Nova Llar- Training Days Read online

  Clara continued to study the man in the cage. At least they all assumed it was a man. They couldn't get the mask or outfit off of him, they had simply disabled everything they could that was externally accessible. Clearly whoever designed the suit believed the wolves would draw so much attention no-one would get to the suit to disable it. Appearance wise it was nothing spectacular to look at. Black and dark grey panelling, presumably for camouflage or stealth, the mast looked to have a breathing apparatus, similar to an old gas mask but with 5 horizontal slits that ran from cheek to cheek. The face was completely covered by the mask, including the eyes which had the same green glow as the light fixed to the helmet. Standing the figure was nearly 7ft tall, appearing well defined but not overly muscular. Then it was hard to tell if that was suit or wearer underneath. Crouching down in front of the man Clara stared at the faintly glowing green eyes. She couldn't see anything beyond them but was fairly certain he was looking back at her. “You know you should drink something.” she said. The man didn't respond. “It's been 4 days. You're going to be getting seriously dehydrated unless that suit of yours is doing something to keep you going?” she paused. “Maybe we should have another go at getting it off?” She couldn't be sure but she thought she saw the slightest movement, she decided to press on to see if she could get any more. As Meihui had explained. Clara was coming to the anger stage of dealing with her grief. It was the only things that explained her desire to keep going with this. “I think we could learn a lot from your suit. Clearly, you had some way of controlling those wolves, is that all it's good for?” no reaction. “I mean clearly whoever built it was overconfident enough to believe no-one would get close to it. Everything was so easy to take apart. Like it was built by a grad school dropout.” The head moved, looking at her. That last part definitely got a reaction. “I'm sorry. Does me talking about the inferior build of this suit upset you? Maybe if you get out of here you should take it to a real engineering firm? I'm sure they would be happy to fix all of those defects.” The man's fists were balled up in front of him. They had secured his wrists with rope but something told Clara they may not hold if this guy really wanted out. “Actually you know what. I don't think they would let you through the door with that thing, it's just too far gone.” The man suddenly pushed off of his feet lunging forward, being caught only by the ropes secured over his shoulders. “You have no right to say that. This suit is the greatest achievement of man. Its power and potential cannot be matched and you will die for even attempting to goad me.” the man practically screamed at Clara. The voice sounded wrong through. It sounded artificial, not like a voice synthesizer, more like the actual voice itself was made up of different people saying words. Like an audio collage. “Well, it's good to know you can talk.” Clara continued to taunt the prisoner. “So clearly you have some sort of personal connection to the creators of this suit. Did they make you too?” she asked pointedly. “They will find me. They will come and exterminate your little community, take your resources and anything else of value. It is only a matter of time.” With that, the man returned to his statue position. Clara tried a few other things to get a rise out of him but nothing worked. Clearly, he had said what he wanted to say and wouldn't be giving any more.

  Walking back over to the main camp Meihui turned with an expectant look on her face. “Did you manage to get anything out of him?” she asked expectantly. Maybe she had heard the shouting. “Actually I did.” Clara responded. “Whoever he is, he claims he isn't alone and that his friends will be coming for him soon. He's also pretty touchy about the quality of his suit so I'm guessing he has some sort of attachment to the people who made it. More than a soldier wearing a battle suit anyway.” “Good work.” Meihui offered. “No-one else has managed to get anything out of him. Sometimes it's like there isn't even anyone there.” Meihui let that comment hang for a minute before continuing. “We need to bolster our defences if what he is saying is true. Let get some plans drawn up and divide up into teams to collect supplies, we may not have very long.” Clara couldn't believe this was happening. When in the world was like this? Most factions now favoured peace and those that insisted on fighting defended their borders fiercely, there is no way they could have been dropped behind the lines. It was almost like being back before 2032 when there were multiple wars going on all over the world. Most disputes were settled through discussion and mediation now. It's not that people weren't still violent, some even seemed to long for war. Since the population was decimated on a global scale there just wasn't any desire to increase the death toll. While Clara hoped this way of doing things would last human history offered a different scenario. Eventually someone would push something too far and someone else would retaliate, eventually, more people would join in and you would have a war. People always forget the great tragedies of the world, especially when they do not feel it applies any more. After the plans were drawn up and resource collection was allocated they set about their tasks as quickly as possible. The first defensive structures were pits and moats dug around the perimeter of the camp. There were two points to cross from outside the camp, each directly opposite the other. This made it easier to keep watch and defend themselves should anyone attack them. Next were small spiked walls, angled away from the centre of the camp. These were designed more to prevent any wolves from being able to leap too far in any one direction, whether they would work remained to be seen. After three days of solid work, the defences were ready. Now it was just a waiting game to see if anyone turned up to trip them.

