[ORIGINAL FICTION] Bad Trip part five: Darkness Abounds

This is the continuation of the Bad Trip series. 

The earlier episodes can be found here (part one) (part two) (part three) (part four).

Part Five

“We have no time to lose.” Jim felt this every time he was called upon to perform his part of the mission. But he seemed to have his routine, and needed his rituals. And one of those was getting slightly frantic when it became time to enter the mind hack simulation.

“It'll take a few minutes before we can have you stable. Then we will launch you.” Zack found himself replying to Jim as if he had never performed this role. He knew he had entered a mind hack many times before. Still, there was something about Jim's anxiety that rubbed off on him.

Jim was connected to the Cognitive Transmitter machine. Really it was just a part of the one machine they were operating, but down the far end, with a bed that protruded from it. Jim lay down, head towards the machine, whilst Zack placed a dozen different wires to Jim's head. The last thing to be done, to ready the next phase of the mission, was the dark wrap around eye piece. This was the equipment that helped separate the visuals that the body subtly perceived from mixing with the visuals received from within the simulation.

“Okay, you all done there?” Zack adjusted several different dials, and brought up the screen to enter the computer code sequence.

“Yes, all set, ready to go.” Jim took a slow deep breath in, and held it for a few seconds. Exhaling, he consciously willed himself to relax. “I've done this many times before. I'm sure it will be a piece of cake.” He didn't believe his own words. There was something bugging him.

“Any last words, before I fire this up?”

“Actually, yes. Something I forgot to ask you. Do you have a way to contact Dr Sepalino? Should there be any difficulties encountered here.”

“I studied under him a few years back. I have an email address from back then. If that's still valid, I could try that way.”

“When I'm in, and settled see if you can send an urgent email to him. If he knows the nature of what we may be facing here, it may pique his curiosity enough to reply.”

“If he gets the email.” Zack replied doubtfully.

“Of course, we can only hope. Okay, with that out of the way, are we all set?”

Zack turned to Robert, who was still watching the signals coming from within the mind hack. “No change here. When ever you're ready you can launch him.”

Zack placed his hand on Jim's left shoulder and wished him luck. “In three, two, one, and you're in.”

Zack took a quick look at Jim's body lying on the bed. The wires attached to his head, the dark wrap around glasses, and complete stillness. The stillness was always eerie. With no visible signs of distress, the stillness could be easily misread. But not the feedback coming from the machine. That was clear, at least to someone with Zack's training. He was just fine. And he was inside the hack. They now had their man inside the simulation, ready to track down Taylor.

*********

Jim felt the rush that accompanies each entrance into the mind hack. Tightened muscles that take a moment to relax. Breathing that starts to find its rhythm. Eye sight that slowly finds it focus. And a mind that finally wakes up to where it is. All these processes are simulated within this world, but so is life and death. And in a theoretical worse case scenario the mind that dies within this world would probably lead to the death of the body in the real world. Yet it's only probable, as it's never actually occurred. There were times when one of Jim's targets were left damaged by their experience within the mind hack. And he had never forgotten any of those. As he steadied himself, he became all to aware that even he could suffer consequences from a failed mission. Even he could possibly die within this world.

“I'm in.” Jim spoke the words internally. The machine that his body was wired up to had the capacity to transmit his internal dialogue from this world to Zack, just as it allowed him to receive Zack's communications within his own thought processes.

“Good. Robert's got your location coming up now. We're just trying to match those up with Taylor's coordinates. Do you recognise anything from your location?” Part of each return to this world involved a sense of mind mapping the terrain. The internal world was believed to be the same for each hack. They had certainly tracked the familiar and regular occurrences. This world wasn't believed to be all that large. But certainly large enough to hold enough undesirables to make Jim's job potentially unpleasant.

Jim looked around hoping to get a sense of familiarity. He hadn't experienced the whole world, and there was even the slight chance a change had been made but he doubted this. As his eyes adjusted to the light levels he realised he was in what appeared to be an old barn. Kneeling down he felt hay spread out across the floor, but noticed no animals. Life in this world was sporadic. There was a second level he could see, only half covering the length of the barn. He slowly opened the door hoping not to make a sound. To Jim's annoyance there was a slight creaking noise. He stopped to make sure of no movement; confident he was unnoticed he exited the barn.

“Jim?”

“Go ahead.”

“Robert here. You are less than one hundred metres from where Taylor's signal is coming from.”

“That's close. Good work on dropping me so near. What direction from me?”

“He's north east from you. Approximately thirty-seven degrees. He is in a forest.”

“Got it, thanks.”

