I woke up the next morning after sleeping in a few hours extra, it was a Saturday and all I had to do that day was work. The phone call from the night before still plagued my mind, could I really win One Billion Dollars?
I brushed my thoughts aside and began to get ready for the day, I threw on a pair of jeans and a white shirt. I ran down to the kitchen and made myself a quick sandwich before heading out the door.
It was a cloudy day, but it was still hot. The summer heat is no joke, it made the walk to the store feel like walking through the desert.
When I reached the store and felt the air conditioning I almost flopped to the ground to just take it all in.
The manager noticed me entering the store and called me over, "Hey kid, come over here real quick will you?" I walked over and stood next to her, "So I'm going to be leaving at around 6:30 and I need someone to lock up the store when we close..." she flaunts the keys in front of my face, "Would you be able to do it?"
Right before I reach for the keys I remember the call, "Sorry, I also need to leave at around 6:30, I'm going to be in some sort of contest."
The manager's eyes open wide and she begins to press me, "No way, me too! Is it at Wreckford Shipyard?" As I thought, I wasn't the only person on this show.
"Yes it is. We must be going to the same contest." She breathes a sigh of relief, "I though it might've been some scam, thank god I'm not the only one going."
"Tell you what, let's go together! I'm afraid of being there alone, and you probably have no way to get there on time, it's a win-win!" She makes a good point, I'm too young to drive or get a taxi, and I have no clue if any of the trains stop that far from town.
I hold my hand out for a handshake, "Deal." She quickly shakes my hand before noticing the register. "You still need to work today though, I'm about to open the store so get ready, we're pretty busy on the weekends."
I walk over to the register and take a seat, and sure enough within the next hour more then twenty people come to the store to buy something. I handle as quickly as I can and my shift goes by in a snap.
The manager comes to the counter and knocks on the top, "Ready to go?" I get up and shut off the register, "Ready as I'll ever be."
We around the back where the manager parked her car, it's a white Honda Accord, it feels out of place behind a convenience store but it's the only place open enough to park a car.
She starts it up and begins to drive through the streets, if I had went by train it would've taken me about 30 minutes to get there, but in a car it only took 15 minutes.
As we approached the shipyard a man in a suit stopped us, he walked up to the managers window and knocked. She rolled the window down and he held his hand out, "Hello, we're the valet service for the competition, may I have your keys to park your car?"
She took her keys out of her pocket and handed them over, "How much will this service cost exactly?" she said with a skeptical look on her face, the nearest parking area was miles from here, the price must be quite high.
He opened her door to let her out, "This service is free ma'am, all we ask for is your one hundred percent while competing." Another man walks over and opens my door as well, I step out and watch as the car is driven into the distance.
"This contest must be quite popular, to be able to do something like that and not worry about payment." The manager said to me as she watched the car. I couldn't agree more, could we be participating in some globally broadcasted show?
We walked into the warehouse, which was much larger then I anticipated, it seemed it went back for nearly a mile, I could barely see the end of it. I took a quick look around and was shocked at the sheer amount of people in the building, it seemed like my entire city was here hoping to win the money.
I look over at my manager, "I know this probably is a weird time to be asking but, what is your name?" she looks over at me confused then realizes, "Oh, sorry, I must've forgotten to tell you when you were working yesterday."
She slowly breathes in and strikes a pose, "Winter Forrest!" she says like she's rehearsed it a million times.
I just stare confused until she notices the awkwardness and clears her throat, "My parents told me to always do something to be remembered." I just place my hand to my forehead a wonder why she would do something like that.
We stand for a moment before a voice from behind us calls out, "You two, come over here to get signed in before you run out of time!"
We look over and see a woman standing behind a table, the table has a poster draped over the front that displays a company name, Otherworldly Enterprises
We walk over and fill out the paper form on the table, simple stuff like name and date of birth, but then it gets a little weirder.
Do you have Life Insurance?
People that would notice if you went missing?
The whole paper weirds me out but I keep filling in the blanks until i'm done with the form.
I hand it to the woman and she takes a quick look, "No Life Insurance, and no one would notice if your gone?" she looks back up at me, "Do you have no friends?"
"I do, but school is out right now so my friends probably won't know i'm gone until school starts back up."
She nods her head in understanding, "Makes sense, stand over there then." She points to a large group of people, I do a quick headcount and see at least 100,000 people.
I walk over and mix in with the crowd, I don't recognize anyone which is odd, if there are this many people surely I would recognize one.
Then I look back, what about Winter, did she get out over here too? I looked just in time to see her get sorted into a different group.
A few more people trickle into the warehouse, then a few men close the big door, stopping anyone from entering or exiting.
Everyone looks back when the door slams to see what made the noise, then a tv screen began to descend from the roof.
It lit up and on the screen was a small creature that looked like a cat, but it was floating.
It opened it's mouth and instead of meows came speech, "Hello, humans! I am what you commonly know as a cat!"
We all looked up confused, is that a real cat talking or is it just an animation, it looked very realistic so it was hard to tell.
"You've all gathered here today in the hopes of winning One Billion Dollars, which in human money is quite the sum."
"Behind you are machines called Linking Pods, each one of you have your own pod." I glanced behind me and looked at the machines, they resembled the escape pods of rockets only more sleek.
"You will all enter the pod and enter the virtual world, but it's not any ordinary virtual reality it's state of the art full immersion technology. All your senses will be brought with you to the virtual world, meaning you will be able to feel, taste, and smell as well as the normal senses you'd see in a game like seeing and hearing."
The crowds began to murmur, the idea of a fully immersive experience was one that someone couldn't pass up, "Now I know you're all dying to enter the game, so if you want to jump straight in go to the tables near the pods and receive your number."
The people began flocking the tables like moths to a flame, but they soon got into a line as the tables did not accept anyone until they were ordered in a mannerly fashion. I was knocked over by the running people so I decided to stay back for a bit and explore the warehouse while the lines ran down.
The warehouse was quite tall, a giraffe would have no problem standing in here, and since all the people are now getting into pods the barren decorations of the location became more apparent.
The table where we filled out the form seemed to be the only thing in the warehouse, and the cat on the screen was doing nothing but smiling. I turned around to finally enter the line, which was now empty, but before I could the cat began to talk again.
"You, who are still not in the game, please wait a second." I glanced up at the TV and was shocked, the cat seemed to be staring right at me. "Before the game begins I'd like to give you an award for being the last to enter the game."
Turns out being trampled by a mob was a blessing in disguise, one of the suited men in the warehouse came up to me and handed me a slip of paper. "Boy, when you enter the game this slip of paper will be in your hand if you're holding it when you enter."
I look down at the paper and try reading it, but it's written in some gibberish language, "This paper holds the secret of the first round, you'll be able to read it when you enter the game. Though a word of warning, if you wish to win I advise you to not share the contents of the paper to anyone."
I look up to the screen and face the cat, "Thank you Mister Cat, I'll be sure to use this well." A slight grin grows on the cats face, "I'm sure you will, now run along lad, you don't want to be left behind."
I wave at the cat and run over to the table, I tell the clerk my name and she hands me a tag.
[Player #706,000]
I walk through the aisles of pods to find mine, the only one open for someone. I hop in and someone closes it after. The pod fills with a mysterious liquid, I try to keep my mouth out of it but it eventually fills the entire pod leaving me sunk in it.
Strangely I am able to breathe in it, but my consciousness fades before I can process what's going on and soon I am greeted with the first screen of the game.
Welcome to Living Pieces