FEBRUARY 27th, 2022

JEN IV

“Listen, you need to keep it together, there’s something you need to know about the police. You know, Adata, the company that made Elysium? Of course, that’s why you’re here. The police are in league with them,” Jay said.

“League...w-why?! And you still haven’t answered me what you’re doing here!”

“Okay, first thing’s first, I used to work with the people that made this death game, the people that are doing dirty deals with the police to allow this death game to be made without interference, and I quit when I found out about how deep this went. I am here now trying to stop them and save these people that are trapped inside of this game.”

I wiped my eyes and leaned my back against the wall. I needed to get out of here, but I couldn’t move. I was in shock.

“I can’t speak for your friend, but this is the kind of thing that the people responsible for this are known to do…they took my boy from me,” he said.

“Jake was more than...more than just anyone. He was my best friend. I...” I started to choke up and my breathing got short way too fast. “I...I can’t stop seeing it—I try to close my eyes and it’s still there.”

“These people take until no more can be taken—that is what Jack Adata was born to do.”

“I can still make my own choices. You didn’t drag me out here.” I heard in my head. It...it was true. It hurt, but it was true. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but for the reason for us being out here—Jack Adata caused all of this. No, I couldn’t be naive. The both of us have accountability. We did choose to come out here. I’ll have to live with that decision, but it was important that I live. I knew that is what he would tell me right now. What kind of hero could I be if I died here? What kind of sister would I be if I died…

“I’m sorry about your son,” I said, breaking my silence. “My name’s Jennifer Cress, but just call me Jen.” There was a momentary flash in his eyes, I looked at him and in them I felt...open. He felt like a teacher—like someone I could trust. “I want to help my brother—he’s currently trapped in that dumb game.”

“You mean Andrew?”

“How…?”

“I worked with a Cress,” He hesitated, “quite some time ago when I was working here. Not on video games, mind you, but none of us were at the time.” Jay said.

“My father’s name was David,” I said.

He nodded, and smiled, but it was a sorrowful look. One that carried a lot of tough memories. “Yes, he died about fourteen years ago, didn’t he? It has been such a long time...that is about when I left.”

“Yes, it has been such a long time. I didn’t even get to know him,” I said.

“Well, I am very sorry for your loss, all of them,” Jay treaded carefully. “But I must say this isn’t a safe place for you to remain.”

I shook my head. “I came all the way here and...I shouldn’t even need to say it. I came to help my brother and I’m going to help make that happen. I can’t go back...not without knowing he’s okay.”

“What about Elena?” He asked.

I shook my head. “She’s not okay. Doubly so since Andy got stuck. I need to help them.”

He was staring at me—I could feel it, but I wasn’t looking at him any longer. I just felt weak among everything that had happened.

“You are very admirable for your age,” he said. “Okay, I am open for a little help. I’ve been here for the past few days combing this place over. Come here a minute.”

I got up and strode over towards him. “So, what do you need me to do?” I asked, decidedly sure in my choice.

“First, I’m going to need electricity to be working again. I had a generator upstairs but it seems that it blew just before you got here. That’s where you come in, you’ll speed up the process quite a bit,” Jay said, looking at me.

“Okay, how will I do that?” I asked.

Jay took the small device that was on the table and held it out to me. I took it, seeing that it was just a flash drive.

“It’s not a flash drive. I know what it looks like, but it isn’t. You see, this building runs off of a singular grid of circuits, the main generator is up on the fourth floor. All of the power from the first three floors runs off of the generator from the fourth floor. Everything above runs off of a sub-generator that runs power back down to the main one,” Jay explained. “This device is what is going to kick start that first generator into working again, the circuits must have broke when the people rioted here, and so this will act as those broken connections, I call it the Rabbit.”

“Why Rabbit?” I asked.

“It’s past your time.”

“Okay, so I just plug it in, but where?”

“There should be a slot on the right hand side, we outfit our generators with custom inputs in case we needed backup power.”

“Question, how come I’ve never heard of something like this? A flash drive that can power an entire building, that seems like it’d be big news.”

“Simple, we didn’t want you to know. What happened here is much more than just Elysium,” Jay said.

“I wouldn’t have thought that a building like this was just for video games. It looks more like a lab for scientists,” I said.

“Yes, well, that’s why I said that I wasn’t involved in Elysium’s development—he did that on his own accord. That wasn’t the kind of work that we did here.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. What did you do here?” I asked.

