by Jamie Davis
Quinn’s free hand went to her chest as her speed increased to an unnatural level and her fingertips brushed the familiar metal outline beneath her tank top. Somehow, her amulet was present here in the game. It was strange, though, and it felt like it was wrong somehow.
She didn’t have the time to focus on the sense of wrongness. The crazy-fast speed boost she’d attained had given her just the amount of acceleration she’d needed to gain on her prey.
As she raced along, she laughed aloud, her voice carrying into the darkness of the empty street. Though Quinn had always been an athlete, this experience was both new and exhilarating. If only she’d been able to do this during the final state track meet of her high school career. She would’ve easily won instead of coming in fifth in the last race.
Quinn focused on the task at hand. She’d run fast enough that she’d caught up with her target. That speed boost had done the trick. She almost had him.
She reached out with her free hand to grab the werewolf’s upper arm.
As her fingers brushed the fur, the werewolf’s image flashed. For just a split second, Quinn raced inches behind a middle-aged balding man in khaki slacks and a white dress shirt.
The man glanced over his shoulder at her. The terror in his eyes made Quinn miss a step.
Was this a glitch in the system, or some kind of trick the creature used to fool her?
As she faltered and slowed, the creature switched back to its original form, snarling at her before running onward, pulling away once again as her speed boost ran out.
Quinn wondered what the heck she’d just seen. Something seemed off to her. Shaking her head, she ignored her internal voice and kept racing onward, pressing to gain on the beast once more.
As she ran after him, something new appeared in the upper right-hand corner of the HUD—a digital countdown now ticked off time. The words Mission Timer glowed over it in bright amber.
Only forty-seven seconds remained.
Great, she had to catch this thing and finish it off in a hurry if she was going to complete this first mission in time.
The VirSync team running the orientation classes had stressed several times that the company only intended to keep those whose abilities proved useful in helping them continue with successful tests.
She didn’t know how many chances they’d give her to succeed in a mission, but she definitely didn’t want to fail her very first time out the gate.
Once again, Quinn called up the stamina drain feature she’d discovered and drew down another twenty-five percent of her stamina to boost her speed.
Once again, as she got closer to the werewolf, the image of the terrified balding man appeared for a split second before shifting back to the monster she’d been chasing.
This time, though, Quinn ignored it and didn’t slow down. Instead, she pressed harder until she caught up with the werewolf again.
Maintaining her acceleration, Quinn waited until she was just a few feet behind the creature, then dove onto its back and stabbed down with the silver Bowie knife.
The creature rolled over as she hit it, raking at her stomach with its claws. A searing flash of very real pain hit her, but she pushed it aside. It wasn’t like she was physically hurt, after all.
Her initial strike with her knife missed, so Quinn let her body weight and speed carry the werewolf to the ground.
It grunted as she landed atop it, then the beast kicked at her midsection, sending her to the pavement beside it.
Quinn sprang back to her feet, ready to defend herself against incoming attacks from the creature’s claws and teeth.
She stopped, puzzled.
The strange, terrified man knelt on the sidewalk before her. “Please, I don’t know why you’re chasing me, but here, take my wallet and my watch. They are the only things of any value I have.”
Quinn shook her head. “What the hell?”
“Please don’t kill me. Please! I’m a father. I have children.”
Quinn stood up, letting the hand wielding the Bowie to drop to her side.
“Where’s the monster? Who are you?”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know what monster you’re talking about. I bumped into you back on that corner, and then you started chasing me with that knife.”
Quinn cocked her head to one side, puzzled. “That wasn’t what happened. You were a big hairy wolf-monster.”
The man’s eyes flashed understanding. His mouth opened, and he’d just started to say something when a black-clad figure dashed in from the left.
Quinn recognized the face; it was Fergus. Apparently, they were all playing in the same VR world instead of in independent scenarios.
The other hunter dove on top of the old man, pinning him to the sidewalk. Fergus’s hand came up holding a shining silver tomahawk.
Quinn screamed. “No! He’s—”
The hand hacked downward twice, and the man’s pleas for mercy turned into a gurgling shriek.
She started to pull Fergus off of the old man, to try to render aid. As she did, the blinding pain and white light appeared once again. She stumbled and clutched her head.
Everything went black.
Chapter Four
Quinn lifted the goggles back up. It took a few seconds for her eyes to focus on the plain white ceiling tile above where she lay. She tried to think back to the training scenario. It had been shockingly real and graphic. It was also difficult to keep the details in her mind, almost as if it were a powerful dream or nightmare she’d had.
Sitting up, Quinn groaned as her hands went to her midsection. A flash of residual pain burned there where the werewolf had raked her with its claws. It still felt real.
When her hands met the smooth fabric of the Spandex bodysuit, Quinn tilted her head down to search her belly. She expected to find clawed rents in the fabric. Instead, she saw only the pristine skin-tight dark-gray fabric.
