by Jamie Davis
There were a bunch of other people their age congregating in the parking lot. She saw at least ten, including three or four she didn’t recognize.
It was easy to pick the test candidates out of the crowd of older office workers exiting the building at the end of their normal workday. All the young folks were heading in while the oldies all came out.
Quinn clipped the new ID badge on her t-shirt collar and turned off the Jeep. “Come on, Taylor. You don’t want to be late.”
They laughed at the role reversal as the two of them hopped out and started toward the front of the building.
Taylor gave Quinn a playful shove as they walked along the sidewalk. “Quinn Faust, one of these days, your snark is going to catch up with you. I want to be there when it does.”
Quinn shot her best friend a half-grin as they reached the front doors. A tall blond guy about their age saw them coming and waited to hold the door for them as they got there. Taylor smiled at him and nodded to thank him. Quinn murmured her thanks and headed in after Taylor.
The guy followed them in, speeding up until he caught up with them halfway across the expansive lobby. “You both are here for the VR job too, right?”
Quinn remembered the orientation briefing on the secrecy surrounding the project and said nothing.
Taylor either forgot the rules or ignored them and jumped in with an answer right away. “Yeah, are you?”
The guy nodded. “I’m Fergus, Fergus Bishop.”
“I’m Taylor. Taylor Haney. You should meet my best friend here, Quinn Faust.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this job. I generally don’t like meeting new people, but you both seem all right.”
Quinn shot him a glance. “Careful, we could be ax murderers.”
Fergus started to laugh, then stopped as he caught Quinn’s deadly-serious stare.
“Quinn, stop that,” Taylor said. “Don’t pay any attention to her. That’s her typical poor attempt at humor.”
Quinn’s stern expression broke into a broad grin. This guy was gullible enough. Probably more muscles than brains.
She and Taylor turned back to the front as they finished crossing the foyer. A woman sat in a business suit behind a counter, her brown hair pulled back into a bun. Her name tag read Elizabeth. She had just directed several other people their age toward the double doors to the right.
“Are you three checking in for the test center?”
“Yeah,” Quinn said. She glanced to the right, where the others had gone. They hadn’t been to that wing before. All their orientation sessions and interviews had been in the central part of office building. “I guess we follow those other kids?”
The woman smiled. “You’ve got it. Just follow them down the long hallway. There’s a bright red line painted on the floor, which will take you back to the secure testing facility. You have your badges with you, right?”
The three of them nodded.
“Good. Don’t ever forget them since you’ll need them to enter the testing facility when you get back there. Most people who work here don’t have access to it.”
Quinn smiled. “Thank you. We’ll remember.” She led the way, with Taylor and Fergus falling in behind her, pulled open the right-hand door, and walked through into a broad hallway with white linoleum floors.
Sure enough, a broad red stripe ran down the center. Blue and green stripes paralleled it. The blue stripe continued all the way down the corridor with the red one. The green line peeled off to the left, stopping at a set of doors labeled Chemical Receiving.
The red line followed the blue one a little farther, then turned right, heading through a pair of sealed doors with a sign marked Research Candidate Testing.
Quinn glanced at the blue line before turning to the left at the far end. She wondered what it led to.
“Are you coming, Quinn?” Taylor asked.
Quinn realized she’d pulled out her pendant and had been rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger as she stared down the hall. The small silver charm felt cold to the touch.
She tucked it back into her shirt as she turned to Taylor and smiled. “I’m coming, I’m coming. This place is just so big. It makes you wonder where all these corridors go to.”
Taylor shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” She took her badge out and held it in front of the sensor next to the entrance.
The doors clicked open and receded into their respective walls for all three of them to enter a large room with several desks. Each had a computer keyboard and monitor built into it. Banks of electronics and blinking LED lights and dials covered one wall.
As they entered, a woman looked up from where she sat at a plain metal desk. “Let me see your badges, please.”
Each of them held out their ID in turn, Quinn going last.
The woman checked the screen in front of her for each badge, then told them, “Head through the far doors and go down the hall until you get to the locker rooms. There’s one for men and one for women. Your names are on your lockers. Leave your personal stuff from your duffel bag there and change into the custom VR jumpsuits you’ll find hanging inside.”
All three nodded and walked across the room to the indicated doors, which opened into another hallway. There were no lines on the plain white floor here. There was no need since there was only one way to go. On the righthand wall was a series of numbered doors. They started at one and continued down the long corridor. Quinn guessed there must be at least twenty doors.
Halfway down the hall were two doors on the left side, clearly marked men’s and women’s locker rooms.
The three of them separated. The two girls headed into the women’s locker room, and Fergus pushed open the other door and went into the men’s locker room next to it.
As she entered the noisy room, Quinn realized she hadn’t worried about her reservations about the job since they’d entered the lobby. Nothing but excitement filled her now.
She smiled at Taylor, and her roomie returned the smile with a nod. They were about to see for the first time what their orientation instructor had called the next generation in computer-simulated training. While Quinn didn’t have any idea what that meant, she was excited to find out.