“I can explain the whole thing once we get the power on, okay? We’ll be able to work a lot better and faster when it is.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ll get on it.” I said, taking the small device in my hands. I nodded to him and turned to walk out of the room. My eyes started to adjust to the darkness as I stepped out into the hallway. I swung a right back into the stairwell that I’d used to make it this far—

And part of the stairs had broken through to the outside—in the place of four steps was a gaping hole where I could see how high I was already off above the ground. Instantly I fell back—only managing to catch myself on the railing before cracking my head open on the stairs behind. My heart started to pump at breakneck speeds and I felt my throat close up. Suddenly, all I could think about was how high off the ground the fourth floor was going to be—much less the second. Oh god this was such a terrible idea.

I had to do it, though. Jake wasn’t here to help me. He was the person who offered to go up by himself, and he didn’t even know if it was anywhere close to safe. He did it because of me. I have to do this for him. I had to continue and move up those damn...scary...stairs.

I swallowed hard and pulled myself to my feet. I stepped back up to the hole and stretched my leg across it and did the same with my other leg when I got a good hold. I continued up around the bend and I started to calm down as I kept climbing up. The third floor was an absolute wreck—it completely took my breath away. There weren’t any interior walls—it looked like a wrecking ball had been swung through and then left to its own devices. The windows were all shot out and through them I could see the outside even more.

At this I felt my stomach started to heave and I had to steady myself against the side of the stairwell. I was clutching the Rabbit in my left hand and holding for dear life as I tried to pull myself back up. There was a lone nameplate amidst all the rubble that read Radica Labs. I looked away and kept on moving up. The third floor wasn’t as ruined as the second floor was—it looked a lot like the first floor, although instead of different laboratories the rooms had a different nameplate on the face: “Residential Hall”. Were they so busy that they had to live here?

The stairwell was too damaged for me to get to the fourth floor from here—it looked like the entire first panel of stairs had been destroyed and made unusable. I wasn’t going to be getting up that way anytime soon. There had to be another way up down the hall.

I opened the door slowly, a long narrow hallway stretched out in front of me. It forked off at the end left and right. Maybe even just learning some names will be of use, I thought.

I passed more doors as I continued down the hallway—Mason Radica, Jay Rein, Jack Adata, Nathan Denning, David ...Cress. I stopped by the door and opened it up. There was a small bed to my right; red sheets covered the top neatly, undisturbed. There was a small dresser to my left and other than that the room was completely bare. I stepped back out and headed back to the stairwell. For a large enough building it really seems it was sort of a close-knit group of people working here, but for what purpose?

I shook myself out of my thoughts and gripped the railing to my side—it was cold to the touch. I held tight and climbed up to the fourth floor. I finally found the door marked “Power and Storage — 1.” There were a few different machines of varying sizes tucked in the back of the room—it looked like this room was a heart that pumped the lifeblood through the rest of their exploits.

If this room was to be used for both power and storage then it would make sense that not all of these machines were generators—logic would dictate that some of them could have bounds of information that could help illuminate things. If I knew how to retrieve the information off of them, at least, then that could be possible. But from my inspections there wasn’t any sort of interface that made sense to me—it was probably connected with some computers, but I didn’t see any around me, so I let go of the idea for at least a little bit while I turned my attention to what I assumed was one of the generators. It was bulkier than the rest and had cards plastered on the side listing variations of “DO NOT TOUCH” on the side.

The entire unit looked like it weighed five times my weight for only being half my height. The front of the box on the table had all sorts of dials and switches it made my head hurt. I looked around to see if it had any place for the Rabbit on the right side; there were just as many inserts as there were buttons, but I saw one that looked like it would fit. I stuck the Rabbit in and nothing happened. was that it? Was it a trick? Maybe-There was a low hum, the machine began to stir. I guess the only way to truly know was to check. I flipped one of the light switches and the lights flickered for a minute, and then finally turned on. Yes! It worked! I ran back to the door and then down the stairs, back down to the Research and Development Lab.

I saw Jay inside with his back towards me. “You did it, that’s great! We should have about an hour of energy with that.”

“Only an hour?” I asked, walking over towards him.

“It’s a temporary power source, but what we can do is construct a stronger version that will give us all the time we need,” Jay explained.

“How will we do that? And why didn’t you just make the stronger version first? Wouldn’t that make more sense?”

Jay took a small vial out of his coat, a bright green liquid rested inside. “Because I need power to make it—a bit of a catch-22. I was finishing my work on the Rabbit when I heard you down here so I wasn’t able to finish. “This compound is what will make it stronger. It’s called Radical-9.” he said.

“So, what’s like…it made of? And what does it do?”

“I’m privy to the details for my own safety, but I understand that makes me sound suspicious, so I can tell you so long you don’t go posting about it online or what have you.”

