by Eliza Taye
Shooting my gaze over to Dylan in surprise, I watched as he stomped the back edge and it soared into the air about ten feet. “Come on, Allie!”
Mimicking Dylan’s movement, I kicked mine up into the air as well. As the board rose in height, I noticed a suction on my feet that glued them into place. I tried to readjust them, but couldn’t.
Dylan saw me and counseled, “Don’t worry about that. It’s so you can’t fall to your death. Once you descend to three feet above the ground, it releases. Follow me and I’ll show you this side of the Entertainment District.”
Dylan took off into the air, flying just above low lying sculptures and building signs. My competitiveness awoken, I followed quickly, swaying back and forth to catch my balance on the board I wasn’t yet accustomed to riding. It took several minutes of trying to get steady. I nearly smacked into signs about twenty times before I got the hang of it.
When I was finally used to the rocking and able to stabilize it, I began reading some of the signs instead of nearly slamming into them. Oceania Theatre of Fine Arts was shaped like a coliseum, open air at the top with thousands of seats wrapped around the circumference. At the edges, a thin layer that looked like it might hold roof projections hidden around the outside.
“Over there is the stadium where they play Aquaball.” Dylan pointed across the way from the theater to an area nearly twice the size. A domed arena resembling a bulbous fish tank was situated in the center, with stands surrounding the entire sides.
“What is Aquaball?”
“It’s kind of like soccer, football, and basketball mixed all in one, except that everything is underwater.” Dylan rocked into a hover just above the stadium.
I tried to mimic him, but my board simply kept moving. Dylan reached out to steady me and my board stopped as well. “Thanks. How does that work?”
“Everyone wears personal breathing devices that can last up to three hours underwater. The sport is hard to explain, but their season begins in a couple weeks. Maybe I can get tickets for both of us to see it.”
My face lit up, “Yeah, that’d be stellar!”
“Stellar?”
“Yeah, it’s something we say on land. We’re pretty obsessed with space since we finally had a successful Mars mission.”
“Really? We were told the multiple Mars mission failures were one of the reasons Oceania was built. They gave up on colonizing space.”
My eyebrows shot up. “No, not even close.”
“Hmm…let’s move on.” Dylan kicked the board into gear and towed me along with him. “In the building that resembles a half-tilted over box is the convention center. All kinds of events are held there. Next door to it is the multi-purpose sports building. Inside you can find basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts. There’s also bowling, ice skating, roller rinks, archery, disc golf, and the like.”
“Every one of those sports is inside?”
“Yeah, they are each on different levels.” Dylan passed by the square building with a wavy roof and went on to the next one. “Over there in the half-globe shaped building is the music hall.”
“Hey, it looks like there’s something going on there.” I pointed down to the line gathering outside the door.
“Let’s check it out.” Dylan held onto me as we rapidly descended to street level.
Just like he’d stated, I felt the suction recede as we got closer to the ground and vanish altogether at around three feet. Hopping off the board and setting it up against the other hover boards lining the pathway, we joined the people standing in line.
On the wall next to where we stood was a digiposter advertising a simul-viewing of the Rockfish Band concert.
“What’s a simul-viewing?” I asked Dylan as the line began moving.
He glanced over at the digiposter and got excited. “You’ll see in a bit.”
The building we entered turned out to be a club so dark I could hardly see anything until my eyes adjusted to the gloom. Barstools lined the counter to the right just beyond the stairs leading down to the open main floor. Along the edges of the club were booths each lit by small green lights. The intensity of the music blaring from the hidden speakers caused my heart to beat in rhythm with the melody.
“Dylan, are we allowed to be in here?”
“Yeah, it’s a twenty-one and under club on the first level. The adult ones are on the higher levels up. You get age-scanned before you can go up there.”
“Oh.” They could scan for ages in Oceania? Talk about creepy.
“It’s about to start.” Dylan ran into the center of the floor, which was quickly becoming crowded.
