REM

Zin Inspired

I'm sure everyone has had those moments when they wished they could take control of situations. Those times when things are getting so out of control that they even wished they could escape by pushing an eject button. I recently had one of those moments, however, it felt anything but brief.

Put yourself in my shoes for one moment. I'm a young kid, trying to make my way in the world, but I get sucked into a group of people who work at a facility where they like to run tests on people, young and old. I don't know much about the specific tests they run on each individual, but I do know they are having negative effects on some.

Just the other day, I thought things were normal around here. One of the regular delivery trucks arrived, loaded with Easter items and some other useful things. We unloaded as usual, bringing the stock to a storage trailer by means of forklift. Well, to be accurate, none of them were trailers anymore. All of them had the wheels and other underside bits removed, then they were stacked on top of each other. Now they were nothing more than storage containers in the facility, but accessing them could only be done by a modified forklift.

The man I was working with was Thomas. He was much older and stronger, and he could probably wring my neck if I ever stepped out of line. I carried boxes with him into the storage warehouse where the used-to-be-trailers were stacked. We both set boxes down on the platform skid, then went back and forth until it was full, minus the space for us to stand. The gate was then closed for safety while Thomas used the modified controller box to operate the forklift while we were up in the air.

When we completed our task of emptying the truck, we closed the bay door and headed back to the other loading dock where a dozen men were gathered. I wasn't sure what was going on at first, but as I came to a stop behind one of the men I knew, someone began to fire a gun at random.

"Shoot him, shoot him!" I yelled from behind the man I knew.

Before he could shoot the guy, he fell down in a heap, acting as a meat shield to save me from being riddled with bullets. I grabbed the gun from his holster as people started to flee the scene, but I wasn't going to let everyone get away.

Others began chasing the people who were trying to kill us, so I ran outside to assist. I saw a woman fleeing, so I shot at her, causing her to fall down. She quickly got back up, so I lined up the shot and pulled the trigger as a bullet connected with her head.

Before she fell to the ground she made a noise, which didn't make any sense to me. The only way she would be able to grunt, or groan after being shot in the head was if my bullets were rubber.

A hand gripped my shoulder as the scene began to crumble away, pixel by pixel.

"Good job, kid."

I turned around to see the man I thought was dead standing there, smiling at me.

"It was just a test?" I asked.

"Yup."

"It felt so real though." Turning my hands over to inspect each one, I realized the gun I had been holding was no longer in my hand.

"It always does," he stated, putting his muscular arm around me and walking back inside the building.

"We're still in the facility?" I was a bit confused as to how the simulator worked.

"We are," he replied. "You did good, kid. Now go wash up for dinner."

He removed his arm from my shoulder and walked away, leaving me to carry on down a hallway to the washroom. I never knew the simulator could manipulate the entire facility and create enemies for us to shoot at. The gun I was using wasn't even real, the simulator tricked me into believing it was physically in my hands.

Either way, none of it was real. Apparently I did really well, but now I was concerned about a real threat. My instincts kicked in, allowing me to shoot a woman who threatened us. Sure, I was a young boy, but I didn't think I would have it in me to shoot a female.

I walked to the washroom and locked the door behind me. Sitting down on the toilet, I wondered if the next one would be real or not. Now that I knew they ran simulations to see if we were ready for attacks, I had to consider each scenario as real. There was no going easy on someone I didn't recognize, especially if it wasn't a simulation.

As I tried to pee, I heard bay doors being closed, chains clanging together as they were slotted into locks. Footsteps could now be heard outside the door.

"You in there, kid?" asked someone.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Hurry up. We're about to eat."

The footsteps faded as I hung my head and sighed, looking down at my dirty, worn boots.

Today I had been tested. They wanted to see if I would choose fight or flight. Even though I wanted to run and hide at first, I chose to man up and fight. I had proven myself.