ASTRAVIVA: Virtual Ascendency

Aiden was jolted awake with a strange feeling of déjà vu. He felt hot and suffocated, and yearned for fresh air, only to realize his movements were restricted in the dark cramped space he was in. Looking up ahead, he saw a railing with red lights occasionally flickering on the other side.

He hurriedly crawled towards the railing, and without bothering to peep through, he pushed hard on the railing which fell over without efforts. He then crawled out of the cramped space, and from below a bunker bed, before staggering to his feet with a nauseous feeling and scanning the small room he had crawled into, cautiously.

The sheets on the two bunker beds were fumbled like whoever had slept on them left in a hurry, and the dusty pillows were on the floor. He looked towards the open doorway, and to the empty hallway which had it's emergency light flickering every now and then, making the situation creepier than it already was.

Aiden lifted his arms up to his face, and an amazed smile crept on his handsome face. His entire being looked realistic, but were animated. Not just him, but everything in the room were all animated, but were realistic too.

Not much different from reality, but cooler!

"So cool" Aiden muttered to himself in amazement.

Muffled gunshots suddenly echoed, followed by a terrified shriek, then everywhere fell eerily silent like the previous sounds were just hallucinations. 

A virtual screen materialized before him with a only few words on it, with a rectangular bar below which started with red, then the middle was yellow, and the other end green. With a white mark at the beginning of the bar, red.

[Escape the breached facility!]

"Okay. A storyline quest, let's go!" Aiden said to himself in excitement, and headed out the open doorway, into the dark eerie hallway.

He no longer tried to be cautious and marched through the hallway like a veteran soldier who has survived countless life and death battles. He got to the end of the hallway, which now had two paths, leading left and right. But on the left were still humanoids figures, more like mannequins. But the emergency lights flickered too fast for him to make out if they were really mannequins, or humans.

He swiped the air to dispel the virtual screen before him for a better view, then took cautious steps towards the still figures who had their backs at him.

"Hello..." Aiden words were cut short as a pungent smell wafted through his nose, coming from up ahead, where the figures stood.

He subconsciously took a step and began retching violently, trying to get the odour off his system as they smelled awfully bad, similar to decayed bodies.

"What the... Shit!" Aiden cussed as he began retreating, not daring to approach any closer.

The still figures up ahead suddenly moved, which paused Aiden's steps as he squinted his eyes to get a better view on the figures, who slowly turned around till they were facing his direction.

Growl!

The figures growled with distorted voice, and sped towards Aiden with a speed he wasn't sure he could outrun.

"Z-zombies?! Shit!" Aiden cussed with growing panic and fled in the opposite direction.

He screeched to a halt as he got to the end of the hallways and took a left turn. But much to his dismay, it was a dead end. There was an elevator at the end of hallway, and looking behind, the predators were only a couple of steps away.

Aiden cried out in panic and sped towards the elevator which was probably out of power. He tripped and fell over as he got to the elevator. But just before the zombies could jump on him, the lights came on which stunned the zombies, and while they were disoriented by the white lights, the elevator's doors slammed shut.

Aiden gasped heavily for air as he laid on his back and ran his fingers along his messy jet black hair while blinking involuntarily.

"I-it's a game, I'm not really gonna die... I don't want to die" Aiden reassured himself and willed for the virtual screen he had previously swiped away.

The white mark was now at the middle of the bar which was yellow, and was moving towards the green bar, albeit slowly, as the elevator descended down to the first floor.

Aiden pulled himself together and stood up just as the elevator halted with a jolt. It's doors slid open to reveal a girl with braided blonde hair, with a rifle pointed to his face.

"Woah! I'm no zombie, I'm a player!" Aiden clarified with his hands above head, but got butted with the other end of the rifle which knocked him out cold.

-

Aiden regained his consciousness when he had enough of the rough bumping, and opened his blurry eyes only to shut them again at the intense light and heat coming from above. He raised his hands up above his face to shield his eyes, then opened them again and slowly sat up.

He saw the girl with braided blonde hair staring at him curiously with a scarf covering from her nose down to her neck, and behind her were scorched landscapes. They were both in the wide trunk of an off-road vehicle, speeding through the hot, suffocating landscape.

The girl reached out a water bag to him, and he quickly grabbed it and downed it's contents greedily; as he was drained.

"What's this?" Aiden asked with a wrinkled face, as the contents of the water bag tasted nothing like water.

"Distilled urine" The girl replied.

"W-what?!" Aiden stammered in shock, and quickly took his head over the side of the trunk and emptied the contents of his empty stomach there.

"You really are a player... A new one" The girl muttered to herself with a conflicted feeling.

"What?" Aiden asked as he wiped his lips with the sleeve of the blue jacket on him.

"Rule number one, trust no one" The girl said with a serious tone.