Virtual Dimension Chapter one

Chapter I
The Newest Hit

“Jack Rosen,” a dreary voice called out to him from the blackness of his sleep. “Wake up, I’m waiting”
Jack woke with a start. He stared at the bunk above him, which his brother’s snores were emanating from. He tried to recall what that dream had been. It had been happening for several days and never seemed any clearer when he awoke. All he remembered was that gruff voice saying; “I’m waiting.”
He looked at his clock; it was 7:15 PM. That wasn’t right. He got up and turned the dial back to Standard Eastern Time; his older brother must have changed it to confuse him. It read 5:15 AM June 12, 2034; that seemed right, but he’d have to check later.
It was early, but he never was able to get back to sleep, so he got up and put on his robe. He walked to the bathroom and turned on the light. He stood there a moment, slightly dazed by the bright light, when Tom, his cat, brushed against his legs.
“Hello.” He whispered to the cat picking him up. Tom was a large gray and black striped cat. “Sorry, I forgot you sleep in here now.” Tom had always slept in his parent’s room, but he had started waking them up early too often. He looked at himself in the mirror.
He ran his fingers over his full beard, which had finally grown after years of waiting, to his jet-black hair. It never lied straight and it always had a natural wave to it. He laughed softly as he thought how everyone complained that it wasn’t fair that he ate a lot and still only weighed 125 pounds at age 17. He was also fairly tall, a little over 6 feet tall.
Tom wriggled in his arms, so he set him down. Tom gave a little tittering purr of indignation and crawled back into the padded box that served as his bed. He gave a long stretch and then lied down once again.
Jack went downstairs and into the kitchen. It was still dark, but he knew his own house well enough to dodge the kitchen counter and slip into the living room. He sat down on the couch and pulled out a book on psychiatry from beneath another cushion.
He kept this book under the sofa, so his parents wouldn’t see it. They would just worry that he was going crazy or something because he was a history major. He flipped to the section titled “Dreams” and flipped to page 275 on “Recurring Dreams.” He had looked at this over five times now and still could not discern why he couldn’t remember the dream afterwards.
The book went into a reoccurring person in a dream could be a sign they wish you ill. Did this strange voice wish to hurt him? He didn’t know all he did know was that the voice sounded impatient.
Another entry on “Reoccurring words” said that your subconscious enjoys the saying or that someone truly wants you to hear something. That might be the case, but who would be waiting for him? He didn’t have a girlfriend, so whom?
He closed the book still not knowing any more answers. He pulled out his remote control and turned on the television. He turned the TV to game mode and played some random racing game with lots of guns and explosives. He was not a violent person, yet any game where you blew stuff up was a great tension reliever.
Before he knew it his brother came down and the sun was starting to rise. “Couldn’t sleep?” His brother asked picking up another controller.
“Yeah,” Jack said placing the book back under a cushion. “What are you doing? You know you can’t beat me on this track.” He said, “I show no mercy.”
“Bring it.” Daniel said. The track lasted for nearly fifteen minutes due to all the explosions, but Jack came in second and Daniel in twelfth.
“At least you didn’t come in fifteenth again.” Jack chided him. “That means you have to go get the mail.” Daniel walked off to get his sneakers on, while Jack saved the game and turned on the news.
It was the same cute female reporter droning on about Bob Somebody was murdered and Tim What’s-his-name was poisoned. He was about to turn it off when she said, “And game fans, a new dome has been built as a virtual arena. No other information about this strange new building has been released. It has been under construction for three months, but no one knows anything else about it. The five winners of the pre-grand opening tour should have already received a piece of mail and an E-mail confirming their winnings. These lucky people must report to the dome by midnight today or forfeit their winnings. The tour is in two months over students’ summer vacation. The Virtu-dome will be open for all at the end of August. And in other news, Jennifer Regal’s teenage son has been hit by a non-rider golf cart, yesterday…” He turned it off and ran to the computer. Jennifer was a rich movie star anyway her son would manage.
He pressed the on button and impatiently waited for it to load. His computer had always been slow, but now it was especially slow sense he had started playing Dragons of Terror III. He began drumming his fingers nervously. He removed the CD from the D drive and saw it was Daniel’s old Beech Boys CD. He put it in its jewel case and logged in as himself, password draggone.
He opened up the internet and nearly lost his patience as the pop-ups appeared that asked if he wanted to upgrade his account or buy the newest body spray. He quickly closed all of these and logged onto the internet as himself, username Ubercyberdragon.
Finally twenty minutes after he turned on the computer he was online. He opened up his E-mail.
It was empty.
He closed it in disappointment. He had been looking forward to going to the dome and now he would never know. Well, not until August.
He was suddenly tired; it was Sunday, so he went back to bed. He crawled into bed as Daniel came back in. “Hey, Jack! There’s some mail here for you.” He heard Daniel say.
“Bring it up, please,” he mumbled. Daniel came up and tossed two pieces of mail onto his lap. Jack sat up and looked at the two envelopes: One was another college application, they never stopped coming, but the other was from a no name. He inspected where the return address should be and only saw a faint half-circle.
He tore it open. He was pretty messy doing it; he never was good at opening envelopes. Inside was a packet of papers, folded to fit in the envelope. He opened to the first page and saw one word that made his heart jump.
Virtu-dome.
He quickly read the letter and felt his heart race faster and faster.