I pressed my way through the growing crowd to join him as the screaming intensified at the same time the internal speakers went silent. In front of me, five members of a band walked out onto the stage and started playing instruments I didn’t notice were there before. Girls in the club started shrieking so loud I thought my eardrums would rupture. Guys hooted and hollered as the music turned up and the lead singer began to sing.
I had never heard music like it. Everything sounded synthetic in origin, but I could see the band playing directly in front of me. I didn’t place the sounds as being techno, but more of a weird mixture of techno, pop, and electronic all wrapped into one.
Beside me, Dylan had already joined the fray of people jumping up and down to the beat and was clearly enjoying himself. Bobbing his head, he tugged on my sleeve trying to get me to join in. I couldn’t say that I hated the music, and, I was here to have fun, so I joined in. Before long, instead of simply pretending to be into it, I actually did start to like it.
Long before anyone in the club was ready, the music simply stopped and the people in front of me merely vanished. I stared at the spot where they were just a second ago in shock. “What happened to them?”
A girl to my left gave me a funny look as if I’d just said I believed in Santa Claus.
“It was a simul-viewing. The band plays somewhere else and their performance is simulcast in different parts of the city. We call it simul-viewing. It feels like the band is really here, but they aren’t.”
Once again, my mind was blown. Clearly, Oceania was leagues ahead of my world as far as tech went.
“Come on, there’s one last place I want to take you to before I have to return you to the above world.”
We left the club behind and went on foot this time. Passing blocks upon blocks of venues, we arrived at an almost featureless building. At first, it struck me as odd. The first story had nothing but doors spaced very closely together. Dylan led me down the side of the building, passing door after door with an occupied sign glowing above it. Finally, he found one labeled vacant and opened the door. Lights immediately flooded the black room with nothing in it but a keypad on the wall.
Confused, I furrowed my eyebrows as Dylan entered a code into the access panel. Out of nowhere two headsets appeared. Dylan took one and handed me the other.
“What is it?”
“They are VR headsets. You know—virtual reality. Put it on.”
I hesitated.
“Trust me, our entire entertainment system is held within the headsets. With these headsets you can do anything: play video games, watch an immersion movie, discover and explore another world, go on an amusement park ride, you name it.” Dylan’s eyes shined as he spoke. “Seriously, it’s really fun.”
“All right.” I put on the headset, which was more like a helmet with attached goggles. As soon as it was on my head, it shrunk into a tight fit and something made my head itch for a second, but then the feeling vanished. “Dylan, why did my head just itch?”
“Oh, well, that would be the connection probes.”
“Connection probes?”
“Yeah…in order to create your own games and movies, it has to link to your brain. Don’t worry, it’s completely harmless.” I heard some sounds, which I assumed came from Dylan pressing buttons on the keypad turned touchscreen. “I’ll link our headsets so we can experienc
e everything together. I’ll set up the tour for the first time user so you can see how everything works.”
Patiently, I waited for the invisible screen in front of my eyes to come to life. Initially, green words expressing welcome flashed across the screen and faded in a few seconds.
“Hello, and welcome to the OVRR, which stands for the Oceania Virtual Reality Room, also known as ‘over’,” spoke an A.I., whose voice filled the room. “All commands received can be either vocal or via the touchscreen menu that will appear no matter which virtual world you are in if you slide only your forefinger and pinky finger up in front of you.”
Mentally, I made a note of that for future use.
“Would you like to take the tutorial or do you know what you wish to do?”
“The tutorial please,” commanded Dylan aloud.
“Very well…the tutorial will begin now.”
Images whooshed through my headset utterly occupying my focus. I jumped when I felt a chair materialize beneath me, forcing me into a sitting position. As the chair completed, giving me armrests on either side, the images also settled. First, the A.I. went through how movies and video games worked in an absolute immersion that included all senses: any smells could be picked up, any touches made real, any taste realized. Secondly, it described how to use your own imagination to create whatever you wanted and have it surround you. All in all, it felt like an hour long tutorial and I couldn’t wait to give it a try.
