Earth.
"Are you awake?"
A feminine voice came from somewhere in the room. Drake who had just tried to seat up in the hospital bed turned in the direction of the voice. There was a middle aged woman in a pink nurse gown with a deep blue lab coat. He could actually complain about the color riot but that wasn't the pressing matter.
"Where am I? Don't tell me that I'm the game again!!"
He watched as the woman advanced towards him with a rich smile seated in her face. NURSES AND WEIRD SMILES, he thought.
"It's natural to forget. But no, you're not in the game. This is as real as the pain throbbing in your sides. And too bad, you'll have to be careful. You don't have a special speedy healing abilities like you do in the game. Welcome to reality, where everything sucks."
For a middle aged woman, he'd agreed that the woman talk too much, but what wasn't the point. She probably was bored out of her mind. He looked at her name tag when she leaned towards him, putting some device over his face to check his eyes.
MARIE. DUMB NAME.
He was safe, as far as he hadn't said it out loud. As soon as she stood uprightly, she continued,
"You called the hospital yesterday. But by the time we got to your place, you already passed out. So, we had to take you here. And since you had no internal bleeding, it's safe to say you can go home now."
Drake tried to put up one of his hands but he groaned.
"Wait, do you mean you broke into my house before bringing me here? Like violated my privacy?!"
She smiled again,
"We could. The government have an automatic access to all the houses. But that wasn't the case. You helped yourself to the front of your large gate. You were quite strong to had made it there given your state. So, all we just had to do was give an order to the bot which changed into a convenient car, then put you in."
She walked away from him and filled a syringe. He fixed the niddle and returned to him,
"Lie back down. Just a shot of this and your body would heal itself. The pain would go numb at once."
"Why didn't you give me this when I was asleep? At least, I've been asleep for a day now."
He argued. She pointed at timer on the wall.
"18 hours actually. Not up to a day. Your body needed enough rest to process the strong effect of this fluid. It was under a great stress yesterday when we brought you in."
She helped him rest back down and felt the veins in his right arm with her thumb,
"Do you mind sharing what happened? I thought of it, but this case isn't similar. Unlike previous cases where people hang themselves or slit their own throats because they couldn't talk to their neighbors and won't go to the games."
She found a vein and pushed the niddle in,
"You want to wonder what a random youth would do. A youth whose neighbor next door is a cute, thick and busty lady. With some great weight of asses. His dream girl. And somehow, this crush of his, is actually crushing on him too. How crazy and refreshing huh? The two really fell in love. But can't have each other because of the system. So, some just die or inflict pains on themselves."
She used a wool to clean the blood then used a bandage which matched the color of his skin. Probably that was why he couldn't see bandages on his face. But he could feel them.
"So yours couldn't had been a self inflicted pain... you couldn't had possibly punched yourself all over the face and body."
She took two steps back and put both hands over her thighs,
"Which brings me to the last possibility. Did you by any chance --"
She stopped talking and turned away from him.
"What's she doing?"
Drake muttered as he watched her walk to a rolling bot hung on the white wall. She pushed a button in the bot and it powered down. She hurried back to him,
"We only have five minutes. Before the officials come down for a check on the AUDIBILITY BOT. "
"AUDIBILITY BOT? What a dumb name! What does it do though?"
Drake sat up. There was no pain in his body anymore. The effect of the fluid had kicked in strongly.
"You can figure that out later. Were you beaten up by three youth?"
Drake pushed his body in her direction, eyes widening,
"Do you know those dorks??!"
"Two boys and a girl?"
"Yea!!"
"They are ULTINUM favored children. The boys are twins born to an Elite call Rodney. He's the smallest of the ULTINUM TRIO group. The group is the highest of the ranks of elites who planned all these. We are just pawns to them."
"That explains why they can do as they want."
Drake paused after the thoughtful addition. Then he went on,
"It makes sense why the judgement bots didn't hurt them. Their fathers must have made an exception for them."
He thought for a while,
"By any chance, does this Rodney have a wife who plays the game too?!"
The woman looked at the timer on the wall, then back to him,
"Are you only going to ask about them? Don't you have any other questions?! You have only two minutes more!!!"