  For another week nothing significant happened. They were now in their second month of survival training and despite the issues they had faced. They were all still together and in one piece. Clara had made significant progress with her psychological recovery after the incident with the wolves. She had learned to accept it as something that could not be changed. What was done needed to be done to survive, she didn't have to like it but couldn't deny the truth. The only part of it all that still bothered her was their guest in the cage. Since his outburst a week ago nothing new had been revealed. He still didn't eat or drink, now completely motionless not even seeming to sleep, it had gotten very disturbing. Clara was busy collecting up the items of the day when the warning came down from the nest. Three distinct light signatures could be seen approaching from the forest. This time it was a blue, yellow and red light, all converging to head towards the camp. Without hesitation, everyone rushed to their posts, each with a number of different weapons available to use. Around 20 minutes later the lights started showing through the trees, however, this time there didn't appear to be any wolves ahead of them. Each light had a different creature in front of it. The red had two enormous bears that pushed the trees aside like they were twigs stuck in the ground. The blue light was preceded by large cows or bison of some sort. They had short brown hair over their bodies and excessively muscular shoulders. Most of the proportions were exaggerated on the front end, with long legs, big eyes and horns and what looked like tusks in a wide-set mouth. The yellow light was preceded by one giant tiger with deep red fur and pitch black stripes. The teeth were longer than would be expected and the face was more pointed, almost canine-like. The eyes were definitely that of a cat and you could easily identify the claws on its paws as it padded towards them.

  Clara watched as the assortment of beasts approached the trenches around the edge of the camp. Hopefully, they would all be forced to the walkway they had left. At least that would give them a chance to thin them out a little. Unfortunately only the cattle were forced down that route as they pulled back before trying to jump across. The bears were big enough to stride over while the tiger leapt gracefully from one patch of solid ground to the next. The order to open fire came as soon as the cattle were on the narrow walkway through the trenches. Aiming for the closest creatures first Clara loosed her bow with all of the force it could offer. To her horror, nothing would stick to its target and the arrows just dropped to the floor next to their targets. The hides were too thick a
nd unlike last time she couldn't find a weak spot.

  Just as panic started to set in Clara spotted Meihui moving out from her cover behind a spiked barricade they had built. As she stood facing the onslaught of creatures she began shouting. “STOP THIS NOW.” But she wasn't shouting at the approaching animals. She was shouting upwards, towards the sky. “STOP. THIS IS NOT REAL. THERE ARE TOO MANY INCONSISTENCIES IN THESE EVENTS TO EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD. WHATEVER THIS IS, STOP IT NOW.” Completely disregarding the scenes around her Meihui continued to shout. The tiger was getting closer to her and would soon be within striking distance if she didn't take any action to hid or defend herself. She was out in the open, completely exposed without even a spear for protection. Before she knew what she was doing, Clara had jumped up and was ran towards Meihui as fast as she could. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the tiger getting closer. But she didn't care. She needed to get her friend out of danger. She needed to get her out of the tiger's line of sight.

  As she reached Meihui the tiger leapt towards them sailing high into the air. Both of them turned, looking up as the claws and teeth approached time seeming to slow down as if their mind was trying to formulate a way out of the situation. “Wait.” thought Clara. “Time has slowed down.” Then suddenly everything around them had stopped. The rest of her teammates appeared equally surprised to see everything just freezing in place. As the reality of the situation began to set in a figure emerged from the forest. Not like the other man they had captured before though. This one didn't look to have a suit on, it had no light on its head and the eyes were not glowing. It was just a man.

  As he got closer Clara started to recognise features, trying to recall the owner. After a few moments, she suddenly realised who those features belonged to. The man walking towards them through the frozen world, was Steve.

