Immersion World

by Max Jager

  - Chapter 1: Rough Beginnings -

  An average looking man stepped out of a small brick building. He stood at around 5' 9" tall, had messy, medium-length brown hair, rectangular glasses over his sharp brown eyes, five-o'clock shadow, and he wore a white lab coat. The man appeared to be in his early thirties. As he left the building he turned back to say goodbye to his co-workers after a long day of work. The project they had been working on the last few months was finally done.

  He started walking down the road but stopped when he heard someone crying. He looked around and quickly spotted a girl in an alleyway, she looked to be in her late teens. She had very long, straight black hair that came down to her thighs and brown eyes. Her clothes were dirty, torn, and very worn out which cued the man off that she was homeless. She was on her knees in the middle of the alleyway, facing away from the man, and was crying.

  The man stopped and looked around, as if expecting someone else to be there, but she was alone. He cautiously walked into the alleyway, stopping when he was just a few feet behind her. "Hey, what's wrong?"

  The girl jumped at the sound of his voice and quickly took five steps away from him, as if the man was about to attack her. She was shaking, she looked both scared and very upset. Even with her posture, she was already short, standing at 5' 2" but she was making herself look as small as possible. "W-What do you want?"

  "What is wrong? I'm here to help." The man asked as he briefly looked around the alley again, as if looking for something. He didn't see what he was looking for. He took a step forward and gently reached out to try and grab the girl's arm.

  The girl quickly took another step back, cautiously keeping herself out of his reach. "M-My father was abusive, so I ran away to live with my boyfriend. But he was abusive too, so I ran away again. A-And now... And now I've got nowhere to go. I haven't eaten in weeks, I'm so hungry. It hurts so much. I-I just need food, but nobody will help me."

  The man took a step towards her and again reached out to grab her arm. "It's okay, just come with me and I can help." She took a step away again. But as soon as she stepped back the man felt someone touch his pants pocket. He spun around in an instant only to see the last few seconds of a guy in his late teens running out of the alleyway. The man quickly checked his pocket, only to find that his wallet was gone. He spun around to face the girl again, but she too was gone.

  A few blocks away from the pick pocketing, a young guy in his late teens hid behind some boxes in another alleyway and sat down. He opened up the wallet in his hands and quickly began rifling through its contents. "So this guy is a game designer. He's got a lot of cards for this 'Immersion' game, is that his project?" the guy murmured. He stood at 5' 8", just a little short for a guy. His build was slightly muscular, but undernourished and skinny. He had messy black hair that was just long enough to cover his ears, and sharp brown eyes. He wore a simple black shirt and pants, both of which were worn, full of holes, and torn up indicating that he was homeless.

  The homeless girl from before jumped down from the low roof of the building he was leaning against and landed beside him. "What took you so long? That guy was creepy as hell." She chided, taking a seat on the ground beside him.

  "He somehow knew I was there, before he even entered the alley." The guy replied. "There's no way he could have seen me. But he knew."

  "Oh, I hadn't noticed that. Was focused on staying out of his reach. Did he at least have any money?" She asked.

  "Yeah, this guy was loaded. You'd think he just left a bank or something, there's enough to keep us fed for a few weeks here." He replied. "We could probably even go eat somewhere nice tonight, instead of getting fast food again. And I think we can leave the wallet near that building across from the alleyway you were in. He came out of there, I think if we stick it in the mailbox the cards and such inside should be safe until he finds it."

  "Oh good, so we're done for today? If I don't have to cry again I'm gonna throw on some makeup so I look at least halfway decent." She asked.

  "Brooke, come on, you look fine without it. It's not like you got a date or anything, don't worry about it." He shook his head.

  Brooke shoved him with her shoulder before pulling a small mirror and eyeliner out of her pocket. "You don't know, I might find one and get a free meal. Have some faith in your little sister."

  The guy shook his head "It's not that I don't have faith in you, I have no doubts you could find a guy. I don't have faith in any guy who's looking to date a homeless, teenaged girl."

  "Hey I'm sixteen, I'm hardly a teenager. And you're only a year older so don't go acting all like the mature adult here." Brooke countered in a softer, playful tone towards the end.

  "Yeah, but it's still a red flag saying that the guy might be a creep." Her brother replied. "That aside, you might want to switch up your fake story. If you give the same story to everyone, word will spread and they will catch on eventually."

  "Yeah I know, but the abusive father story usually gets people to just give me money. Then we at least don't need to steal it." Brooke countered.

  "You're right, I prefer it that way too. But we don't want anyone to catch on." Her brother answered. And it was in that moment, as he spoke, that he felt someone pull the wallet out of his hand. He spun around and slipped his hand into his pocket to grab onto a small knife. As he looked up at the person who saw the wallet, he recognized the man immediately. The man in the lab coat they had just stolen the wallet from. The man had a smartphone in his hand and was paying more attention to the phone then the teenagers or the wallet.