Drake jumped to his feet. He looked around like he was seeking something with which to stimulate his thoughts. He pointed suddenly at her,
"Yes!!! --"
But then his enthusiasm powered down and he dropped his finger. He said weakly,
"You're quite old and only live here watching the hospital, you wouldn't know about the real game in the video game. Or do you happen to have an idea... probably overheard some people talking ab--"
"What do you wish to know?"
The timer says one minute left.
"Oh, you do know about it?"
"Are you slow witted or what?"
She was getting impatient. Twas just fifty seconds left.
"How do I put it...? Uhmm..."
He took another few seconds to think then said,
"Yes, the map... the Game map... the map which tells you about the real game and levels. How do I unlock the map? What do --"
Twas only ten seconds left and heavy steps were heard in the hallway outside the ward.
"Your tablet. You'd find a question mark arrow on the last app. Open that app and scroll down... then you'd --"
The door to the ward opened and two well built professionally looking men stepped in. The one with a wierd mustache tucked his hands and sent a smile at her,
"Marie. Is anything the problem with the sound bot?"
"I guess so. It seems broken. And for the safety of my patient, I had it turned of."
Marie maintained such a graceful composure while explaining. She was quite skilled.
"YOUR... patient??"
The man who had questioned her really emphasized the 'your'. Marie nodded firmly. He looked away from her, a quick glance at Drake who was trying to stay in character, then to the second man,
"Do a check on the bot."
"On it."
The second man brought out a device, switched on the bot then scanned it. It beeped green on the testing device.
"Seems perfect."
The second man told the first. The latter to Marie said,
"May I have a word with you...? YOUR patient shouldn't share from it."
Marie signalled Drake to excuse them, but then the man objected,
"He seems perfectly fine. Why keep him around?"
She squinched her face then said to Drake,
"You're discharged, Mr Drake Evelon. Enjoy the game."
Drake had no choice but to leave. He ambled out. As he went, he could hear faint whispers of words like, YOUR SON... PAY FOR IT... addressed to Marie by the man.
He looked back the last time but the two men were coming behind me.
"That scared me."
He almost flinched. The men got to him. The first gave a forced smile but the second sneered. They walked past him.
Drake knew that he couldn't return to Marie. He would only cause her more trouble. He looked at his back for the last. Marie was standing by the door and winking at him.
"That weird woman. I bet she has no fears."
He bowed softly then looked away. He walked through the hallway towards the exit.
He noticed a man struggling with a nurse in another ward.
"Who knows what they'd done to him."
He mumbled. He walked out of the hospital. He turned to face the building,
"Damn! This is some hell of a building."
He admitted, looking from one end of the glass building to the other. It looked so crystal clear, shinny, super tall and huge. 'Twas that kinda building that leaves anyone at awe of it.
Standing at the front of the building, one could easily say that twas an abandoned building, because there was no sign of life in it. Twas not only quiet but vague.
"The walls must be soundproof. What kinda glasses even are these. A glass should break under pressure but these... they are even in layers. Damn, no cap lit."
He inhaled deeply, taking in fresh air. He turned to his front. There were no actual building in sight. The hospital was built on a secluded acre of land. The nearest duplex in sight was metres away. All Drake could see was endless metalic plains.
"How could a world where humans live in be this quiet?! Are all humans really indoors playing the games?! How large even is this world?!"
He thought out loud. Suddenly, he heard a whirring sound from behind him, from one of the corners of the hospital building.
Before he could ask what that was, he saw a big robot gaited out of the corner then towards him,
"This doesn't look like a judgement bot. What does it want from me?"
The robot got to him.
"What do you wa--"
Drake choked on his words when the robot suddenly went on its four.
"What's it doing?"
The bot punched a button in its nape and suddenly, its whole body began to reshuffle, going out of place but forming something new. The process stopped after few seconds. Drake gaped,
"No way it turned itself into a car."
"Drake Elvon, hop in. Let's take you back home."
The robotic voice said.
"I'll be damned."
Drake couldn't believe his eyes. He walked to car. The door opened itself and he stepped in.
"Shit. I don't think I wanna get off again."
He exclaimed. The inside of the car was just another level of fantasy brought into reality.
"You do not mean that. I drive now."
The car ignited and off it drove. Itself! The wheels moving on their own in the right direction.
"Fuck me!!"
Drake dropped in his comfy couch at the back of the limo-type kinda car. For real he could nap.