Surviving The Theseus Read Free

veered up, down,
left, right, and every which way, zigzagging through space.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Regina turned and ran away from the orange
light. The light diminished in less than a second.
    Her heart pounded. In all her life, she had
never felt more threatened, like the light itself meant to attack
her, like it had a consciousness of hatred and malice so deep you
would not survive its wrath if one iota of it made contact. It felt
like something was there, yet nothing was, nothing visible, unless
the orange light concealed it. But then wouldn't it be there now?
She chanced a glance back, seeing nothing. She kept running,
watching a stairwell sign get closer.
    Regina took a hard left into the stairwell,
grabbing the edge of the open doorway to whip herself around. Her
long legs helped her leap up three steps at a time.
    After climbing six flights, going up two
levels, she bolted through the open doorway.
    Regina came out of a pyramid-shaped housing
for the stairwell, into an open area of glassed courts for
basketball, beach volleyball, and many different kinds of racquet
sports. There were a couple of large, square rooms sealed all
around by black glass, which Regina knew were Flash rooms for
playing a game involving floating in a dark, weightless environment
as you shot at holographic images of asteroids coming at you.
    There was no cover and going back was not an
option. She kept on, zigzagging through the different hallways that
surrounded all the courts, trying to find another stairwell.
    Regina took a left, behind a tennis
court, and finally ran into a nontransparent structure. It seemed
to be quite large, running left and right across the width of the
ship. She ran toward a large, golden door with a holographic sign
above it reading: The Kill Zone: An Adult
Adventure .
    The appropriateness of the name did not
go unnoticed. Slowly, Regina opened one of the doors wide enough
for her to sneak in. An Adult
Adventure made Regina think the place provided some
sort of pornographic romp fest. A large holographic area, on a
staged area in front of the box office, said different.
    The holograph displayed digital, wire-mesh
characters and creatures slaughtering each other. Regina supposed
this was so the business didn’t offend anyone who came in and
didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. The human
characters were carrying large rifle-type weapons, with long, thin
barrels. Red lasers fired from the barrels. The wire-mesh
characters shot at wolf-like creatures that either ran for their
lives or charged their human enemies. The creatures towered ten
feet tall, standing, and five feet tall down on all fours. Audio
blared from multiple speakers, male and female characters yelling
and screaming, either in rage or in fear, and the creatures
bellowing in pain or roaring in fury. The stage was substantial,
twenty-five yards lengthwise and ten yards deep, and what ensued
was nothing short of mayhem.
    Warnings regarding health conditions and high
stress factors stood out all over the walls in bold red letters,
with a minimum age of 21 strictly enforced.
    Regina took this all in, as she ran
past the box office and through the only door she saw in her
immediate vicinity. Enter . . . If you
dare , in blood, dripping red paint on a solid black
door with the Kill Zone emblem of a human character facing a
creature.
    She dared, and found herself in a preparatory
room for the game, with helmets, elbow and kneepads, the weapons
she saw in the holograph demo, and a body suit with small, white
sensors all over it. She had read about the technology, which was
supposed to give you a very realistic experience. The sensors on
the suit get triggered by holographic actions, such as a creature
swiping at you, causing you to be pulled and thrown as if the
creature actually existed and attacked you.
    Had Regina not been running for her life, she
would enjoy having a game. It sounded like a fully immersive
experience.
    The room Regina came