Visionless Reality

Twenty

      Placing the foot on a familiar land, it was a feeling of home. None of the recruits were able to look at each other for all were feeling the pain of losing our friends. It was the first time in my life when I encountered a live death, that too a murder. I was still in the trauma of everything that happened, but nothing could be done to change it. Walking to the camp, the teammates of the recruits who were dead, were carrying their dead bodies, while others were carrying the containers found inside the ship, full of raw materials and food items. Making an entry inside the lobby, everyone’s faces were pale. Everyone seemed to be blunt and full of questions, to what they recently encountered. None of the senior faculties were visible. It was like they were hiding themselves from all the questions, that we were going to shower. Sitting inside the lobby, puzzled with the situations, our patience was breaking down. With every passing minute, we were feeling the urge to put the whole camp on fire… but we were restricting our minds and actions.

‘Kudos recruits you all are back! I am impressed by your actions and the works of your strength and bravery. It is very surprising that you all got this much materials, more than we asked for, but it is totally worth it. Placing your foot back on this land, you have successfully completed your tasks.’-Instructor.

        A tall, slender man appeared from nowhere, giving everyone a surprising look. He was wearing clothes, similar to what we were wearing, but with the tag of ‘Instructor’. Although our return seemed very pleasant to him, it felt like he was taunting us for returning to the camp. The expressions on his face depicted another of his story. He looked more of a suspicious type of person. The recruits were not only frowning at him, but also were clenching their fists, like they were to revolt against him.

‘It is all good with the stuff and all but why bring those bodies? Are they ours?’-Instructor.

‘Oh please shut up your nonsense! You sent us to that land, knowing all the dangers on that land. You let us roam in that land, to die? How cruel are you?’-Survivor recruit.

‘Behave recruit! This is not your mom standing and giving you orders at home like you’re yelling at me. You came here to become a part of the justice serving community. If you want to achieve the higher ranks, you have to have the ability to survive any kind of scenarios and that is the rule. None of the crying kids are welcome to be a part of this body. You understand!’-Instructor.

‘But I think this is a bit rude to have such of the bitter rules out there. I mean if you already knew about the situations out there, why did you not tell us earlier?’-Random recruit.

‘You not tell the body what to do. Before entering any terrorist base, you do not know the conditions inside the camp. You have to deduce all the possibilities and then act accordingly. Without any experience of infiltrating any base or making an exit secretly, how will you prosper becoming a part of army? How will you be deserving enough to call yourself a part of this body? The armed force is not a joke or a child’s play. You actually risk lives here. Even we are risking our lives, making you all our successors.’-Instructor.

‘All those bandits, would be coming soon for vengeance. They were cruel enough to kill 4 of our recruits. They will not spare the camp… They are coming to destroy all of us.’-Recruit-38.

‘Do you really think they would be coming to give us a challenge?’-Instructor.

        His statement made all of us, dive into the memories of all the events that happened recently. His smile was wicked, like he was behind all the master plan. Like he was the captain of all those bandits. It was all getting too tangled. Bandits under the army… How the hell were they servants of justice?

‘How can you all be so sure that it was their negligence to forget about the pistol and the knife that you had? How is it possible, that they left you near the river, without even giving you a second thought? How… the hell do you think that the security was so weak, that you sneaked up on their ship, and came back to your camp… alive?’-Instructor.

        What the hell! He was keeping an eye on our every move. It was hard to neglect the fact that it was all planned, but nothing else could be clearly seen at that moment. It was a total disastrous moment. This was all fake…

‘So that was all planned… wasn’t it? Say you didn’t cheat us.’-Random recruit.

‘No… no my son… no. You are totally wrong. It was neither scripted, nor did I cheat you.’-Instructor.

        At this point, the behavior of the instructor, turned into that of a psychopath. His eyes turned wide, like he was having fun, looking at dead ones. His voice became like he was hiding something very serious. I was able to see through his mind… he was leading all of us into something very critical and wicked.

‘The stage of your interaction with the tribal person, was the beginning of your task-5. We planned the task accordingly, so that you may not get the slightest doubt about any of our moves, also we could test your skills, to its extreme conditions. We were keeping an eye on each of your movements. Each and every recruit, was being watched, and his actions were being counted, to deduce his personality accordingly. This was not only a test of strength and actions, but it was also related to your response to particular events that we ensured to go as easy as they could be. You all are alive due to your active presence of your mind. So better celebrate that victory… for you can’t rejoice over your luck… only excellence makes you eligible to celebrate for your success.’-Instructor.

