by Baron Sord
Just maybe…
She repressed an urge to laugh wildly and kept running.
A few turns later, she was outside in an immense courtyard. Somehow, it was much larger than she remembered from her arrival earlier that day.
What she saw stopped her in her tracks.
A full-scale prison riot was in progress.
Hundreds of prisoners in their orange outfits, male and female, were clashing with the Thai guards in black uniforms. The guards had their batons out and were swinging away savagely.
But they weren’t beating the prisoners.
The Thai guards were fighting… a crowd of police officers wearing white uniforms over shiny jet black skin? That couldn’t be right. They looked like black plastic mannequins come to life.
Emily was seeing things. She closed her eyes and shook her head.
When she opened them, she saw the same thing.
Not only were the Thai prison guards fighting the strange black police officers in the white uniforms, but the prisoners in orange were helping the prison guards.
The weird mannequin police were beating down prisoner after prisoner.
The Thai guards dressed in black didn’t fall so easily. They persisted, hammering back at the mannequin police with their batons.
Overhead, a black fighter jet streaked by, its engines screaming. It was quickly followed by a silver jumbo jet which flew extremely low to the ground for such a large airplane. After passing, both jets climbed and turned slowly while the riot raged below.
The action was far away from Emily.
She didn’t want to get sucked into the fight. It would be too easy to get beaten to death by the police. But the exit to the city streets waited just beyond the main combat.
The ground beneath her feet started to shake.
In the middle of the courtyard, something erupted from under the green lawn, pushing up huge clumps of grass and dirt as it rose up.
Emily gasped, unable to believe what she was witnessing.
Towering a hundred feet in the air was a giant police officer wearing a short white uniform over his shiny black mannequin skin. Like the regular sized mannequin police clashing with the Thai prison guards near the gate, the giant one wore the same bone white short-sleeve uniform shirt, shorts, and socks. In contrast to his white uniform, his gun belt, badge, shoulder patches, and shoes were all jet black and matched his strange skin. But the sunglasses hiding his eyes where opaque white. His peaked police cap was also white, and featured a white and black checkerboard band above the brim.
The giant policeman stepped completely out of the massive hole he’d created in the lawn and walked toward the center of the fighting. He started smashing Thai guards flat under his giant feet.
“Oh my god!” Emily gasped.
The two jets roared by overhead, having completed their circle. They flew straight at the giant policeman, who was still squashing Thai guards underfoot. Both planes launched hissing missiles that sped toward the giant policemen, striking him in the chest and head. Bright orange explosions boomed and black smoke billowed skyward.
Unhurt, the giant policeman ignored the missile attack and continued stomping on the Thai guards.
All Emily could do was watch the crazy battle unfold.
She was too scared to go near it, lest the giant stomp her too.
A few minutes later, she noticed two police officers in regular navy-blue uniforms working their way through the crowd of prisoners and Thai guards. Accompanying them was… a police bear? It wore its own navy-blue police uniform and ran on all fours.
The police bear and the two police in navy blue were killing prisoners left and right. It didn’t take long for the bodies to start piling up.
“This is insane,” Emily gasped.
The two jets swooped by again.
The giant white-black policeman grabbed the black jet fighter out of the air before punching it into the ground.
Fwa-KOOM!!
The jet exploded in a blazing hot ball of fire.
Emily could feel the flames from where she stood. They were too close for comfort, so she edged toward the rear of the mass of prisoners.
She quickly realized her mistake because the two police officers in blue and the police bear spotted her and ran straight at her.
Emily turned to run, but it was too late.
“You undah ah-rest, lady!” The policeman in blue shouted at her. He looked American, but he had a Thai accent. “You bad girl! Very bad girl! You go in jail for long year!”
Emily tried to escape. “No! Let me go!”
The policeman kicked her from behind.
Emily stumbled to the lawn.
The policeman jumped on top of her.
Emily struggled to get away.
A Thai prisoner knocked the policeman off of her and attacked him.
The policeman quickly overpowered the prisoner and beat him to death with his metal nightstick. Then he shouted at her, “Emily! You very bad girl! You go to jail for very long year!”
Emily tried to run past him, but he kicked her in the chest and she fell on her back, knocking her wind out.
The policeman jumped on top of her again, sitting on her chest. He grabbed her throat with both hands and started strangling her. “You bad girl! Bad girl die!”
She couldn’t breathe. She fought back, trying to claw the policeman’s eyes out.
The policeman suddenly released her throat, but sat on her and screamed in her face, “You life ovah, lady! Is ovah!”
Emily started crying. She couldn’t help it.
The other police officer, who was a blonde woman with blue eyes, knelt beside her. “She must be punished. Very bad punished.” She had a Thai accent too. She also held a branding iron. The metal end burned bright orange and smoked like it had just been pulled out of a furnace.
Emily felt the heat and heard the branding iron sizzle and pop as the policewoman brought it close to her face. The brand had a pattern on it. No, some sort of strange lettering. But Emily couldn’t quite make out what it said.
