Shifted Reality Book One: Just AI

Too Fast: Lisa

Hunter reconnected me to the simulation then sent me in with the click of a button. I woke up on soft grass, surrounded by flowers. As I sat up, I realized this field looked awfully familiar. Hunter appeared next to me with a sudden bright light and burst of pixels.
"Where are we?" I asked, holding my hand out to pull Hunter up.
His eyes darted to my chest, where in the previous simulation, I had been shot. He had managed to successfully delete that from my coding, which means I can be here without dying. Hunter began to look around curiously.
"The field? Right outside of Dygithal?" he suggested, thinking swiftly.
I sighed, realizing that meant we'd have to walk into Dygithal.

Hunter began walking towards Dygithal.
"Do we even know where these people live?" I asked curiously.
Hunter nodded, smiling at me.
"They live in a loft above a small gym in Dygithal," he explained.
I rushed to catch up with him. He couldn't help but look at me, though I don't know why. Finally he spoke.
"You killed those bastards, Lisa, I'm proud of you," he said awkwardly.
I thought for a moment, confused on what he meant.
"I mean those bastards who raped and shot you," he whispered, reading the confusion on my face.
I felt my heart skip a beat.
"Hunter, I just shot, I didn't want them to hurt me, I never wanted to kill them," I cried out in a sudden panic.
Hunter chuckled quietly.
"Lisa, you did good, they would have probably raped you, killed you, taken you away from me," he said, grabbing me by my hips and pulling me close.
I stared into those grey eyes of his, studying the person hiding behind them. Hunter's eyes seemed so cold, loveless, when I first met him. Now, there is something in them, perhaps passion, love, longing, warmth, happiness. There is definitely something in him that wasn't there before, that's for sure. Hunter planted a kiss on my lips then let me go.
"Sorry," he whispered awkwardly, before turning to continue to walk towards Dygithal.

With in thirty minutes, we were entering Dygithal. The streets were as busy as usual. This time, I stuck close to Hunter, desperate to not get touched by any glitches. We walked swiftly, until we stood in front of the run down gym. Hidden in the bad, cheap side of town, it was obvious that the experiments here never had a good life. We opened the door to the gym and looked around. A woman with red eyes waved at us from the desk, a huge smile on her face. The whole look to her sent a chill running down my spine. Hunter began to look around. I couldn't break my gaze from the woman. There was something about her. I had this tugging urge to just kill her, but at the same time, there was something about her that spiked my curiosity and made me desperate to get to know her.

Hunter pulling suddenly on my wrist snapped me from my trance.
"Look!" he ordered, pointing at two treadmills in the back of the gym.
On the treadmills were two boys, both running unusually fast. Both seemed to have blue, almost black hair, and blue eyes. Hunter and I blinked for almost a second, only for them to be gone.
"Where did they go?" I asked in amazement, staring at where they had been running.
Suddenly I felt something tap my shoulder. I whirled around and jumped to see the two boys standing behind of me. Hunter turned and looked at them. They had changed out of their workout clothes into some more normal looking clothes.
"Hi," one of the, said with a slight grin.
Looking at their clothes, and hair, it was obvious to tell they liked blue. I waved at the boys, suddenly nervous for a second. With hardly any introduction, Hunter cut the chase, filling them in on this whole simulation thing.

We soon found out that the two were brothers. One named Chris, and the other named Keith. They were like the girls, except closer in age. They were both sixteen, and amazing athletes in the city of Dygithal. It felt weird, to see two experiments so close to the exit point and so oblivious to everything. You would think that the scientists would have out them the furthest away since they could just run there in seconds. This all just felt too easy, like we were being set up.

As we ran towards the exit point, I felt myself starting to fall behind the larger, stronger, faster men. Suddenly I felt my feet being lifted from the ground and my weight being lifted onto someone else's shoulders. I looked down to see Keith giving me a piggy back, still running at speeds that I could never match.
"Hope you don't mind, my brother is carrying your girlfriend so that we can move faster," Chris explained, barely breaking a sweat as he ran with Hunter.
"She's not my..." Hunter trailed off, looking back at me.
I felt a slight tug on my heart that made me feel like I was about to cry.
"She's not that slow, but it would definitely keep her more safe, as her boyfriend, I want to make sure that she is safe and not getting hurt again," he corrected, smiling at me.
I couldn't help but blush and grin.
"Here we are," Hunter announced, opening the door to the exit point building.
With in seconds, Hunter was already hacking to end the simulation. This felt too easy. Something definitely seemed wrong. Though I don't know what. I feel like we're just being led into a trap.

Keith and Chris logged out first, followed by me, followed by Hunter. Miranda and Bethany looked at us, excited as we woke up and stretched the sleep out of our barely relaxed muscles.
"Be back soon," Hunter said before leaving the girls and I alone in the room.
I took another sip of my water and another bite of my food. Hunter and the two boys walked in. Keith and Chris looked weird wearing red with their blue hair and eyes. It just didn't seem to suit them, and it was obvious that they didn't like it. Once everyone was introduced, Hunter began preparing Experiment Orange. Keith, Miranda, Bethany, and Chris all sat in the back corner of the room. Keith sat close to the girls, ready to pick them up if danger was to arise. Chris was sat with a gun, armed and ready to defend in case anyone came into our hiding spot while we were busy in the simulation.
"Lisa, I'm done hacking in. Lets keep up the pace, this will be so much easier if we can," Hunter suggested, setting up the systems for me to enter into Experiment Orange's simulations.