The Walking Game Chp. III

Chapter III
 

Today was the day. My father and I made our way into Rain-Tech Industry’s main corridor. It was an enormous building, black slick walls with blue cube tiles covered the span of my vision, people littered the entire floor just bustling around trying to find the next project to work on. My father strode through occasionally saying "Hi" to a random worker or two. All people who I assumed worked in his division. We strode...well I wheeled my way through a couple of hallways until, we reached a single door that was labeled “The Game Room”. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, like it was trying to beat itself out. He looked down and smiled at me, “Are you ready Aura?” I nodded my head, I couldn’t find the words to describe what I was feeling right now. I felt like a kid that had just been offered a free trip into a candy store after her whole life, her parents had kept him from sweets.

 

I was going to walk!! I think I finally understood why the Little Mermaid practically gave her soul to that evil witch in order to walk.

We opened the door and I craned my neck to see inside. All I could see was a bunch of lit up buttons and devices. In the center of the room there stood a single bed-like structure where I was guessing I would be spending most of my virtual walking hours. Above the bed sat a visor strapped to a bunch of cords that made their way over to the computer. If someone asked me what all of the stuff was for I would probably reply by just do the same thing I was doing now. Staring at the dark, glowing room with my mouth wide open.

 

“This Aura, is the Game Room. It’s where all the magic is going to happen for you. Every single participant has their own game room, this one in yours.” Once again I just nodded. “First before we start anything, I’m going to need you to sign that contract that we talked about.” I looked up and at him and stared.

 

“Oh! Right the contract yeah, sure just hand it over and I’ll sign.” I held out my hand and waited for him to dig through some drawers and pull it out.

 

“Here we go, just sign down there by that X.”

 

“Shouldn’t I read over it first? There isn’t like a secret clause in here that could...kill me or something right?” I laughed at the stupidity of my remark. Of course there wouldn’t be something like that, my father had made the game and I was almost sure he made the contract too. He wouldn’t let something like that slip by him especially with my safety in mind.

 

“If you want to go ahead and read it, but I’ve already checked over it a couple of times. Nothing really serious just mainly the rules I told you about.” I nodded and signed the X. I didn’t really care to read it, I just wanted to get on that bed thing and Dive myself into the world my father had created. He took the paper from me and looked it over once. Smiling, he set it back into the drawer. I tried to sneak a look and see if I could catch another name before I realized we all had our own rooms, their contracts would be in theirs. Damn.

 

“Alrighty! We are all set baby girl now if we will make our way over to the bed…” He tried to grab the back of my wheelchair, but I told him no. This was something I wanted to do myself. I wanted to get on the bed myself, I needed this. He seemed to understand and he held his hands up in the surrender position laughing a little as I slowly wheeled my way over to the chair. My mind was racing as I got closer to the bed.

 

This was it. I was finally going to walk again!!!

 

When I reached the bed, I quickly ran my hands over it. The fabric seemed to meld underneath my hand. Like some kind of memory foam mattress, specifically designed for me. I smiled, with this kind of bed I definitely would be trying to be in longer than 12 hours. I rolled myself so that I was sideways next to the bed. Giving a deep sigh I pushed my body up, I grunted as I quickly remembered that I was a lot heavier than I looked. All the dead weight from my legs made lifting myself almost impossible. But I could do this. I needed to do this myself. As worth it as I planned on making myself in the game, I also needed to know that I had the drive outside of the game to do what needed to be done. I grunted again as I pushed myself up again this time getting the corner of my butt onto the bed. Yes! I looked up at my father his eyes glowing as he watched me. I looked down again my other hand still on the handle of my wheelchair, just a little more to go. I scooted back onto the bed and strained as I threw my body weight back onto the bed. Yes! I made it on. I pushed myself back into position underneath the visor.

 

Breathing heavily I drifted my eyes back down towards my father, “Okay so what’s next?!”

“Next you pull down the visor and place it over your head. It will take your body measurements and cerebral scan you so that your avatar will be the same as your real life body.” I shot my hands up and grabbed the visor.

 

“Whoa there Hot Wheels slow it down! You’re gonna break my equipment!” My father laughed as he watched me desperately try to pin the visor down over my head.

 

“Sorry Dad….” I mumbled from underneath it. He grumbled something, and then I heard him press a couple of keys. I stared into the visor and saw nothing but orange. My breathing started to escalate quicker, I was scared that I was going to hyperventilate from the excitement. I closed my eyes and told myself to calm down.

 

“Alright honey, I’m about to dive you in. You are gonna feel a slight tingle inside your head but don’t worry about it, it’s normal. Oh one more thing before you go in I forgot to ask of you. Try not to tell anyone that I’m your dad okay? They might think you have an upper hand in game.” As I was nodding I felt something prick the back of my neck, and felt a tingle in my mind.

 

Whoa that was weird.

 

Next thing I knew the visor lit up and I was shot into a vortex of colors.

Now Entering the Game.

 

I didn’t even get a chance to breath before I was thrown onto the ground. I felt around and my hands and grabbed something, grass. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I was laying in a field, the smells of nature hit me hard. It was earthy and sweet. Was I in the game already? I used my arms to drag myself forward a little towards a tree so that I could sit myself up against it. I didn’t even get an inch before I noticed something.

