9am approaches fast, I'm walking to our location--Bemus Park. It's popular for having all the playground rides at nearly all varieties, well, was popular. During the War of Technological Domination (WTD), third world countries and a few better ones, such as Australia and Taiwan, were destroyed. My mother was part of the project the US government was working on, and also one of their successful breakthroughs. She came from the Philippines and had no one to return to after the war. The only cpuntries to ever dominate the population were China, Japan, North Korea, United States of America, Canada, England, and France. The others who survived could not keep up with the rise of the civilization's technology and soon, died out. Some large countries resorted to farming such as Germany, Spain, and Russia. They traded some natural resources between each other and somehow are still alive.
Today, I am 28. That war started 32 years ago and ended when I was 3. Seven years, my mother had to endure this with me. Sadly, my bioligical father is dead and she could only live so long. I was left alone when I was still 12 and I looked for people who could help me find work, food, anyhing that could sustain me.
It felt like the end of the world.
Running away from the soldiers, we ended up living here--a wasteland of sorts--in the middle of a fallen country. Here, we built a new country--Nexus--and began to build from scratch. I own a house here, repaired it, gave it some minor improvements, added new features.
And here is Bemus, the place I used to go to when I felt sad. I burried my mother here 16 years ago and I still miss her.
"Marshall?"
I turn to where the voice came from and I saw a girl, a young one. I can only assume it's Claire.
"Oh my! You did come! I was worried you wouldn't."
She walks over and hugs my arm.
"It's our first time meeting in person! Are you normally quiet?"
"You can say that."
Her eyes widen and a bigger smile forms in her face. "I knew it was you! Your voice confirms it!"
"Are you alone?"
"Yeah. Mom and Dad are in Region 3, Area 4."
"That's a long way from here. Where did you live?"
"In the Acres Villa. That's in this Region, Area 1."
"You see that tree?" I say pointing at a dead tree nearby.
"Let me guess, you go that direction and I'll arrive at your place?"
"No, you walk into a tree."
She hit me in my chest.
"Idiot!"
"That's something I could miss."
She gives me a warm smile before letting go and walking over to a nearby swing set. I walked over to a bench and sat.
"Why did we meet here?" Claire asks.
"Well, it's a small meeting for the club members who participated in the Beta Program for Farland Kingdoms. I also have an urgent message from Cade."
"Cade, eh, that kid didn't bother showing up! What's his deal?"
"Just wait. John should be here."
Claire gets back to swinging while I sat on the bench.
Just then, I see two people coming over from the opposite direction.
"You must be Marshall." The bigger guy said.
"That's me."
"Its me, John. I met up with Migs today as well. He's here."
I look at the shorter figure behind him. He looked skinny but his flesh looked tight.
"Migs, pleased to meet you." He raises his hand to shake mine. I meet him and shake his hand, confirming that he should be as strong as John.
"So, all that is left is Brett."
Claire walks over and introduces herself to John and Migs, meanwhile, I'm still sitting on a bench, waiting on Brett.
I decided to call him.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?"
"Shit. I was there man but I saw this girl and she was hugging your arm. Man, I didn't wanna be a third wheel so I left."
"That was our captain. John and his friend are here too."
"All the more! You guys are on a double date!"
"John isn't gay and his friend isn't either. get your ass here before I go snooping on your location and drag you here."
"What?"
"Whatever. Just hurry up."
I ended the call there and continued to wait.
"So, you guys dating or what?"
"Dating? It's not-"
"Depends" I interrupt. "Dunno if she really wants to keep it up."
"Ah~ so its a yes." John confirms.
"He didn't exactly say that!"
"So you want it to be a no?" John asks.
"Not exactly?"
"Fine." I roll my eyes. "We're dating. Happy now?"
"Certainly!" John says with laughter. "Our captain is all grown up now."
"Shut up!"
The talk was not long and soon, Brett came and joined the convo. It was only then when we started the group meeting.
"Okay, first things first, where the fuck is Cade when you need him?" Claire asks.
"About that..." Brett trails off.
"We received a voicemail from Cade yesterday saying his family had to move somewhere."
"I see."
"Captain, mind your language." John says, "Your boyfriend is listening." He smirks widely.
"Shut up! Anyways, Marshall, can you confirm that yesterday's program was indeed a virus?"
"No, its the program itself. It is controlled by someone or something and disabled our "jumping". Without an appropriate type of code, we cannot jump from the game itself. I also had a feeling where we weren't supposed to make it through."
"Luck finds us I guess. How did it detect the Immersion?"
"I do not know. All I do know is that they control when we jump and when we dont."
"Thank you. As for Migs here, are you sure about your age?"