        ‘He was maniac… Arrgh… He was testing our skills… risking our lives… Is all the skills he requires, more important than our lives? No way… it can’t be. How could they be so careless with all of these lives… Oh really… Ah. Now I got it. It is just a game. Now I remember it is the VR game… the world I was worrying about. This was all just a game. It is common in such violent games for many of the close ones to die… or else how would the game make any deep impact on the character’s mind? They are very clever… They almost got me.’-self.

‘So we actually completed both, our task-4 and task-5. Which mean that we are one step closer to our final task?’-Recruit-147.

‘Absolutely recruit. I am proud of all of you. I was sure that all of you would be able to make till here. Now, give yourself some time… and we will conduct the task-6, tomorrow at 10:00. Hope you enjoy your victory… See you soon.’-Instructor.

        All of the recruits were terror-stricken. It was like the instructor had shaken their roots. They all did lose their partner and were made to shut up… for it were the mistakes of the ones who were dead. I was much relieved after reminding myself of the thought that it was all happening inside the game. ‘Inside the game huh! Cool… By the way, we have completed our task-5, making the save game option available… Which means that I would be able to play the game after this much progress… Much better. Let’s get the tablet back.’-self.

        Trying to look for the place for the belongings, I thought that it would be better if I asked the survivor recruit first, before getting into contact to any other seniors.

‘Hey recruit… Do you know where they keep our belongings with which we all came here?’

‘Ah… not exactly… but you can surely find them in the store room. What do you want from it by the way?’-Survivor recruit.

‘Actually the task-5 is over, which means that we are now able to save our progress. I want to get my tablet and save the progress of the game. Finally, I will give all of this some rest, and enjoy a day of deep sleep.’

‘Save the progress! Deep sleep? Are you going home to play some kind of video games, leaving all of this at some weird state? Are you drunk?’-Survivor recruit.

‘I am actually at home. What you see is a mere reflection of me in the game. It is the wonders of technology that makes us so real, that even I was shocked at first.’

‘You seriously are drunk. Dude! Wake up. It is not a dream. It is reality… You need to understand what you are doing.’-Survivor recruit.

‘I know dude. You need to understand the basics of the game. It is a Virtual Reality… where all that you see isn’t reality… it is just your belief, which makes it hard to resist that we all are in a game. Okay wait… You need a proof… Tell me, do you see anything on my wrist? You won’t see any…’

‘A wristwatch… that’s what you want to show?’-Survivor recruit.

‘What… What do you mean?’

‘You wanted to show me something on your wrist… it’s a wristwatch… anything else you want to tell me to justify that you are not drunk?’-Survivor recruit.

        The watch was visible. I could touch it too. I was petrified by the thought about what was happening to me. Was I inside the game, or was the game playing with my head? Looking at my wristwatch, it looked the same as I ever noticed it. The usual rugged rubber strap, plastic brushed body and the sporty dial. The grooves showing the functions of the buttons attached, and the dial showing the digital as well as analog hands. The glass, with a minute scratch, that was always present… nothing was different. Instead of being hasty or worried, I was rather calm and mute… like I was able to accept my fate. I did not know what really was going on but I lost my resilient abilities. I was going numb. I wasn’t blinking, yet was feeling something running down my face. It was the drop of my negligence and the fate, rolling down from the source of my inventiveness and the halo of my past. It was like going back into my dream, full of mirrors all around, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

‘You alright 5? I think you are sick.’-Survivor recruit.

‘I need to talk to a senior.’

‘What? What for?’-Survivor recruit.

‘I need, to talk to a senior immediately.’

‘You can’t! They are all in their cabin and they won’t let you or anyone of us in.’-Survivor recruit.

‘I will intrude myself into their cabin and find the truth about this world. I am sure this is all a lie. Someone has messed up with the game. I want to go the real world… Please leave me.’

        He held me tight like I was a psycho or something. He was feeling like I was losing my mind and would do something wrong that could risk my life. He forced me to resist from going inside but I pushed him away, punched under his jaw, and made my way to the cabin. I was truly sure of the game error that suddenly hurled, making everyone forget about their origin. All of the truths were going to be disclosed. The seniors held all the truths and knew the genesis of the game. I was close to the truth, so was I to my fate.