ETUTITSORP
The brand was now only inches away from her forehead. She already felt the burning heat.
“No, don’t!” Emily pleaded. “Please don’t!”
When the brand was an inch from her skin, she figured out what it said.
PROSTITUTE.
The brand seared her tender flesh.
Emily screamed.
It felt like her entire head was on fire.
Exquisite pain poured down her throat and exploded through the rest of her body. When the pain became too intense to bear, she passed out.
When Emily finally woke, she stared up at an endless black sky crowded with clouds.
—: Chapter 30 :—
Emily’s eyes fluttered open.
She stared up at unfamiliar faces, looking lost and frowning with clear fear.
An older man smoothed back her hair. He seemed familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him.
“Hey, Mem. It’s me. Your dad.”
Emily knit her brows, confused. She shook her head, “I don’t… who are you? And who are you?” She glared at the strange and beautiful blonde woman smiling down at her.
“I’m Layna. A friend of your brother.”
“What brother?”
“Are you my sister?” a handsome young man asked, sounding suspiciously idiotic.
“Yes she is,” the older man said. “This is your sister Emily.”
“Are you nice?” the dumb young man asked Emily.
“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Where am I?” She propped herself up on her elbows, which slowly sunk into the sloppy black mud beneath her. She looked around and saw hundreds of dead trees. And strangely monstrous dead bodies. “What is this place?” She was getting scared.
“Emily,” the older man said. “This is important. I need you to log out.”
“Log what?” Emily asked.
“Log out of the game.”
“What are you
talking about?”
The older man took one of her hands and held it softly between his. “Mem, please. Listen to me. Tap the roof of your mouth three times with your tongue. When you see the menus in front of you, press the one that says logout.”
“Are you insane?” She yanked her hand away from the weird old man.
The young man said, “Can I play the tongue game?”
They ignored him.
He begged, “I wanna play the tongue game too! Please? Can I?”
“Please, Emily,” the beautiful woman said. “Can you just try? Just tap the roof of your mouth three times. You’ll see.”
The young man started tapping the air with his finger. “Pretty buttons! I gonna press all! I press you and you and you and you and—”
SPLOP!
The dumb young man suddenly fell face first in the mud.
“What happened to him?” the older man asked.
The woman grinned, “I think he just logged out. Emily, please. This is very important.”
The older man said, “You’re inside a game, Mem. This is all a simulation. A virtual reality game. It’s called Reternity Online. You played the game so you could spend time with me and your brother Jason, remember?”
Emily felt a strong desire to believe this man, but she couldn’t piece it together. He was a complete stranger.
“Mem, please. You’ve been kidnapped. We think you’re somewhere hidden away in Bangkok. In Thailand. You need to log out of the game and figure out where you are. Then you need to log back in and tell us so we can come get you. Please, Mem. All you have to do is log out. It should all make sense once you do. Don’t take any chances with your kidnappers. Just look out a window. Look for a street sign. A landmark. Anything like that. A simple clue could be enough for us to find you. Can you remember that?”
“I… uh… I’ll try.”
“Remember, Mem. If you don’t log back in, we can’t help you.”
—: Chapter 31 :—
March 24th, 2037
5:22am
The Real World
Emily’s entire body was stiff.
The act of laying flat on her back actually ached.
Opening her eyes was difficult and hurt her eyelids, like the muscles were too weak to do it, but she managed it.
She was in a dark room.
A sliver of light shone through the narrow gap under a door.
It was hot and close. Somebody needed to open a window.
Outside the room, she heard a man mumbling. It didn’t sound like English. It sounded like… Hindi? As she listened, she heard periodic whooshing noises and recognized the distinct stately rhythm of a TV news anchor, which was often similar from one language to the next. Yes, it was definitely Hindi. Was she in India?
What was she doing in India?
Something heavy weighed on her head and it hurt.
She reached up to touch it. Her arm felt as weak as the rest of her.
Whatever was on her head needed to come off.
She lifted it off carefully and laid it on her chest. Surprisingly, it didn’t weigh much. It was some kind of headset. Blue LEDs blinked on the outside. Wherever the headset had pressed against her skin felt tender and dented to the touch, like the headset had been on for far too long. Having it off was a relief.
A faint memory tugged at the edge of remembrance, but she couldn’t quite retrieve it.
Someone had just been telling her something.
Something about…
A wave of traumatic and horrid memories hammered her in the heart.
Waking up naked in the middle of Patpong Road.
Running frantically.
Stealing a gold dress.
Sleeping in a dumpster.
The Bangkok police accusing her of being a drug dealer.
The corrupt police official fishing for a $10,000 USD bribe.
The police’s phony re-enactment of her drug dealing.
Going to court.
Going to prison.
Had any of that happened?
It seemed so real. Undeniably real.
Then she remembered the prison riot.
That ridiculous and utterly fantastical LSD trip of a prison riot.
