***
"Initiating pre-recorded introduction version 0.0.2."
"All subjects on stand by."
***
That toneless mechanical voice rang out again, silencing everything.
In the few moments which followed, it was torturous. There was nothing but an eerie silence, it burrowed under your skin, it ate at your bone and it compelled you to do something, anything to escape its grasp.
Yet, there was nothing else I could do but sit there with Thea on my thigh, our eyes lingered on each other, easing the unbearable urge as it continued to gnaw at my mind.
"Now, as I have said, a few million of you will be selected, though you don't have to be overly worried, only candidates who fit our criteria will participate in our research, which means candidates with reasonable past, or candidates with a specific skill. No children or senior citizens, after all, we are not animals."
"With that, I have said enough, either way, there is plenty for stuff you to figure out. We are looking toward your performance," The voice paused. In the brief moment, I swear, I could already see a sick and twisted smile on their face.
"Let us begin."
Once the ethereal voice stopped their announcement, the silence once again washed over.
Tick by tick. Second by second.
The mechanical finally announced,
***
"Candidates selected."
"Easter egg activated."
"Reward distribution begins."
***
With those words, a blinding red light cast down from the sky itself, penetrating through the tens of floors above mine and lighting Thea up in a dazzling fashion. Slowly but surely, Thea floated upward.
Her anxious eyes soon turned blank and her stiff body went limbed, only then, did the red light flood into her body. They burrowed into every nook and cranny of her body. Mesmerizingly, wherever they passed by, her body would glow in a pinkish hue. Like a magnificent sculpture, Thea simply floated there.
"Did I experience the same thing? I thought I was screaming on the floor." Remembering the searing pain, my body involuntary shuddered. Those moments, fleeting as it was, seemed like an eternity. "I hope she is doing okay."
At that moment, my body did not seem so heavy anymore, my fingers twitched, my legs spasmed and my eyes blinked, like they had never blinked before. But more importantly, my right wrist started to burn up. Following my eyes, I saw the black crooked circle complete itself.
Eventually, the crooked line was gone. In its place was a perfectly circular black circle, yet, that was not the most shocking part. It was how the black substance crept outward, turning that hideous circle into a black blob of ink.
"So, it was really you?" I exclaimed, "Can you at least tell me what is going on? Is she selected? What about me? Why am I moving?"
I waited quietly, waiting for the damn thing to move or even do something. Yet, what seemed like hours had passed, yet, nothing.
"F*ck." I cursed.
I glanced over and seeing how Thea continued to float there motionlessly, I finally headed to the balcony, to think, to scream, or something. However, in that instant, I felt that how a bottle of beer and late-night talk was incredibly tamed.
Below was the city that had been plunged into chaos, with its people continued to be frozen in time. Shops burst open. Broken and torn-down cars littered the streets. The flickeringless flame which had been consuming the conflict below. And the expressions, which haunted me for the days to come.
Their terror. Their greed. Their anger. All was blatant for me to see.
***
"Bonus easter egg completed. Reward distributed."
***
It was heard again. But this time, the voice echoed in my ear, like a broken earphone, instead of the loudspeaker I thought it would.
"Easter egg? Reward?" When those words came out of my mouth, they were enough to terrify me.
"What going on? Is this like a game or something?" I yelled at the black blob on my right wrist, stupider was how I slammed my own wrist against the railing out of frustration, only for my foot to follow up and kick those steel bars out of frustration.
The result? Obviously. Me limping back into my room in pain.
"That was stupid. That was stupid," I screamed from the balcony to the living room, hopping all the way. "Just give me the reward already."
The moment those words left my mouth, I sank back onto the couch, waiting for the inevitable.
***
"Owning the Easter Egg for more than 100,000 hours."
"Acquired - 100,000 gold."
"Acquired - one Extra life."
"Acquired - Authority Level 1."
***
"Given your name, I hope you don't matter." I talked to the black blob on my wrist. I stood there staring at the blob with anticipation. With everything happening around me, I expected that somehow, the blob would come to life and we would start conversing.
Feeling helpless, I could only numble to myself, "What is level 1 authority anyway?"
***
"Requirement met."
"Authority is the level of important you play into the overall story. The higher the level, the higher the bonuses."
"Level 1 bonus - Basic information of the surrounding."
"Level 1 bonus - 5 minutes bonus off up coming events."
***
The mechanical voice played in my ears , notifying me my rights.
That was when a premonition slapped me across the face. As whatever happening would not end favorably to anyone.
At that moment the anger in my flared up, to the point that I even forgot the throbbing pain. Why was I mad? Honestly, looking back now, I don't know myself. Was it because my whole life is a sham and nothing up to this point matter? Not even my guilt? Or was it just me denying the present situation?
But what mattered to me then was that I was lashing out.
"Is this some kind of sick and twisted joke? What am I supposed to do here? F*ck!" I yelled, raising my middle finger toward the sky. A feeble attempt at unleashing my pent-up anger.
When seconds eventually turned to minutes, the bubble of my rage and anger popped causing me to slump back onto my couch, waiting for today to be over, and for this nightmarish moment to be nothing more than a hellish dream.
Yet, the moment my eyes landed at the floating Thea, my mind reeled back to the moments we shared and a long sigh left my mouth, "No matter what's going to happen, I will protect you even it means risking my life to do it."
"So... This is the end of my life here, hah?"
Once 'my life' was heard, my mind cast back onto the repetitive and boring life I had lived so far. The joyless life I had.
Like that, the expectation toward the unknown, toward an adventure, was multiple by a thousand folds. The moment those thought bubbled within me, there was no way for me to stop it. It was like an infection. There was no way for me to get it out of my head without damaging my already fragile state of mind.