Dear Jack Rosen,

We at Virtu-dome thank you for entering in our pre-grand opening tour contest. You were not one of our five winners, but you are on of five alternates that are to come if one of the winners cannot make it. You are the second of our five alternates.
We are sad to tell you that the first alternate has been incapacitated and cannot come. He is Jennifer Regal’s son, perhaps you’ve heard? Anyway on the next page is glued on a gift card. It is worth $100 of virtual hardware that can be used at anytime that you are able to get over to our first ever totally virtual facility.
We wish you luck in entering our facility. If the chip attached to your Virtu-card© turns bright red you are in and should come to our facility with that card as soon as possible. Hope you have a pleasant day and keep it surreal.

With the Best Wishes
Thomas Marin
President of Virtu-dome©

“What is it bro?” Daniel asked seeing him so excited.
“I have almost won an all expenses paid journey into Virtu-dome!” He cried jumping up, but only bashing his head on the upper bunk.
“That’s awesome!” Daniel said picking up the packet. “What’s this?” He asked pulling free the card.
“That has 100 virtual dollars on it,” he stated as though it was obvious. “I just have to hope one of the five winners can’t make it by midnight tonight.”
“If they can even walk they’ll make it,” Daniel said. “Nothing short of death would keep many serious gamers away.”
“Yeah, well come on. Maybe you can redeem yourself in Chronicles of Pain by helping me beat that boss.” They went back downstairs and went into game mode again.
The boss was some weird lady with green skin and a long whip. Her chaos attack caused one of the allies to turn against you. She was tough. The nice thing was it was a turned base game with 2-player capabilities. They were defeated six times before they used the best item in the game, the orb of glowing destruction© and destroyed her.
The day carried on as usual. On Sunday’s mom was at work and dad slept nearly all day, he worked sometimes for 56 hours a week, so no one could blame him. The two brothers kept on playing Chronicles of Pain until dinner. Dad was finally awake and ordered a pizza with extra cheese and sausage.
The deliveryman came and they tipped him. “You seem excited about something son, what is it?” His father asked.
“I’m the first alternate to go to Virtu-dome,” he said. “While we were playing I forgot to look, hold on.” He pulled the Virtu-card. It was still its original green.
“Does that tell you if you’ve won?” His father asked seeming quite curious.
“Yeah, I should go as soon as I notice the chip turn red. If you’re here will you take me dad?” Jack asked looking up at is father’s clean-shaven face.
“Sure son, if it means so much to you.” He put his plate in the dishwasher and went into the living room and watched TV. The brothers cleaned off the table and put the last two pieces in the refrigerator for mom.
“Have you seen Tom at all today?” Daniel asked.
“No, except for when I went in the upstairs bathroom early this morning.” Usually the cat was always around, but he hadn’t been seen all day.
“I’ll go check on him.” Daniel went upstairs. Jack turned to the living room. A beach volleyball game was on, so he watched. He didn’t really enjoy watching any sport, he always wanted to play, but beach volleyball was an exception slightly because the women were cute in bikinis.
Daniel soon came back down, “Had to get him out of the bath tub. I have no idea how he got in there, but he did.” Tom came zooming by and curled up at the other end of the sofa from where Jack was sitting.
Mother came home then her red Porsche crunching the stones of the driveway. The car door slammed and she soon came in. “Hello,” she said in a tired voice. “Pizza again?” The others nodded and she went into the kitchen.
