Lying on the ground staring up at the sky, Sam felt the grass beneath him and just listened to The World.  There wasn’t the usual sound of cars driving around, the random honking and yelling of angry drivers.  Part of him wondered everyone, he knew, in Jackson were up to.  Would they be studying for the next exam, checking their Facebook, watching new YouTube videos, and wondering where they would be in life?  In the distance the sound of birds and animals could be heard, as they went about their purpose.  How could The Structure be so lifelike?  It constantly reminded him about the amount of time and money that must have gone into making this experiment happen.

“Master, are you okay?”  Asked Brittany, sounding concerned.

Sam was silent, unsure of how to answer that simple question.

“Are you thinking about your roll?”

“I’m assuming you’re referring to my amazing roll?”  said Sam, feeling a bit petulant.

Brittany sighed, letting him know what she thought of his answer.  

Feeling embarrassed, Sam responded, “Sorry.  I didn’t mean to act that way.  Considering that it was my first roll, I didn’t expect to roll a 2.  I admit I’m acting a bit childish, right now.”  

“It’s okay, Master.  Thought it may be stressful, I’m here for you.  I’ll help you through this.”

“Thanks, Brittany.  I admit that it’s nice to have you with me.”  Sam was feeling a lot better, talking it out with her.  After what happened at the hospital and seeing the results, he admitted to feeling a bit lost as he walked out of the building.  Seeing the manicured grass, lying down seemed like an amazing option.  He didn’t know how long he lay down on the grass, but seeing how much the sun moved in the sky he figured it was for a bit.

“Brittany, I was wondering about how this little village is meant to house all of us?  Based on the number of houses and rooms in each apartment, I doubt that everyone could be here.”  He pondered.  

“This is only one of many towns inside of The World.  If you go further past this town, you’ll reach villages scattered all over the place.  There are three cities in this area.  The cities aren’t even needed to house everyone, and are only options for those who have enough tickets.”

“That sounds pretty amazing!” Sam said, sounding impressed.

“Aside from the cities, all the locations are within half a day of walking, at a leisurely pace.”  She elaborated.  “If you’re feeling hungry.  How about going over to get your first supplement drink?”  

“Where do we need to go for that?”  He didn’t remember seeing a restaurant that specialized in giving out the supplements.

In front of Sam, a glowing line appeared that circled behind him.  He turned himself around, following the line, and saw it leading back to the hospital.  “I wasn’t expecting it to be inside of the hospital.” He said to Brittany.

“In order to support the large number of people that’ll come through here, the hospital is the only thing large enough in the immediate vicinity.  If you see a hospital that’s where you’ll find the supplement drink.  The drinks can be found on the second floor.

He headed back into the hospital.  In the lobby, Sam glanced at the kiosks, thinking about earlier and wishing he could roll the die again.  He knew that wasn’t possible and he would need to try again tomorrow.  Heading towards the elevator, he thought about what he needed to do now.  At least he experienced rock bottom, only having two tickets.  Though thinking about it, Sam could have ended up with only one.  Just thinking about that sent sweat pouring down his back.  With a single ticket, he couldn’t even get a supplement drink.  

Reaching the elevator, the doors opened by themselves and he entered.  “Hey, Brittany.  I’m going to assume that you’re the one doing this?”  He asked her.

“Depending on the tech, I’m able to remotely access the system.  I already know that your destination, so all you need to do is enter the elevator.”  She giggled, thinking it funny that Sam didn’t realize this earlier.  Brittany enjoyed how Sam was sometimes ignorant about what she was able to do.

Arriving at the second floor, I stepped out and saw an open floor with circular tables and chairs.  On one side of the cafeteria looking setup were vending machines and on the other side was diner looking setup with tons of stoves, sinks, and refrigerators behind a counter.  “What’s up with this place?”  He asked Brittany.

As he was turning around, checking the place out, she said, “This place is for those who have a limited number of tickets.  When you go into the grocery store and purchase food, you can use these kitchen appliances to cook the food.  All the dishes, utensils, and equipment are through the double doors there.  It’s set up like a commercial kitchen, so feel free to use them whenever.  As you can see in the vending machines, you can get the supplement drinks, soda, and various other drinks.  The ticket prices can seen on the button.  You just need to press the button and the drink you ordered will drop out, just like in the real world without the bills or coins.  I think it’s probably a lot more convenient for people, but I’m just a machine.”  

Walking over to the supplement vending machine, Sam saw the giant picture of what he assumed was the drink.  On the side were three buttons, for vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate.  Sighing and shrugging his shoulders, he pressed the strawberry button and heard the whirring of the machine and thudding of the drink.  Reaching down to the opening, he grabbed the drink container and looked at it.  The packaging looked pretty creative, like those you’d see in a GNC store.  Shaking the bottle, he turned the cap and drank the contents.  Compared to other supplement drinks he has tried in the past, the flavor was pretty on point.  It tasted like strawberries, though it was fairly thick.  

