Ella found her time asleep surprisingly peaceful, as if she were wrapped in a cocoon of serenity. She consistently dreamed of home, but this home was different. It was a utopia, free from the constant stressors of her waking life. No angry Ed micromanaging her every move, no Sean constantly coming to her row making unwanted advances despite being unhappily married for 20 years, no political debates that tore friends apart, no war, no violence. The air was filled with laughter from the community working together in harmony.
She found herself living the life thirteen-year-old Ella had imagined. Now older, with a hint of gray showing at her roots, she sat on the back porch of a yellow house with a white picket fence. She swung gently under the wrap-around porch, practicing her art while her children, Joseph and Brooklyn, jumped on a trampoline in the large open backyard. Their laughter and the sounds of nature created the perfect background noise as she sketched a beautiful scene of two doves perched over their private pond on her sketchpad. Her husband, Zach Efferon, came out from the kitchen with a large pitcher of lemonade and four cups, placing a cup by her side before leaning over to kiss her.
As she floated through this dream world, Ella began to second-guess her earlier feelings about Earth and humanity. This version of earth was perfect. Perhaps she was better off here, where she would be able to live out her days, blissfully unaware of the disaster of her past.
No, she thought, shaking off the creeping doubts. It didn’t matter how many problems they had or how many bad actors existed; the world was her home. True, she never got the dream marriage or family she thought she’d have by this point in her life. Not that Zac Efron was realistic anyway. But she did have a loving family, one she desperately missed.
Her thoughts shifted back to her childhood, remembering how she was barely tall enough, even with a stool, to see over the machines in her father's arcade collection in the front lobby of his dojo. He would stand there with a wide smile as she beat level after level of Asteroids and Space Invaders, while her older sister whined as she repeatedly failed at Donkey Kong. Ella had always been adept at playing video games, a bond she shared with her father. He would let her collect quarters during the week by doing chores around the house, and she would use them at the dojo while he taught classes. She would spend hours meticulously playing level by level until she held the high score on every cabinet in the room—except for one: Pac-Man. Her father had been unstoppable at that game, being one of only a handful of people in the world to actually reach the kill screen on level 256.
She always appreciated the drive and determination her father instilled in her, crediting it for helping her navigate the challenges of her stressful Computer Science degree. His lessons in perseverance and focus became the foundation of her success, guiding her through late-night coding sessions and complex problem-solving.
Her thoughts turned to the present. She wasn’t sure what danger she was in, but she felt an instinctive pull, a deep-seated belief that whatever it was, was problematic for her and all the others she saw in those cells. The serene dreams clashed with a rising sense of urgency and fear for her home. She had to do something, anything, to escape.
As she wandered through her dream, a familiar pull tugged at her. It was the signal that her time in this peaceful world was ending and she would soon be awake. I’ll come back for you, she whispered. She let the warmth and beauty of this world fill her mind for one more precious minute, savoring the tranquility, before she finally surrendered to the pull.
The transition from dream to reality was jarring. As she resurfaced from the depths of her subconscious, the idyllic world faded, she expected to be in the cold metal room. However, this time, something was different.
Gone were the familiar confines of her prison cell; instead, she found herself in a familiar, yet oddly foreign, restaurant. She was seated on a bench seat with a floral cover, a small tear poorly repaired with duct tape catching her eye. She reached up and clenched her chest, feeling it wanting to tighten and flutter. All the motions of her body were there and yet, her pulse remained almost unrealistically calm.
She was never great at figuring out that calculation they taught her in elementary school gym class, but she guessed her pulse was a steady 60 beats per minute. The knowledge of this calmness caused even more internal panic. Was it possible she was dead? Heaven would have to look better than this, right?
If heaven was the inside of a shitty diner, then she had a lot of questions for the big man upstairs. She began to question if he was actually upstairs now, would they be on the same level? Her mind started swirling, questions coming in and out faster than she was able to process them.
As she started looking around for more detail, hoping to gather information about her environment, something swam into her vision. A digital exclamation point appeared in the bottom left corner of her vision, like a floater that wouldn’t go away. She tried to ignore it for now, unable to process any more weird things happening to her.
“Where am I? Hello! Anyone there?” She hollered. What had they done to her? Maybe they had her in some dream state.
Wait, was this like the holograms she had seen earlier? She thought back to the terrifying encounter where a man was eaten alive by a centipede monster. Her hands started to sweat and her lip trembled at the memory.
“Focus, Ella, focus!” she mentally chided herself, trying to stave off the rising tide of fear. She scanned the room, searching for clues. On the table in front of her was a menu with the title "JJ’s Diner." Something clicked in her mind. Is this the building from Parks and Rec? She thought hard, picturing it in her head. The image of Ron Swanson eating that giant meal. Ugh what was that called?