Chapter Two
Quinn and Taylor exited the locker room together a few minutes later, each dressed in a skintight charcoal-gray bodysuit with matching gray socks. The bottoms of the socks had rubberized tread to give them traction on the tile floor.
She glanced to her left, taking in Taylor’s form-fitting outfit. She caught Taylor looking her way.
Both girls giggled.
“Pretty cool get-up, huh?” Quinn asked.
“Looking sharp,” Taylor replied.
A group of VirSync employees dressed in matching khaki pants and polo shirts stood in the hall nearby. As the two came out of the locker room, four people separated from the group and moved toward them.
A man with lightly graying black hair stepped forward. He pointed at Quinn. “Quinn Faust?”
“That’s me.”
“I’m Phillip Ruiz.” He hooked the finger over his shoulder at the short, red-haired woman standing behind him. “This is Velma Griffin. We’ll be working with you during your testing. Come with us.”
Quinn nodded and turned to follow them down the hallway, glancing over her shoulder at Taylor. She’d matched up with the other pair of handlers. Taylor looked back and smiled as she was led in the opposite direction.
“Faust, are you paying attention?” Phillip snapped.
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. What did you say?“
“I’m your system administrator. I handle your specific testing projects for the company. Velma, here, is your test program coordinator. She’s the one who will be arranging your individual VR rig to get the most out of your specific talents and abilities while you’re inside the training system.”
Velma kept her eyes forward, only glancing in Quinn’s direction once when her name wa
s mentioned. She had yet to smile or exhibit any sort of expression. It all seemed sort of serious for an initial VR training session.
They continued a little way down the hall before stopping outside a door with a small laminated plaque on the wall next to it that said Test Room 8.
Phillip opened the door and then gestured for Velma and Quinn to enter. They walked into a small, square room about ten feet across. On the opposite wall was a fair-sized glass window with a gray metal door next to it.
A large counter and desk covered in computer monitors and electronic equipment jutted out in an L-shape beneath the window. The layout impressed Quinn.
Unsure what to do or say, Quinn nodded and said, “Nice layout.”
Velma didn’t acknowledge the comment as she sat down and swiveled in her chair to face Quinn and Phillip. “I’ll be monitoring your progress in the test scenario from here and making slight changes as we go along to dial in the system for your specific needs while inside the VR environment. The goal of our testing program is to make this system intuitive enough to adapt itself to any subject placed into it without outside support.”
“Sounds good,” Quinn said. “So, where do I go from here?”
“Through that door,” Phillip said as Velma turned back to her monitors and started tapping on the keyboard in front of her.
He opened the gray door beside the window and waited for Quinn to enter ahead of him.
A darkened room lay on the far side. The faint hum of electronics filled the whole space with a tangible vibration that made the hairs on Quinn’s arm to stand up.
A flash of cold against her breastbone reminded her of the hidden pendant beneath her bodysuit. She was supposed to have taken off all jewelry, but Quinn never took off the only token remaining from her parents.
Her hand drifted absently up to rest two fingers against the outline of the silver oval beneath the thin, flexible fabric. The chill passed through the skintight suit to her fingertips.
Quinn scanned the room. Her superstitious mind looked for some sort of threat, remembering the pendant’s strange properties from her childhood and its seeming ability to predict bad things.
She shook her head. There was no one in the room but Phillip and her. On the wall opposite the window was a reclining examination couch. It was sort of like what Quinn imagined one would find in an upscale doctor’s office.
At the head of the couch was a bank of floor-to-ceiling metal cabinets with rack-mounted computer systems and other electronics. All of the gear was ready to operate, indicated by the lights of various colors that flashed on various systems.
Quinn walked over to the couch and sat down, then looked back at Phillip. The orientation classes had prepared her for some of what was to come.
The whole testing system had been set up as a sort of virtual-reality video game. To make it palatable to players of military recruiting age, it had a modern fantasy aspect that included various mythical monsters like werewolves and vampires, among other things.
Quinn and the other testers in the system were tasked with hunting down the monsters and killing them. Those who were successful would be rewarded. Those who were not would be reevaluated as to whether they should remain in the system. The orientation class had been very clear that mission failure in the VR would not be tolerated and might be cause for dismissal.
Phillip smiled and walked over to her. He lifted a circular metal band with wires coming off it. The wires gathered into a bundle, and the harness stretched over to connect to different sections of the bank of electronics nearby.
Attached to the band was a visor-like set of goggles. This was the headgear used to enter the VR system.
Quinn nodded and reached out.
Phillip handed her the headset. “I’ll help you get situated today, but you’ll be expected to get yourself ready for insertion into the system in the future. Got it?”
Quinn nodded. She lifted the headgear and settled it over her head. It fit snuggly, resting just above her eyebrows. It was heavier than she expected, the weight of the harness pulling her head back if she didn’t resist it.