“I...uh, yeah, sure,” I said.

“It’s mainly made of elementary particles—Calcium and Radium mixed with two particles not found on Earth.”

“So where, like the moon?”

“Mars,” he corrected. “The final half of the solution are elements named Dicoberene and Lantrate.” He grabbed at a spare flash drive from the table and held it up, “Here you guessed that the Rabbit was a flash drive—and I said you weren’t fully correct. This here is a normal flash drive—it is exactly like the casing of the Rabbit before I applied the Radical-9 to the surface.”

I looked at him with a confused stare on my face. “Doesn’t that ruin the drive?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“If it were a liquid by the time it were on the drive, yes it very well might, but this is a very unique serum. Once applied to the surface of almost any electrical surface it begins to meld with it like an adhesive. The Radical-9 overwrites the storage function of the drive and begins feeding its own sort of will onto the device—energy output, which is then used by the compound and amplified. Think of it like a super battery.”

He takes off the casing to the drive and sets it down on the table, grabbing a pair of tweezers beside him and begins taking apart bits and pieces from the circuitry. “You wouldn’t happen to have a cotton swab on you, would you?” He asked.

I shake my head, and he looks around himself. He takes off his jacket and holds an arm of it in his hands. “It is paramount that I don’t make contact with the compound, it’s very diluted, but physical contact even in this state can be horrendous,” he explained. He dabbed the arm of his jacket with the green liquid, preserving a large chunk inside of the vial as he closed it. Jay then took the exposed circuit of the flash drive and coated it from the liquid on the arm of his jacket, swabbing it down and then setting it carefully on the table. “Now, we have to wait for it to dry. Whatever you do don’t touch it,” he said.

“What happens if you do?”

“Well, the human brain is full of electrical activity. If the human body makes contact with the Radical-9 then no good can come of it, surely.” He said with a slower focus and I could tell he was picking his words very carefully.

“Where did this stuff come from—was it what was being made here—what you worked on?”

“It wasn’t our prime directive but for a short time,” he said. “We worked like freelancers. Working and studying on one topic until we or our supervisors were satisfied and then we moved onto the next.”

“But at one point you were working on this stuff?” I asked.

“Yes. It…was complicated. There was an accident and it got one of my coworkers killed—and very much drove another mad. That other is the very same person behind that Elysium game, Jack Adata.”

“All because of this Radical-9...” she said. “Is that his goal? Or...what is his goal?”

“I can only but guess at his motivations. I have reason to believe that he believes he can preserve his existence within the gamespace he has created. I left before plans fully went through on this project of his so I don’t know a lot of the specifics, but I do know the underlying basis of how Elysium exists.”

“How it exists?”

“Everybody who logged onto that game believes they’re just sitting in their room sleeping and their dreams are of the game—that’s how the Adatech helmet is advertised to work.”

“Yeah, that sounds familiar to how the news station was reporting on it as,” I said. “I don’t really understand the specifics but that explanation makes sense.”

“But that’s the thing, it doesn’t because it’s not the truth. The players aren’t falling into their own subconsciousness to enter Elysium—the helmets connect to their neural network and force a connection to Jack’s subconsciousness. The reason that they do not wake up on their own is because their bodies are but dormant shells that exist to exist—they breathe and pump blood, but what remains of their souls just...isn’t. That’s because of the Adatech.”

“Wait, how do you know this? That’s pretty important info! How could you possibly know where my brother’s soul is?”

“It’s because of Radical-9,” Jay explained. “You asked what would happen if Radical-9 made contact with a human...well, it did. Not just one human, but...well, the important thing is that it made contact with Jack. The day of that accident I mentioned was when Jack came in contact with the Radical-9. It’s also the day that Radical-9 happened to be accidentally discovered, but those events showed us all just what kind of power that it could give.”

“Are you saying it made his brain like that flash drive? Rewrote and inserted its own will...or whatever?”

“The brain is a very specific organ,” Jay said. “How we grow up to be who we are is wholly dependent on what synapses connect in our minds—when something catastrophic comes along to change those currents change is to be expected. Say when you get electrocuted or suffer from a traumatic brain injury. Deficiencies can totally change how a person is. Augmentations...however, can do so on an entirely different level.”

“He went crazy,” I said, “...to make it simple.”

“Crazy is a bit inaccurate. I will say he changed—a little at first, but then progressively he began to care less and less about morality, about what was right, and only about the preservation of his life in eternity. He wanted power, and more of it now that he had a taste of what it could give him.”

“And so he made a world where he could do just that.”

