Virtuality Part 2

Chapter 2

Ben had thought about very little else other than Outside since he was a small child. He remembered the journey from the prepubescent block to the adolescent block. He could see nothing, but the very knowledge that he was travelling thrilled him. The idea of somewhere new excited him far more than anything that he had experienced in Virtuality. When he had discussed these feelings with his colleagues and tutors in Virtuality, they had said that he would grow out of them.

He did not, however, grow out of these feelings, and so, soon after his installation into his adult block, he ventured through the door which led outside his apartment and found himself in a small room. This he recognised as the Block Transport that had delivered him to his apartment. A Sim in a smart uniform stood by the door to the room.

“I am your transport attendant. Where would you like to go to?”

“Outside” said Ben, not without some concerns as to what this might mean to the “attendant”, or indeed whether this request would be granted.

The Sim disappeared, and Ben felt the sensation of motion as the room moved through the block laterally and vertically before slowing and stopping.

As the block transport came to a halt, a kindly lady of middle age appeared before him.

“Welcome” she said, “You are about to leave the sanctuary of the block. The System may not be able to protect you while you are outside. Are you sure you wish to leave?”

Ben was very far from sure. He knew that the only thing he had ever wanted to do was to leave the block and investigate the outside, but now that he was actually nearly there, and confronted by the certainty of lack of protection by the System, he was very unsure.

“I just want to look outside, to see what it’s like” he said. “What am I likely to find?”

The kindly lady smiled at him

“I don’t know,” she said “I have never wanted to find out. I am told that the air is polluted and full of smoke and filth, that the oxygen in the air that we rely on to live is so low that you cannot survive for longer than an hour, and that the sun is so harsh as to burn any exposed skin within five minutes of exposure to it. Nothing lives out there. The only things you will see are the System’s vehicles and machines going about their business.

“If you still wish to leave, I cannot stop you. You are free to come and go as you like. I merely want to warn you of the dangers that await you outside”

“Can I return if I leave?” Ben asked.

“Of course. Simply approach the outer door and the System will recognise your chip and let you in. I told you, you are free to come and go as you like. I just felt that you may be unaware of what awaits you”

“Thank you” said Ben “I would like to just look outside for a minute”

“Very well. I will open the outer door”

Virtuality ceased, and Ben found himself in the small room again with the outer door opening to expose a brightness that he had never experienced before. He stepped nervously through the door, unconsciously holding his breath, and took two more steps outside the block. Ben took a breath, and the richness of the air made him cough uncontrollably. Tears were forming in his eyes and he thought he would die out here without the protection of the System. The door had closed behind him as soon as he had stepped away from it. He turned back to it, still coughing uncontrollably.

As he approached the door it opened and he staggered into the small room. The door closed behind him, and once again he found himself with the kindly lady.

“Well, what did you think?”

“It was different from what I had expected”

“I did warn you didn’t I?”

“Yes but it was still different from what I expected, even after your description.”

“While we are talking, the System is decontaminating you, and checking you for any illnesses you may have picked up. You see how the System looks after you?”

“You have no illnesses.” She continued. “Your coughing fit was just a result of breathing the unpurified air of the outside. Will you be going out again?”

I don’t think so,” said Ben “At least not for a little while”

That was the first of many trips out, each of which became longer and longer, until he was out for hours at a time without any problems. He began to find out how the System operated between blocks, by observing the traffic that travelled to the block along the prepared highways. He noticed that he was able to board the transports, and that each transport had accommodation for people to travel as if there had once been a need for people to travel and the System had not changed the design. The transports travelled from block to block delivering and picking up, but always waiting for Ben to enter or leave.

Each of the blocks was huge, rising high into the sky, and measuring many kilometres wide and deep. Fields of green grass and shrubs surrounded them. Scattered here and there were trees in which birds perched and nested, and between which they flew. The only other activity was found in the constant traffic of the System transport.

Ben began to spend more and more time outside, venturing further and further afield. Each trip he would take different transports to different places, seeking out the routes of the transports and finding out the functions of each transport. He began to understand how the System worked, how it fed the people in the blocks, how it removed the waste, how it fixed or replaced machinery and property that had ceased to function properly and how it continued to serve its people.

