.”

  “You're a jerk,” she replied.

  “You wanna give me a jerk?” Carter said with the same evil smirk he'd flashed several times in the simulation. “Sure, let's go into one of these empty classrooms.”

  “Gross,” she replied.

  “Why can't you just be a decent human being, Carter?” I asked. “Why do you always have to be so rude.”

  Carter walked right up to me and poked me in the center of my chest.

  “I think the character you played in the simulation – and that's all it was, a character – gave you a false sense of confidence. We're back in the real world now where you ain't nothing. You're just a weak, pathetic loser. In this reality, I can easily...”

  Carter poked me again.

  “Kick...”

  And again.

  “Your...”

  And again.

  “A...”

  Carter never got that last word out. Each time he poked me, my heart started beating a little harder and a little faster. When he poked me in the chest for the fourth time, I don't know what happened – I just snapped.

  As Carter pressed his finger into my chest for the fourth time, I grabbed it and twisted it, spinning him around. Without thinking about it, I locked my arms around his, restraining him from the back. He struggled a bit but couldn't get free. I held him there in the hallway, my heart nearly beating out of my chest.

  “I think you should probably apologize to Krystal for what you said to her,” I said, breathing heavily.

  “I ain't apologizing to no one for nothing,” Carter replied.

  Krystal stood in front of Carter as I held him in the hallway. It all happened so fast, I almost felt like I was watching it from outside myself. She eyed him up and down, then smiled.