Dad turned off the volleyball and watched a random basketball game. This was always what happened when mom came home, for obvious reasons. Jack went back into the computer room and went back on the internet.
He looked at his friends list and saw that Sara098 was on. Sara was a close friend of his and probably the closest he had to a girlfriend. He plugged in his Video-Cam and sent Sara a message to see if she wanted to talk.
She did, she plugged in her camera and thus they talked aloud, “Hi, Jack. You’ll never guess what happened to me today.” She said, she was easily excitable, so he wondered how exciting it really was.
“What?” He asked. “Did you find that music CD you wanted?”
“Yes, but that’s not all-“
“You have incoming mail!” The male voice of the internet carrier said.
“Hold on Sara, I’ve got mail, what did you say?” He asked opening his E-mail.
“You know that Virtu-dome that was just built?” She asked, “I’m one of the winners!”
“Oh my god!” Jack exclaimed.
“I know isn’t it awesome?” She said jumping up in her seat.
“I just received word, I’m going with you!” He was staring at an E-mail from Virtu-dome. It said that there was a plane crash and the third winner had been killed in the crash, so he was the new third winner.
“Really? Wow.” She said and her face seemed to glow under her blonde hair.
“Yeah, there was a plane crash.” He pulled out the Virtu-card. The chip was red.
“Wow, I wonder what it will be like.”
“I haven’t heard much,” he said putting the card away. “It’s supposed to be one big game. And just think, we’re playing with three others too.”
“Yeah, it’s getting a little late and I still need to go to Virtu-dome by midnight.”
“Hey, my dad should be able to drive us both,” he went into the living room. “Hey dad,” he said using that slightly pleading voice. “I need to get to Virtu-dome, can we pick up Sara on the way?”
“I said I would son, so I will,” he said with a smile.
“It’s all good,” he said going back to the computer. “I’ll be leaving in about ten minutes, so I’ll see you in fifteen.”
“Cool,” she said. “Thanks Chuck!” She yelled to his father.
“Just tell him when we see you. Bye!” He closed down the internet.
He walked back into the living room. “You’re kidding, right?” His mom said. “Out of probably over 100 million entries, you won?”
“Yes mom I did,” with that he walked up to tell Daniel.
“You don’t need to say anything.” Daniel said right as Jack entered the room. “I heard the ‘Oh my god’ from here. I’m happy for ya’.” He stood up to face his brother.
“Thanks, bro,” they embraced. “I’ll tell you all about it, but right now I’ve got to go.”
“Have fun!” Daniel said as Jack rushed down the stairs two at a time.
“Are you ready son?” Dad asked as Jack came back down.
“Just need my sneakers,” he said putting them on.
They went out into the sunset. It was late summer and the temperature was slightly chilled for this time of year. Dad unlocked his old 2030 Psyloche and they climbed in.
Jack sat staring out at the darkening neighborhood as they pulled out. His thoughts were wandering. Something doesn’t seem right, he thought. Not only is the first alternate run over, but the third winner dies as well. It all seemed too nice.
Dad turned on the radio, but Jack wasn’t listening. He was having daydreams of what Virtu-dome might actually be like.
They soon arrived at Sara’s and she came right out. “Hi Jack, Chuck,” she said climbing in the back seat.
“Hello Sara,” Dad said. “Now Jack I need directions. How do I get to this place?”
Jack blinked a few times. How could he have forgotten to get directions! “Here,” Sara said. It was an online print out of driving directions to Virtu-dome.
“Thanks,” Jack told her with a sigh of relief.
“It’s okay, I guessed you’d forget,” she sat back and also stared out the window.
“Alright, let’s get surreal.” Jack said and they rolled off towards the newest building and game they had ever heard of.