The strange thing was that there was no sign of the wholesale abuse of nature that was indicated in the histories or television tapes, or indeed the warning given by the kindly lady Sim. Instead, nature seemed to be blossoming. Everywhere Ben looked there were animals and vegetation. The animals had no fear of him, merely nervous that he may be a new kind of predator. The air, once he became used to its rich oxygenation, was invigorating and tasted sweet compared to the treated air of the blocks. This to Ben was the way life should be. He found the ways of Virtuality dull in comparison. Even the most exciting world could no longer hold his interest. The Virtual worlds lacked any sort of realism to him.

The System did not fail to notice these aberrations in Ben, and on one of his brief and infrequent visits to Virtuality, it introduced a Psych to him. The Psych was, of course, only a Sim, and was the System’s way of attending to those few amongst its flock who it considered to be mentally unstable. The Psych’s job was to make the patient aware that his or her life could be improved by treatment, and to offer whatever treatment was appropriate. As with physical medical health, once the patient was aware that the symptoms were treatable and could improve his life, he could refuse treatment. Ben listened to the Psych and, though recognising that his behaviour was abnormal, decided that he liked it that way, and refused treatment.

Gradually, Ben became a loner, rarely contacting his friends, preferring to “live outside with nature” as he put it. He visited Virtuality only for research into the outside world, finding out what he could eat and drink, what differentiated day from night, and generally how nature worked to manage its natural balance.

Ben’s biggest problem had been hunger and tiredness. He had started with short journeys at first, but would come back to the apartment exhausted and hungry, waking the next day still hungry and aching in his legs and shoulders. As he continued to venture out, the aches in his body had decreased, but the hunger had not gone away. In his studies at the Virtual Library, he had learned of the need of the body to convert food to energy, and had realised that the System would not provide enough food for him to exist Outside for any significant periods. The System provided enough food to sustain the levels of activity that would normally arise from operating in Virtuality, and to gradually replenish lost energy over a period of days. He spent nearly all his time in the Virtual Library learning about nutritious vegetables and other substances that would sustain him while away, and during his trips out, tried to identify them from memory.

His efforts at self sufficiency were not always successful, and on more than one occasion he returned to the block early, suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea. The kindly lady Sim was not impressed, and reminded him that the System would look after him if only he would let it. She also told him that he was not used to the stuff that he was “putting into himself”, that the System knew exactly what was good for him, and if it had thought that it was proper to put leaves and berries into humans, it would have done so. Gradually, stubbornly, Ben became resistant to the diet, and started to build strength and stamina, allowing him to stay out longer.

The range of temperature was another major factor that he had to overcome. At first, he only left the blocks or the transports when the temperature outside felt like the temperature inside. This meant that he would travel around in the transports for many hours at nights, staying warm until it was daytime and warm again. This policy was fine until the winter came, and the days were also cold. He thought about staying in until it became warm again, but soon got bored, and dissatisfied with the System diet. What he needed was clothes, but how to find them, or make them. All he had to wear was the System supplied shift that was unsatisfactory for the colder weather of the Outside. He had tried collecting shifts so that he could wear more than one at a time. He tried leaving one outside the block when he came back from a trip, but when he returned to the place the next day, the shift had gone, presumably collected by the System.

He read up on the clothes of the pre-System era, and managed to work out how they were made, and what materials they were made of, but he realised that he had no materials to make clothes from, and no tools to form them. There seemed to be two types of materials used in clothing, the first, and earliest was animal skin, and the more recent, woven threads. The System issued shift was made from woven threads. Ben had no idea how to weave threads to make clothes, and had no intention of killing an animal for its skin, even if he knew how. If he was right that the System was removing the shifts that he had left outside, then if that was going to work, he would have to leave the shifts beyond the reach of the System, in true Outsider country.

It was with great trepidation that Ben deviated from the route taken by the transports and into what he considered to be true Outsider country. He had noticed that the vegetation away from the transport routes or blocks was lusher somehow, trees were taller and generally the vegetation was taller and greener, and of course, there were the animals. Beyond the blocks, the country appeared to be alive with movement and noise. The noise struck him almost forcibly. He had never heard so much noise in his life. The other instant impression was the vividness of the colours; the different shades of green and the blues and reds and myriad of other colours assaulted his eyes. Strange furry animals ran and bounced nibbling grass or chasing each other, birds massed in the air raising a cacophony of shrill whistling sounds, even the air breathed into his ears. On the one hand, it was terrifying, and on the other, it was unlike anything he had experienced in Virtuality or even in his imagination.