Читать книгу We are SLC3 - Sophie Liebhardt - Страница 7

No, that can not be Hanako. This is a simulation. She is just a character modelled after Hanako. But it’s so convincing...

With the clothes she is wearing, she looks like she came straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie or game. With leathery boots and armour parts, and finger-less gloves. Though, she also wears one of the real Hanako’s favourite shirts. The one with a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the front and the first kanji of her name,花 (hana), which means flower, on the back. And she has Hanako’s long, black hair, that has always looked better than mine even though we share the same DNA.

“The resistance?” I ask.

“We are fighting for the freedom of humanity.” Yeah, sure, why not be even more obvious about it? “But right now we don’t have much time.” She walks to the only furniture in the otherwise empty, windowless room: a table with a large screen showing a map embedded into it.

She picks up a gun and hands it to me. “You can handle this, right?”

The gun looks very futuristic with its black colour and the stripes, that are glowing in a deep blue, on both sides.

“Sure do.” I have played enough shooters to say that with confidence.

“Good. Here is the short version of the plan: Our goal is to blow up the power plant in the west of the city.” She points somewhere on the map. “But we will leave that to the others. The two of us will create a distraction.” She picks up another gun similar to the one she gave me.

“All right, how are we going to do that?” I might as well play along.

“By destroying plenty of security drones.” Her eyes light up in anticipation. “Come on, let’s go.”

As the older one of us, if just by a few minutes, Hanako has always taken the lead. Therefore, it feels very natural to follow her fake version out of the room into a small shaft with metallic ladder steps leading up to a hatch.

It takes Hanako quite some effort to open it. Then we are finally outside, in an alleyway. Giant skyscrapers on both sides stretch far into the cloudy night sky. Their looks remind me of those fancy gaming PCs from the beginning of the century. Well, actually, not only the skyscrapers. There are bright, coloured lights everywhere. And rectangular shapes. They give you the uncanny feeling of too much uniformity and therefore match the setting very well.

When a drone passes by, Hanako shoots it down without hesitation. It falls to the ground, twitching from the electricity the bullet has emitted. It looks a lot like my drone, just scaled up to twice its size.

Hanako gives me a hand sign to follow her and starts running down the alley.

It feels just like in old times. The two of us in perfect sync while we fight against hordes of enemies.

Without getting hit by any bullet the drones are shooting back at us, we reach an empty plaza with a quadratic fountain in its centre. Directly left and right of the fountain dark marble stairs lead up to the elevated entrance of a particularly big skyscraper.

When I turn around and look up to the sky, there is a dark cloud of countless drones coming our way. Like an angry swarm of bees.

It is a good thing this is a game and we have unlimited ammo.

Hanako has this glimmer in her eyes she always gets when there is a challenge coming up.

I shake my head. No, this is not Hanako.

There is a tense silence in the air while we wait for the drones to come closer.

Just a few more meters...

Then hell breaks loose.

Back on back we destroy drone after drone after drone. Whenever one of them is hit, there is a small electric burst. It is like we are in the centre of a thunder storm.

At first we are doing very well, but they just keep coming and it soon becomes clear that we do not stand a chance. It is just too overwhelming.

It does not take long until I took so much damage, I get an Game Over screen.

But it is not like that rarely happens to me, so I try again.

***

When I return to the hospital in the evening, Nurse Erika asks, “How did it go?”

I ignore her and walk straight to my room. It is the only place where I feel at least kind of save. There is my bed with the collection of cute cat plushies, the screen on the wall where I like to watch stuff on, the posters of my most favourite video games, my desk which I never use, so it is just loaded with books. Yes, you heard right, real books printed on real paper with a real binding. Hanako’s books. And of course my VR chair. It is not as fancy as the one in the lab, but I really like it.

Of course they are also watching and listening here. They always do.

The drone docks into its recharge station on the wall while I just fall onto the bed.

A little bit later, there is a gentle knock on the door. A few seconds pass, then Nurse Erika enters. “Are you alright, Sarah?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I mumble into my pillow.

“Okay then, if you need anything, just ask.” She closes the door again.

I probably should not treat her like this since she is the nicest person I know. She is always so kind and treats everyone with respect. Her hair is grey and her face covered with wrinkles, but she has vibrant blue eyes. The beauty and strength of an aged woman. If angels existed, she truly would be one.

But in the end, she is still an obedient slave, just like everyone else. Including me, I guess.

I decide to watch something to distract myself. For a long time I just browse through the infinite list of movies everyone has access to. There is nothing of interest, though, so I just stick to the recommendations. I really like the old ones from the times when everything was not controlled by a hyper-intelligent AI yet.

Somewhere in the middle of my third movie, I am getting really sleepy.

I miss you, Hanako. That is the last thing I think before drifting off.