Alex Armstrong: Awakening

by Hayes Farley

  He stood just outside the door. Every now and then he would catch a whiff of varnish. He took one last look down the side of the mountain and walked inside.

  There was nothing natural about this place. The smell was artificial. Digital. Like the television section of an electronics store. The walls to his left and right were alive with brightly colored fish darting in and out of purple and pink coral reefs. He zeroed in on a pair of seahorses drifting with the current.

  “I find them relaxing.”

  Alex turned and saw Melissa sitting behind a desk at the opposite wall. That and her chair were the only pieces of furniture in the room.

  “The little pufferfish is my favorite,” Melissa said, pointing to her left. She pushed a button on her monitor and it blew up like a balloon.

  Alex laughed. He tried to hold eye contact as he approached her desk but he couldn’t help glancing at the red door.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that just yet,” she said, waving it off. She half-stood and extended her hand. “Good morning, Alex.”

  “Good morning. Kinda lonely up here, isn’t it?”

  “Very. That’s why I turn the walls on.” She smiled. “So how are you? Your haircut still looks good. And your eyes…‌they look very blue under water.”

  Melissa had trimmed his hair two weekends ago. She usually set up shop on the Student Center porch. “Thanks. I’ve been okay. Nervous about this thing.”

  “Oh, I have a hard time believing that. From what I hear, the amazing Alex Armstrong doesn’t get nervous.”

  He just shook his head.

  “It’s true! I’ve heard them talk. Your classmates look at you like a celebrity.”

  “It’s embarrassing,” he said, his cheeks turning red.

  “Only because you’re shy,” Melissa said, smiling. After a pause, she asked: “So how’s Eva?”

  Alex felt his cheeks grow warmer. He rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s…‌fine.”

  “Oh, my. That didn’t sound very convincing. Don’t tell me the stories are true. You two are my favorite couple on campus.”

  “Stories? There are stories?”

  “Sure there are. It’s a small campus.” She leaned forward. “So, are you guys fighting?”

  “No! No, nothing like that. She’s just not talking to me…‌or returning my texts. I made her mad a couple days ago in the DH.”

  “And how’d you do that?”

  “Because I can’t read minds.”

  Melissa laughed.

  “Seriously! I’ve thought about this a lot the last few days, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way this could’ve been avoided is if I had read her mind. I mean, it’s not like I tried to piss her off. I swear, I think I’d be better off as a telepath. At least that way I’d understand women.”

  Melissa’s laugh turned high-pitch. “Oh, that’s too funny. But you better be careful what you wish for. Most men would go a little bit crazy if they always knew what we were thinking. It’s frightening the amount of things we have on our plates, both real and imagined.”

  “I guess. I’m just hoping she comes around before the year’s over.”

  “Something tells me she will,” Melissa said. “I know I always did.” She glanced at her monitor’s display. “Oh, look at the time. May I see your arm?”

  “My what?”

  “Your arm.”

  “Why?”

  “Your left arm, please.”

  Alex looked around wondering if anyone else was hearing this. Just the fish. He shrugged and offered his arm like some wannabe falconer.

  Melissa clasped his wrist just below his watch and before Alex could squirm away she drew what looked like a miniature nail gun from the desk and pressed the nozzle against his forearm. The only sound was the little plastic click of the trigger.

  “Ouch!” It felt like he’d been pinched by someone with long fingernails. “What was that?”

  “I implanted your arm with a tiny electric capsule that contains all of your vital information.” She removed the backing from a flesh-colored bandage and placed it over the puncture, flattening a little blood bubble. “And I’m sorry about the surprise, but I’ve done quite a few of these and I’ve found that there’s less anxiety if I just go through with it without much warning.”

  Alex rubbed his thumb over the bandage. “What’s it for?”

  Melissa motioned to the red door. “That capsule is the only way in there.”

  “So all freshmen get this thing?”

  “If they want to graduate.”

  Alex looked at the door. His jaw was clenching.

  “The capsule’s already active. All you have to do is approach the door. Just leave your backpack here on the desk.”

  Alex did as he was told and when he was within three feet of the red metal door there was a single beep and a panel slid out of the way to expose a display and keypad. He turned around and looked at Melissa.

  “Hold your arm against the screen.”

  Alex placed his arm on the display. It was warm. It pulsed white and then turned green.

  “Now bend over so your eyes are level with the screen and stay still while the system scans your retinas.”

  “What is this, Fort Knox?”

  Melissa smiled. “Go on.”

  Alex leaned forward and forced his eyes to stay open as the scanner did its work. The screen turned green again, this time accompanied by the same pleasing tone that preceded the captain’s voice on an airplane. The red door slid to the side and Alex felt a rush of cool air. He turned to Melissa. She was standing at her desk.

  “Good luck, Alex.”

  “Any last words of wisdom?”

  “Just trust your instincts. And have fun. That’s what Chris would tell you.”

  He stepped into the short hallway and the red door whished closed behind him.

  ****

  The brushed aluminum of an elevator door capped the end of the hallway. Halfway there and to the left was an alcove with a widescreen monitor. Alex stopped and looked at the screen.