"Yes." He responds.
"You look like an adult mexican from those 2015 commercials except lighter skinned."
"I'm pure Filipino. My country died years ago. I was born here by my Filipino parents and now my mother is gone. Dad works as an engineer in Region 5, Area 7."
"Oh, which one was your country?"
"It was the Philippines. One of the first few to actually die out they said."
"Well, that's sad."
"Wait." I interrupted. "Didn't you say your mother was Filipino?"
"Yeah. She was in the Taiwan batch of subjects and a failure. Fortunately, I, her son, didn't inherit any negative feature and can be counted as a success. Why'd you ask?"
"My mother was also from the Philippines. She was in the U.S. batch 16 and was a success. She ran away and lived here after the lab was attacked. That's where she met dad, a technician. He died before I was born."
"Sad bro. I feel you. Where is your mother?"
"She's here."
"In this region?" Claire asks.
"Yes. Specifically, in this park."
Everyone looks around the vicinity. "Does she like to hide?" John asks.
"Well, back then, we didn't have a choice. Now, there's no more hiding."
"So, if she's here, why can't we see her?" Brett asks.
"I burried her here in Bemus Park 16 years ago."
Brett grimaces and looks around. "I think I have goosebumps."
"Condolences bro." Migs offers.
Claire wraps herself around my arm and leans on my shoulder, trying to comfort me.
"Anyway, problem solved, where's everybody going?"
"Well," Brett was first to speak, "I'm going to find a new meeting place for us next time. I don't want to disturb the dead."
"Brett, the dead cannot kill as the living cannot disturb them. I'll send you guys the location for my house later. Its pretty spacious considering I'm the only person inside but it will do."
"Sounds good. Well, then, guess I'm headed home!" Brett says, stretching his back.
"Me too. Migs and I need to buy some things over at Gerard's Grocer."
"Sure, see ya!" I bid them farewell.
I turn to Claire and she seems to have an idle stare.
"Let's go to your place. I wanna know where you live."
Saying that, she immediately looked at me and said "No!"
"No?"
"I mean, I don't really have a place to stay anymore." she says, looking down on her shoes.
"Really? Where are your stuff?"
"Its still there. I have until midnight."
"I see, let's get moving then. I'll help you carry your things."
"Thanks but, where are we taking them anyway? Its not like I could just barge into your house and live there."
I kept quiet and looked at her.
"Seriously, where?"
"I think you know that already."
Bemus Park is in Region 1, Area 3, in a unoccupied area. Somewhere up ahead, there is a castle. Quite literally, since this used to be where England was and now it's quite left out. These are the outskirts of Region 1 and people don't normally go here, though some still visit Bemus Park and The Pine Forest, the castle is basically off limits and no one cares about it. Well, untill my mother and I occupied it. I fixed it up with her and gave it life. Sadly, now that she's gone, It's been a very lonely 16 years and I wished I had a companion. Now, I guess it's just my luck.
"Wow! This place is huge!" Claire exclaims as we arrive.
"It sure is. You can pick your room later. Right now, I need to fetch the truck."
The truck was an old model from 2008 by a brand named Ford. I don't know what had happened to it now but i can say their vehicles back then ate gasoline too much. It was difficult but I managed to change it to a Solar charging electric truck. Its still pretty powerful and the gas chamber still works. If out of electricity, I can always switch to gasoline.
Today, Year 2528, I get a companion and manage to get a stable paying job. The grocer is in area 4 so it's not too far from here. I drove all the way to Area 6 to fetch her things and back to the castle to get things done.
"I choose this one."
"You sure? It doesn't have a bed."
"Are you kidding! I'll sleep with you!"
"Didn't know you were into-"
"Shut up! It's only sleeping! It's been a long time since I last slept with another person."
"You miss them huh."
"Yeah, I do."
We didn't waste time and set everything up in her room amd before long, we were drinking sodas in the dining hall.
"Do you read books?"
"Yeah, I do." I say, gesturing to this castle. "I have hardvound books from nearly 700 years ago."
"That's long."
"Yep! One of them comes from the year 1732. It was about airplanes."
"Sheesh, 700 years indeed."
"Well, I gotta finish my work. You have any requests lately captain?"
"Call me Claire when we're at home."
"Feel at home now?"
"Yes. And no, I have no requests. I haven't gotten any lately."
"Maybe you should resign as captain and remain a shareholder. You still own 40% of the company as founder anyway."
"And what? Leave it to you?"
"Didn't say that."
"Shut up. I'll resign when I feel it's time."
Although the conversation ended like this, I still didn't feel comfortable with her around me so closely. Seeing as the castle is quite empty and there are tons of other rooms to stay in, she just had to pick mine. I already know that tonight will be a very strange night.