“Yes. His contact with the Radical-9 increased his mental faculties...among with the ability to move objects with his mind.”

He must have been expecting my surprised look, because he nodded as soon as I gave it to him.

“Yes, I understand your confusion. I was just as confused—scared—everything that came with when it came about. I...I stayed for a few years after the accident because I was scared that he had the power to hurt me and my family. I learned very fast that this was true, so I became so scared that I fled.”

“So what now?” I asked. “What do we do to stop this from happening?”

“Next, I try to break the connection Jack has on the other players. It would be impossible to save everyone from the branches of the metaphorical tree—by traveling to every inflicted player and trying to yank their consciousness back into their bodies—that would take much too long and Jack would surely catch on quick and prepare defenses.”

“So you’re thinking of going for the roots? Jack himself?”

“That’s the idea. It’s a bit trickier in practice, however, but it could really do with an assistant.”

“You mean me, of course,” I said.

“I wouldn’t dare involve you if time were not so short and my options were wider. But I fear I must ask for your help in stopping Jack.”

I shook my head, feeling sure of myself. “No, don’t worry about it. I’m here because I wanted to find out how to stop him. Jake wanted to do anything he could to help me and if my Dad was here I’m sure he would do anything that he could to stop this.

“Yes...” he said, and then bent down, grabbing something bulky on the edge of the desk. “Well, it would be an honor. I will explain clearly what I need of you, and you can choose if you still wish to be of help. This,” he turned around and help up a familiar object—the Adatech helmet. “...is not a commercial model of the Adatech—meaning it will not send a cord into your neck to connect you to Jack. I have removed all of that from this helmet—however, using the spare Rabbit here I can force a link to Elysium—a link he won’t be expecting. That means if you put on this helmet you will be able to see inside the world of Elysium. To you, it would seem like a normal video game. You would be able to remove the helmet at any point and be totally safe. Your death inside of the game would be just that—a death inside of the game. You catch my drift?”

“I’d be a fifth business.”

“A what?” he asked.

I had to admit, knowing something he didn’t give me a start of pride in my stomach. “Neither a hero or a villain, but working to save those around me. It’s from an old Robertson Davies book called Fifth Business.”

“Ah, yes, well that is a very apt description. Your goal inside of Elysium would be to suss out Jack’s location. From what I understand he is hiding somewhere within his own mental-space. If you can find him I can do work from out here to mess with his systems and try to crash everything from his side.

“Would that be safe for those that are playing the game?”

“Andrew should be safe if we get this right,” he said. “If we don’t, it’s possible he considers the project far too gone and nukes the whole thing—taking everybody with him. That’s why a certain level of precision is needed in order for this to work. We have the element of surprise, but that only works out well once, so we have little to spare.”

“Okay, so get in, find Jack, and save the day. It sounds tough, but I am up for it.” I told him.

“100%?”

“Stop trying to talk me out of it and let’s start on saving my brother, okay?”

He nodded slowly and held the helmet out to me. “It’s booting up now so you should just be able to put it on. I’d suggest leaning against the wall to keep your balance.”

“Okay...and how will I move when I’m inside...will I actually need to walk?”

“No, nothing like that. There aren’t any sensors to send your movements from the real world to the game inside the helmet—I’ve got this here as well—” he handed me a keyboard. “Plug the cable from this into the back of the helmet.”

“I...I don’t play computer games like Andy does I don’t...”

He raised his hands in acknowledgment. “I don’t either. Look at it,” he said.

I did, and noticed that four of the keys along with the space bar looked different than the rest—felt different than the rest. There was a bumpy groove on each of them.

“You won’t be able to do anything other than walk and jump with those keys, I’ve made them feel different so that you can find them without having to take the helmet off. Also...I’ve put in a microphone so you should be able to communicate normally, but I’m not 100% sure that it works right so we’ll have to play it by ear.”

“What if it doesn’t work? Can I use the keyboard to chat?”

“Yes, but you’d immediately be called out for it. Nobody in there has that kind of communication as far as I can tell.”

“Right.”

I’m going to mirror the helmet’s display so I can see what you see. I’ll try my best to help guide you, but I’ll be primarily working on my end of things.”

“If I can’t die in there I don’t think I’ll need as much help as you think,” I said. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I said, looking to the helmet, and then assuring myself. I sat down with my back to the wall and plugged the keyboard into the slot in the back of the helmet.

“Okay, it’s in,” I said.

“All right, you sit tight for a second I’m going to go secure the power for the rest of our venture. After that I’ll find a spot for you to land in.”

“You can do that?” I asked.

“I can explain more when I come back down,” he said.