“The taste isn’t that bad, though I imagine I’d get pretty sick of it if I had to drink it constantly.”  Sam thought out loud.

“It provided you with everything you nutritional need, for a day.”  

“I kind of want to try out the other flavors, though it’ll probably be awhile before I need to get one.  I guess it’ll be something to look forward to”, Sam laughed.  After getting that out of his system and throwing out the bottle, Sam asked, “Since I don’t have anymore tickets now, do I get to sleep here or outside?”  Looking out the window, he could tell that the sun was close to setting.  Even though it felt like he just arrive in The World, the day went by quickly.

“On the third floor, you’ll be able to find pods similar to the welcome area, just without the screen and comforts.  The pods just have a mattress, with no door that’ll close.  It was purposefully designed to be pretty Spartan in design.  Since they are free.”  She answered, not sounding too happy and understanding that it wasn’t the best situation.

“At least I don’t need to sleep out under the stars, though considering how it won’t rain inside of the structure it wouldn’t be that big of an issue.” He said trying to stay optimistic.

“Actually…”  Brittany said, sounding very uncomfortable.

Looking down at his watch, Sam said, “You’ve got to be joking…  It’s going to rain in here?  There should be a limit to how realistic this place is!”

He was met with silence as his voice was rising, which confirmed that this was actually the case.  Grabbing one of the chairs, Sam placed his arms on the table and buried his face in them.  Not only was he slightly hungry, even after drinking his meal, Sam was feeling a little stressed out.  Even though he had faced worse scenarios out in the real world, he wondered what life was going to be like in here.  

“What time is everyone going to enter into The World?” he asked, his voice muffled by his arms.

“They’ll be here early in the morning, once the sun comes up.  They’ll be coming in groups of a thousand.  The process will take all day tomorrow, so each person will be alerted when their group is getting ready to come inside The World.”  She said gently, understanding that this experience may be stressful for him.

After staying at the table for a couple of mins, Sam said, “I’m feeling a little sleepy, so let’s go to the third floor.”  With effort, he got up and started to walk back to the elevators and entered the one with the waiting opened doors.  Getting to the third floor, he saw rows and rows of empty pods.  Grabbing one of the nearer ones on the floor level, he crawled into the pod and lay on his stomach.  As thoughts went through his head he eventually fell asleep.

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When he opened his eyes, he felt like only a few minutes had passed by.  Yawning and stretching himself, while he lay on the mattress, Sam asked, “Brittany, what time is it?”  

“Good morning, Master.  You slept fairly deeply, so I hope you had a good rest.  Currently it’s 7 am, and the seventh group is entering into The World.  By the end of the day, there will be around a million people inside of The World.”

“Wait!! What did you just say?!”  Sam became alert, and wanted her to confirm what she just said.

“There will be a million people inside of The World.”  Brittany repeated herself.

Thinking about the town, he retorted, “There’s no room for a million people here.  Are you sure it’s a million people?”  

“As people enter into The World, each participant’s AI companion will recommend that they continue onto the other villages and towns.  The AIs will be able to guide each participant to an appropriate location, aside from the cities since no one will be able to live in them with the current flow of tickets.  Already people are walking around the town and looking at the various stores and the hospital.  Some are being proactive and walking to the next nearest settlement.”  She explained.

“How do you know what the other people are doing?”  He asked her.

“As an AI companion, we are allowed access some information related to participants.  This way we can give helpful advice to each individual.  This experience will be different from your own, due to your modifications.”  She sounded somewhat prideful near the end.

“I forgot to ask, but will other people be able to hear you?  The fact that I can hear you, must mean that the speaker in the watch are set pretty high.”  He wondered.

Giggling at his inquiry, Brittany said, “You perceive my to be originating from the watch, but you are actually hearing through your skull.  The implant is vibrating inside of you, to generate my voice so that you can hear me clearly.  If you were out in the real world, people would think that you were unwell, cause you’d be talking to yourself.”

Glad that this was the case, Sam slowly got out of his pod.  As he walked away, Sam saw a small robot appear, looking like a giant spider.  Slightly alarmed by this site, he watched as it went into his pod.  Walking back to his pod, Sam saw the robot remake his bed and organize the pod like it was some kind of maid.

“Those robots will work throughout The World, cleaning up after everyone.  They are the reason everything looks so well taken care of.  Each of them look different, based on their individual function.”  Brittany answered, without him needing to ask.