Quinn unbuckled the chinstrap and lifted the headpiece off, setting it in the cradle beside the exam couch. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Her dark hair clung to the sweat there, plastered to the side of her face and scalp as if she’d been through a particularly heavy workout.
She swung her legs over the edge of the couch and stood. Quinn’s legs wobbled like jelly, and she leaned back to steady herself against the exam table.
Across the room, the door opened.
Phillip stalked in, his finger raised and pointing in her direction. “You failed. Why didn’t you kill your quarry?”
“I couldn’t kill that nice old man. The monster I was chasing disappeared, then Fergus came and killed the old guy before I could do anything about it. It was like he didn’t care if it was an old man or not.”
Phillip stopped his advance and seemed startled for a second at her explanation, then his face darkened and he shook his head. “I don’t know anything about any old man. You had a werewolf to track down and kill in that scenario. Fergus had already killed his target nearby. That was why he got a new target assigned—your target. It shouldn’t have mattered, though, because you had plenty of time to do the job. That was your mission, and you failed.”
Heat rose in Quinn’s face and she turned red with anger as she reacted to his words. She didn’t like it when anyone talked to her like that. It reminded her of too many abusive foster parents. She’d gotten out of those situations as fast as she could.
“I don’t know what you expected me to do. I chased the werewolf, but then the VR system switched him into some helpless old man before I could kill the creature. I’m not some kind of heartless killing machine. If that’s what you want, you can find someone else to do this job.”
Phillip gestured to the door. “Go back to the locker room and change. There’ll be time to talk more about this during the debriefing.”
He returned to the control room, leaving Quinn alone again.
Quinn’s shoulders sagged. How did they expect her to play the game if she didn’t understand the rules? The syste
m had obviously glitched. Phillip’s reaction when she’d explained what had happened inside the scenario told her that much. There was no way they expected her to kill ordinary people. What kind of program would train soldiers to do something so horrible?
Confused and defeated, Quinn stood and crossed the room, exiting through the door into the control room. Phillip and Velma stood talking beside the desk as she passed through the outer room. They stopped their conversation, watching her go by.
They didn’t say anything to her.
Quinn didn’t say anything, either. She stalked out and down the corridor to the locker room. In the back of her mind, she wondered if they’d fire her for failing the first mission. A part of her wouldn’t be sorry if they did. The whole thing was weird.
Another part of her, though, got obstinate, the more she thought about what had happened. She wasn’t going to let their glitchy system stop her from being successful, and she’d tell them as much when the time came for debriefing.
Chapter Five
Laughter echoed through the locker room as Quinn entered. The other candidates smiled and chattered with each other about their experiences in the testing system.
Taylor ran over and grabbed Quinn’s arm. “Wasn’t it totally awesome? I’ve never done anything so thrilling in my life. It felt like the whole thing was real, and, damn, when that thing’s blood splattered my face, I thought it was going to start burning through my skin or something. What kind of demons do you think they were?”
“You had a demon?”
Taylor nodded. “It had scales all over its body and horns growing from its forehead, so I guess that’s what it was. Why, what did you run into?”
Quinn shook her head. “I don’t know. At first, mine was some sort of werewolf or something. Maybe they’re all demons of one sort or another.”
“Really, a werewolf? That’s awesome, too. I wonder how many different kinds of creatures there were? I need to ask the others.”
Taylor glanced at the four other women changing out of their bodysuits and back into their normal street clothes.
All Quinn could do was let out a short, forced chuckle. She didn’t understand why she’d had such a different experience. Everyone else seemed to have avoided whatever glitch affected her.
Taylor spun back to Quinn instead of going over to talk to the other candidates. “Oh, did you hear? One of the other girls heard their system managers talking as she left the room. Somebody screwed up and gave another candidate a chance at a second kill, so one of the boys was able to score two kills in one session. I wouldn’t want to be the one who failed their first mission. Remember when they told us that could get us fired?”
Quinn grimaced. It wasn’t going to take people long to figure out it was her. Fergus knew who she was, even if no one else let them know it was her. He’d seemed nice enough in the parking lot, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t gloat about taking her kill.
Quinn said, “Yeah, well, maybe whatever happened was the result of some sort of glitch in the system. It was probably nobody’s fault.”
“Wait a minute. You make it sound like you were the one who missed the target. You just said you had a werewolf in your scenario. You got the kill, didn’t you?”
Quinn glanced at the others to make sure they weren’t listening to the two of them, then turned back to Taylor. “I’d rather not broadcast it for everyone to hear, Taylor. Hopefully, they don’t make a big deal out of it when we go to the debriefing. Like I said, I think it was a glitch in the system.”
Taylor leaned in and whispered, “Quinn, what happened? Of all people here, I never expected you to have a problem with anything like this. You love showing off your martial arts skills, and you’re so competitive all the time. I would’ve thought you would have gotten the kill before anyone else did.”
Quinn shook her head. She didn’t know how to explain the queasy feeling she had inside or the uncertainty about what else she’d seen inside the game.