"Guess I'll be sleeping in the bathroom after all."
I decide to leave her alone, give her some time to walk around and explore the castle grounds. Isolated in the middle of a lake, this castle was nearly half destroyed so only half was salvagable. There were even some rooms unaccessible to us because the stirs were destroyed from the first floor but nothing can't be repaired unless it's gonna kill you so I built a step ladder to get there.
I was headed there right now, particularly the study room in the secomd floor. It had access to a diffrent library, one with more complex books about ancient technology and a few other historic principles dating nearly 700 years back. Normally, they'd be a treasure but nobody seems to need them anymore since the technology now is far too advanced and foreign. As per usual, I sat at the edge of the room, the part of the floor that was destroyed by an explosive was at the front so I built myself a balcony to observe the stars at night. Tonight, however, I plan on sleeping here because of Claire. I might as well reminice what I can tonight before things go back to normal, and from normal to weird, and back again.
The night passed and I woke up, sun barely peeking from the horizon. It was dawn and yet another day here in the castle. I went down and quietly entered my room to catch her sleeping on my bed, snuggled up against my pillow. I couldn't prevent myself from rolling my eyes and smiling.
"She decided to sleep there after all."
I picked up my towel and took a shower before getting dressed and cooking breakfast. A few eggs and some sausages paired with some well toasted egg would be nice. Sadly, there was no toaster, so the bread had to be heated with the pan. I boiled up some water while cooking the food and soon prepared the coffe filter. The machine didn't fully function anynore as it could no longer heat the water and grind beans so the beans I had had to be grinded beforehand and placed in a filter as hot water was poured over it. I also didn't have the luxury of sugar cubes, only the pack of sugar packets stashed inside the old fridge. I also had a tea set and a few mugs on a cupboard. It really didnt match but it's really all I had. Aside from that, I also had a functioning water dispenser standing next to the functional airconditioning, having its own separate pipe for cold air from it.
As breakfast was laid out on my dining table, the kitchen door opened, welcoming a captain that had just woken up.
I grabbed us each a mug of coffee and a few sugar packets before heading back to the dining table.
"You lied to me." was the first thing she said.
I took a sip of coffee before I answered. "How so?"
"You said you lived in your house!"
"This is my house now." I grab a slice of egg and eat.
"No, you even said it was your apartment!"
"Okay captain, wait up." I took another sip of coffee. "First, I don't recall calling it my apartment. Second, technically it is my apartment, reffering to the sign outside my door saying "Marshall's Dream Apartment", and lastly, I didn't lie."
She shoves the whole sausage in her mouth before speaking once more. "Buch yu shed! I chant bewive I tot yu wew sewios!" (But you said! I can't believe I thought you were serious!)
"Now, now, don't eat with your mouth full. Answers will be given if you ask nicely."
"I'm mot a kib!" (I'm not a kid!)
"I know. Just, finish your breakfast. I'll meet you once you're done refreshing yourself."
"Okay." She didn't ask any more questions.
I finished my breakfast and excused myself, carrying my mug with me. I tell her about the bathroom in her room and how it works before leaving for the garden.
Processed foods were a delicacy here and I often eat vegetables from the garden. Essencially, I eat a balanced meal with the combination of the right amounts of fiber, protein, vitamins, and sugar. Coffee comes and stats for a day or two but the beans are bought dried so I can't keep buying and drinking. In short, all I ever eat are grown in here, with a few exceptions on meat and coffee. I honestly preffer it this way.
This captain of ours is very spontanious and sometimes unpleasant but I guess I'll have to learn to adjust, at least while she's here.
I soon arrive accross the garden where I had set up a few weights and a punching bag. Honestly, I watch videos of how people fight in old movies, and by old, I mean all the way back in 2010. This chinese guy is so good. His initials were JC but I can't always remember his name. There is no more info related to him though, nearly all data on information was wiped during the world wide internet shut-down. Online websites with all the info were shut down completely, the internet practically started over. Fortunately, for some none-infromation types, people were able to have downloaded copies before the restart so they were uploaded once again after the internet was rebuilt.
Just after warming myself up, I went back to the kitchen and cleaned it up, clearing dishes and washing them. The Beta Program was bound to come back at us and it was only a matter of time.
"I'm through. Wanna talk now?" Claire butts in, hair wet from her bath.
"About that, I want to discuss a few things with you."
"I see, what might these be?"
"Let's start small. Were you really serious on dating me?"
"You're calling that small?"
"So you are serious."
"I didn't say that."
I rolled my eyes and kept on with washing dishes. "How about the Beta Program? When's the next Immersion?"
"Monday."