“That’s very convenient.”  He thought to himself.

Going into the elevator and reaching the first floor, Sam saw numerous people just chilling out in the lobby.  No one seemed to pay attention to him, as he walked past them all.  He saw that all of them either finished rolling the die, or were waiting to roll their die.  Occasionally, Sam saw a guy shouting happily or angrily, based on the number they received.  The people that shouted in anger, Sam could relate with.  He still had several hours before he could go back to the kiosk and roll his die again.  

“So what do I do now?”  He asked, to no one in particular, once I was back outside.  People were walking out with him or heading into the hospital.  Looking over at the town, he saw that it was already looking somewhat crowded and  people looked to be walking past the town, probably to the next settlement.

“This experiment was purposefully designed to be open for interpretation.  It’s kind of like an open world video game, where is no set purpose for the player.  If you want, you can try talking with the new participants and build a social network.”  Brittany suggested.

Thinking that her advice was fairly reasonable, he started to walk to the town and see if he could build some connections or friends.  Living in this place would probably not be fun by himself, so he thought meeting people could prove beneficial.  

Entering into the town proper, Sam looked at the different people looking to see if anyone would make a good friend.  He was also seeing if he could spot Sarah since he hadn’t seen her since they first arrived.  Sam realized that he didn’t think about her at all this entire time, and hoped she was doing well.  Based on prior experience with her, he didn’t think it likely that she would have difficulty in making friends, especially guy friends.  

He thought about asking Brittany if she was able to locate Sarah, but after thinking about it he didn’t think it was necessary.  A part of him wanted to think of this as a new life, a chance to forge a new image and hanging out with Sarah would make that difficult.  There was also nothing really pulling him to see her again.

As he reached the main street, he saw a girl just standing in the middle of it, looking somewhat dazed.  Imagining that her expression was the same as his, when he first arrived, he headed over to her.  “This place is pretty amazing, right?” He asked her, when he came near.

Jumping a little, she noticed him and smiled.  “Yeah.  This place is pretty amazing.”

“My name is Sam.”  He introduced himself.

“Hello, Sam.  My name is Lisa.”  She was slightly shorter than him, with light brown hair and brown eyes.  The other thing he noticed, while not trying to be obvious, was her rather busty chest.  She was wearing the same outfit as he was, but the garment seemed to do a nice job in showing her curves.

“I’m guessing you’ve just arrived here?”  Sam asked Lisa, trying to distract himself from his inner thoughts.

Nodding her head, Lisa said, “Yeah.  I guess it’s pretty obvious?  I came in with the sixth group, so I’m still trying to figure things out.  My watch is answered some of my questions, but I’m kind of going at a slow pace.”

“I’m guessing you already know about tickets?”  He asked her.  Seeing her nod, Sam said, “If you’re interested, we could head to the hospital where you get to roll for your tickets?”

Thinking about it for a couple of seconds, Lisa answered, “I would appreciate if you did that.”

The two of them head over to the hospital.  Lisa talked about what her life was like outside of The World and her thoughts about random events, giving Sam the impression that they had a lot in common.  She was a pretty avid gamer, particularly enjoying horror games.

“There’s something amazing about games that refer to content that H.P. Lovecraft created.  The idea that anyone could be a victim or the fact that we are just floating in the cosmos without a purpose is kind of cool and scary.”  She told him, as they went further into the various games they played.  Sam had mentioned how he had also played Dead Space and some other horror games, and Lisa informed him about how they had aspects to H.P. Lovecraft.  He also enjoyed the author’s work, and enjoyed the various movies based on his view of the universe.  One of the movies that came to mind was John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, and when he brought this up she started to talk about it.

Waving her hands explaining things, she said excitedly, “Did you know that John Carpenter shot the film on six artificially chilled sound stages, and the actors had to deal with cold climates?  I think that was one of the coolest parts.”

Sam never knew that about the movie, and thinking about it he thought that was one of the things that made the movie so great.  Often whenever watching a movie the feeling like it’s a great movie bubbles inside but the reason is hidden, and may this was an example of this phenomenon.

Reaching the hospital and seeing the line of people, instead of going up to the cafeteria, they decided to just wait and continue to get familiar with one another.  “What got you so interested in the horror genre?”  Sam asked Lisa, curious as to why such a cute looking girl was interested in a morbid category of entertainment.

“Due to life circumstances, I was often scared as a kid.  Wanting to become a stronger person, I decided to watch horror movies and read scary stories.”  Her looks was cheerful, but seemed to hide something from view.

Thinking to cheer her up, Sam said, “At least in this place, you don’t need to worry about scary things.”  The way this whole place was set up gave a very peaceful and relaxing vibe.

