Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: BORED - Begins 1-11-18 / Ends 1-18-18 (01/11/18)
-
TITLE: Virtual Reality Unmasked | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
01/17/18 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
An alarm clock sounded near the figures but neither moved to stop it.
Helmeted heads bobbed and scanned the depths of a reality invisible to any observer. The dawn rays slipped up and uncovered a name – Oculus Rift. A foot away the light revealed another name - Playstation VR. Oculus Rift was barefooted, pressing hard against the raised footrest. PlayStation VR had a white sock half dangling off one foot – the other foot lay hidden under a blanket blazoned with Looney Tune characters. Bugs Bunny seemed to be yawning.
The sun crowbarred its way through every unblocked avenue and filled the space with greyness. Still, the figures remained anchored in place. A dangling sign from the fridge with words captured in Crayola rainbow colors announced: “Life is Boring.”
Two cell phones buzzed off and on but neither figure moved to answer them.
The real door to the room swung open and a masked figure slipped inside and crept through the discarded clothing strewn across the floor. Even when zip ties secured ankles and wrists there was no resistance. Even when the pony-tailed teen was swept up into the muscular arms of her captor and carried out the door there was no resistance from either figure. Bugs Bunny was left crumpled on the floor, still yawning.
Within an hour the young girl was set down in a room with a dozen others like her.
A red-coated figure with blueberry hair hunched over the newcomer still clad in her headgear and accessories. She wrinkled her nose and nodded at the youngsters. “Can’t imagine that they don’t even have time to bathe. How was the extraction?”
“This is getting boring,” replied the mini-Hulk child-snatcher standing with one foot propped up on a stool. “They are so immersed in their unreality that no reality seems able to break through.”
“It looks like we have no option but to rip off those headsets. Tell me how they work again.”
“The trick is to capture all their senses through those lenses which focus and reshape the pictures for each eye so that a stereoscopic 3D image appears. These headsets use between 90 to 120 frames per second to keep things moving. Head tracking with the six degrees of freedom system keeps track of the pitch, yaw, and roll as you move around checking out your world. Surround sound is also used. The kids are immersed in their senses.”
“Fine, it’s complicated. It’s so boring to hear about I can’t believe how absorbing it all is.”
“Which one do we start with?”
“Try the newcomer.”
The small mountain of rippling flesh sauntered over to the girl sitting with her back against a wall. He snatched the controls from her hands with one hand and yanked off her headgear with the other. She sat stunned and blinking for a moment and then closed her eyes, grabbed her knees and rocked back and forth, moaning. “I don’t like this option,” she said.
“This isn’t an option”, blueberry hair announced. “What’s your name?”
“Which galaxy am I in?”
“Our galaxy – the one you were born and raised in.”
“No, that one’s boring. I’m not playing there anymore.”
“Open your eyes.”
“Not until you transform yourself into a Cyborg or something not so human.”
“I don’t do transformation.”
“How boring.”
“We’re taking you back home.”
“Boring.”
The red-coated, blueberry-haired planted black-framed glasses squarely on her nose and leaned close to the child. “When haven’t you been bored?”
Eyebrows furrowed and eight mall wrinkles stretched across the teen’s forehead dipping into a V formation near the nose. A miniature smile pulled at the corners of her thin pink lips. “No, I’m not falling for that.”
“Falling for what?”
“You’re trying to get me to talk about my Sunday School teacher and how she used to talk to us about heaven just so we’d forget about how mom and dad died in that accident. She actually had me believing there was a place where we’d never be bored and where we’d never have to be on our own again.”
“Why did you stop believing?”
“I got bored waiting.”
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
Blessings~
Sometimes reality is cloaked behind unreality. Well written.