I look at Melissa and then Azrael. “I don’t believe you,” I finally say. “It’s impossible.”
“It was impossible,” he agrees, “until Melissa did it. Now it’s not only possible for her, it’s possible for everyone.”
“The universal law.”
“Exactly!” Azrael stands up and claps his hands together loudly. “If something can be accomplished once, then it can be accomplished forevermore.”
I look at Melissa and she grins sheepishly.
“So what do you want me to do?” I ask.
“You must learn how to do the same thing.”
“You want me to learn how to wake up?”
“That’s right.”
“Why me?” I ask.
“You’ve led millions on Earth,” Azrael says, “but on the world that you come from, billions watch you every day.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Trew leads them, and they watch and follow your life here.”
“So if I wake up, then that will accomplish something in the real world?” I ask.
“It will.”
“What will it accomplish?”
“You can discover that for yourself when you wake up and see Trew.”
My mouth goes dry. “I will see Trew?”
“Of course you will. He can’t wait to see you.”
I sit and consider what he’s asking me to do. I don’t fully understand what he wants, but it can’t be much different from flying. “What if I can’t do it?” I ask.
“I taught you to fly,” Melissa said. “I can teach you how to do this as well, Danni. It’s not that difficult once you get the hang of it.”
“You’ve woken up only partially,” Azrael says. “That part is easy. To fully wake up is much more difficult, but I’m certain that both of you can do it. After you’ve been fully trained, Melissa will do it first, and then you will go soon after.”
“What does this mean?” I look at Melissa. “Have you opened a door to destruction for us all?”
“It’s exactly the opposite, Danni,” Azrael says. “She’s opened the door to salvation.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Danielle - 70
I open my eyes and sigh in frustration. “It’s very difficult.”
Azrael looks at me with a patient smile. “I’ve watched you for your entire life,” he says.
“That’s creepy.”
He laughs. “Okay, not for your entire life, but for most of the important accomplishments.”
“Still creepy,” I say.
“The point I’m trying to make,” he continues, “is that you don’t give up, and you don’t find things difficult. You set your mind to something and you do it. Simple as that.”
“Yes, that is how I do most things.”
“It’s how you do everything,” he says. “What makes you so successful at everything you do is that you don’t overcomplicate things. To you, everything is simple. This is just another example of something that most people would find difficult and you will succeed at it when you view it as simple.”
I look at Melissa and she nods in agreement. “It’s all about the glow, Danni,” she says. “You’ve been meditating your entire life and this is just meditating.”
“I feel like I’m going to fall,” I say. “When I’m in there meditating. It feels as if I’m standing on the roof of a windy skyscraper and I’m about to fall off.”
“You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” Azrael asks. I give him a wry look and he laughs. “All kidding aside, flying girl, you’re closer to doing this than you think. The falling sensation is good; you just have to surrender and let yourself fall over the edge.”
“It’s taken months to get to this stage,” I say.
“Yes,” Melissa agrees.
“I thought time was running out?”
“It is,” Azrael says. “On your home world it’s very short, but here time works differently.”
“How long do we have?” I ask. “Here.”
“I don’t know for certain,” he says.
“Ballpark guess?”
“Fifteen to twenty years,” he says. “Twenty-five at the most.”
“Oh, wow.” I feel the stress melt away. “Sure, I can practice and get this nailed down by then. Why didn’t you tell me sooner that we had that long?”
“No, I’m afraid you misunderstand me.” He shakes his head. “That’s how long Earth and most of the population has. I need you to wake up much sooner than that.”
“How soon?”
“Within the next six months.”
“Me doing this is that important?”
“Danni,” his look says that it is. “You doing this is the most important thing in the universe.”
I frown at the pressure, then I sit up straighter and nod at Melissa. “Okay, let’s try again then.”
===
Danielle - 3 months later
“Well, what do you think?” I ask.
Azrael and Melissa both look at each other and nod.
“I think we’re ready to go,” Azrael says.
He’s been so helpful during this process. Once I learned to open my mind better he was able to join me in the meditative state and provide subtle guidance. Suddenly a thought occurs to me.
“They say you guide souls back to their homes... is this what they mean by that?”
He nods slightly. “Most of the time I’m more direct, sending souls back to their homes by killing their avatars, but this definitely fits the description, perhaps better than the regular way of things.”
“You’re not an angel or an archangel, are you?”
“No. Those are just names people give to beings like the Timeless to help them feel better about the unexplainable things they can do. Religion is a tool to guide mass groups of people towards common goals. God is just a computer running things, but people can’t seem to accept that. They’d rather believe that an invisible creature runs it all.”
“The computer isn’t an invisible creature?” I ask.
He smiles and shakes his head. “You know what I’m saying.”
I laugh. “Yes. Very few people are able to believe that this is all just a computer simulation.”
