"Another quarantine."

I looked up from my computer, one that I barely salvaged from the remains of my former home. It barely worked anymore, and it wasn't like there was any wifi around here. Ever since Week Six, all the electricity went fritz around the world, and my computer battery slowly dropped down to 17%.

Besides, I didn't have much use for it either. Sometimes I played that dino game on Google, but usually, I just looked at the photos of my old family. My mother and father were both dead... one a victim of the acid rain, another when the earthquake split the ground open and swallowed him. My sister, Andrina, fell to the Green Plague and had to be shot right in front of my eyes before the disease could spread.

I'm the only survivor of this apocalypse. I don't even know how long I'll last, but eventually, I'll die one way or another, because unlike the Hunger Games, nobody wins. Everybody falls one by one until the arena is empty. Forever.

"Another quarantine," Jinks, my buddy at the refuge, says again behind me. "The closed down the entire refuge because of the Green Plague. Not like that's any good - the disease literally grows on trees."

"Don't you miss the outdoors?" I half-joke, gulping at the memory of Andrina's brutal death.

"Not after it became a wasteland," Jinks replies, staying just as solemn. "Now I miss the virtual reality simulation downstairs. It's the only thing in this world that gives you hope that the disasters will go away."

The Simulation. I tried it once or twice, but couldn't get over the fact that it was how the world used to be before we were blasted with every possible disaster on this earth. Some people have permanently plugged themselves into the Simulation - something like the Matrix, minus the psycho agents and AIs - being fed the slop that they make in the cafeterias as their body slowly gets weaker without them even realizing it. Eventually, those people just collapse with the Simulation still attached to their brains and we move them to the Junkyard for them to rot.

People are debating whether to completely move humanity into the Simulation, just let them die painlessly in a world that once was. Some say that it would be the best option - that it's better than what we have now - while others argue that it would be unfair to the people left in reality to care for those plugged into the Simulation. If you ask me, with the population we have now, the former is completely plausible, but I believe that if everyone dies, they die painfully together. 

Or better - we don't give up and find a cure to every one of our world's problems. The scientists are working on it day by day, although the ongoing trend is that they quit and admit defeat. I may be only fifteen, but once I hit the working-age three years later, I'm signing up for that job. In my opinion, it's one of the best ones. The jobs are divided into four groups - the Groundbreakers, the Veterans, the Heads, and the Outcasts. The Groundbreakers are the ones who always try to look ahead, whether figuratively or literally. Scientists are usually considered the leaders of the Groundbreakers - they try to figure out a solution to our problems from the things they collect.

Scouts, on the other hand, are the ones who collect the samples for them. It's a risky job - most scouts have died trying to carry a bacterium or radioactive soil sample back to their refuge. All the deaths I hear these days have almost numbed my senses - it's like a normal thing now.

The investigators are sort of like the scientists - they analyze what the scouts give, and the scientists try to make sense of the analysis. The Plankwalkers are definitely the most suicidal ones, though. They're the ones who test out whatever ideas the scientists have thought up of.

The other three groups are bland and boring. The Veterans help people - hospitals, cafeterias, refuge maintenance, sustaining supplies, helping others, that kind of stuff that people had ever since the dawn of time. It's nothing different, a depressing thought because they go on doing what they always did as if the world didn't slowly destroy itself.

The Heads are like the political leaders - they negotiate with other refuges, although nowadays, there's not much to negotiate about. It's only when there's an extreme scenario such as overpopulation, where the Heads have to strike a deal with another refuge. Otherwise, it's almost interesting how the world has repaired itself of hate, bound together by the apocalypse that kills everybody in its path.

Well, there's hate, but there's also uselessness. The Outcasts are the hopeless cases that are assigned to the worst jobs - toilet scrubbing, Junkyard monitoring, (it's not like the dead bodies come back to life anyway), or, for the ones that truly can't do anything, they get chucked into the Junkyard with the corpses for them to starve to death. It's harsh, but, according to the treaties that were signed when the apocalypse first broke out, people who don't serve a purpose are just dead weight.

If I'm not going to become a scientist, at least I'm not going to become an Outcast.

Right?

*     *     *

Lunchtime.

Jinks, Xavier, and I are sitting in the back of the cafeteria, eating canned beans with preserved fish. Nine weeks ago, I would've called for a pizza, but now it's the best you can get. Once you're nine weeks into the disasters, as long as you don't die, fish won't kill you.