  The man in the lab coat quickly checked to make sure everything was still in his wallet, then adjusted his glasses and finally turned his attention to the teenagers. Both of which were looking at him like deer in the headlights. Seeing their expression he held up his smartphone, showing a map with two blue dots on it. "My wallet has a GPS tracker on it." He casually answered. "So, Elliot and Brooke, correct? What do you think you're doing?"

  "How do you know our names? Who are you?" Elliott questioned, tightening his grip on his knife but keeping it concealed in his pocket.

  "I'm just a man who does his research. Name's Leo, but I assume you know that by now since you looked through my credit cards." He pocketed his wallet and phone, then adjusted his glasses before turning back to the teenagers.

  "What does that have to do with knowing our names?" Brooke questioned. "You researched us specifically?"

  "Erm, I wouldn't say that exactly." Leo hesitated. "Six years ago a home three cities over burnt down. It was a home of a family of four, two parents and two kids. The remains of the parents were found inside the home, the children were never found. Police assumed it was a kidnapping with arson used to cover the tracks." He explained. "Three days later, in a city two towns over, a man was found dead in his apartment. It was publicly said to be a suicide, but the police investigation unearthed DNA from the two missing children in the house. While it appeared as a suicide, the police questioned if the children did it to escape. The children still were not found."

  Leo paused for a moment, then continued. "Not long after, reports of two children who were stealing from locals began cropping up around here, matching the appearance of the missing children. Police assumed these were the missing children, but could not locate them within the city. Despite that their appearances continued for the next several years. And of course, the missing children were Elliot and Brooke, you two, am I wrong?"

  "And why did you research all of this?" Elliott questioned.

  "Why not research whatever I can about the two thieves running amuck in my town?" Leo answered.

  "So what, you planning to turn us in to the police?" Elliot questioned coldly.

  "It's not like we want to do this." Brooke interrupted "You ever tried getting a job when you're homeless? Can't even fill out the phone number, address, or contact info! Nevermind trying to dress nicely to make a good impression if you somehow get an interview. We tried. We still try, but we have to e
at. We don't have a choice, if we did we wouldn't be stealing, no matter how hard the alternative."

  Leo shook his head "No, I know very well your predicament and your story, as I said, I am a man who does his research. I am glad to hear that you're willing to stop stealing if you find a job, because that ties into what I was going to say next. I can give you two a job, it is minimum wage but a job is a job and I can offer it to you both, so that's two minimum wage incomes for you to share. I would have to turn you into the police if you didn't take the job, because you are thieves, but I want to offer you a way out of this."

  "What kind of job? That seems very blackmail-ish." Elliot eyed the man with a cautious expression on his face.

  "It's not meant to be. I'm genuinely trying to help you, but if you won't help yourself then I have to do what I'm legally obligated to do to protect everyone else." Leo pulled a business card out of his wallet and handed it to Elliot. "I am working on the new virtual reality game called Immersion. We need some people to just come play the game, and tell us if everything works the way it should and if it's fun. It's a little more complicated than that, we'll need essays and bug reports and all that, but I can walk you both through how to do those things in your first few days. I won't say it'll be easy, or fun, it's a lot of work despite how it sounds, but it is simple. I know you can do it."

  The siblings hesitated and looked at each other, there was silence for a moment before Brooke spoke up. "Can we have some time to think about this? You have to understand, we want this, but it sounds way too good to be true."

  Leo nodded "I overheard that you saw where I work. I'll be there tomorrow from eight to six, when you get there just walk in and say you are the beta testers Leo hired. Keep my card to prove that I hired you."

  "We don't have to sign any paperwork or anything?" Elliot asked.

  "Nope. Consider yourself already hired. I will see you for your first day of work tomorrow." Leo turned and just walked away, leaving the siblings to think about what just happened.

  After a long silence Elliot spoke up. "Something is off about this guy. What do you think?"

  "I agree." Brooke leaned back against the wall. "So what do we do? Him contacting the police won't matter, they know we are in this city already and haven't found us. He doesn't have any additional information to give them. But what if this is a real job offer?"

  "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Maybe I'll go by myself tomorrow to check it out?" Elliot suggested.

  "Hell no! I'm not letting you go alone." Brooke frowned and gave him that raised eyebrow look she always gave him when he was being a hypocrite. "Lets just go and check it out, if we don't like it we can leave. We're in this together."

  The siblings spent the next morning watching the building. A lot of people were showing up and entering the building and the vast majority of them did not seem like employees. Around noon there was an announcement that played over the intercom.

  "The Beta Tests for Immersion will begin in thirty minutes, everyone please make sure you are signed in and begin moving into the next room."

