Reveal

*Bang*

A wooden door was slammed open as a small child rushed into a room.

The room was neat and tidy, with a big queen size bed in the corner. 2 books shelfs were off to the side, as well as a desk and walk in bathroom. A huge type of pod was laid next to the bed and gleamed with a silver sheen.

The sheets on the bed shuffled about from the unexpected noise and a head of messy hair rose from the covers.

A woman looking in her 20's, with dark circles under her eyes, popped her head out and looked at the intruder.

But before she could say anything the child dashed into the room, as quick as a rabbit, and jumped into the air. With practiced precision she flew through the air and landed onto the defenseless body.

*Urgh*

The figure in bed let loose a small groan and their body jerked. But that was it, they did nothing else after. It seems that this had occurred more than once and the person was used to it by now.

After groaning the person caught their breath as they were now fully awake, although bleary eyes, and finally spoke.

"Jade…"

The voice was feminine and had a nice soothing tone to it; hidden behind the groaning of the name Jade there was also a hint of affection. One that would forgive her for everything that just happened.

*Heheheh*

Jade laughed at the person under the sheets and finally rolled off the body she had jumped on. Once she rolled off though sunlight from the window streamed in and the person in bed tried to cover themselves, the light was too much.

"Did I sleep in?"

"Sister! Sister!"

Jade who just rolled over didn't even register the question and was loudly repeating her name in an excited manner.

The person, who was being pestered and pulled by the child, rubbed her eyes slowly and took her time before she asked.

"What?"

Finally getting a response Jade got even more excited and was almost shouting.

"It's almost time! It's almost time!"

The person in bed froze fort a second as she couldn't understand what they were talking about. But then after a few seconds a glimmer of understanding passed through her eyes and she also showed a smile. Underneath her cam expression was excitement.

She rolled over and gave the small girl a kiss on the head before rolling out of bed and straightening her pajamas.

"Thanks Jade."

Jade giggled again and also jumped out of the bed. Not minding her sister who was tidying herself, she rushed over to the pod that was next to the bed, and marveled at it.

Her expression was one of wonder as she touched it gently and traced her finger over the silver design. A small logo on the front with the words 'Sim Tech' was emboldened and defined.

"I can't wait to get one for myself!"

In a daze she breathed the words out, loud enough for her sister to hear. Her body shook lightly and her expression changed. She was thinking about something as her face turned from a happy to a sad.

Her eyes flickered as she turned around to look at the young girl and her thoughts drifted off to a memory.

"No you can't!"

She voiced it out loudly, almost a shout, that frightened the girl into stepping away from the pod to look at her. She was frightened as her sister didn't usually shout at her like that.

Noticing what she had just done, the sister relaxed her expression and gently apologized.

"Sorry Jade, I wasn't myself just then….. You know you can't have one till your 18 though."

She spoke quietly with regretful eyes and had to think of a reason why her sister couldn't use the pod. Why she was thinking of a reason for her not to use it, only she knew.

The little girl that was shocked for a second at the outburst came back with even more strength in her voice.

"6 more years and I'll be 18! Then I can use it!"

She said that as she pumped her fist in the air, with a determined expression.

She stood like that in such a funny way that her sister couldn't help but laugh.

*Haha*

The girl pouted as she stared daggers at her, before a smile came back and she moved closer. Motioning for her to bend down and move closer. She got on her toes and whispered in her ear.

"Hey, but I heard they might be letting people as old as 14 play the game. So I won't have to wait as long."

The sister that bent down was shocked by the news; she turned in to a statue as her mind went off somewhere. She just barely registered when the little girl ran out of the room and shouted back at her.

"Mom and Dad sent me to get you for lunch! It's a family meeting."

With those final words she dashed out of the room laughing, going to find her next adventure.

The sister, who was still shocked, took a bit of time before she unfroze.

"What are they thinking?"

She shook her head and got ready to head down stairs. She freshened up, washed her face, and cleaned her teeth. Although after doing so she face palmed. She was about to have lunch and she cleaned her teeth!

What a dumb thing to do!

Berating herself she made her way out of her bed room and into the corridor. It was huge, compared to most normal houses it was at least 3 times larger. She walked passed multiple rooms on either side, before she made it to the stairs.