Jim unzipped an inner pocket on his jacket and felt for the compass. They always issued a regular uniform with what was believed to be needed equipment with it. The programmers at Jim's firm had added code to the transmission that projected his body into the simulation. The necessity for these items had been learnt the hard way, but it had been learnt quickly. Arriving in the simulation naked, as happened to the first Cognitive Retriever, was not conducive to dealing with the hardships presented within the mind hack.

He found the coordinates that Robert had given him, and tried to see what lay in that direction. Visibility was poor, and night was quickly arriving. Night was usual for these encounters. Jim had been in the simulation many times, and as far as he could remember had only experienced daylight once. The whole point to these mind hacks as far as he was aware was to break the recipient. Darkness has a way of assisting that ordeal.

There was a forest not far from him, maybe sixty metres away. “If the directions Robert gave me are correct then he isn't that far inside,” he thought, as he made his way towards the first line of trees. Despite the short distance that needed to be covered, Jim found the going incredibly difficult. He made his way along a ditch of some sort, muddy water covering the bottom of it. He noticed the appearance of ferns around as the forest grew closer. He climbed to the top of the ditch and tried to find an easier opening into the forest. One that lay in the direction he was travelling. He looked around and noticed the ground around was covered in a small layer of ferns, with several ditches running parallel to the one he was using to navigate. There was a small creek to his right. Jim decided to head for that and use that to enter the forest.

He reached the spot where the creek exited the forest. “How's my location now? It's been very slow going but I should be close now. If he hasn't moved.”

“He has moved, but not by much.” Jim knew his experience in this world was the reason for that. He had no time to waste, but he also knew what was going on. He couldn't imagine what was going through Taylor's mind right now, or even his simulated mind, for that matter. There would be a sense of shock slowing the body down. If that was the case then it worked to Jim's benefit. If there was anything chasing Taylor then it would be working to their benefit also. Time was of the essence, and he knew it.

“How far from him am I now?”

“You need to change your direction. Head north, two degrees from your current location. Approximately thirty metres away.” Robert relayed the new location, as Jim looked around. The compass showed north being the direction the creek was coming from. “He must be further along this creek,” he thought, as he pushed on deeper into the forest.

The darkness was more prevalent as the edges of the forest receded further into the background. He tried to count down what he thought were the metres he had travelled. It was a guess, perhaps a bad one, and he knew it. The ground was too rough to walk in a straight line, nor was the creek presenting one to him. Still he was closer, and that was what mattered here.

Then Jim noticed Taylor standing on the banks of the creek. The last thing he wanted was to startle him, but he didn't appear to have the capacity to get too far in this light. He made his way towards him, quietly and slowly.

“Taylor,” Jim whispered from beside him. There really was no easy way to get his attention, but he had readied himself to grab hold of Taylor should he panic and try to flee.

“Who's there?” Taylor turned slowly, fear and anxiety pumping through him. His eyes had refused to adjust to the light. He made out a figure standing to his right. It looked human to him, which was a relief.

“My name's Jim, I'm here to get you out.” Jim knew there was no point explaining that they had actually met before, when Taylor's insurance company contracted the company he worked for should such services ever be required. Even if his shock hadn't disrupted his capacity to remember, the perpetrators of the mind hack would have programmed that knowledge out of his simulated experience.

“Out of where? Where am I? What is this place?” Taylor had a lot of questions, fuelled by nerves ready to explode.

Jim motioned to Taylor to wait for the answers to come. “I need to place the nodes on your head. It will help give a reading of your body's location.” Jim stuck the nodes to Taylor's head, and attached wires to the outside of each node. There was a small metal box that the wires ran out of, with a red button on the outside. Jim pressed the button.

Taylor stared in disbelief. He felt safe in Jim's presence, but had lost count at the number of times he felt like this was all a bad dream. He was feeling that sensation again.

“Are you reading his signal?” Jim spoke directly to Robert.

“We are picking up his signal, haven't locked in on it yet. We'll need about five minutes.”

“What do you mean when you say “my body's location”? Isn't it right here?” Taylor motioned to his body, as he spoke to Jim.

“No, this is a simulation. Your actual body, in the real world. We need to know where it is. Where your signal is being sent to.”

Taylor tried to understand. He felt more confused than ever. He looked more confused.

“Once we get you out of here we'll explain everything. In the meantime we need to remain as still and quiet as possible. Until they locate your signal.”

As Jim awaited a reply from Robert he felt a twitch around his heart. Before he could get the words out, internally or externally, he felt his vision go black as his consciousness faded out.

*********

Jim opened his eyes and waited for clear vision. As he began to make out his surroundings he was struck by a horrible realisation. He was no longer in the simulation. But Taylor was; and Jim feared he was not alone in that forest.

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Image Credits: all images sourced from Pixabay.com

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