Alien Sleeping Beauty

by Zara Zenia

  I brushed my fingers across the top of the lid. “This one has a code box on it too. On the top.”

  I wouldn’t be able to determine for certain whether Ariana was in the box until I found a way to get it open too.

  “Alright.” David’s voice was always the epitome of calmness. “I can try to use the same code to get you in.”

  “Do you want me to punch in the same numbers as the security box on the wall outside the room?” I asked.

  “Yes, try that first. They should be connected, but if for whatever reason they are not, I will try to find a Plan B for us.”

  “Okay.” I could barely breath as I slowly tapped in the exact same code as before to get me inside the room.

  With a sigh and a click, the door popped open as if a rush of wind had disturbed it.

  “I can’t believe our luck,” I exclaimed. “It worked.”

  I pulled up the heavy lid with a grunt. Sure enough, I saw Ariana inside. There was no expression on her face. Her eyelids were closed. Her hair was pulled up in an elegant braid that was propped and positioned to fit gracefully on her shoulder.

  I couldn’t understand it. I knew that Nora probably entered this chamber often, but why would she tuck strands of Ariana’s braids so affectionately positioned like that?

  It didn’t make any sense for Nora to behave with even a remote amount of subtle fondness for Ariana. But the fact that there was a second seat to lay in beside Ariana took away the mystery of why there wasn’t a second virtual reality chamber in the room.

  “Jinurak?”

  The sound of Yadav’s expectant and curious voice sent me back to reality.

  “Sorry…I’m here,” I said.

  “Did you find Ariana inside the chamber?”

  A single salty tear of relief slid down my cheek. I nodded. “She’s in here. There’s also another seat with monitors and hookups beside her.”

  “That’s where Nora probably sits when she enters the virtual world where Ariana is,” David said. “It makes sense. I should have known that Nora would have a chamber built that would be connected to the same virtual arena.”

  “Now what do I do?” I was impatient to get to Ariana as quickly as I could.

  “Climb into the seat,” he instructed. “Place yourself in the strap and then put the red probes on your temples. After that, connect the USP plug to the switchboard that is right next to the one that Ariana is plugged into. Then, there should be a helmet above your head on the roof of the chamber.”

  I nodded. “I see all those things.”

  “Go ahead and close the door and put the helmet on,” David said.

  I took a deep breath. I couldn’t even imagine the artificial intelligence I would have to go through in order to find Ariana once I was deeply imbedded into the virtual world. I also didn’t know how many of them would or wouldn’t be self-aware. It was a dangerous situation to be in, but I had no choice.

  If I didn’t save Ariana, nobody would, and the quicker Nora would be able to tap into her brain and hardwire her to view me as a monster. I couldn’t allow any further attempts of brainwashing to sink into the depths of Ariana’s consciousness.

  “You are going to have to be extremely careful in waking Ariana,” Yadav said. “You don’t want to disrupt or damage her consciousness.”

  “I am going act diligently,” I promised Yadav. “The last person who wants to cause her more suffering is me, believe it.”

  “I know.” Yadav sounded empathetic. I pictured him smiling. “Once you click the helmet onto your head. There is going to be a little switch on the top of it. It should be a black switch. Turn it on and then you will be transported to the virtual world. You can exit the world by walking through the exact tunnel in the hedge that you came from as soon as you enter.”

  “Thanks, Yadav. I owe you big time. I could never have done any of this without your help.”

  “It’s my job,” Yadav stated humbly.

  “You are incredible at your profession,” I said. “Don’t ever forget that.”

  “I’ll see you on the other side when you get back,” David said.

  “That’s a promise.” I smiled, then flicked the little black button.

  In an instant, I was inside the weird virtual reality world that Nora and her team of engineers had programmed. Ariana wasn’t kidding. The colors were vibrant. The temperature was warm, bordering humid.