Xavier's the only one who hasn't started the Placement Courses yet. Once you've hit the magical age of fifteen, the Heads enter you into a three-year training course that decides what you'll be doing in your future. The only way you can skip the courses is if you get dubbed an Outcast, and the only way to do that is if you fail three courses. It might seem like it's going to be easy not to fail, but you have around twenty courses in total. Four for Groundbreakers, ten for Veterans, and five for Heads.

Besides, failing isn't the only way you can become an Outcast. By the end of the three years, all the graduating people get lined up, and, say if you have a hundred graduates that year, the bottom ten people get ousted. Easy as that.

Jinks is one of the top students. He's a tech geek - I see him in the future as an investigator or a scientist, although he might also become a Head. He loves playing with the Simulation, (although he hates taking off his glasses because he's practically blind) because he enjoys hacking into the games. It's never fun playing with him online.

Jinks' is already starting his resume for applying to be a Groundbreaker. He says his number one goal is to "find a sustainable way to keep the Simulation working" because goodness knows that eventually the computer's going to run out of juice and the people who permanently got plugged into the Simulation basically have their brain system cut off.

I'm sort of bobbing in the middle of the class, although there are no slots for having a job. The more helping hands you want, the more you have. That's why as long as I don't float down to the bottom and I put up a good reputation, I'll probably get the job as a scientist.

And then there's Xavier... lucky him, he's got nothing to worry about except staying alive, which will probably still be his top priority. I quietly sigh - an apocalypse raging on in the world and I'm caring about my grades.

*     *     *

They always say the first year is the hardest in the Placement Courses. After the first year, you can choose to work on a specific group, although it's recommended that you broaden your horizons in case you don't get the job. I already know what I want, though.

In the first year, you also get brutal training in every one of the courses, so you usually come back to bed tired and sore. Also, sometimes you stay up really late doing the courses, so you wake up at lunchtime and get no free time afterward. I look forward to year two, or better, the end of needing such strenuous tasks.

Today the focus was on scouting. We were all split into different groups and plugged into the Simulation, something that I always had a strange fear of ever since I realized that you might get trapped in there. If somebody pulls the plug, your brain basically gets wiped out. Yes, your brain. This isn't just virtual reality - it's literally connected to your brain.

"Your task is simple," instructor Jezza barks. "Go into the Redzone, collect an acid sample, and go back to safety. First person to get back with a sample gets to go to their room early. Any questions?"

Somebody in the back raises their hand. "Where's the Redzone?"

Jezza stares at whoever raised their hand. I always hated that stare.

"You need to find that out for yourself. A good scout should be able to infer where the best samples are by the information they need. Once we get you into the Simulation, you'll have a short briefing and then you'll be off to find what you need. Makes sense?"

There was no reply.

"Any other questions?"

In front of me, a girl raises her hand. "How do we collect the acid sample?"

"You need to find that out yourself too."

The girl grumbles. Beside me, Jinks mutters: "This was one of the oldest simulation tasks they ever had. I'll bet you the instructors don't even know half of how it works."

"How do you know that it's the oldest simulation, then?" I mutter back.

"I do my research."

"And now for your groups!" Jezza says, unfolding a piece of paper that she had in her hand.

"I hope I'm stuck with someone good," Jinks whispers.

"I just hope we don't die in the Simulation."

"You can't die in there, Thomas. You might feel pain, you might feel blood loss, you might even get knocked out or 'dead', but once they unplug you from the Simulation, you're back to normal."

"But you just said that we could end up dead in there..."

"Dead in quotations. It's more like limbo. A virtual-hibernation, sort of."

"I know this sounds crazy, but that actually sounds cool."

"-Thomas, Sheard, Chet, and Beaumont!" Jezza finishes, refolding her paper. "Gather together and go to the Simulation room!"

"Crap, we're separated," Jinks mutters. "See you."

"Good luck."

I gather with my partners. Sheard and Beaumont were both the sluggish, drooling morons that you saw in cartoons. They seemed to be pretty strong - at least Beaumont was, but Sheard was all bone - so that might come in handy. Chet was a geek, ("I watched alllll the Star Wars movies before the world got destroyed!"), and I guess he was a bit sporty. An interesting group of people I had... there were no girls, I noticed. Purely coincidence - the world got over the whole discrimination thing when they needed more helping hands.

