Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

0 Misdirection

Sam Nagai rose out of bed and counted himself lucky today. He felt so good about what was ahead of him that he got up, showered, and dressed without hitting the snooze even once. Sam was a games tester which normally meant getting paid low wages doing mundane work on shitty mobile hologram games. Tap here, tap there, fill out a report, cash check. That was the normal way of things, but today would be a little different. Instead of having to test another Holo-Birds rip-off for mobile, he would get to instead immerse himself into a full on virtual reality simulation and it was a fantasy game at that, a dark fantasy. Sam was a huge fan of anything considered dark, from bloody horror movies to strange eldritch tales and gothic fantasy eBooks.

All morning and afternoon his thoughts were focused on just what kind of game he would get to play this time. He thought about it as he ate breakfast. It couldn't be helped as all sorts of thoughts about it came to his mind. His boss hadn't given much information about it, not even a title. The secrecy of it all was maddening.

Sam left his apartment at two twenty on the dot and drove through the streets of sunny San Fran. After a short trip, he arrived at his friend Robert's house in no time. Robert only stayed a mile away from Sam's own studio apartment. Sam honked his horn and Robert came out of his house after giving a sendoff kiss to his girlfriend Chelsea. Robert was tall and lanky and walked kind of like Shaggy from that classic cartoon with the dog. He looked like him too with his short brown hair, stubble, and long arms. He carried a book satchel over his left shoulder and tossed it into the back seat once he got into the car.

"You know, you probably won't need your laptop, if this is really a VR (virtual reality) game." said Sam.

Robert buckled his seat belt and shrugged.

"Probably not, but you know, just in case. We might need notes or something when we're done." Robert said nonchalantly. He looked over at Chelsea and she waved then blew him a kiss. Oh, to be in love! Robert was lucky that he got an angel like Chelsea, someone who truly loved him for who he was. Sam was not so lucky and as of yesterday, he was currently girlfriend-less. Sam gave Chelsea a wave then drove off. They needed to get to the testing center by two forty-five. It was downtown. Sam figured they had enough time to get there a little bit early, which was actually time he allotted for any disruptions, such as slow traffic, or a random traffic stop by the police. As he drove, his thoughts inevitably went back to the mysterious game. Robert beat him to the punch with his question.

"What do you think this game is about?"

It was a conversation they had before, but even now it was fun to speculate.

"I have no clue man, you?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. I'm thinking it's going to be something like those old Death Planes games, remember those? They haven't made anything like that in like twenty years. Everything now is just bubblegum bullshit. That game was so metal!"

"I don't think so, man. That would be way too awesome. We can't get our hopes up like that." Sam said while laughing.

"But, what if it is? Can you imagine actually slashing demons and throwing fireballs and shit in real time? Imagine how badass that would be!" Robert said, barely containing his own excitement.

"Come on man, don't get my hopes up. I'm trying to keep my expectations low."

"Okay, so it probably won't be that awesome. I'd be satisfied with a realistic sword and sorcery as long as I could axe a few questions to my opponents. I'd take that over another Holo-Birds any day."

"Amen to that. I'm with you there, but I denounce that horrible axe pun." Sam said laughing.

"Fuuuuck youuuu." Robert replied also laughing. "My axe pun is the cutting edge of humor."