  I heard birds chirping in the nearby trees. The sun was high in the sky, which was a fantastic cobalt blue color. The setting seemed serene and almost…peaceful. My heart pounded. Was I in the wrong place? Had Nora infiltrated the system to steer me away from Ariana and prevent me from planting in the same virtual position?

  My fears of that happening were soon vaporized when a dragon shaped shade clouded over my head. I ducked down instinctively, cowering behind the same hedge where the tunnel entrance and exit was to the virtual world.

  After a few seconds, I dared to crane my neck out of the row of hedging to locate the dragon again. It was still looming overhead, encircling the area where I had just appeared as if it was a starving vulture waiting for its next meal to go ahead and die already.

  How did it already immediately pick up on my whereabouts without me even making a single noise or otherwise movement outside of the hedging tunnel?

  I swallowed hard and attempted to regulate my breathing to keep my rapid heart rate at a calmer pace. The dragon opened its mouth and roared, spewing a mesmerizing neon green fire into the air.

  The fire dissipated almost at once, but a few embers fluttered to the ground below. I stared up at the dragon in dreadful awe, feeling my mouth agape as if my jaw might unhinge altogether.

  The dragon knew I was there. I was sure of it. The mighty beast was daring me to do something, to challenge it or try to bolt away from it. I still wasn’t sure which route was the safer one to take, but I couldn’t stand here cowering forever.

  I still had a mission to accomplish, and that was finding Ariana. I combed the area with my eyes and from the location I was standing, I couldn’t see much aside from green pasture lawns and the castle off in the distance.

  The castle was an exact replica of the one I had entered on the island holding the virtual reality chamber, at least that’s what it looked like from the outside. I had no idea what might be contained on the inside. Honestly, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to find out. I wished it would be as simple as grabbing Ariana and plucking her back through the tunnel.

  Nothing in life, or virtual life, was ever going to be that easy and I’d be fooling myself to think otherwise.

  The dragon continued to spit fire. It appeared viciously mad, but it didn’t actually peer down at me. Maybe it hadn’t seen me after all. I kept going back and forth, second guessing myself, doubting the dragon’s intentions. If it wasn’t making eye contact with me, did it really know I was there?

  It never flickered its gaze down below to where I was hiding in the grass. I continued to lurk there, weighing my options and pondering what the dragon might do next. It was impossible to predict such a fantastic animal’s actions in advance.

  It soared through the air with a brilliant wingspan as horizontally wide as a real airplane’s, maybe even larger. It huffed angry steam out of its nostrils and made growling noises. It sure seemed to be worked up into a tizzy about something.

  I glanced around the perimeter again, wondering if maybe it was Ariana that the beast was watching out for and fuming about. I didn’t see anything or anyone else around the area aside from myself and the dragon, wondering if I would have to kill it in order to get past. Sneaking across the lawn wasn’t going to be a viable option. The dragon was just waiting for an opportunity to incinerate me.

  Or, maybe it wanted to tear me limb from limb and then devour me in its iron jaw. Setting me on fire was probably going to be too easy for it. I was certain that it wanted to draw the death out as excruciatingly slowly as possible and I had to make sure I didn’t give the beas
t what it wanted.

  Nora was nowhere to be found. That didn’t surprise me.

  Had she been tipped off somehow? I wanted to bring her to justice just as badly as I wanted to wake Ariana up and get her out of this sinister village filled with threats lurking around every corner.

  Now I knew why Ariana had to encrypt the messages she had sent to me. I couldn’t even take a single step away from the hedges without calling attention to myself and putting myself in a spotlight beam directly for the dragon hovering above.

  “Okay, you stupid fucking brute,” I growled and took a step out of the hedge after a few more minutes of debating in my head. “It’s now or never isn’t it? One of us is going to come out of this, and one is not.”

  I already knew that if I got hurt in the virtual world, I would feel the pain in reality. My mind wouldn’t be able to decipher the difference between what was real and what wasn’t. I had to stay alive or risk dying in the virtual reality chamber where my real body currently was, my brain hooked up to all sorts of monitors and transmitters.