She had already passed 8 rooms by the time she reached here and slowly made her way down. It was a winding stair case made of wood that screamed luxury. At the bottom of the stairs huge doors that signified the entrance of the house were placed.

She turned to the right and made her way to 2 oak doors, which led to the dining table. It was stretched long and had 12 seats situated around it. 10 of the seats were already filled with people, almost all women, who shared her looks.

Pure black hair, decent height and brown eyes, even the small girl that went to wake her up was off to the side. There was one man at the head of the table and he was talking to the woman next to him.

She was the oldest of the ladies here, being in her late 40's, and had a mature feeling around her. She had aged well enough, that she looked to be in her late 20's at most. The dining room was noisy with everyone talking to each other, but everything stopped when she walked in.

There was a TV set up on one of the walls and it was so big, it was almost like a home theater. The man, who noticed her entrance, turned her way.

"Chloe."

"Dad."

"Mom."

Chloe nodded towards the man and mature lady that were her parents. They smiled back and motioned for one of the empty seats.

"Sit."

Chloe nodded and found her seat, while grabbing some food.

"""Sister!"""

8 other voice sounded out as she made her way to sit down. She nodded back and gave them a smile each. Yes she was one of 9 sisters in the family.

"I heard news that the game you were playing, is about to drop their launch trailer."

Her father spoke up once again and motioned towards the TV. It lit up the area and everyone turned towards it. Some of them had excited expressions on their face, some had no interest. Chloe could only smile warily at her father.

"I know you can't divulge anything about the game being a beta tester, well not up till this point."

He gave a small smile. Yes Chloe was a beta tester for a game that was coming out soon. She had signed a contract which said she couldn't divulge any of the information before the game was officially announced. Even then she wouldn't be able to say some things regarding the game, even when it got released.

Being one of the only ones selected in the world, it wasn't really a big deal that she was a beta tester. There were thousands of them in the world. What made this special, enough so that her father and mother had been interested, as they usually didn't show interest in this sort of thing.

Was because there was a rumor going around, and this rumor had shaken the whole world to its core. Something that had been dreamed about since the early 2000's and still hadn't become a reality even now, in 2067.

Virtual Reality, or VR.

2 words that made every gamer in the world interested in the game. Of course this wouldn't interest some peoples, but every gamer had their eyes peeled for when any information would come out. It was an unprecedented way of playing a game. And if it was as imagined, a fully immersive VR, it would be the first in history.

This brought it to the attention of her parent who were rich and powerful, being CEO's of major cooperation's. With the advent of virtual reality, it might cause a shift in the economy. They had asked their daughter about it before but she had been legally bonded to not say anything.

And now that the day had finally come, that the launch trailer would be released, they were quite interested. Her father even kept it too himself, but when he was younger, he had also dreamt of a fully immersive VR game, what kid wouldn't love it?

Now that he had grown older, he still couldn't help his excitement building. Some of her sisters also had such thoughts, while others weren't interested. But because their family was very strict with their meetings, they had all been summoned to watch the trailer.

His wife nudged him from the side and pointed at the video screen. The amount of views on the video after only a few seconds had already jumped to 1 million.

"Let's watch it first darling, then talk."

The father nodded and pressed play.

A few minutes later everyone in the room was shocked, they were still reeling from what they had just watched. The mother of the family was even considering to never do such a thing again. The amount of blood shed in that video was a bit much.

The realism, the action, the deaths.

The trailer brought out emotions in them, when they saw the old couple going to their deaths, the infected and beasts that were attacking people. It was a good trailer, compared to some game trailers it wasn't the best.

But once you added in the VR aspect, it took on a whole new meaning. A few of them looked over to Chloe who got to beta test the game and tried to imagine what it was like. But Chloe didn't notice their looks, she was in a daze.

She had recognized a person from the trailer. There had been 2 different instances of him showing up. And the implications were mind blowing. It gave her insight into the person she only knew for a few days.

The scene where he was kneeling in front of a hospital bed, cloth in hand and the scene where he bit into an infected's throat. Her mind thought back to the person she met and she quietly whispered his name.

"Liam. Just what have you been through?"