“Nor should they,” he said. “A core part of the program blocks that belief, although a few sometimes believe the truth and pass that on to others, like you and Trew did when you created the Gamer movement. More people believe the truth now than ever before.”
“Non-believers just call it another religion.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” he says,” which is what this world requires it to be in order to build followers, to work towards achieving a purpose.”
“Waking up.”
He nods. “Melissa, are you ready to attempt a full awakening?”
“I’ve been ready for weeks now,” she says. There’s a comfortable bed in the room and she moves to lie down on it. She folds her arms comfortably over her chest, and closes her eyes. She takes two deep calming breaths and then suddenly her eyes pop open.
“Is this it?” she asks. “Will I be able to come back here if I fully wake up?”
Azrael shakes his head. “If you’re successful in waking up completely, then you won’t be able to come back here. This is it, Melissa.”
I can tell that she is sad to hear the news. I nod at her reassuringly and squeeze her arm. “I know you can do this, Melissa. Don’t worry, everything will be all right. I’ll join you in just a few days, which is only a few hours on the other side.”
Melissa nods and stands up. She gives me a tremendous hug which I return sincerely. “It’s been an amazing adventure, Danni. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving a frightened, flying girl a safe place to be loved and taken care of.”
“The honour is all mine.” I feel tears beginning to form in my eyes, as if we aren’t going to see each other for a long time. I know that’s not the case, though; Melissa waking up will inspire me to go through my process even more
quickly.
We separate, and she moves back to lie down on the bed. She takes a series of deep cleansing breaths and closes her eyes. I watch quietly as Azrael puts his hand on her right arm. After a few minutes her breathing begins to slow.
Then it stops. I look at Azrael but he doesn’t open his eyes. I begin to count the seconds. After sixty seconds of Melissa not breathing I stand up and move closer. Azrael senses me and raises his free hand to tell me to stay still.
Another sixty seconds go by, and suddenly Melissa’s body takes a sudden deep breath of air, and then begins to breathe again in a regular, rhythmic pattern. Azrael opens his eyes and removes his hand from her arm. Then he stands and looks at her. He places his fingers lightly on her neck to feel for a pulse, nodding at whatever he senses. Finally he looks at me and smiles triumphantly.
“She did it!” he says, grabbing me in a hug and swinging me around.
“She’s still breathing, though,” I say.
“She is now, but she stopped. That was when her presence, essence, whatever you want to call it, left her body.” He points to the body breathing peacefully on the bed. “That’s just an empty shell now, a vehicle without a driver. She’s back in her own body in the real world. She did it. She woke up!”
“Now what do we do?” I ask.
“We wait a few days,” he says, “and then you go through the same process.”
“I wake up and go home,” I say, still not quite believing it’s possible. “I get to see Trew soon.”
“That’s right, Danni,” Azrael confirms. “Very soon you will wake up to reality.”
===
Trew
“Sylvia?” Trew looked at the blank screen that had been Melissa’s feed. “Did it work? Is Melissa truly awake?”
“She has left her avatar, Trew,” Sylvia replied. “All signs indicate that she has indeed returned to her body outside of the Game.”
“Incredible,” Cooper whispered.
“It sure is,” Trew said. He reached for the remote and changed the channel from Melissa’s blank feed to Danielle’s. From Danielle’s view point Melissa lay peacefully on the bed.
“What now?” Cooper asked.
“Let’s go welcome Melissa home and celebrate!” Trew said. “Sylvia, which Game Centre is Melissa stationed at?”
“I don’t understand your question, Trew,” Sylvia sounded confused.
“I want to go and meet the gamer who was playing Melissa and be there when they bring her out of stasis. Which Centre do I need to go to?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Trew,”
“Why not?” Trew asked. “Were there complications bringing her out of stasis? She should be awake, right?”
“I thought you knew,” Sylvia said. “Melissa isn’t on Tygon, Trew. She was an Earth NPC.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“Despite our best attempts to learn more details about the players who will soon go back into the Game, we have very little to report.
“It appears that all five hundred million will enter the Game as closely together as can be accomplished, which will result in the biggest influx of players at one time in Earth’s history.
“Most fans know the basic statistics; of the 1.3 billion Tygon children who play the Game, one billion of them inhabit human avatars. The count of players currently in the Game is approximately half a billion, with the other six billion humans of the Earth population comprised of Non Player Characters, or NPCs, as they are commonly called.
“There are rumours of a mysterious plague that is killing humans on Earth, but we aren’t seeing any indications of this from the number of players being ejected. Our best guesses, based on the limited observations of players who are near some of these events, indicate that the humans being affected are only NPCs at the moment. We’re unable to tell how serious the issue is, because most players are isolated in small groups throughout the world as a result of the chaos that resulted from ‘the Day.’
“What can fans expect to see over the next few days of the Game? We will see a massive increase in births all over Earth as the five-hundred million enter the Game beginning tomorrow, sometime in the late afternoon. Next we will be trying to get more information on the NPC plague and report how widespread it is, and whether it has begun to affect player avatars.
