Will had read the terms and conditions front to back. Its instructions were clear: during a medical emergency, one must terminate the simulation and ask for assistance. But he couldn't do that.
He wasn't ready for explanations or an interrogation. He was about to have an attack right now. It could happen any second. If the faculty knew the true state of his condition, then he would face permanent termination from the Psypher program, declared untrainable and unfit - uninvestable. He wouldn't move up the tower, and neither would his family. They would be stuck in the undercity, with loans piling up; counting the seconds until the bank comes to collect their dues. There was no way he would let that happen.
The only way through this was to fight it head-on. He needed to brave through and finish the exam. The question was, how would he do that? How?
Another tremor ran through him, and he gritted his teeth. Whatever the case, he had to figure out a solution now, while he could still move and think.
The VR window popped up an alert. Red numbers were all over the screen. His heart rate had exceeded 210 bpm, and his sync rate had cratered. The world around him flickered as it hit thirty percent. The virtual and the real world blurred, and he caught glimpses of the insides of the VR pod. The sync rate continued to dive. It zipped past the twenties and was now in the teens - it was at near free fall.
"Candidate William Dunn." The AI materialized in front of him. Its crimson-eyed camera gleamed red.
"Fuck!" Will screamed in his head.
"Your vitals are showing unusual readings. You are advised to terminate the exam."
Will put on his most obsequious smile. "Hey buddy, fancy seeing you here."
"Candidate William Dunn, with your current condition, it is not possible to continue the exam."
Shit, shit, shit! think fast! Will smile didn't waver as he clutched his chest. "Oh, this? This is nothing. It's just gas."
"Gas? Unknown command. Please clarify."
"I just ate some spicy food right before the exam. This is just a side effect." Will's heart raced a million miles a minute. It was akin to a runaway train. he had to calm down - slow down. Breathe.
"Candidate William Dunn..."
"Hey, what did the undercity droid say to the upper tower brat?" Distract the bot. Buy time. He snuck a glance at the VR window; his bpm was steadily dropping.
"Unknown command. Please clarify."
"If two wrongs don't make a right, then maybe three lefts will?"
"Candidate, it is strongly advised that you terminate the exam. Your current condition is highly irregular."
"I think you would be wrong there." said Will. His heart rate had dropped below 170. "My condition is quite stable now."
The AI froze in mid-air as it processed the new information. "Condition has stabilized. However, there is a 73 percent likelihood you suffer from APS. According to the T&C form you have signed, you will be disbarred from your test if it becomes clear that you don't satisfy the physical requirements for the Psypher program."
Will gulped.
"The exam will be resumed. Good luck, Candidate William Dunn." There was a flash, and the AI blipped away.
Will slumped back and tried not to shudder. He was in the shitter now. His sync rate was hanging by a thread. The seizure was coming no matter what, and he could, at best, hold out for another ten minutes. he would not last till the end of the exam; and that was an iron-clad fact.
He chewed on his fingernails. Time was the issue. Ten minutes wasn't enough to fix all the generators, and besides, the damn things broke down sequentially. The exam wouldn't adjust its pre-programmed schedule just for him.
There had to be a way out of this. The victory conditions for the exam were quite simple - hold out till the reinforcements arrived or purge the mutants before they do.
Will froze. Purge the mutants before the time limit. That was it - the only win condition. Will looked past the generator at the spiders at the breach, then at the other two generators off in the distance. His eyes glazed over as he ran the calculations. The field strength needed, the number of mutants, and the energy requirement, he analyzed it all. The data converged into a single answer. His eyes gleamed.
He grabbed the tablet and his tool bag and rushed to the second generator. There was a chance. It was a slim chance but a chance nonetheless.
He dodged around two groups of soldiers. Flechettes rained down around him. One of them clipped the side of his leg but he didn't stop. He dove behind the second generator and started his work.
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The plan was easy to state but hard to execute. The problem with the shield generator was its coverage. Its power was spread out all around it while the breach was at a set location. If he managed to concentrate all that power of three generators in one particular spot, that would end the spiders once and for all.
The shield generator spluttered as he changed its setting. Current arced through its top and it got fiercer by the second. Will could physically feel the power reduce. His skin stopped prickling as the generator gathered power. It would store the added psion charge and release it when all the generators were in sync.
Will slung the tool bag back over his shoulder and rushed to the next generator. The spiders screeched in delight as they felt the drop in field strength. They rushed out the hole in mass, and the soldiers fired into them with abandon as they retreated.
He made it to the next generator and began his work. He adjusted the settings, and the generator groaned as it built up more charge. There was a crackle of lightning as the current got stronger. He was on his feet and running before it even cycled to full charge.
The only generator left was the first generator, the one that he had fixed at the start of the exam. It faced the breach head-on. The spiders broke through the first line of soldiers. A few strays rampaged through the back lines.