“Enjoy your OVRR experience, User. If you wish for me to return at any time, find OVRR A.I. on your menu and I’ll return. Have fun!”
“Okay, Allie…what do you want to do first?”
“Create my own world.” I brought up the interaction menu as the A.I. had indicated and chose the appropriate action.
Closing my eyes, I began to envision the world I wished to visit. First, I started with the earth and sky, covering the blank canvas in my mind with grass, dirt, and soil with a blue expanse above it. Next, I pulled up trees from the ground, imagining the cracking of the earth as they rose in their mature form to dominate the land. Finally, I fleshed out all the small details like fallen trees, logs, and other forest debris. When I opened my eyes, everything lay before me just as I’d seen it in my mind.
Yet, there was so much more.
Dewdrops hung on the leaves giving the forest a pleasant aroma. The sparse sunlight filtering through the trees illuminated only small patches of the forest. A twig lay beneath my left foot, giving me slight discomfort. All my senses were engaged in the new world I had dreamed.
“You created a forest?” Dylan gawked at me incredulously.
“No, not just any forest…a mythical one.” I held out my hand as a pixie landed on it, shaking out its wings.
Dylan swept his gaze around my made-up world, his mouth opening in awe as elves, trolls, nymphs and the like all came out to see us. “What made you design a world like this?”
Allowing the pixie to climb up my arm, I responded, “Well, in my world, old growth forests are very rare. I wanted to see how it would feel to walk through one.”
“Then I’ll have to show you our botanical gardens and arboretum sometime.” Crunching leaves alerted me to movement as I saw Dylan go deeper into the forest. “Why don’t we see what else is here?”
For hours, Dylan and I explored the forest. There was a lot more to it than I had realized when I was creating it. Full as any fictional world, I could have stayed there forever. However, an alarm pierced the air, snatching Dylan and me from the virtual world into the real one.
Dylan fumbled through his pockets to pull out his c-com and with a flick of his finger turned off the alarm—the remainder for me to return home. “Sorry, Allie, but we’re going to have to leave now to get you back to the surface before sunset.”
“It’s alright. We’ve spent enough time here,” I lied.
Closing down everything in the OVRR and leaving behind the Entertainment District, we wound through the city back to the docking bay.
Selecting a seamobile near the exit, Dylan started the engine, and then waited for the protective barrier to envelope us before flooding the bay. “I’ll come back and get you tomorrow. Then you can meet my friend Dr. Wilcox, and we can explore some more.”
The seamobile glided smoothly onto the sand as the yellow rays of the sun began to turn orange.
“Thanks for the ride back. I can’t believe the adventure I’ve had today!” I stepped off the seamobile and onto the wet sand.
“No, problem. I’m just glad you enjoyed Oceania.”
Feeling guilty, I added, “Earlier, I thought you were crazy, but I was dead wrong. Just the thought of an entire underwater city housing millions of people seemed too far-fetched—even with your projected diagram.” I smiled, and with a wave said, “Anyway, thanks again, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Dylan turned on the motor to the seamobile again and began backing up into the surf. “Told you I was telling the truth. I guess some people have to see something in order to believe in it. I’ll see you tomorrow at nine a.m. sharp.”
“Okay, see ya!” I called out as he turned the seamobile and began riding off into the waves. I couldn’t help grinning ecstatically as I watched him go. There would be a tomorrow for me in the city that lived beneath the sea.
Chapter 8
Sand kicked up behind me like dust as I sprinted down the hill when the seamobile came into view. We were supposed to meet up at nine a.m., but I’d been too excited to wait, arriving nearly an hour early and watching the surf anxiously for his arrival.
“Are you ready to return to Oceania?” shouted Dylan as he saw me hurrying down the sandy incline toward him.
Grinning like a two-year-old at a candy store, I leapt onto the back of the seamobile, ready to revisit the underwater city. “I was ready hours ago. Let’s get going!”