Thankfully, when Quinn didn’t answer, Taylor let it drop.
Quinn was about to ask her friend about her experience inside the simulator when a woman in a dark skirt and blazer came in.
“Stop the jabbering, ladies. Everyone is expected in the trainees’ auditorium for a debriefing session in five minutes. We have some interesting things to discuss with you regarding this evening’s session, including a special award to one of the candidates for a unique achievement. Hurry up and get changed. Everyone is expected to be there and seated before our CEO, Mr. Hickman, arrives to make the presentation.”
The woman spun and left, and Quinn turned back to her locker. She peeled off the bodysuit and tossed it into a laundry bin in the center of the room, then she started to get dressed.
She had a good idea of who was getting an award and why. If it was Fergus, it was equally likely they’d point out who had allowed him the opportunity to bag the second kill. This whole evening was starting to totally suck.
Quinn wondered if she could sneak out and avoid the debriefing altogether. She didn’t think it would bode well for her if she wasn’t there to be called out for her failure in the testing session. The whole thing left her grinding her teeth in anger and frustration.
Caught up in the midst of pondering her situation, Quinn looked up and realized she was the last one in the locker room. She grabbed her bag and headed out to catch up with Taylor and the others. The woman who’d made the announcement stood in the hall outside and glared at her when she walked through the locker room door.
Quinn returned the glare and shifted to the other side of the hall to walk around her.
The woman grabbed at Quinn’s arm when she tried to pass by. “Ms. Faust, please take a seat in the back row, center. There’ll be a piece of tape with your name on the seatback.”
Quinn had no idea what to say in response, so she simply nodded and picked up her pace to follow the others she saw farther down the hallway. She caught up as they reached the door that led into a small auditorium that looked like it could seat about fifty people. Everyone moved down front and grabbed seats in the first few rows. There were about a dozen candidates, male and female.
As instructed by the woman outside the locker room, Quinn looked for a seat marked with her name. She spotted it and slid into the third row. She sat down and noticed Taylor seated right in front of her. Her friend sat with Fergus on her left. She had an open seat to her right.
“Quinn, I saved you a seat.”
“I’m supposed to sit here. See, there’s my name.” Quinn pointed to the tape with her name.
Taylor mouthed the word, “Oh,” and turned around as the persistent murmur of young voices in the room trailed off.
A tall, dark-haired man wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt open at the collar walked onto the stage and stood behind the wooden podium set off to one side.
He stared out at them and waited for a few seconds until the silence in the room was complete before he began speaking. “My name is Myles Hickman, and I’m the CEO of VirSync. I dropped by this debriefing to tell you how excited we are to have such a group of talented young people like you helping us develop the future of VR training technology. We’ve come a long way in our testing and research to get here, but it all comes down to this program now to prove it works. If you can demonstrate the effectiveness of it as a testing and training system with real-world applications, this will be, if you’ll excuse the pun, a game-changer.”
He paused and waited for the chuckles that popped up around the room at his attempt at humor.
Quinn would’ve groaned and smiled if she hadn’t feared what had to be coming next. Her expectation wasn’t off the mark.
Myles smiled at the assembled candidates and their reaction to his bad joke as he continued, “There are some things to commend in today’s first session, and there are also a few things that will need special attention to make sure they don’t happen again. In that line of thought, I’d like to bring one of our candidate
s to the stage. Fergus Bishop is one of our exceedingly talented testers from today. He made an unprecedented two kills in one session.”
Myles shaded his eyes to look out through the bright lights to see where Fergus was.
Fergus stood up, raising his arms over his head and clasping his hands like a champion boxer receiving acclaim in the ring.
Applause filled the small auditorium.
He made his way past the other people in his row to the aisle and bounded up onto the stage.
Myles greeted Fergus with a firm handshake and a pat on the back. They exchanged a few words before parting, with Fergus standing next to Myles and facing the others with a huge smile on his face.
The CEO turned back to the rest of them. “This is exactly the kind of astute and hard-driving effort we want to see from all of you. We need you to push our system to the limit and beyond. The only way to ensure you do that is to reinforce that you’re in competition with each other. We are timing you to see who can complete their missions the fastest and using the most direct methods. People like Fergus here will be rewarded. People like the candidate who couldn’t kill their primary target, giving him the opportunity to locate and kill it, will be recognized as well for their failure. That person deserves their punishment.”
Quinn stiffened in her seat at his final statement. She didn’t like the way he said that. What workplace talked to its employees that way? Punishment was a strange choice of words. Quinn didn’t have a lot of work experience to draw on, though, so she didn’t know for sure.
Myles leaned into the microphone again while he stared out through the lights at the assembled candidates. “Will Quinn Faust please stand? You do not need to come up on the stage. This space is reserved for champions and the best among you.”
Quinn glanced around the room. A few of the people from her orientation group knew her by name. They all turned in her direction. Taylor offered the only sympathetic face.