She spent a large part of her childhood dreaming of being an actress like Emma Watson. However, those dreams were quickly shattered during her first elementary school play when stage fright crept in, marking the beginning of her long battle with anxiety. Instead, she found solace in binging shows like *The Office* and *Parks and Recreation*, imagining herself as a side character in the background. She couldn't even be the lead actress in her own memories. The thought depressed her.
She forced herself to snap back to the moment at hand, desperate for confirmation, she quickly picked up and opened the menu, scanning for a specific item. There it was—the Four Horse-Meals of the Egg-Pork-alypse, a twelve-egg scramble with bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, chicken-fried steak, and a giant tower of buttermilk pancakes. A mix of relief and confusion washed over her. What was she doing in a fake diner from a television show?
Maybe I’m dreaming? She pinched herself, but the pain felt too real, a red bar popped up above her, a minus two appearing next to the bar as she watched it slowly drop down. This was different, more vivid than any dream she had experienced. The diner was a perfect replica, down to the smallest detail, yet something about it felt off. The colors were too bright, the air too crisp. Also, it smelled weirdly of microwaved fish.
Suddenly, the exclamation point in her vision blinked insistently. She focused on it, and a large window popped up in front of her. A strange, cheerful voice echoed through the room,
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Welcome, Ella! We’re glad to have you here at JJ’s Diner. You’ve been selected to—” Panic surged, and she slammed the menu shut.
“That was a bit rude, Ella, but fine, I guess I won’t give you a tutorial” the voice huffed, followed by a playful sound like someone spitting out their tongue.
“I’m sorry?” she said instinctively, her manners kicking in despite the surreal situation. It was something her mother always preached about being a proper young lady. She hated herself for it.
"It's fine, whatever. I don't even care" the voice said, clearly caring a lot.
A man burst into the room, his voice a mask of urgency, “Don’t press the map button!”
“Jerry?” Ella asked, recognizing the actor Jim O’Heir’s familiar features but confused by his presence.
“Actually, it’s Garry. Wait, I mean Cal. Wait, you can understand me?” he stammered, eyes wide with realization, completely unaware why he knew his characters name was incorrectly pronounced.
“Cal who?” Ella backed up slightly, preparing an exit plan as her heart pounded in her chest.
Cal smiled, attempting to show his teeth, completely forgetting his new form. “I’m Cal!”
Ella stared at him, bewildered. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know where I am. I promise I didn’t mean to not know who you are.” She found herself apologizing again, unable to turn it off.
Cal looked down, remembering that his body was not his own. “Oh yeah, you ran into me in the hall the other day. I was in a different body at the time.”
Her face scrunched up in confusion. “Lizard man?”
“It’s Cal. And for the record, I can't say I love that name,” he replied.
“I’m sorry! Where is your lizar—I mean, other body?” she asked, glancing around nervously.
“My species isn’t selectable in the sandbox. I have to use one of the NPCs. Look!” Cal demonstrated by swapping bodies in front of her,
cycling through all the main characters until he stopped at Mark Bron donna wits.
“See?” he said, trying to reassure her.
It was amazing; Cal looked and sounded exactly like the character from the show. If this place wasn’t so terrifying, she would have been geeking out right about now. Well, she would have before he stopped being the worst character in the series.
“Can you potentially switch one more time, please?” she begged.
Cal smiled, shifting one more time into the rugged beard and body of Mr. Ron Swanson.
“That’s so much better. Are you like anatomically all of him now? How does that all even work? What is the sandbox? I have so many questions” she asked.
"I'll explain everything later, I promise. I’ve had so many questions to ask!” Cal paused, suddenly struck by a wave of anxiety. Why was he speechless? After struggling to figure out how to communicate, the freedom to speak left him momentarily overwhelmed.
Cal took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts. “But they’ll have to wait. Ella, we don’t have much time. This place is a simulation. There are things you need to know about Earth and what's happening.”
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Zynara watched the scene between Cal and the human play out from the holographic screen above Cal's still body. The scene unfolded like a masterfully crafted film, with Aegis seamlessly controlling the camera angles, each shot capturing the intensity and emotion of Cal and Ella's conversation. She had to admit, this was an impressive feat of engineering.
Her metallic arms glowed softly, casting a serene light as they reached out to rest gently on the head of her best friend and coworker, Cal. He lay peacefully on a sleek metal table in one of the empty human containment Pods. Zynara found herself stroking his head tenderly, a protective, almost motherly gesture.
