I feel the liquid I’m in slosh around me and open my eyes. A few worried faces are peeking over the sides of the capsule. They say something.

I start to sit up but find that I have no strength. I lift one arm and stare at the wrinkled, graying skin. “What the heck?” I mutter. Being stuck in this pod for over eight years sure has taken its toll on my body. I close my eyes and open them again, wishing away the real world.

It’s still here.

People are tapping my shoulders. I look over at them, and they say something. Or I think they are trying to say something.

“I can’t hear,” I say, hoping it came out correctly. Weirdly enough, I can hear my own voice.

Another person walks over. Steven. “Can you feel? Taste? Smell?” He writes onto a paper. I touch the capsule. It’s smooth, a bit resistant, and cold. The air smells like antiseptics and metal.

“I don’t know about taste but the other two are a yes.”

“Not bad.”

I smirk. Not bad? I guess for coming back before my virtual body is fixed it’s “not bad.” I shake my head. “Help me up.” He helps me sit up and pulls me out of the capsule. The light garb I’m wearing sticks to me, and I shiver. I’m pathetic; I can’t even stand on my own two feet. He moves me to a chair where a meal is waiting for me and wraps me in a beach towel.

“I’m sure you’re hungry. Eat slowly,” he advises me.

“Yea yea.” I pick up the fork and pick up a piece of the precut well done steak on the plate. It tastes so delicious I nearly cry. I’ve forgotten the taste of real food.

Steven tries to tell me something, but I refuse to look at anything other than the food on my plate while I eat. Eventually he gives up and goes over to the others. I finish and lean back into the chair. I didn’t realize how little energy I had until now. My body feels revitalized after that little bit of food. Sighing, I turn my head to look over to the other people in the room.

I recognize their faces now: two of the scientists that welcomed us and two Sleepers besides Steven. One of the scientists, a Vie that looks twenty years older, notices me watching them and comes over. “Remember me?” she writes.

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

“Yea. Vie. You look like a grandma now.”

She chuckles and replies, “Take a look at yourself, grandpa.”

I groan, wishing she hadn’t made such a jab. “What’s going on?”

Her face grows serious. “We need your help. While you were in a comatose state, one of the AIs we created has been working to trap every person in virtual reality.”

“Is that the same AI that broke down our world?”

She nods. “The very same one.”

“What do you guys want me to do?”

“Go back into virtual reality.”

I moan. “Oh, nonononono. I’m not going back in there.”

“Please. You’re the only one the AIs seem to respond to in any way.”

“What about Steven? What about another Sleeper that’s been asleep for such a long time?”

“You’re the only one that has been asleep this long. The other Sleepers were found either two years ago or are dead now.”

“What do you mean were found? I thought the engineers were working to bring us all back? I thought it was because our virtual bodies were lost and they were recreating us.”

She doesn’t reply.

“Vie, tell me what’s going on.”

She avoids my gaze and looks over at Steven. He and the other two Sleepers look at me. After a moment, he comes over. “Sorry, I lied,” he confesses. “The truth is that the AIs were keeping us in comas and the engineers merely found the world floating on the server. The Sleepers that weren’t found have died. Their bodies are dead, hearts no longer beating. Only thirteen of us survived.”

I stare at the words. We were originally a hundred. “Liar,” I breathe. “So then the AIs were the ones working on me.”

“I didn’t want you to be too freaked out if you decided to stay in the VR.”

“I’m freaked out right now!” So that means when I asked for help, the AI were listening. When I asked to be let out they were listening. Were they the ones who allowed the engineers to find me? Did the other Sleepers not make it because they didn’t want to leave? Are they really dead? Is this even real? Am I dreaming right now?

“Where is my family?”

“Your children are currently inside VR and your wife is working with us,” Vie replies. “They are safe.”

“How can they be safe if they are inside VR?”

“Everyone inside VR is safe. It’s just a matter of if they will come back or not.”

“You just said the AI are working to trap the world inside VR!”

“Everyone will be safe nonetheless.”

I sigh. “Let me see my wife.”

Vie starts writing something, but then she jumps. She glances away and I follow her gaze to the door. The previously closed door that is now swinging back closed and the person walking towards me. My wife.