  Greetings, Alex Armstrong!!!!

  He smiled at someone’s decision to use four exclamation marks. He touched the arrow on the far side of the monitor.

  Simtest AA1216 Immersion Level III

  Student: Alex Armstrong

  Professor: Marc Sonnier

  Supplement: One diamond-coated circular shield

  Test: You will have five minutes to reach the highlighted door while avoiding any hazards on the floor display. Use of the testing supplement will be necessary. Additional obstacles may be used at the professor’s discretion.

  Good luck!!!!

  Alex swiped across the screen looking for more information but none was offered. He reread the words, hoping to discover a clue hidden within the text. Nothing. He felt like he was about to face some big boss character for the first time in a videogame, blind and without a strategy. It didn’t escape him that his character usually died in that first go-round. Oh well. Sometimes he got lucky. He walked into the elevator. Inside were only two buttons, UPPER and LOWER. He pressed the latter and leaned against the back wall. Ten seconds of travel time and he reached bottom.

  Ding

  The elevator door opened to a room the size of an airplane hangar. All Alex could do was stand there blinking. The floor was a hard-packed street filled with debris and oil and piss and blood. War-torn buildings lined the walls, their ragged curtains blowing in the wind. Little swirls of sand rose from the rooftops. The only respite from the overwhelming presence of yellow was the sky, stark blue save for the fading tendrils of missile smoke.

  Alex stepped onto the playing field and instantly a nearby glass tile rose from the floor, the metal framework underneath telescoping higher and higher until it touched the ceiling. He watched a dozen more do the same thing, so that columns were now spaced irregularly down the length of the street.

  “Welcome to
the Middle East!”

  Alex noticed the platform halfway up the far wall. Professor Sonnier stood there smacking his gum. Below the platform was the exit door, its frame glowing white with fluorescent light.

  “These are the largest displays of their kind,” Sonnier said, spreading his arms. “It can be overwhelming the first time…‌especially this simulation. You see the remains of that helicopter?” He pointed to his right. A mangled heap of twisted black metal sat smoking between buildings. “I was in there moments before the rocket took it down. Three dead.” He stopped chewing and stared at the wreckage.

  “Five minutes,” he said, turning back to Alex. “You’ll have five minutes to reach the exit once the simulation begins. The timer will be located here on the back wall.” He placed his tablet into the case at the top of the railing and his fingers danced across the screen. Something powered to life on the floor below. “Be mindful of the floor display as you make your way to the exit. Hazards are to be treated as such. One wrong step and the test is over.

  “And the bit about additional obstacles…” Sonnier looked at his tablet and entered another series of commands and the thing that was coming to life lifted into view: a helicopter drone with quad rotors and some kind of gun retrofitted to its belly. “You ever play paintball?”

  Alex’s eyes widened as he shook his head.

  “Well, you’re going to get a taste of it today.” He pulled his tablet free from the railing and tapped the screen. It sounded as if somebody spit a watermelon seed. Alex felt the ball sizzle past his ear and splat on the elevator door in a cloud of pink paint. “I’ll be controlling the drone throughout the test. If I register a hit, it’s over. Do you have any questions?”

  “Under five minutes; watch where I step; no paint,” Alex said under his breath. “What am I forgetting?” And then he remembered his shield. He glanced left and right and found it leaning against the wall a few paces away. It was the size of a serving platter, blue with silver trim.

  “Whatever happens today, Alex, know that this is far beyond any freshman Simtest I’ve ever…”

  But Alex wasn’t listening. All of his attention was turned to the shield. He closed his eyes and let his mind wrap around its rough, diamond-coated surface.

  “I said are you ready?” Sonnier called.

  Alex nodded.

  “Good. The timer will count down from ten and then your five minutes will begin. Stay behind that white line and be ready to move. Good luck, son.”

  Alex lowered himself like a sprinter.

  Eight, seven, six…

  Alex’s eyes cut up to the drone; it was moving forward and its gun was dialed in. He looked at the shield again. He could sense its weight, as if he was already holding it.

  Two, one, zero…

  Alex charged for the column and the shield lifted into a defensive position and absorbed the first volley. He stood with his back to the metal and listened for the drone. Left wall. He angled the shield so it protected his right side and peeked around the corner.

  Pff!

  The ball popped against the metal as Alex returned to cover. He felt flecks of paint dotting his cheek. The helidrone flew in fast. He flipped his shield flat side up and the moment the drone flew into view he sent it slicing through the air, straight for the paintball gun. Sonnier got off one wild shot before pulling up and steering the drone back to safety. The shield clanged off the thick glass wall.

  “Going on offense right away…‌good!”

  Alex jumped from cover and ran to the next column, then quickly advanced one more. He was halfway to the exit. He pressed flat against the cold metal and caught his breath, listening to the drone hovering somewhere near the exit. Alex leaned around the column for a look. His eyes narrowed at the wide line of shiny liquid running across the street. He traced its source to the downed helicopter and—

  BOOM!

  He felt the bass from the blast in his teeth and his balls, and when he glanced back at the helicopter he saw that it was on fire, igniting the spilled kerosene so the liquid running across the street was now a river of fire.