  I needed to look around for a weapon. Lying beside me in the chamber was a gun and a sword, but I didn’t have the luxury of bringing those defense devices with me in the virtual world.

  I had no idea how I was going to battle this giant dragon. I would have to duck and dodge its rain of fire and in the meantime find something of a makeshift weapon to keep me alive. I decided that the plan was going to have to unfold as I lived it and not the other way around. I didn’t have time to make choices unless they were on the spot.

  The dragon growled and hissed as I began to race across the lawns. I didn’t really have a direction I was aiming for, maybe the castle where I figured Ariana would be waiting for me. It was a start, and I was determined to outrace the dragon.

  It let out a thunderous roar that shook the ground below my feet. It was still flying above my head, but it didn’t attempt to shoot a stream of fire at me. I knew why. My assumption had been correct. Scorching me wouldn’t take long enough. Its goal was to kill me but make me suffer first.

  I couldn’t blame the animal. It was just an AI and had no idea of its existence as a robotic, computerized platform. It didn’t know that it had just been programmed to life and wasn’t real. Once I got rid of it, that would be one less obstacle in my way in releasing Ariana from this extended nightmare.

  The dragon continued to hiss. I could smell the fury in its huffy smoke, and I felt the heat of its flames as they shot down on the ground in front of me, beside me and behind me. But the dragon never aimed its target directly at me.

  That’s when I noticed something sharp and gleaming in the grass. Above it where three glowing fairies. They were tiny, frail and delicate but they looked feisty and determined to do something to aid me in some way.

  They frantically skirted around the shimmering steel that was still laying in the grass, pointing to it and making jerky motions in its direction. One was blue, one was pink, and one was gold. They were moving so fast that they looked like little round balls, fireflies fluttering through the air and trying to get a message to me.

  I glanced down at the tall grass and noticed a sword laying there, the silver, gallant blade reflecting the glow of the sun. How the hell did the weapon get there in the first place? Who did it belong to? Was it a trap or where these fairies genuine in their efforts to assist me?

  I didn’t have time to ask questions. The dragon was now on the ground. I felt its footsteps shaking the ground like earthquake tremors. I snatched the sword from the ground and swung it around behind me without a second thought. It was an involuntary defense move.

  The blade sliced a gaping hole in the dragon’s neck. The dragon wailed and reeled backward, stumbling over its own massive wings and sharply jagged, clawed feet.

  Its eyes enlarged with shock as if it couldn’t understand why I had just struck it with a sword that had seemingly, and miraculously come out of nowhere. The fairies must have had something to do with it, and if I survived this battle, I would certainly have to offer my gratitude to them.

  I wasn’t sure if the jab to the dragon’s throat was going to be enough to kill it, but I decided that I couldn’t afford to take any chances of it coming back for a second, more ferocious round of revenge.

  It was withering in pain, thrashing its tail and wings around through the air and slamming back down into the ground.

  I hated to kill it, but how could I really kill something that didn’t exist in the first place? I reminded myself of that aspect as I raised the sword over my head and plunged it down into the head of the enormous beast.

  Its body went limp. Its eyes glazed over, lifeless and cold. It ceased breathing and I knew that it was dead as it slumped over and stopped moving in the grass.

  “I did you a favor, so you didn’t have to suffer,” I whispered to it, trying to justify my actions. “If I didn’t kill you, you might have taken me out and that just can’t be an option right now.”

  I didn’t toss the sword away just yet. I didn’t know what other traps of terror Nora might have placed around the area to derail me from finding Ariana or easily rescuing her. It had already been a nightmare so far, why would I expect anything less from a tyrant like Nora?

  I left the slain dragon behind and began walking toward the castle, my eye on the prize hidden within, Ariana.

  I saw her through the window. She was beautiful. She was wearing a white flowing dress that resembled a nightgown but was elegant enough to be an evening gown that fluttered as she flew out the door and attempted to race across the lawns and straight into my arms.