Dylan revved the seamobile, crashing into the first set of waves and past the surf. My excitement spilled over as we plunged beneath the surface on our way through the sea to the underwater city of Oceania. The marine wildlife enthralled me just as it had the day before. No other blue whales or sharks appeared, but Jagger’s pod showed up. Once we reached the hanger, Dylan repeated the same steps as yesterday to gain entrance and before I knew it, we were on the streets of the city.
On the way to the train station, Dylan said, “So I figured today I’d introduce you to my friend, Dr. Wilcox. He’s an engineer and all around inventor. He’d kill to meet a survivor from land.”
I gave Dylan a look when he used the word “survivor,” and he grimaced, muttering a short sorry.
The train arrived as we made our way to the station. Running, we caught it just before the doors closed. Finding seats among the crowded benches, I was surprised when it jerked backward and traveled in the direction opposite of the one we took yesterday. This gray-striped train traveled clockwise around the city at a much slower pace than the ones I’d been on yesterday.
Over twenty minutes must have passed before the train finally slid to a stop in an achromatic wonderland. Stepping off the train, I looked around and didn’t see another soul in sight besides Dylan. Everything in this area appeared to be white, black, or gray. One lonely towering structure rose up among a myriad of apparently empty buildings.
“Where are we?” I wondered.
“In a section of the city that hasn’t been opened for residential living as of yet. Because the city was planned to house up to ten million people, pockets of places all around the city are essentially void of people.”
“And Dr. Wilcox lives here?”
“Yeah, he likes his solitude, so he was granted permission to live in one of the apartments on the first floor, but he hardly spends any of his time there.” Winding around the building past the front entrance, Dylan led me to a staircase leading down. “Instead, he spends his time in his workshop beneath the building.”
“In the basement?” I leaned out to peer around Dylan’s left shoulder to see the staircase
disappearing into a black void.
“Yeah, come on.” Dylan began descending and I found myself reluctantly following.
Stepping down further into the dim stairwell, my eyes began to adjust, allowing me to make out a door at the bottom. It appeared propped open slightly, although I couldn’t see any light coming from it.
“Dr. Wilcox?” wondered Dylan as he stepped off the last stair.
“Yes, yes, I’m over here,” came a voice.
I was starting to wonder if this Dr. Wilcox was some weird, old, eccentric guy that befriended teens because people his own age couldn’t stand to be around him.
Dylan tried to push open the door more, but it wouldn’t budge, forcing us to slither through the small opening. Once inside, I discovered an enormous pile of junk rising to nearly the height of the doorway obstructing our opening of the door. Sweeping my gaze around the room, I noticed all sorts of gadgets heaped on every surface available in the workshop. Every step I took, my shoes brushed up against metal and wood shavings littering the floor.
Both Dylan and I carefully ambled towards the solitary light hanging from the ceiling above a workstation drowning in scattered parts. Crouched in front of the workstation, sitting on a stool surrounded by a pile of scraps was a man in a lab coat.
“Ah, Dylan, it’s nice to see you.” Dr. Wilcox gazed up from his stool with a white, toothy smile. His hair was sparse on his head, with thin wisps of gray attempting to cover the balding spot on the pinnacle of his skull. Gray deep-set eyes framed in gray-rimmed glasses gave him a somewhat haunting appearance. A loose white lab coat smeared with grease covered his clothes and ended a foot above his black shoes.
“Nice to see you as well, Dr. Wilcox.” Dylan strode up to him and shook his hand.
Dr. Wilcox seemed to notice me for the first time. “And who might this be?”
“This is my friend, Allie.” Dylan gestured toward me with a smile. “She’s lives on land.”
“Hi, Allie. My name is Dr. Samuel Wilcox, but you can—” Dr. Wilcox’s bushy eyebrows rose to the top of his hairline as he spun around with bulging eyes toward Dylan. “What did you just say?”