Regret, fright, and desperation fueled his reckless sprint. There was a familiar whiz as flechettes came at him from all directions. He used the tool bag to cover his head. They struck the bag like thunder. One particularly nasty flechette ricocheted off the floor and speared him through his leg. Pain lanced through his hamstrings, but he didn't stop.
He crashed into the first generator and tore open its cover. His fingers shook as he opened up the tool bag. Broken pieces of equipment greeted him. The flechettes had ruined almost all the tools.
"Shit," he cursed and grabbed whatever tools that were left and dove into the internals. This had to be done manually. His hands shook, and his spine tingled. His whole body vibrated as the shakes grew fiercer. He gritted his teeth and worked faster. He was nearly done; with this last adjustment, the shield fields would be synchronized, and it would fry every last one of those buggers.
Sweat pooled on Will's forehead. His heart rate shot through the roof but he ignored it all and focused on the machine. Several loud thunks echoed inside the generator as flechettes hammered into it. There were yells and screams outside. He ignored that too and his whole world converged on the machine parts around him. His breath came out in ragged gasps, but his fingers danced over the controls. There was just him and the machine.
He was at the end. Just a bit more, and it would be done. The VR window popped up in his blurred vision, and red lights flashed at him. He could feel the sync rate drop.
"Candidate William Dunn. Your vitals have reached dangerous levels." The spherical form of the AI loomed over him.
"I'm fine," Will grimaced. Any second now, and he could have his attack. He wasn't sure that he could hold on a second longer. The world around him flickered, and he felt his foot on the emergency paddles. He clenched his fist. He would just have to press the emergency exit button just before he fell under.
"Candidate William..."
"I'm fine," he cut off the AI. "The sensors are malfunctioning."
The droid paused as it analyzed the response. It stayed still for two solid seconds before it responded. "Subject must be removed from a malfunctioning sim pod for safety."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Will panicked. "The sensors are fine! I purposely caused these unusual vital readings."
The droid fritzed like it crashed. "Nonresponsive, unable to calculate, Response invalid."
It was all about buying time now. He had to make up something, anything. "The higher heartbeat allows me to respond faster to the VR. Think and act instinctually. It is by design."
The droid hummed as it calculated, and Will dove back to work. The insides of the generator started to smoke as it carried the load of the new parameters. He ignored the steady buildup of heat as he connected the various components together.
A little more, and he would be done. He had to push through. The generator rumbled, and outside, the spiders screamed in a chitinous chittering mass. He tuned it all out and poured his very last will into the machine in front of him.
"Candidate William Dunn."
This was it; he was done. Will initiated the final command into the control board, but the shield didn't power on. In fact, it wasn't receiving any power. "Goddammit!"
He dove back into a mass of cables to find the power coupling.
The spiders were out in full force now. Flechettes came down like rain on the generators. The chittering had turned into a roar as the insects amassed.
"Candidate William Dunn. Prepare to be disconnected from the simulation. Your condition is—"
Will pulled the cables together and connected the two. The generator roared to life, and the field was back online. All the generators aligned the fields and focused them into a tight beam aimed directly at the breach.
A giant pulse flared through the floor. Soldiers were scattered like ninepins, but they remained relatively unharmed. The spiders, though, started smoking as the shockwave rammed through them. The screeching nearly tore apart his eardrums. The mutants rolled around on the floor as if their skin was on fire. No, their skin was on fire. Sparks arced from them, and steam hissed out of their exoskeletons as they were cooked from the inside.
A deafening cheer rang out amongst the soldiers, and Will slumped to the floor with a grin. he had done it. He had finished the exam. He had won.
"Candidate William Dunn," the AI began.
"And then there is you." Will smiled. "Sorry, bud, but it's my win today."
The pain was immense. His leg was on fire, and his nerves were set ablaze. His metal leg bored into his right knee like a hot knife. The leg shook so much that he could barely keep it steady over the foot paddles. Despite all that, he had a smile on his face.
"Later, bud. Hope to see you never." Will pressed down on the paddle hard. It clicked into place, and he waited for the VR to dissolve into the void.
Nothing happened.
Will frowned and pressed down once again. Still nothing. He stepped on the pedal repeatedly, but the machine didn't respond. Eyes wide, Will lowered the sync rate and peered into the sim pod.
His metal foot was pressed firmly on the pedal, but the lever was stuck. A long string of purple gum went from the back of his prosthetic to the underside of the pedal. The purple gum blocked the lever completely. Purple... Gum.
Will's pupils dilated in shock and surprise. "That bastard."
His ears rang, and his vision swam as he felt the stab of a thousand knives rake across his flesh. The pain lanced through his leg into his spine. Will's back arched as he lost all feeling in his body, and he fought to stay conscious.
The seizure took him with full force, and he was pulled into an ocean of pain. Trapped in a prison of his own flesh, he screamed into the void.
"Fuck!"