  Chapter 24

  As Steve approached, he could see the looks of confusion slowly turning to realisation and relief on the faces of the team. While Meihui had been claiming her doubts regarding their environment, she clearly hadn't realised it was a simulation. Her conviction, however, had helped him realise he had over-engineered his creations. This may have put the participants in actual danger as he had had to bypass certain protocols to get the forms he wanted. Coming to a stop before the two women neither of them said anything to him. They simply continued to look between him and the tiger a mere meter away from them. Suspended in the air by some invisible force. Looking at the tiger he opened the command screen and shut down the program running the visual matrix for it. The tiger instantly disappeared. Looking back at the women they were now both staring intently at him. As if what he had done was somehow some form of witchcraft or magic. “It was a simulation.” he said flatly. “I built it for this test. Unfortunately, I appear to have overcompensated for the safety protocols imposed on the wolves. Resulting in you not being able to inflict any damage. The test was halted because a bug of unknown origin was identified in the code that could have resulted in your deaths.” Clara was the first to respond to this. “So this battle was a test to see how we would respond? Were any of the challenges we faced out here real?” Steve smiled, looking into Clara's eyes. “Look around you. At the trees, the leaves and the sky. None of this is real, at least not on a level you would consider.” Looking between Clara and Meihui, Steve continued. “You are in the world engine we will be using on the Nova Llar mission. Both teams were introduced into it shortly after you were rendered unconscious and everything you have experienced since then has been part of this simulation.” With a worried look on her face, Meihui spoke, “We have been in a simulation for just over a month. Yet we have all received a fair share of scrapes, cuts and bruises whilst here. There is no simulation suite on earth that can cause these kinds of injuries to a human body.” Clearly she was not grasping the concept Steve thought. “You are correct Ms Adeyemi.” Steve said. “This is precisely why you are not in your human body. You, as much as everything else here are made of information.” He paused to allow it to sink in. “The same way we upload you into the LF63s, we have incorporated you into this world. You and all of your teammates.” Steve gestured behind the women with his hands. As they turned they saw they had been joined by the rest of their group. “All of you have demonstrated your resolve and ability whilst here. However, due to the errors on my part, we are having to cut your simulation short also.” Clara looked back at Steve, “Also? You mean the other team have ended their session early too?” Steve sighed before replying. “Yes. Around one week ago, Mr Taylor realised something was not right with their simulation. He followed this conclusion, tricking the monitoring systems and making it to the edge of the simulation. Once there he confirmed his theories forcing us to release him from the simulation. His team went looking for him after a few hours and despite doing our best to throw them off his trail. They ultimately came to the same conclusions as he had a couple of days later.” Steve paused as if recounting the sequence of events was somehow unpleasant for him. “We had hoped to get you through to the conclusion of your own training without the same incidents. Unfortunately that will no longer be possible. If you would please follow me, we will begin the extraction process.”

  Steve turned and started walking back towards the forest, without waiting to see if anyone followed him. A few moments later everyone picked up what they believed they needed to take with them and started after Steve. As Steve approached the edge of the forest the trees suddenly started to disappear. Simply vanishing as if they had never been there. In their place was a metal floor with a raised panel in the centre of it. As the last of the team stepped onto the steel disc Clara noticed the world around them shifting and moving. Everything in the distance was vanishing, rushing towards them at an unbelievable speed. Shortly everything around them was gone, leaving only the disc. They were standing in a dull void, there were light and gravity but nothing else out there, just grey nothingness. “Please move to the centre of the disc.” Steve instructed. As they all moved into position a bright light emanated from the control panel, causing them all to shield their eyes. In an instant, the light gave way to colours and shapes. Everything was blurry and out of focus, similar to the first time in the LF63s. Clara blinked a few times, looking from side to side, trying to understand where she was. As the world came into focus she realised she was laying on a bed with people on either side of her. From the outfits, she assumed they were a Doctor and Nurse. They were looking into her eyes, the doctor flicking a light into each and from the movement behind his mask, he looked to be saying something. A second later Clara could hear snapping next to one of her ears, turning, she saw it was the doctor's hand and he had been clicking to test her hearing. “I...I feel weak.” she managed to mumble, but no-one reacted. Had she actually managed to get the words out or had she simply thought it. “Doctor she appears to be trying to talk.” the nurse said. “Professor Forest. Your body has been vacant for a considerable amount of time, please try not to speak just yet. Your motor and speech skills will return soon, for now just concentrate on the tests so we can confirm everything is working correctly.” the doctor removed his face mask and smiled. Not a warm smile, more like a rehearsed on only people who are used to giving difficult news have.

  After 15 minutes Clara was able to move and talk. Although it was painful to do either at this point in time. Her body hadn't been allowed to atrophy while she was in the simulation but it certainly hadn't been exercised much either. She was wheeled out into a common room with the rest of her team so they could continue to recover. After drinking some water she was provided with she found her throat didn't hurt as much and talking was a little easier. “So I guess we passed survival training.” she joked to the room at large. There were a couple of small chuckles but what caught Clara's attention was Meihui's expression. She looked angry and Clara could understand why. Meihui was a Psychologist, she knew what the kind of tests they had been subjected to could do to someone, long term. If it hadn't been for her in there Clara m
ay very well have been broken. As Clara looked at her friend Meihui looked up and saw her staring. A weak smile crept onto her face but soon fell once Clara returned it. “What do you think they will do about our training?” Clara asked, still looking at Meihui. In the simulation, she had become a sort of leader and everyone still looked to her for answers. Looking up again and seeing the group looking at her Meihui answered. “In reality, there are two options they can pursue. They can work from the evaluations they gathered during our time in there.” Clara sensed some additional venom in the were 'there'. “Or they can try and send us into another survival situation. Honestly, I do not believe they would take the second option as our knowledge of the simulation technology would cast doubt over whether the whole thing was real or not. This could lead to some potentially life-threatening decisions being made, which I do not believe they can afford to happen.” Everyone nodded in agreement. Meihui was always good at breaking down a situation and examining its properties, this was no different.