“Our first order of business relates to the only piece of information that Gamers have shared with the press: They have all been instructed to view Danielle’s feed, which leads us to believe something important is going to happen.
“We will be doing the same thing as the Gamers; watching Danielle and reporting any developments as they happen.”
Lisa Rohansen - Game Central News
Earth
“It’s getting dark. We should go back to camp.”
Dillon ignored his little brother. The two of them had been exploring the empty building all afternoon. This was the most fun Dillon had experienced in a long time, and he wasn’t ready to leave just yet.
Dillon was reaching to open a large, complicated looking panel. It was round, about two feet in diameter, and covered with light bulbs and wires. He moved slowly, careful not to break any of the fine wiring that was attached at various places on the front and sides. Just a few more inches and he would have it separated from the rest of the wall...
“What’s that?” Dillon’s little brother asked loudly into his ear.
“Damn it, Cory! I almost broke this thing. Stop sneaking up on me like that!”
Dillon looked over at his little brother. Cory was eight years old, a child of the new world. He’d never experienced any of the cool things that used to exist before the Day. Dillon occasionally felt sorry for him, but most of the time he envied his baby brother; he didn’t know what he was missing.
Dillon remembered life before the Day. He’d been eight years old when it happened, almost nine. Like every kid his age back then, he’d had a smartphone in his hand, constantly texting and watching videos; the only time he put it down was when he picked up a game controller. The world had been an incredible place for a young boy, but then the Day had occurred… and everything had gone to hell.
The past eleven years had been a continuous struggle. Dillon’s family was very close, which turned out to be a positive thing in this new age. Over forty brothers, sisters, and cousins had banded together and struck out to find a suitable place to settle down and ride out the crisis. It turned out that there was really no such place, and they’d spent the past decade as nomads, traveling from place to place, hoping to find a good spot to settle down. From what they had witnessed over the years, Dillon’s family had fared better than most, but it hadn’t been a picnic.
“What is that, anyway?” Cory whispered.
“I don’t know,” Dillon said. “Some kind of electrical panel, maybe.”
“What’s an electrical panel?”
“Hush up and watch, and maybe you’ll find out,” Dillon said. Whenever he didn’t know how to answer his little brother’s questions, he would tell him to hush and watch. It had turned out to be pretty good advice for the most part, and Cory always thought his big brother was smart for showing instead of telling.
The panel was stuck; no matter how he tried, Dillon wasn’t able to fully pull it away from the wall. He peered into the space between the panel and the wall; he could see a locking slot of some sort holding it in place. He nodded his head and turned it slowly, in the direction of how a clock hand moved.
Suddenly the panel lit up, and a loud series of beeps and clicks began to sound from the wall. A deep, whirring noise started to build, and in the space between the panel and the wall Dillon could see a screen start to turn slowly in time with the sound.
“Whoa, what’s happening?” Cory shouted as he scrambled away from his brother, stopping only when his back was pressed flat against the far wall.
Dillon quickly turned the panel back the way he’d found it. The noises stopped and the lights blinked out. He took a step ba
ck from the wall and looked around. The place remained dark and silent everywhere else. He glanced at his brother. Cory was pale, his eyes and mouth open wide.
Dillon walked over to his brother and hugged him, laughing and spinning him around. “It’s okay, squirt,” he said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“What was that?” Cory asked. “It sounded terrible.”
Dillon released his little brother and walked back to the device on the wall. He grabbed hold of it and turned it one more time, laughing with delight as the lights turned on and the sounds once again began to reverberate from the wall. After a moment he turned the panel back, and the wall went silent once more.
“Come on,” he said excitedly, “Let’s go tell Dad and Mom what we’ve found.”
“What have we found?” Cory asked.
“Power!” Dillon said. “The power’s back on!”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Trew
“I don’t understand,” Trew said. “How were we able to see her feed if she’s an NPC?”
“When I detected her potential early on, I set up a channel for her,” Sylvia replied. “Sometimes an NPC shows exceptional promise, and I have the authority to assign them a channel. Over the course of the Game, there have been many memorable plays from NPCs, Trew. I thought you knew this.”
“Is it common knowledge?” Trew asked.
“No,” Sylvia admitted, “but I thought Brandon might have filled you in on some of these things.”
“Brandon and I didn’t have much private time together,” Trew said. “There’s a mountain of information that I likely should know, but I don’t. I was hoping to sit down and read most of the instructions he left for me when Danni was out of the Game and I had more available time.”
“Time is running out,” Cooper said.
“Thanks for the update,” Trew said with a sarcastic tone. He looked back towards the main screen, and then whipped his head back towards Cooper. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Thorn said the Game was going to end much sooner because Brandon entered it, right?”
Virtual Prophet (The Game is Life) Page 17