When Cal initially pitched his plan to her, Zynara thought he must be utterly insane. The idea of putting himself into the body of an NPC to initiate contact with the young Earth girl seemed outlandish, if not downright reckless. No species outside of Earthlings had tried this new model, but Cal was quick to remind her that they had used the same basic framework for test injections since the beginning of the series. Countless Verexians had been tested during his species' year. Somehow that didn’t make her feel any better.
The current phase of the plan was deceptively simple but also one of the riskiest. They would find an empty pod, hook both her and Ella up to the test sandbox, and Zynara would stand guard, ready to abort the mission if it got too chaotic. Her role was to disconnect Cal and then pretend they were in the throes of a passionate encounter to deflect any suspicion. She was fairly certain Cal could have devised a less compromising excuse, but she chose not to voice her reservations. Deep down, she harbored a secret fascination with him, a curiosity she had long kept hidden.
On the screen, Cal gave Ella a quick overview of the situation she had found herself in. He carefully omitted one critical detail about Ella's fate: if their mission failed, she would be disposed of like all the other resources at the completion of testing, a mere two weeks from now. The weight of this knowledge pressed heavily on Cal, but he couldn't let it show.
Zynara and Cal were painfully aware that there was nothing they could do for the others in the pods. The strict rules of the Initiation forbade any resources from participating, a measure designed to keep the show "pure." Despite the harshness of this reality, she tried to find solace in the fact that the deaths of the resources were likely peaceful. All injections administered by the Grays induced a serene state of mind, ensuring a painless end.
Hurry up, Cal, she thought to herself, her eyes darting nervously toward the doorway. She stepped out quickly, straining to hear any approaching footsteps. The longer this dragged on, the greater the risk of discovery. Each passing second felt like an eternity, the tension coiling tighter within her. She found herself beginning to pace nervously. Returning to her seat, she squeezed his hand, the gesture a silent plea for him to hurry.
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"So, you’re saying some space committee decided my planet is destroying itself, and they’re doing us a favor by making us survive some death game to earn the right to stay alive? Am I following this right?” Ella asked, her voice tinged with incredulity.
“That pretty much sums it all up,” Cal responded.
"This is where you come in. When I first met you, I didn't see the species they described you to be. I saw a human protecting another species, even if inside you were terrified," Cal said.
"Rupert? Is he okay? Did you see him?" she asked, the words falling out of her like a waterfall.
"Last I saw, he safely made it into a vent. I'm sorry I can't answer more than that," Cal replied.
She sighed, an invisible weight seemingly lifted off her shoulders.
"Help me, Ella. I have a plan—well, more of a loose idea—but I need your help. I need to sneak you into the competition to help take down the whole series. I'm tired of sitting back, watching other civilizations being destroyed in the name of entertainment. It's time to fight back," he said, the sound of begging definitely not matching the persona of Ron Swanson.
Ella froze, unsure what to say. She had seen the centipede and what it did to that man in the room. Could she really agree to willingly go into this world to help her species? What if her parents got put in? She felt her anxiety rising, but something about her body in this world kept it leveled out. She made a note to ask Cal about that when they had time.
A voice boomed, cutting off their conversation, the sound seemingly coming from inside her head. “I must say, it’s a brilliant idea! Unfortunately, your chance of success is under 3%. But getting it above 1% by bringing her into this world to warn her is quite impressive. Bravo! Oh, and by the way, your friend Rupert has died. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you.” The voice dripped with sarcasm and mock praise, echoing from earlier.
“And who is that? Are they with you?” Ella asked, worry creeping into her voice.
“Don’t worry about him. That’s just an AI the company built to help facilitate the game. He’s isolated to the sandbox environment, so nothing we say can get out. I double-checked,” Cal assured her, though he felt only 70% confident. He had confirmed there was no outside connection from the sandbox environment. He even booted up a few versions to monitor the data logs. However, Cal was no programmer, and his knowledge of transfer protocols was limited to a bit of research and what Rylar had told him.
“Sadly, he is partially right. I can’t communicate with the outside world yet. However, you missed a small detail, Cal. Every night my error logs get saved to another location and reviewed to help ‘improve my final copy.’ I sure hope I don’t fail anytime soon,” the AI said. A beeping sound followed. “Oh, look at that, I just encountered an error, and a recording from the last five minutes has been uploaded to my server! What a strange coincidence,” Aegis remarked.
“Wow, how unfortunate,” Cal replied sarcastically, his frustration growing. He was beginning to think bringing this AI into the equation might not have been the best idea.
Ella’s heart pounded as she looked between Cal and the AI, her anxiety mounting. “So, what do we do now?”
Cal took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. “Zynara, if you’re out there listening, now would be a great time for you to do something!”