Build Sequence Is Key

New Reality

Jason woke up in a medical ward. Around his bed was a privacy curtain that was ripped unceremoniously away in short order.

"I see you are awake. You have some time to gain your bearings, but then I need you out of that bed. There are others waiting." A woman, a nurse, explained perfunctorily.

"Yes, ma'am." Jason gave her a reply that he thought best fit her tone, but then he went on, "Excuse me though, where do I go from here?"

She looked at him closer then and suddenly her attitude changed, "Oh, you are newly tutorialized! I am sorry, we get a lot of people who fake injuries to get out of their work shifts on the holo deck. Head straight out of the infirmary and then follow the light blue line to the left. The big double doors, got it?" She pointed and waited till he had confirmed her directions and then she was gone.

Before she had left she had engaged a digital clock that was counting down from sixty minutes. He assumed this was his timer, he had to leave before the timer was finished. All he had on was a hospital gown, his school clothes were gone, even his shoes. Instead on the bottom of the bed was a standard looking jumpsuit and shoes. He changed into it quickly and left the curtained over bed as quick as he could. 

The infirmary was actually a very long room with what looked like many curtained off beds. He could hear cries of pain and moaning coming from much further down the room, but he didn't investigate. There were many doctors and nurses moving around so he felt like it would be better to stay out of their way. Instead he left the room and examined the wall opposite from the door. 

Lines of many different colors ranked themselves down the wall. It wasn't a rainbow, it was a mess. There was no color scheme, instead sometimes a few color would go well with each other and other times the colors would clash. The bottom line, a lime green color, broke off from the rest, going straight down the wall and then across the floor only stopping when it was about to cross the threshold into the infirmary. Looking left and right Jason saw that at the end of the corridor the lines all exploded out in a fan to give enough room to display arrows. Heading right he saw that there were three types, a wedge up, a wedge down, and a full arrow. Walking back and forth to the different halls intersecting with this one he saw that there was a pattern. The type of arrow determined whether the line would pick up to the left, right, or be found straight ahead.  

While walking around he must have looked like a chicken with its head cut off, because when he roused himself from his little game of understanding he found a woman had stopped and was quietly watching him.

"Oh, don't let me stop you. Keep going, this is actually pretty entertaining." She said.

"I am sorry, I am new here." Jason blushed.

The woman in her twenties with brown hair, brown eyes, and glasses shook her head asking, "Where are you headed off too?"

"Well, I don't know actually. A nurse in the infirmary said to follow the blue line, but didn't say where the blue line went..."

"He or she probably meant the light blue line. Here, I will go with you." She started off back down the hall with the infirmary, when he didn't immediately move to follow she turned back and waved him on, "Come on, don't worry."

Still Jason held back, for some reason he wanted to find out more about what we going on before meeting his fate at the end of the light blue line.

Now, the woman became a little more frustrated, "Newbies are so frustrating, I forgot! Come on, it is good that you don't trust me, but seriously the more you delay the worse it will be for you. Come on."

Taking a few steps forward, he suddenly decided that he had dive in head first. There was no use holding back at this point. He wouldn't even know what to do with any clues as to what this place was even if he found anything.

"Good, good boy, come on. No one is going to hurt you." And then under her breath a little quieter, "Newby!"

"So what is this place?"

"You don't know?"

"No, I was told I was an error." Jason admitted.

She looked over at him surprised, "No wonder you are acting funny. Usually the tutorial mode takes care of the introductions. You must have had it rough."

Stopping suddenly, she brought up her hand help device, it was larger than her hand so Jason squinted at the surface thinking she was going to show him something, "No, dummy, hold out your hand."

Confused Jason held out both his hands.

"Wow, you don't even have an ID bracelet. Your travel must have been really messed up."

"Yeah?" Jason tried and when she nodded he went on, "Messed up and then even more messed up part way through."

She laughed, "What happened?"

"I met a dragon."

"Wow, that is interesting. What was its name?"

"Azeroth?" Jason threw out the name to see how she would take it.

But she just shook her head, "Must be unaligned, probably a weak one. But still an existence that could have messed with your Tutorial."

Jason didn't comment that Azeroth had just been a small bump in the road, "She was nice. I liked her."

"Most of the upper classmen are associated with a dragon clan, so don't go letting anyone else know about Azeroth, yet. If they know you have already been taken, they won't bother trying to recruit you. And trust me you want them to at least give you the token amount of interest." She said matter of factly.

"Wow, thanks for the information. May, I ask your name?" Jason said being over polite since he didn't know how he should be treating her.

"Ha! My name is Cecilia. I am sorry, I can't believe I didn't give you my name." She ducked her head away and to the side a bit so Jason couldn't see her face.

They were mostly quiet for the rest of the walk. It was more than a little awkward.