  But our dream of reconnecting didn’t come true just yet. It was dangled over our heads and ripped from our grasp before we could swipe it in our grips forever.

  Two stubby looking trolls with a stench of garbage following behind them stood directly in Ariana’s path. She grinded to a halt in her tracks.

  The trolls had leering expressions on their menacing faces, and they grabbed her, yanking her down by her hair as she fell into the dirt with a shriek.

  They grunted and attempted to touch her everywhere, rubbing their thick, grimy fingers up and down her body as she squirmed and screamed, attempting to free herself.

  I knew exactly what these AI grumps were intending to do. They wanted to hold her hostage until Nora came back to save their own skin and prove to her that they were loyal, obedient little minions.

  They weren’t going to get their way if I had anything to do with it.

  “Let her go!” I shouted in a brooding voice that bellowed with dominance and carried across the lawns with an assertive echo.

  The trolls cackled and spit bile, ignoring me as they continued to hold Ariana down and pinched her and groped her all over. They were disgusting.

  Then out of nowhere, the three little glowing fairies bringing life and color back into the situation began to buzz all around the troll’s potato shaped heads. The fairies wouldn’t have enough strength to take the trolls down, but at the very least, they could annoy them enough to cause a distraction that would leave the trolls with no choice but to let go of Ariana in order to swat at the fairies in an attempt to get them to go away.

  It was nothing short of a brilliant way to use what little physical power the cluster of fairies did have in order to do something proactive in freeing Ariana.

  Ariana balled her fists and attempted to shove the trolls off of her. I raced to her side in an attempt to help the fairies release her from the tight grasp of the stout AI’s.

  “Get off me!” Ariana thrashed and grunted, red faced and determined.

  “Keep doing that,” I said as I grabbed the troll from behind and jerked on its tattered, stained clothing. “Between you, me and the fairies we will get these ugly things off you in no time.”

  Ariana met my gaze and took my breath away. She was astoundingly beautiful. It was almost too good to be true, but here she was in front of me, still glowing and scrappy even though she was being attack
ed by the trolls.

  After a few moments, the efforts began to pay off. The trolls slackened their hold on Ariana in an effort to punch and kick at me and throw blows through the air aimed at the fairies. The fairies taunted and teased, flying above the trolls heads every time they attempted to reach through the air and grab them.

  I was impressed with the fairies abilities to flutter in front of the faces of the inept trolls and then hastily sweep themselves upward and just out of arm’s length reach of the trolls every time a chubby hand attempted to seize them.

  As soon as the trolls grip on Ariana released, she pushed herself up and skirted a few feet toward me, stumbling but eventually barreling right into my arms, exactly where she belonged.

  I never wanted to let her go. She smelled like a field of lilies. Her hair was soft and delicate, as smooth and lush as silk. She awakened every single one of my senses and I knew in that moment that she was a breath of fresh air to my psyche. I was enamored by her.

  I craved her and was intoxicated by her feminine touch. I would never let anything dangerous happen to her ever again. I made that vow to myself and would promise the same to her. A thrilling pleasure rushed through my body.

  Her tears of joy dampened my armor. I hugged her tightly to my chest. “It’s going to be okay.” I stroked her hair and whispered to her soothingly. “Everything is going to be okay. I’m here with you now.”

  She snaked her arms around my waist and pressed her body to mine. Finally, we were in each other’s arms where we belonged. Fate was beginning to seal it’s love spell around us.

  Chapter 16

  Ariana

  I touched Jinurak’ face. I ran my hands through his hair. His warmth and embrace were miraculous and refreshing to my skin. I couldn’t stop sliding my hands through his hair. He was perfect. He was like a gallant knight, standing proud and tall with his armor gleaming under the radiant sunlight.

  I basked in awe in his presence and his handsome eyes pierced right into my soul and made me tingle all over.