Phillip made a few adjustments and tightened the band a little, then said, “Lie down and get comfortable.”
He turned to the window into the outer room. “How’s the connection, Velma? Are you getting good readings?”
Velma’s tinny, amplified voice sounded over the speakers in the ceiling. “It’s adequate. The system will adjust to keep it within normal parameters. We can begin the induction process.”
Phillip nodded and headed to the door, pulling it shut behind him as he left.
Alone in the relative silence, Quinn laid down, feeling the vibration of the humming electronics along the wall nearby transmitted through the metal frame of the exam couch.
She took a deep breath and reached up to adjust the visor across her forehead and over her eyes, then waited for what came next. The orientation had said it would be just like falling asleep.
It wasn’t.
A stabbing pain lanced through her head, matched by a burning chill on her chest, which Quinn’s instantly foggy mind distantly realized came from her pendant. She blinked away tears as a light brighter than the sun seared her eyes within the visor.
Quinn started to cry out for help. Something must have gone wrong.
She didn’t hear her voice. The system had somehow paralyzed her. She couldn’t speak or move.
The combination of pain and light overwhelmed her senses, and everything faded into blackness. The last thing that passed through her awareness was a distant voice that sounded like Velma’s chanting. The words made no sense and were in no language she recognized.
She struggled to remain awake and listen to the voice, trying to understand the words. In the end, she failed.
Darkness overwhelmed her.
Chapter Three
Quinn’s eyes fluttered open as she tried to orient herself. The sounds and cool, swirling air against her face made it clear she wasn’t in the testing room anymore. Quinn looked up from where she stood on the sidewalk of a quiet downtown street. Despite the bright city lights, she could make out a few stars overhead as she stared upward.
Looking left and right on the vacant street corner, Quinn took in the rich textures and detail woven into the system. It all looked so real.
Hell, it felt real.
Quinn touched her cheek as the breeze picked up. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear there was nothing virtual about it.
The street might have been somewhere nearby in downtown Baltimore, based on the style of the buildings in either direction. Two- and three-story row homes lined the street on both sides, with occasional shops scattered here and there.
On the opposite side of the street from Quinn sat a small grocery store. The light from the plastic sign suspended on a pole jutting out over the entrance, along with the interior lights, spilled a glow onto the sidewalk outside, just like a dozen similar shops she’d seen around the actual city while she was growing up.
Quinn tried to orient herself to the location when her hand brushed something hanging at her side.
It was the first time Quinn noticed she wasn’t wearing the bodysuit from the testing room anymore. She wore blue jeans and a white tank top, with a black leather jacket topping the outfit.
She recognized the get-up immediately. It was the costume she’d chosen from a menu in a digital interface during her company orientation. Quinn remembered another selection she’d made that day, and her hand wrapped around the hilt of the broad-bladed Bowie knife hanging at her side. The bottom of the brown leather sheath had a strap that buckled mid-thigh to keep the blade from flopping when she moved.
Quinn smiled. This was her preferred avatar in the VR system, and she wished there was a mirror around somewhere so she could see how badass she looked. She wished Taylor could see her. Her friend was probably dressed in her own badass getup now.
A quick search of the rest of her clothes, including t
he pockets, turned up no other weapons or items of interest. Whatever she was supposed to be hunting, she was going to have to do it with the Bowie. She gripped the hilt tighter, pulling it free to examine it more closely. As she did, a brief burst of text hovered in front of her eyes for a few seconds in a transparent heads up display.
Bowie knife equipped.
As the text faded, something struck her from behind hard enough to almost knock her to her knees.
Staggering as she caught her balance, Quinn turned to see what it was.
She nearly screamed when she came face to face with a hairy, elongated snout filled with sharp fangs.
The wolf snarled at her but didn’t attack. Instead, it turned and ran down the street. It loped along hunched over on two legs, occasionally reaching down with a clawed hand to help maintain balance as it ran. It had all happened so suddenly, she’d had no time to react before the creature ran on down the street.
Target acquired - Werewolf
The notification faded from her HUD, and Quinn realized the creature had already disappeared around the corner down the street to her right. She cursed and took off after it. She’d missed a perfect chance to take it out when it had run into her and she’d hesitated.
Pissed at herself for missing that opportunity, Quinn turned the corner and scanned the street.
Movement in the shadows on the sidewalk a hundred yards away drew her attention.
The werewolf had already run halfway down the next block.
Quinn pushed herself harder to pick up speed even as the wolf creature put more distance between them.
“Damn, I wish I was faster.”
A message flashed in front of her.
Stamina may be spent to increase other abilities for a limited time.
Do you wish to draw upon your stamina score to increase your speed?
Quinn smiled and nodded. Her words spilled out between gasping breaths. “Yes, yes I do.”
The HUD reappeared with a narrow green bar across the upper edge. As she watched, its length decreased by twenty-five percent, and it turned from dark green to a sort of pale lime hue as the value dropped. At the same time, there was a flare of searing cold against her breast bone.