No, that wasn’t real at all.
That was nonsense.
That was…
What was it?
She picked up the headset from her chest.
The blue LED logo on the front read NeuraSoft.
The makers of Reternity Online.
A NeuraLink headset.
An Australian accent floated through her mind.
Ryder.
They had been at Patpong Road.
Getting beers at Pooters.
That old woman had dropped her wallet and Emily had stepped out of the restaurant to help…
And that was it.
Here she was.
Where was here?
She slid her legs off the bed, intending to sit up.
Something pulled on her nose. Something inside her nose. A tube. It came out of her nostril and looped behind her ear. It was taped to her cheek. What the hell? The tube ran to a computerized box clamped to a metal IV stand. Above it hung a bag of milky liquid. In the dimness of the room, she couldn’t tell what it was. But she suspected she was attached to an NG feeding tube.
Was she in the hospital?
Had she been in a car accident with Ryder?
If she had, she wasn’t in any kind of hospital she’d ever seen. Her room was tiny, there was no window, and no other medical equipment. This being a hospital was unlikely, although she had heard of hospitals that used FIVR games to help their patients deal with chronic pain, but Emily didn’t feel any pain beyond a general stiffness and weakness.
One thing was for sure, Emily didn’t feel sick. And despite her achy body, she didn’t feel injured either. But she did smell poop. Was it her? She reached down and felt thick padded underwear of some kind. It crinkled slightly.
Was she wearing an adult diaper?
She was.
None of this made any sense.
Careful of the feeding tube, Emily sat up. Her stomach muscles felt so weak. How many days had she spent lying in this bed? In this room? Attached to a feeding tube? Who was caring for her?
Speaking of care, her skin felt tender and hot where the elastic of the diaper cinched around her legs. She hissed as she pulled at it experimentally. Someone hadn’t been doing a very good job of caring for her.
Mem, you’ve been kidnapped…
What?
Who had told her that?
Someone important…
Dad!
Dad had told her.
He’d said something else… but what?
Outside the small room, the TV blared the Hindi news channel.
Fear gripped her chest.
Had she been taken to India?
She was supposed to be in Bangkok. Or maybe Cambodia. But not India.
That’s when it hit her. Everything Dad had told her.
She’d been kidnapped and needed to escape from wherever she was.
Panic wiggled under her skin and she suddenly got hot, a steady drip of stress adrenalin dribbling into her veins.
Escape.
She needed to escape.
Sudden footsteps outside her room thunked heavily across the floor. Not a woman’s tread. A large man’s. Coming to get her. No, cupboards opening and closing. Water running. The channel changing to a Bollywood musical. Creaking furniture sounds. Someone heavy sitting down.
A stronger jolt of fear squeezed her.
Think, Emily. Think. And stay calm. You can’t think if you’re not calm.
For several seconds, she breathed deeply, waiting for more movement outside, waiting for the big man to open the door and see her perched on the edge of this bed. Was it better to lie down and feign sleep? Or was it better to act now, while she had a chance?
Emily had never been one to test the waters.
&nbs
p; She unpeeled the tape from her cheek and slowly pulled on the feeding tube. Doing so made her nose itch. She was going to sneeze. She paused and tried to calm herself. It was difficult with the fear creeping around the edges of everything. She tipped her head back and tried again, struggling not to gag as the end of the feeding tube tickled its way up her throat. It got worse when it went through her nasal passages. She was sure she was going to sneeze.
Her body inhaled violently.
Yep, she was going to sneeze.
She tipped her head forward and pinched her nose shut, a trick that had always stopped sneezes when she was a girl.
Slowly, her body relaxed.
She took a deep breath, tipped her head back again, and pulled the tube out. When it popped loose, she squirmed and shook her head violently but silently.
She laid the tube on the bed and set her feet on the warm vinyl floor before standing up quietly.
There was little in the room besides the bed and the IV stand. An opened package of adult diapers in the corner, a—wait. The writing on the package wasn’t Hindi. But it wasn’t English. She tried to read it, but there wasn’t enough light. With delicate fingers, she picked up the package. It crinkled faintly, but the sounds were as loud as guns to Emily. She placed the package carefully on the floor by the door so the light creeping through the gap could shine on the packaging.
The characters weren’t Devanagari script.
They were Mandarin.
Strange.
Didn’t India make its own adult diapers? Or did they import them from China?
Or was she in China?
There was no way to know.
Yes there was.
On the bed.
The NeuraLink headset was attached to a smart phone.
Hope seized Emily.
She picked up the phone and muted the volume before detaching the NeuraLink. Once she had, the Reternity Online app automatically went to its main menu. All the icons were labelled in… Thai? She quit out and went to the phone’s main menu. It too was labelled in Thai.
Hindi TV News and Bollywood musicals. Chinese adult diapers. A Thai phone.
Where was she?
It didn’t matter.
She had a phone and she needed to leave.
Now.
It was hot, so she didn’t need a jacket. But she did need shoes.
