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C3 - Light and Dark

“Ah, he is alive,” his mother jokes.

“Hello mom, how was your day?”  James asks.

“Good.  You are just in time to have dinner with us for a change,” she says, handing him the cluttery.

James rolls his eyes, taking the cluttery to set the table.

“Good evening James,” his father greets him, looking up from his newspaper.

“Hello dad,” James greets his father. ‘He is so old school, who still reads the newspaper,’ James thinks looking at his father that does not have time for him.  ‘I must be his biggest disappointment,’ James thinks to himself as he finishes setting the table.

 Dinner was good, but like usual it was paired with stiff conversation.

James excused himself and after a hot shower, he went to bed.

The next morning James woke up and stretched out his tall body.  After looking at himself in the mirror, flexing his non-existing muscles, and wondering if he is fit enough to survive on the battlefield of another planet.

James picked up the transparent card from his table and the card lit up, -GOOD MORNING JAMES LELAND, the text run across the card.  James puts the card in his pocket and makes his way out of the house.

“Where are you off to?” his mother asks, as she is not used to him being out of the house so early.

James takes a toast and before he could answer his father jumps in, “please tell me you finally have a proper job?”

“Something like that,” James says, taking a bite of the toast and attempting to leave.

“Something like that?” his mother frowns.

“It is an intern job,” James says.

“So you are working for free? What type of intern job is it?” his father wants to know.

Hearing the disappointment in his father's voice James leaves the house without answering.

James arrives at the four buildings and walks to the same one as the day before.

“Hey James, wait up,” Emce calls out after him.

“Hi,” James says greeting Emce.

“This is my sister Emily,” James introduces his younger sister by two years.

“James,” he takes her hand and shakes it.  James notices the bandage on her other hand.

“My battle scar, I have another one here,” she lifts her shirt to show him the old healed burn mark on her side.

James is having second thoughts, “how long have you been doing this?”

“A year,” she says.

“She is a better gamer than me,” Emce admits.

“You know it,” Emily punches him playfully.

“Let's go,” Emce says walking towards the building.

In front of the building, before stepping in Emily looks over at her brother, “see you on the other side.”

See you on the battlefield, make your way to the arch sky bridge. It is easy to spot, half it has been blown away.  I will meet you there,” Emce says before stepping into the wall opening.

James hesitates for a moment before bringing his face close enough for his eyes to be scanned.

The wall opens. “Here goes nothing,” James says, stepping in.

After the same sterilizing process as the day before James is back on Uzar.

“Welcome back,” Zadia greets him with the transparent box in her hands.

“Hi,” James greets her back.

“I will be right back,” Zadia says, leaving.

Zadia returns with a black suit bag on a hook and hands it to James, “I will give you a moment to get dressed, you can put clothing in the suit bag.”

After putting the black bodysuit on, Zadia came walking in again with a glass of liquid and a white pill, “the liquid will keep your tummy full and the pill will expand the capacity of your bladder.

James decided not to ask questions and put the pill in his mouth, swallowing it down with the water-looking liquid but in his mouth, it was the consistency of Jell-O that did not set completely.

“After you,” Zadia says, gesturing toward the transparent box.

James takes the RV band out first and puts it on followed by picking up the game controller.

James follows Zadia and this time the elevator doors open to a different scene as the previous day.

“This is where I leave you,” Zadia says.

James walks out of the elevator into a big room where the walls open and close on the one side, revealing something that looks like black rooms, and on the side where he stepped out, more elevators as more people step in or out of.

James looks behind him to say goodbye to Zadia but the elevator is already gone and in its place just a white wall.

James looks around, watching what the other people do, none looking older than him and some of them looking really young.

James walks up to the side of the big room that is opposite the elevator side and the wall open to reveal pitch black. James hesitates as for some reason he just developed a fear for darkness.

James feels a hand wrapping around his and looks over to his side, his heart beating hard in his chest.

“The darkness is nothing compared to the battlefield,” Emily says.

“That is not helping,” James laughs nervously.

“Ready when you are,” Emily says, smiling.

Together they step into the darkness and the wall close behind them.  As soon as the wall is closed behind them, a wall in the darkness opens to chaos.

Emily lets go of James's hand as she got connected to am Avatar, “follow me.”

“Connected to Avatar U5011,” an AI voice speaks in James's ears, from the VR, and through the bottom half of the VR he looks through the eyes of the Avatar.  James finds it hard to control the Avatar and follow Emily so he focuses just on Emily and where they are going.

“Avatar U5011 down, searching for nearest Avatar,” the AI says.

They finally reach a huge bridge that is broken mid sky, Emce and some other kids already hiding out there, not seeming too busy.

“Connected to Avatar U5103,” the AI says.

James sits down next to Emce and finally focuses his attention the controlling his Avatar.  Looking through his Avatar he can see a few more Avatars.  He turns his Avatar around and walks it towards where they are hiding.