Power Outage

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Is This a Date!?

                Alex waited in front of the entrance to the VR Room, which is basically one big holo-graphic wall with the words “The New Worlds” and revolving images of the Earth and Mars. Damian, in the same pants as yesterday but a different shirt, runs over to Alex, dodging people among other things. A little out of breath, he asks, “Did you wait long?”

                “Not really, on the way here I bought the purse I wanted. You like?” Alex answered, holding up the purse.

                “Very nice, looks expensive though. What do you do for a living exactly?”

                “I work in advertising, design and photography.”

                “Eh, is that so? The pay must be very good.”

                “It is, but the work can be very troubling,” she says with a slightly flushed face.

                “I don’t see any reason to blu— oh… oooooh, ok. I think I understand why now…”

                “Umm… shall we get going?”

                “Of course, after you.”

                Alex walks through the wall first. The wall is actually like the Bypass-Wall from a while back but less restrictive, as the wall allows any person to go through except during closing times by then, only employees are only allowed to enter. Damian nervously walks in, as this is his first time going to a VR place. The room is much more expansive than it appears to be on the directory and the outside, but it appears to be an empty white room with, a few yards from the entrance, large, evenly-spaced circles covering the floor with numbers and letters in the center of each. The ceiling of the room seems nonexistent, only because the Bypass-Wall led to an infinite space with the only devices stopping someone from wandering off are the high walls of the room. The space between each circle is about three feet and the circles themselves have the diameter of four feet.  In the free space between the circles and the entrance, a rectangle forms, which begins to glow on the outline and work its way to the center. Holograms of a man and a woman appear in front of Damian and Alex and say at the same time, “Welcome to ‘The New Worlds’. How many people are in your party?”

                Another group walk in and the same thing happens to them as did Alex and Damian. Alex answers to the holograms, “Two.”

                “Confirmed. Is there anyone in your party that is playing Virtual Reality games for the first time?”

                Alex turns to Damian, he nods. She is a little surprised, but says yes to the holograms

                “Would the new player please step into cylinder NU-27?” As the holograms say this one of the circles off to the side rises seven feet quickly, showing a cylinder with NU-01 on it. The cylinder rises as quickly and the same height as the circle to reveal a cylinder with NU-02 on it. This continues for a minute until it stops on NU-27. A line appears straight down the cylinder and opens. Damian, a little nervous, looks to the groups that came after them; they are all going into their own cylinders. Damian then turns to Alex who gives an ok to reassure him.

                “Quick question: what happens if there is an emergency and I am still in the pod?”

                “You will be instantly teleported to the nearest disaster center or to your home and the progress you have made will be automatically saved. Any other questions?”