  Pff! Pff! Pff!

  The first shot zipped past Alex’s ear. His shield absorbed the other two. Lucky. He turned and looked at the pink splotch not five feet from where he sat and heard the professor laughing from his perch. Sonnier was keeping the helidrone high along the wall, far enough away that Alex’s shield wasn’t a threat.

  3:15, 3:14, 3:13…

  “You’ll run out of time before I run out of ammo,” Sonnier called.

  Five more shots popped against the shield, pink paint now dribbling from the bottom. Alex looked at the fire again. It was too wide to jump; he’d have to use his shield. But that would leave him defenseless as he crossed. He leaned his head against the column and closed his eyes, trying to run through all his options when really there was only one. And he knew it.

  Alex burst forward, pumping his legs as hard as he could straight for the drone, his shield angled above an arm’s length away. Sonnier responded with a barrage of paintballs but Alex caught them all dead center on his shield and never stopped running. When he saw the drone start to retreat, he shoved his palm forward and propelled his shield straight into the rotor. Three of the blades shattered on impact and the helidrone fell to the floor in a heap of metal. It lay there dead in a growing pool of pink.

  Alex turned to the kerosene river. He flipped his shield paint side down and positioned it halfway across the flames. With a running start he bounded over, springing off the shield with his right foot.

  POP!

  Everything went dark; no more sand, no more ruins, no more fire. Alex groped for the nearest column and when he felt it he stood at its side, unsure whether this was part of the test or a circuit breaker pushed beyond its limits. He looked up at the sound of creaking plastic and watched the ceiling slide open. The column vibrated under his fingertips. Alex pulled his shield in tight.

  The floor and the walls and the ceiling whirred to life, and Alex was back in the desert. Soldiers were now on either wall. Gunfire rang loudly and steady through the speakers.

  “Are you ready for part two?”

  Alex nodded.

  “Then you might want to look up.”

  Alex craned his neck. The top of the column was now about ten feet shy of the ceiling. Peering over the edge was a familiar face, her blonde hair draped to either side. “Eva?”

  “You’ll have to speak louder than that if you want her to hear you,” Sonnier said. “That’s forty feet.”

  “Don’t move!” Alex called. Eva waved.

  “She’s now your partner. To pass the test, you need to get her down from there and out the door before time expires. And speaking of that…” Sonnier turned to the wall and pressed a button on his tablet. The timer reset to one minute and fifteen seconds. “Begin.”

  1:15, 1:14, 1:13…

  “Are you all right up there?”

  “Yes,” Eva called. “And Alex?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m really sorry I’ve been ignoring you.”

  “It’s okay,” he called.

  “No, it’s not. I feel really bad about the whole thing. I shouldn’t have—”

  “Now’s really not the time, Eva!” He glanced at the timer. “I need to get you down from there.”

  “Why don’t I just jump? Just slow me down at the bottom so I land softly.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “You did on the trail,” she called.

  Alex shook his head. “And I haven’t done it since. No way. Too risky. No, the only way this will work is if we use the shield as a platform.”

  “Okay!”

  “But here’s the thing: I don’t think I can support your weight at that height. You’ll have to lower yourself the first ten feet; I’ll take it from there.”

  “I can’t do that!”

  “Sure you can,” Alex called. He lifted the shield
so that it lay flush with the top of the platform. “Just close your eyes; get a sense of it.”

  :40, :39, :38…

  Eva touched her toe to the shield as if she was testing a suspect patch of ice. Content with what she found, she placed the full weight of her foot on the surface. It didn’t budge.

  “Nice! Now the other foot.”

  She took a deep breath and stepped onto the shield. It held. “I did it!”

  One of the soldiers lobbed a grenade across the wall. Eva didn’t see it, but Alex did. “Oh, no,” he said. It was every bit as loud as he imagined. It startled Eva and she lost all focus. In the next instant she was plummeting to the floor, the shield still beneath her feet so she looked like a dropped nail. Her shriek was louder than the grenade.

  The weight forced Alex into a penitent position, his kneecap cracking against the thick glass tile. Shockwaves of pain ripped through his body. “NO!” He looked up and gritted his teeth and raised both palms to the ceiling and was immediately compressed deeper into the floor, his chin falling below his knee. His eyes watered and his arms trembled.

  But he had her. Alex ignored his throbbing kneecap and slowly lifted his head, jaw clenched. There she was—hovering now—ten feet from the ground. He took a deep breath and lowered the shield to the floor.

  :13, :12, :11…

  Eva rushed forward and ignored the instinct to wrap her arms around Alex and instead tried to pull him up.

  “What are you doing?” he said.

  “The timer!”

  Alex’s eyes widened. He staggered to his feet and went to take a step but lost his balance and almost went down again.

  “Put your arm around me,” Eva said.

  “I’m okay.”

  “You can barely stand!” Eva looked at the wall and decided there wasn’t time to argue and so she shouldered Alex’s right arm and put her own around his waist. She allowed him just enough time to regain his balance before guiding him through the door and out of the Simtest.