Virtual Reality ✔

Speed is Key

We were in the lobby again. This time the letter had started with, Dear Gamers, I hope you've had some experience with driving. Duncan and I were at a disadvantage already. We were the only two without drivers licences, though I planned on getting mine soon. We hope you all know there will be eliminations. You should keep that in mind while you compete. Not everyone is safe, in fact none of you are. This scared me because we knew that the people in charge had a habit of personalizing letters. If they said none of us were safe, it meant that anyone- even we- could be eliminated. Should we be wary? Or were they just trying to cause tension... The letter ended with, This competition is called Speed, and with that we wish you good luck, gamers.

When we got into the virtual world, we were greeted by a customization area. Our outfits would not affect our gameplay, but I liked the personalized aspect. I went for a burgundy red to match my hair, on one of my shoulders I chose a number and kept that orange to represent my team. On my back I wrote my name in thick black letters. I made my helmet match the color scheme and then I was off to pick a car. I chose one that was fast but could recover from damage easier. I was sent into the waiting room and everybody else was there. We had to wait, I guessed all teams started at the same time so we had to wait for them. The red light began to flash and we started to get ready.

When we were there I noted that though I wasn't going against my team I would be facing people from the other teams. I was able to adjust the volume of their speaking and I kept them all on low. We were almost instantly transported to another area where we'd be able to practice driving. I was glad they'd taken the time to let us practice first. Even if some of us could drive, we weren't well versed in driving competitively. Well, in real life that is. We've all played a racing game before, it was inevitable.

I started by getting used to all the controls. It was very different than a regular car. There was only one pedal, for example. The speed was controlled by a lever and the pedal was the breaks. After that I used the last five minutes to actually drive. I wasn't that bad for someone without a licence. Just don't look at the side of my car where a rock decided to run into me, it totally wasn't my fault. I also found a really cool button I looked forward to using later.

We were finally lined up and a map was placed in the corner of my vision. I looked back to where my car was scarred, thankful that the blemish was removed. A timer by the starting line counted down and I prepared to take off immediately. Five. Four. Three. I counted along with it in my head. By the time it had gotten to "one" everybody took off and I ended up somewhere in the middle. I hadn't counted how many people I was against but I was currently in fourth place, or so the number on the opposite side of the map told me. I started speeding up in order to catch up. I'd heard once from my grandma that it wasn't how you started the race, it was how you finished it. I wasn't going to freak out until the end. Until then I was going to block out anything besides the race.

The beginning was fairly uneventful, every time I passed the starting line I was informed of how many laps I had finished. I was proud for maintaining my position but knew I'd have to get my game together. I started to worry on my third lap when I was still only in third place with someone trailing right behind me. I started to go faster even then, when I was directly in front of the other person I pushed the button I had discovered earlier. Really, the poor girl should have took it as a warning when I was aligning myself in front of her. The next thing she knew there were about three boulders falling in front of her. She tried to dodge them but soon realized they spread in different directions. I pushed farther on the lever controlling my speed. The person on second place was then in sight. I focused on their car as I approached it.

A giant boulder fell unexpectedly off the side of the mountain we were currently twisting around and I pulled back the lever, slamming my brakes as I came to a sudden halt. I reared to the side as I'd evaded the boulder. When it passed the girl from behind me approached with a vengeance. I started to hurry but it took a while to regain my original speed. She was right beside me as we were making a sharp turn. I had been on the inside of the road and recognized the opportunity a little too late. I stayed in line with her until the next sharp turn when I rammed into her so she slid off this tier and had to start from the one below us. I only felt a little bad. She was too oblivious to her surroundings. I could have passed her but I stayed right there, next thing she knew she was falling onto the tier below us. In the background noise I heard a long line of curse words aimed at me. She wasn't afraid to say my name either, since she'd seen it while she trailed behind me the whole time. I was glad when we were done with the mountain for then and went through a tunnel that took us back to the bottom, we had to dodge various poles that were hard to see due to the darkness.