Chapter 1

While the chances of getting selected for the survival squad were very slim, the incoming casualties painted a horrifying picture. It was a purely voluntary act; you decide and go in or just wait till the police verify your credentials and push you into the immigrant camps. The bloody corpses lying in the backyard of the training camp cum medical facility frightened each one of us. A generation embedded in the virtual world was seeing bloodshed for the first time. It was not a simulation anymore. It was damn accurate.

As the clock hit 12, it was time to line up. The emaciated, feeble-minded child-faced men stood up in a straight line, looking up towards the main door, making it look like a disciplined space.

"Is this the line for the recruitment of the squad?" I tapped the shoulder of my predecessor, who meekly looked down from his towering stature.

"Yes," his answer was short and surreal.

The inspector, with a smart plate, scanned the wrists of the candidates to pick out the expired ones. It was the first hurdle since the servers were all down, and the expiry dates of all the neural links were stored in the central server to which only the federal agency had access. Two boys staying at the start of the line were excluded, and all others were allowed to go for further processing.

The narrow corridor opened into a massive white hall where the walls were all screens. Every candidate took a spot near the wall and began accessing their live profiles. Some were trapped in the loop of escaping death, while some were to find themselves sleeping in their homes. I couldn't log in. When I tried to access her profile, I was taken out of the screening hall and made to sit in the lobby while the officers of the agency prepared my interrogation plate.

Sitting in the mirrored interrogation room, my thoughts drifted into my past.

"It is all a lie," I said to Sam.

"Maybe, but they projecting it like it is a reality," he replied.

I lay in my bed, activating and deactivating aeroplane mode on my phone, desperately looking for a network bar to show up.

"What's wrong with this network?" I was feeling irritated with my phone.

"I heard they are changing all the network components to bring in the new technology. It is supposed to support all that they are claiming to happen."

"Bullshit."

"Maybe, but man, they are serious."

"What about the communications?"

"The AI will handle it all."

"I don't believe it."

"I saw the results in the videos. They are simulating all the things clearly and sometimes better."

"Hahaha."

"It is true."

I stood up against the window, looking into the street where two people were arguing about something. It felt strange.

"I don't know, but it feels like we are doomed. AI can't take the lead, as I think it still needs to be understood, fed more data and then controlled and regulated. We can't switch abruptly."

"Well, you may be right, but things are not in favour of your perspective."

"Whatever."