THE BABYLONIAN

Chapter 3: Hello Zero

Everything suddenly turned black, and my senses slowly returned to normal. ‘The three hours must be up', I thought.

I took the googles off but I felt a little dizzy in my head. There was a holographic message displayed: saying that the game was over. All I really wanted to do was finish the game, however, I couldn’t; I had to wait till tomorrow. The door automatically opened and I walked out. It felt like was in there for more than three hours, but it could have been because the program was running at a higher speed. After leaving the café I went straight home. That was more than one year ago and I hadn’t been able to play since.

After reaching home I booked another ticket, and the next day I skipped the whole day of school to go and play the game. But when I reached there, the place was closed. There was a notice put up in the front saying that the café had been closed – indefinitely. I searched in other places, but it was the same everywhere – all around the world. I waited a long time for the game to come back but it never did. It was never announced who had won the game, or whether anyone had won the game. The Babylonian disappeared, just like it appeared; without any notice or foreboding.

**********

These were the things that I was thinking about, while sitting in front of my computer that day. Before I even activated my computer I heard a beeping sound and all the screens of my computer turned white. Then after a few seconds all the screens became blank.

A white curser suddenly appeared on the screen, blinking; and it began to type by itself:

01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100001 0

I didn’t have to write it down to figure out that it was saying: hello Zero.

I didn’t know anyone who could hack into my computer; then again, why would anyone want to. But being curious, I typed back: who are you?

An old friend.

I don’t have any friends. What do you want?

Don’t you want to finish your game, Zero?

For some reason I wasn’t surprised. I had been waiting for an opportunity to finish the one game I couldn’t finish. I had spend most of my life living in games; and how many times have I wished to wake up in one! I always believe that if I could live inside a game, any game, my life would have more meaning.What made games better than the real world was that it didn't require you to pretend to be something you are not; on the contrary, it enabled you to be anything, anyone, and most of all anonymous. And here it was – the one game that I wasn’t able to figure out.

Come to the café in which you played for the first time. There’s another level to this game, which is beyond anything you can imagine. But first you have to win it.

Just when I finished translating it, the messages disappeared and the screen returned to normal. I considered the possibility of it being a hoax, but came to the conclusion that it wasn’t; because if it was, they would’ve tried to be as detailed as possible.

I took my phone and left the house immediately and darted towards the place. The sky was dark yet it had a violent tint near the horizon behind me; and I felt that I was walking into darkness.

I reached in front of the café right after night fall. There was no one on the streets but a few cars were passing by, and I could see the lights on the buildings opposite to me. There was no other instruction for me to follow, but I hoped that it would soon come. My phone beeped and I took it out. Like before, the screen was blank, and a curser was blinking.

Don’t hesitate, go and check out your ‘8’.

That was it and the screen returned to normal. I walked towards the entrance, and when I reached in front of it a light blinked and the door opened. As soon as I stepped inside, all the lights turned on, and the door closed behind me. I walked towards the eighth room that had by now become so familiar in my mind. Everything in that place was exactly like it was before, but the cold night outside gave it a chilling atmosphere. I reached in front of the old blue door. The door opened automatically, sensing my presence.

I stepped inside, but there was neither the chair nor the googles. All the sensors seemed to flicker as if each of them were human eyes staring at me. I had a feeling of uneasiness growing inside me. But then a table like platform rose from the floor, and there was two circles on it, lit by a blue light. Then I heard a voice, ‘I told you there was another level to this game.’

The same of a hand palm appeared in pink in each of the circles. I knew what I had to do, and I placed both of my palms inside the circles. There was a sudden shot of pain through my hands, as the platform on which I was standing on rose higher. All the sensors in the room seems to emit a bright blue light. It felt like electricity was flowing through my body and my head started to spin. My vision became distorted and the lights seemed to rotate around me. Then I lost grip of everything, my body became very cold, and all my senses were in delirium; I had a feeling that I was being thrown across space and time…