Knowing myself, and the fact that there was no way for me to stop it. My body craved it. And most importantly, my heart yearned for it.
I sat there, waited with my restless heart to calm down. But the longer I waited, the more wildly my heart beat.
Thankfully, there was still the floating Thea to calm my nerve. Whenever I gazed into her eyes, I found myself mumbling, "Everything is going to be okay."
Once the baptized had stopped and those crimson red light receded, the world came back to life. So too, the chaos. But my attention was not there, instead, it was on Thea, who slowly floated down. As nimble as I could, I caught her in my arms, only then did I saw the liveliness came back into her once dead-eyes.
"Did something happen to me? Why do I feel different?" Thea mumbled. "And why am I in your arm? Is this like a dream or something?"
"I am flattered, but can assure you, this is no dream," I said.
"So what happened now?"
"I guess you were selected... Whatever that means."
"Selected? Is that what this jittery feeling about?" Thea sighed, "Like that, hah? Everything changed in a blink of an eye."
"Yeah..." I nodded along.
The conversation went cold, as I sat there with Thea still in my arms as we gazed into each other eyes in complete and utter silence. It was the kind of silence that fed into your soul. Comfortable as I was, my eyes would linger on Thea's worried expression, not knowing what to say.
"How to cheer her up. A joke. That's it. But what?" I thought to myself.
"It's not that I don't like what happening here..." Thea gestured at the overall situation. Only then, did I realize, I was still cradling her in my arms, like an older sibling holding a newborn for the first time, hideous and extremely uncomfortable.
"Can you... you know... help me up?"
"Su-Sure."
Knowing for a fact that my heart had stopped beating and my mind had short circuited, it was a miracle I could utter that word.
"I can't believe my childhood is still haunting me right now..."
Hearing her mumble, my short circuited woke up instantly, as this was one of the chances I had been looking for, and my heart raced at the possibility while my ears perk up, tuning into the smallest of detail.
"What are you doing? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No, no. It's because I always see a smile on your face, so, I thought, you know, your childhood isn't that sh*tty," I said.
"That's a nice way to put it." A long sigh later, "Don't get me wrong. I loved where I ended up, getting to compete in the Olympics is amazing. But, at the end of the day, something told me there was so much more."
"And your childhood?"
"Those were dream I had at night. I don't know why, but I even know, when I wake up from them, I felt my heart bumping. Like... Like..."
"You were alive." I finished.
"Yeah, sounds crazy, right? In fact, I told my dad about it and, boy, was he pissed." Thea muttered, "If it not for Ms. Ginger, our relationship would have been worse... So much worse."
"Ms. Ginger?"
"She's my therapist, a wonderful woman. She is kind and warm. Most importantly, she helped me a lot..." Thea stared dazedly outside, while her voice grew soft. "Anyway, let's us move on, shall we?"
"I am not sure what you have been through, but 'Great men are not born great, they grow great'." I said with a New Yorker impression, an impression so bad, my neck shrunk into my t-shirt out of horror.
Thea let out her angelic laughter, which always put a smile on my face. "What are you trying to do?"
"I don't know, okay. I was trying something there, but it did not pan out."
With what I said, her laughter grew even louder, kneeling down on the floor in her fit of laughter.
"Okay, okay. Laughed all you want, but we need to prepare something, because I don't think you want to wear that to wherever they are transporting us." I pointed at her bright pink pajamas, with teddy bear plastering all over them. However, the moment her laughter stopped and not a single word came out of her mouth, I started to panic, my mind began to race for a follow-up answer.
"It's not so bad, I mean it is cheerful and cute. Like you. But you need to change into something more practical," I tried my best to correct my mistake.
"Yo-You, I'll-" She paused. Slowly turning toward me, she continued. "Did you say we?"
"Yes, I was selected, too."
Her eyes widened in disbelieve and I could see veins on her forehead readied to pop. Followed was an evil glare as her answer. Through which, I could see her murderous intention, "I will get you back for that."
She then stood up and marched back to her room, "Pack something flexible and food if you can. I will pack some necessities."
"Okay, but what did I do?"
"You know what you did." She yelled from the hallway, which only made me even more confused.
"Honestly, what did I do?" I whispered to myself. Thinking back to what I had done, but there was nothing other than Thea's animated expressions.
With a crooked smile on my face, I packed everything I could, while humming the first tone that came to my mind. Unfortunately, it was none other than the 'shark do do do do', a song, which had stuck in my head for who knew how long.
Even more embarrassingly was when my hip started shaking and my foot started tapping, a soft chuckle rang out from behind me, "Nice dance move, though you need a little bit of practice."
"The-Thea," I choked on my own saliva, "You finished packing already?"
"A few jeans, a lot of t-shirts, and a whole lot more essentials. You?" Thea dropped the massive backpack next to the bed.
"I had a lot of canned food, so, I brought those. Enough for a few weeks," I stammered, "I-I also have some water filter I brought a while back, you know, those random shopping surges are really coming in handy. I also have a multitool ax, though I can't be sure if we could bring any of it. Just in case there is no water around, I also have some bottled ones. I also brought some knives, and pot and pan. Do you think we need them?"
"There also-"
Thea clasped my shoulders, she then continued gently, "I know you are nervous, but this will be fine. Breath. In. Out."
Hearing her voice, everything just came to me. What am I about to step into? and what uncertainties are waiting for me on the other end? Somehow, before all of it, I managed to find my knight in shining armor.
Looking into those worrying expressions of her and gentle voice, I felt my heart calmed down.
***
"Selection ended."
"Commencing transportation."
"Digitalizing participants."
"Transferring data to designate files."
***