Lisa smiled at him, nodding her head in agreement.  “Could you imagine if they built this place to be cold and frigid?” She asked, giggling.

“That would be horrible.  I really dislike the cold, and being stuck in that kind of environment for so long would suck.”  He responded making a face.  This caused Lisa to laugh, making the nearby people glance at them.  Sam noticed that some of the guys made some lewd glances, their eyes seeming to move across her body.  Though he had no connection with Lisa, the idea of such perverted guys being in here gave a disgusting feeling.

The flow of people seemed to move at a decent place, as they heard the happy and angry cries of people at the kiosk.  We reached the kiosk, and Lisa went through the same process he had gone through.  Watching the die roll, Sam felt a little stressed even though it didn’t have any connection to his own situation.  This was probably what gamblers went through, when they participated or watched others gamble.  Slowing down, the die eventually showed the number “5” with a “Congratulations!!” and confetti all over the screen.  

Looking at her, Sam felt like he should say something to cheer her up.  Lisa’s shoulders were slumped, giving her a pretty dejected appearance.  “It’ll be okay.”  He told her.  Gently, Sam guided her away from the kiosk and out the way of other participants.  “Let’s go up to the cafeteria.  It’s pretty chill and I can show you where you can get some food.”  Trying to encourage her, they walked over and entered the elevator.  Even after they got out and sat down at one of the circular tables, Lias hadn’t said a single word.  

The two of them just sat at the table in silence.  Words didn’t seem to be appropriate for this time, so he didn’t try to fill the silence.  He just watched her, while also listening to the conversations in the background.  People were talking about what they thought about The World.  There were some people who had rolled a 20, and sounded pretty excited about what they could purchase.  Others were talking about grabbing an apartment and relaxing for the day, comparing this experience as a vacation from work.  Compared to how the real world was like, this appeared to be a lot easier.  All you needed to do was roll a die and you could live however you wanted.  It had all the benefits of living in a capitalistic society, without the annoying aspects of it.  Inside of here, participants didn’t need to think about filling out contracts, filing taxes, finishing paperwork, and other annoying aspects of living in a normal society.  

Casually looking around, Sam noticed that people seemed to naturally group up with those in similar circumstances.  Those that were high rollers were sitting with one another, and those that were doing okay were also casually talking with others.  A couple of people seemed to be sitting by themselves, looking lost and confused.  Sam could only assume that those were people that, like him and Lisa, had rolled horribly and were trying to figure out what next to do.  

Gently placing a hand on Lisa’s shoulder, Sam was trying to figure out how to avoid her becoming like those sitting by themselves.  He felt like just sitting in depression was counter productive.  “Lisa, why don’t you try getting a supplement drink.  I think getting some food will help.  The flavors aren’t too bad.  If you want a recommendation, I suggest getting a strawberry flavor.”  He grinned.

Nodding her head, she smiled at him, understanding what he was trying to do and letting him know how she appreciated it.  Getting up, Lisa went over to the vending machine and pressed the button for a drink and walked back.  Shaking the drink and opening.  She sat down and started to drink the substance.  Placing the bottle on the table, Lisa asked, “So what do we do now?”

Glad that she seemed to be better, Sam responded, “There doesn’t seem to be a clear purpose in here.  I heard that there are villages past this town, so I was thinking about heading over there since this place will likely get crowded.  If you want, you can come along with me to the new village?”

Considering his offer, she answered, “I would appreciate that.”  It seemed like the idea of going to a new place helped to take her mind off of what happened, which was a positive result.

Seeing that as a signal, Sam got up and held out a hand to Lisa.  She took the proffered hand and they made their way out of the hospital.  Exiting the hospital let them see how crowded the town was becoming, with some occasional outbursts when people bumped into other people.  

“Brittany, could you map out a destination to a village that’s further away from the others?”  He asked his companion..  

“Certainly, Master.  Is there a particular reason for the parameters given?”  She asked him, sounding a little perplexed.  Lisa looked at him with a curious gaze, probably thinking the same thing, which was funny considering Lisa couldn’t hear his conversation with Brittany.  Another example of how lifelike Brittany was.

Explaining for the benefit of both Lisa and Brittany, he said, “Seeing people acting a bit aggressively made me think it might be a good idea to head to someplace that won’t be quickly filled.  The last thing we need is to get into some kind of altercation with other people, before we get used to our new environment.

“That sounds like a fairly reasonable conclusion.”  Brittany said to him.  Lisa nodding her head also let him know that she had agreed with his thinking.

Following the glowing line provided by Brittany, Sam led the way while still holding onto Lisa’s hand.  Not wanting her to feel depressed again, he thought that holding her hand would help her not feel like she was alone in this.