  The siblings hesitated, but walked into the building. The building was packed, the first room was a massive hall, probably used for parties, and there was so many people there the room was almost full. There must have been at least a couple hundred people inside. The siblings hesitated again, but they needed this job so they made their way through the crowd and to a desk that was set up in the back. They gave their names, showed the card they were given, and explained that they were here for the beta tests. The man behind the desk checked a list, and they were on it, so they were given passes.

  They, along with everyone else, began moving into the next room. It was another big room, but this time they had to show their passes to get in. It was hard to not get separated in the crowd, but the two of them were used to working together and had their ways of sticking close, or finding each other immediately when they did get separated.

  Within thirty minutes they began taking people out of the room in small groups. The siblings were the eighth group to make it into the next area. They were lead down a long hallway and members of the group were sent off into the side rooms one by one as they walked. The siblings purposely made sure they were the last to be assigned rooms, so they'd be guaranteed rooms next to each other.

  As they each entered their room they found a pod inside and followed the instructions they had been given. They got in the pod, closed the pod, and pressed the big green start button. As soon as they pressed it they immediately blacked out.

  The next thing Brooke knew, was that she was suddenly in a very cold and wet place. She opened her eyes to find herself lying in the snow, with snow-covered pine trees towering over her. She had no memory of what happened between her entering the pod and now, the pod was supposed to send her into a game, but as she stood up and looked around she saw nothing resembling a game at all. She was shivering, only wearing a black knee-length skirt and a white t-shirt she was not dressed to be out in the snow. These were her nice clothes, but they were still very simple, it was all she could afford.

  As she looked around she noted that the forest appeared to be surrounded by mountains, which were casting a massive shadow over the forest, making it dark but not too dark to see. However she grew concerned as she realized that Elliott was nowhere to be found. She was alone out here, and she didn't even know where she was.

  "Elliott? Where are you?!" She shouted out as she began walking in a random direction.

  A woman's voice called back. "Hello? Anyone else out there?"

  "Yo, I'm here." A man's voice shouted out.

  "I'm here. Where are we?" Another woman's voice answered.

  "Everyone in the area, come to me. We can form a party, games are always best played in a group." The man's voice shouted back. "Plus then we don't need to shout. Just follow my voice." He shouted back, then kept repeating "Follow my voice" over and over so others could find him.

  Not sure where else to go, Brooke headed towards the man who was shouting. She found him sitting on a tree stump in a small clearing, he was a strange man. He was six feet tall and had a muscular, but not huge, build. He looked like he was in his late twenties. But the odd thing about him was his long messy blue hair, long enough to cover his eyes in the front, and in the back it was even longer and tied back in a mens ponytail. He had sharp brown eyes and was looking around at the people joining him with an excited look on his face. Several other people were gathering around, although none of them were Elliott. Brooke, having lived on the streets for so long, also noticed one extra person most of the others hadn't spotted. One person sitting up on a high branch in a tree nearby, who was looking over the group. They retreated and hid behind the branches and pine needles of the tree when Brooke looked up at them.

  Brooke kept to herself, like several other people there, but there were also some people who formed smaller groups and began talking among each other. Most of the conversations Brooke overheard were people asking about the game, asking where they were, asking if this was the game. Nobody seemed to know what was going on. It wasn't long before Elliott wandered into the area, as soon as he spotted Brooke he quickly made his way over to her.

  "What's going on?" Elliott asked. "You have any information I don't?"

  Brooke shook her head. "Nope, just as lost and confused. Is this the game? It doesn't look like a game. Looks like we are just lost in the woods."

  Elliott shrugged. "I don't know, I see nothing game related here. I get the feeling they just took our kidneys and dumped us in some random forest or something. I mean, this could be the game, I do remember them boasting about it being the perfect virtual reality. It does seem perfectly real."

  "Yeah, that's something I coulda done without. I can understand making cold areas cold, but making it perfectly realistically cold like this" Brooke was cut off as a shiver went down her spine. "This is insane. Why would I want to play a game like this? Hell my feet are even going numb from the snow that got i
n my sneakers."

  "Yeah the cold ain't doing me any good either." Elliott shook his head, he too wasn't dressed for the cold. With just black jeans and a thin black dress shirt. "But I at least have pants, can't imagine how bad it is for the girls who came in dresses and skirts."

  "It sucks. If I wasn't being paid to be here I would exit the game and never come back." Brooke replied. She paused for a moment. "How do we exit the game when we are done anyways?"

  Elliott looked around with a perplexed look on his face, and so did several other people who overheard her. Then he turned back to Brooke "That's... A very good question." He began waving his hand in front of himself, trying to find and push the button on the pod he assumed his real body was still inside of, but nothing happened. Some of the others in the group tried the same thing, and began looking a little worried. Word quickly spread through everyone else in the area and they all began trying various different things to try and open a menu, call an admin, or logout. Nothing was working.

  "GUYS! Attention!" The blue haired man had stood up on the tree stump.