The Simulation room wasn't far from the year one classroom. You just went down the basement hallway, turned right, and then went face to face with a door that leads to a massive room. In total, (Jinks counted for me), five-hundred people could go into the Simulation at one time. It was always a wonder how they managed to keep the power flowing.

Sheard instantly went over to the VR goggle in the corner, the place where he always got plugged in. Another instructor, not Jezza, straps him to a chair and attaches the goggle to his face. I always wince when I see what's next - the instructor wires a few things to a tunnel that sticks to Sheard's temples. After a few moments of pressing buttons, Sheard is slumped over his seat, the computer next to him showing what he's seeing on the screen.

"Who's next?" the instructor asks.

It appears Beaumont is also as chicken as I am when it comes to this. Chet walks forward and then gets strapped to the seat next to Sheard's. I memorize the letter code for plugging someone into the Simulation - A, L, R, V, R, C, C. I don't know why I care about these things - I just do.

Now Chet's also in that lifeless position, but he's breathing normally. I can see on the screen that he's in front of an armory, but before I can look closer, the instructor ushers me over to the next seat and straps me on.

AH.

AHH.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I hate it when they plug the tunnel-thingy into my temples. My goodness, it freaking HURTS like HELL. And now they're attaching that goggle over my eyes, and I see nothing more. There's blackness... blackness everywhere... but I can still hear the instructor typing in the computer code and entering me into the Simulation. I can feel my brain tingling... I never got used to the feeling of being... what would you call it? Sucked into a virtual body? It's something that always feels strange and foreign to me as my mind goes blank and suddenly I'm

*     *     *

back again in a world that's too perfect. I wasn't wrong - in front of me is an armory with the same protection suit hung against the walls. Sheard1234, (we got to choose our usernames), is already waiting in front of the door with Chet_Ruling_the_VR. Both of them are clearly waiting to get outside, but until everybody's' geared up, the door won't budge.

BeaumontKnockout666 materializes behind me. I quickly grab the nearest protection suit and scan my surroundings, looking if I need anything else when Chet_Ruling_the_VR says:

"I already got the container. You'll be fine." And then he holds up a plastic container that looks like you could buy it at the dollar store. "Just hurry up."

I put on my protection suit and then walk over to the door. Wow, this almost feels... real. In fact, if I didn't know this was virtual reality, I probably would think it is real. The graphics look like the real world and all the movements seem realistic too - none of that jumping around to move stuff. Just how long did it take for those designers to make this?

"Hurry up!" Chet_Ruling_the_VR yells at BeaumontKnockout666. "I want to go back to my room early!"

BeaumontKnockout666 grunts and finally finishes. On cue, the door swings open and we enter a world that isn't as devastated as what it is now but still seems pretty bad.

"Did you just feel something heavy land in your pocket?" Sheard1234 asks, reaching into his jeans and pulling out a yellow wad of paper.

"I got something too," Chet_Ruling_the_VR says, also taking out his copy.

"And mine," BeaumontKnockout666 says, catching up with us.

I fish out the same identical piece of paper that the others have and read it.

RULES:

YOU CANNOT FIGHT OTHER PLAYERS - FIGHTING OR ANY OTHER HARMFUL ACTIVITIES MAY RESULT IN A FAIL.

YOU CANNOT COLLABORATE WITH OTHERS NOT IN YOUR GROUP. COLLABORATING OR MAKING PACTS WITH OTHER PEOPLE NOT IN YOUR GROUP MAY RESULT IN A FAIL.

YOU CAN DIE IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD, THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL DIE IN REALITY.

YOU CAN DIE FROM ACID, AI CREATURES, ETC. 

YOU CANNOT FIGHT THE AI CREATURES (IN REALITY, THE 'CREATURES' ARE DISEASES, DROUGHTS, ETC. THAT CANNOT BE FOUGHT EITHER) - FIGHTING THE CREATURES MAY RESULT IN A FAIL. 

YOU CANNOT HACK INTO THE SIMULATION. HACKING WILL RESULT IN INSTANT PLACEMENT OF OUTCAST.

CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF EVERY ACTION - WHETHER IT EFFECTS THE MOMENT OR LONG-LASTING.