I nodded, and he left with the second Rabbit in hand. I sat there with the helmet in my hands and the keyboard in my lap. I’m trusting him with everything. More than I should. How can I trust someone I just met? I really shouldn’t be able to...but I do. His face has seen much sorrow and I guessed I related with that. Even now as I was about to enter the world Andy was trapped in I felt a nervousness enter my body like a spike of ice. Even though the threat of death was more likely from the mad scientist who hung out in the abandoned—destroyed—building, I feared more for the world that had already killed so many people.

Well, in that sense I guess the real world wasn’t so different. It was just how you looked at it.

Jay came back a few minutes later and more of the lights turned on—the ones not broken, that was. He was carrying a tablet he wasn’t holding when he left and nodded to me with it. “This here were what we used back then to manage all of our data before this all. It takes in data from a chosen input and I can edit and manipulate as I see fit. I’ve connected it to the connection in the helmet and struck gold.” He held it out so I could see that on its display now was a scene of a town, it almost looked medieval. The view hovered over and panned across the tops of the several brick buildings.

“That’s Elysium?”

“Jack’s probably hired some rookie developer to do the actual construction of the code, because the helmets weren’t wiped of any of the development data. I don’t have to be familiar with game development to know that you don’t leave your source code inside the commercial models of your accessories. These shots you’re seeing look to be from promotional material—internal cameras used to get footage for trailers and commercials. Perfect for our case of getting a look at where the action is happening.”

“Are there other areas to look around in? Maybe Andy’s in one of those shots.”

“Let me see,” he said, turning the tablet back around and scrolling around. “It seems there are viewpoints for multiple floors—my guess on how the game is structured.”

“How many floors are there?”

Jay scrolled to the next feed, it showed the same town from the first, just at a base level view. The next showed another side of the town from the inside; he kept scrolling through, “It seems there are three different views on what looks like…thirteen floors.”

“So we have thirty-nine different feeds to watch?”

“I guess you could narrow down the last few, If anybody’s in there then the game would end pretty quickly, huh?”

“I guess so.”

“Here, see if you can find your brother. I’ve set it up so you can scroll through them by swiping.” He handed me the tablet. I set the helmet down in my lap and held it out in front of me.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“For…?” He looked back to me.

“For giving me a chance to help my brother.”

He nodded and I looked back to the screen, changing the view to a ground level view. I saw some people in hefty armor walking around. I didn’t recognize any of them. I scanned the ground, looking for even a hint of his face. I flipped to the third view of the jungle, there was a large group of people among themselves, Andy wasn’t among them. Maybe he’ll be on a higher floor, he’s good at these games, right?

I switched the feed to the sixth floor, first feed. It showed a huge tower in the sky, platforms decorated the side as balcony-like areas protruded into the air. The entire thing looked massive. When I switched it to the second feed it looked to be of inside the tower. The floor was cracked and chipped in the back corner of the room, which rose higher than I could see into the darkness.

Some people in black robes with funky marking passed by, they were in a large group of about twenty people. They were all speaking as they walked by. I couldn’t catch any of what they were saying—it was a collective hum. I scrolled upward through the feeds as my hope of finding him in any of these specific angles had started to wane. I stopped on the third floor, second feed. It seemed to be another town, but that my heart spiked as I caught sight of what looked to be a fight. There was a large…he looked to be a monster of a man almost twice the height of everyone else around him. And there was more than one of him...copies it looked like. One of them had their arms around Andy. He was wearing a long black coat but I could pick him out from a distance.

“Your eyes perked up considerably. You found him?”

I nodded and turned it to him, “He’s right there.”

“Oh my, he looks to be in trouble,” he said, taking the tablet.”

Jay bent closer to the screen as he stared, “Yes, I can see the resemblance...it’s crazy...Unfortunately I’m not sure we can assist them in their fight.”

“Because I can’t attack?”

“Precisely.”

“Doesn’t matter. They need help and even if I can’t fight I can find something I can do.”

“You are your father’s daughter,” He said, and looked me over.

I put the helmet on and saw the brilliant colors fly passed my face. The helmet obscured the rest of the outside world and instantly I was thankful that I was sitting down. I rested my hands on the keyboard and felt a chill run up my spine. This was really happening. “I’m sending you in now. If he sees you he won’t recognize you because you won’t look like yourself, keep that in mind. Should the microphone work you can try to establish contact...provided that the fight is favorable.”

“Got it.” I said.

I saw the world fill itself in and the bright blue sky stretched out all around me. And right in front was the battlefield I had just been looking at from an outsider’s perspective.

Here I come, Andy.