 

The grass was tickling my legs. I could feel my legs. I looked down as I watched the grass tickle its way up and down my calves. I couldn’t stop the tears from falling and I didn’t want too. Everything about the world was beautiful. From the double moons that hung lazily low in the sky, to the trees. Everything. But nothing could compare to what I was experiencing, knowing that I could feel my legs. Slowly as if it were all a dream I lifted my leg up and tried to bend it at the knee. It did. I wiped my face of the tears and bent the other one. I couldn’t believe it, my dad’s game actually worked!! I had wanted to believe him, and only wished the best for his projects but I couldn't hide the fact that I had had doubts. But this...knowing that it worked first hand? This could change the world.

 

After a few more minutes of playing “Bend Aura's Knee” I decided it was about time to try and stand up. I placed both my feet on the ground and used my arms to push up the tree trunk. I wobbled a little as I stood up fully. I smiled at myself, “This is so awesome!!” I shouted out too nobody. I decided to take a step away from the tree, and ended up falling down to my knees. Okay so I wasn’t TOTALLY used to walking yet, but I had 11 plus hours to practice and I was not about to give those hours up for anything. I was making a decision then to not sit down ever when I was playing this game.

 

I used the tree to stand myself back up again. This time I bent my knees a little and took a step forward. My legs wobbled a little bit but I didn’t fall. That was a good thing. Another step, another step. By the time I had taken about 20 steps, I already wanted more. It was like a high I couldn’t shake. If there was meetings for addicts of walking I would be member #1. I started walking, a little more confidence every step I took, a little faster in my paces. I eventually reached the point where I was like jog walking, what had my mom called it? Power walking? My mom said she did it every morning and it made her feel alive. If that’s all she was felt when she did it, someone wasn’t enjoying walking enough. I walked faster faster, until I was going into a full out sprint. I stopped only to take off my shoes, so that I could feel the grass on my feet. My whole life I had wondered, and dreamed about what it would feel like to touch and feel grass on my toes. Nothing prepared me for the sensation. I blinked a couple of times to stop another round of tears from coming. I wasn’t gonna spend my whole time in the game crying.

 

I tied my shoes together and threw them over my shoulder. I started running again, down through the field. A few minutes later I stopped and dropped down into the grass, staring up into the sky.

 

So much for never sitting down.

 

I could make out some digital squares in the clouds but other than that it was gorgeous. Just like the real world, which I was already regretting having to go back too. I sighed and scanned around the sky until my eyes caught something weird. I noticed a something black headed down towards my direction. It was surrounded by a green aura and was traveling a lot faster than something friendly should.

 

I turned my body over and shot up off the ground. Wobbling a little again, damnit I’d need to work on my standing up more. I started to run away from whatever it was that was crashing down, almost sure that it wasn’t a care package from dad. No sooner had I gotten about 20 feet away when I heard a crash come from behind me. The ground exploded and I felt myself being thrown back down again. I hit my head on the ground and grunted “Ow.” I saw a red number appear before my face telling me I had lost some health. I shook my head and turned towards the direction of the crash.

 

When the smoke cleared I could see a crater in the ground. It wasn’t that big, but its impact  had felt like someone had set off a bomb or something. I rubbed the back of my head and stood up, no wobble this time. Progress. I slowly walked my way over to the crater and looked down to see what had caused all the mess. Inside the crater was what looked like a pod, at least that was the only way I could describe it.

It was silver and blue, and it looked as though it was breathing. It expanded and retracted back and forth back and forth. I was entranced by it, I couldn’t stop staring. It’s webbed designed drew me in visually. No matter how hard I tried, once I laid my eyes on it I couldn’t stop looking. Then there was the noise. I high pitch musical chime emitted from it, taking away my train and reasoning of thought.

 

Don’t go near it Aura...It’s probably an alien pod, and dad said those were the bad guys.

 

My mind was screaming at me to run, but I couldn’t I didn’t want too. I wanted to feel it, to just sit there and hear it. This pod was everything I needed right now. My legs drew me closer to it until it was only a hand reach away. I tried again to force my body into lockdown but it didn’t work. The noise told me to touch the pod with my hand.

 

Just touch it.

 

My hand reach out and touched the pod shell. It felt like skin, and it seemed to shudder at my touch. The noise stopped immediately and I snapped back into focus. I withdrew my hand from it and started walking backwards. It was a little too late, I watched as the pod peeled itself away one layer after another until it opened up like a flower in spring. The beautiful colors it once showed me was now replaced by a repugnant black ooze like image. The pod bled out black pus that stunk horribly. I covered my nose and backed away even farther.

 

Five minutes into the game and I already messed up.

 

I gulped, and watched as the ooze combined together to form, a human sized creature. I gasped when it finally, and fully materialized. Its head was shaped in an oval egg-like form. Its mouth was replaced by an entire row of nostrils. It had 4 eyes, 2 pairs on either side of it’s head. The rest of its body seemed to be made up of flaps of loose skin that seemed to cover the lower part of its body. The pungent smell still lingered, and I wondered quickly how I could have even been tempted to wanna touch anything that could smell like this. I didn’t realize I had stopped moving while the alien materialized. And for a second it seemed to not even know I was there until I saw 3 of it’s nostrils flare up and it turned its head towards me.

Oh crap.

It let out a screech, that rocked me to my core and then it started to run towards me.