YOU START AT 100 POINTS. FOR EVERY BAD ACTION, YOU LOSE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF POINTS. YOUR POINTS IS ALSO YOUR HEALTH BAR. IF YOU POINTS GO DOWN TO ZERO, YOU DIE.

I flip the paper over to the back side. Nothing's written there, so I throw it away.

"Tom, don't!" Chet_Ruling_the_VR yells, but it's too late and I throw the crumpled piece of paper onto the ground. Instantly, I feel a stab of pain and... was that mentally? hear my points go down to 95. Around me, everyone else is experiencing the same thing.

"Great job," BeaumontKnockout666 growls. 

"Why did you call me Tom?" I ask Chet_Ruling_the_VR, truly curious because nobody's ever called me that before.

"Uh... your username is TomCat54321?" Chet_Ruling_the_VR says matter-of-factly.

I turn pink. "Oh right..." How long exactly has it been since I've been plugged into the Simulation?

"Besides, we have bigger things to worry about anyway."

I shrug. "Why would we lose points for chucking a piece of paper on the ground?"

Chet_Ruling_the_VR stares at me like I have two heads. "Um, duh? Ever heard of littering? The ozone layer is literally falling apart and dropping something on the ground can practically turn that area toxic. Where were you when they were handing out textbooks?"

So... Chet was a geek like I said.

"We should shut up and get going," Sheard1234 says. "Where's the Redzone?"

"Did you just feel something else land in your pocket?" Chet_Ruling_the_VR asks.

I groan. "Sheesh. They're really monitoring us closely."

"It's a map," BeaumontKnockout666 says, looking at the new piece of paper that landed in each one of our pockets. "And we've also got this cool compass."

The mention of a compass has me scanning my surroundings. As we move out of the briefing building, the place around us is a complete desert. There are wrecks here and there... the ruins of an old refuge poking out once in a while... and further away, there are actually clouds in the sky.

Dark clouds.

Is that rain?

"Uh... guys, I think I know where the acidic rain is," I say.

"We should be going... west," Chet_Ruling_the_VR replies, pointing right to the place where the dark acidic clouds are. "Okay, I don't get it. If it's raining flesh-eating droplets just a few miles ahead, why is it a wasteland here?"

I shrug. "They haven't worked out all the details, I guess."

Turns out Chet_Ruling_the_VR was right about inconsistencies. Once you enter the Redzone, (at least we think it's the Redzone), the terrain literally switches from dry, dry, dry to thunderstorms, thunderstorms, thunderstorms. You don't even see the desert even more. Yup, this is definitely virtual reality.

"No getting out now, I suppose," Chet_Ruling_the_VR gulps, walking closer to the storm. "Lets hope these protection suits work."

"Do you have the container?"

Chet_Ruling_the_VR raises it in his left hand. "Let's go."

"Where are the creatures?" BeaumontKnockout666 asks, looking around.

I shrug again. "Must be an easy level."

"I don't believe it."

"These protection suits are working well," Sheard1234 remarks. "I can barely feel anything."

"Amen to that," Chet_Ruling_the_VR replies. "Quick, let's make this snappy. If somebody else got the acid samples first-"

Sheard1234 suddenly yells. We all turn to look at him and gasp when we see a growing hole in the back of his protection suit.

"Sheard! How the heck did you-"

Chet_Ruling_the_VR suddenly yells in pain too as a raindrop lands on his arm too. "Apparently these protections suits are defective," he manages to say through winces.

"Pass me the container!" I yell, and fumble to catch it as Chet throws it through gasps of pain. 

If I can just get a few drops...

And then I fall over and watch in horror as the hole in my neck slowly eats all the flesh. No... the container... it spilled...

Our group points are quickly going down now. I watch in horror as it drops from fifteen to ten to five and then to

*     *     *

zero.

*     *     *

I wake up sometime later with several instructor craning over to look at me.

"He seems okay."

"He might be in shock."

"I don't know how we got hacked, but it can't happen again..."

"Goodness, he nearly died..."

"In the Simulation, at least. He would've been fine when he was unplugged."

"Unless the Simulation snapped his sanity. It's happened several times..."

"Well, he seems fine now."

"Are you sure?"

I blink. How long was I out? I'm tired and hungry... it's as if I haven't eaten in days. I probably haven't eaten in days. My head slumps over and I drift back into sleep...

The last thing I see is Xavier in the background, grinning at me before he disappears.