ORPHEUS - A.I.

Chapter Eight : Iron Sky

Half an hour later the four of them were taken in a truck to an unknown location. Megan briefly regained consciousness and tried to open her eyes, she tried moving her arms but they were paralyzed. Her eyelids fell heavy- she realised that she was lying down on the floor - it was cold and dark. She felt as if she was in some kind of moving vehicle.

"Am I being kidnapped?", she kept thinking trying to keep herself awake. But soon she felt asleep again... ...

Hex woke up suddenly trying to breath but as soon as he did a stinging sensation ran through his left arm. He groaned in pain, his head felt heavy. He looked around-

"What the hell?How did I get here?", he said to himself.

It was a vast field somewhere deep in the outlands. The sun was rising or setting, he couldn't make out. The grass on which he was lying was wet soaking his clothes. There were huge trees around him and he soon realised that he was in some kind of opening in the forest. He tried to recall how he ended up here but all he could remember was that he was in Orwell Corp with his team. Suddenly his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He took it out while trying to stand up. No bars but there was a text -

"Orpheus activated. Proceed to the nearest location and await further instructions...", it read.

Hex knew he had seen this text somewhere. But where? And where are the rest of the guys? Why was he lying there in the middle of the forest? How did he get there? There were too many questions and not a lot of answers. The only way was to explore the area and try to find out a way back to the Orwell offices.

He stood up and walked slowly , his head was still dizzy like a he had a bad hangover. His phone began to vibrate again- another text!

"Follow the directions indicated in the map- await further instructions."

"Who the hell is sending these weird texts?", he thought.

A map appeared on the screen as he clicked on the text. It showed a big arrow at the bottom and a blue line indicating the path he was supposed to take like a GPS navigation function. 1.6 kms north, it showed. Hex had no choice but to follow the directions and kept walking towards the intended destination. He tried to look for the time and date on his phone but weirdly enough he couldn't find it. His phone has been wiped clean. No contacts or previous texts, no apps to display the time and date, most of the apps were removed!

"I wonder where Megan and the others are...", he wondered as he kept walking north... ...

"Oy....my head ... argh", said Timothy waking up and wiping the drool from his face. He rubbed his eyes and looked around- he was on top of a mountain clifff - almost at the edge of it - a slight push and he would fall down from the cliff.

"Santa Maria!", he exclaimed quickly backing off from the edge.

"What? How did I get here? Andre? Where is Andre? ... ", he murmured looking around for his best pal. But Andre was nowhere to be seen, he saw a huge firest below him and the sun rising from beneath the mountains in the east.

"Where are the others? And why does my head hurt so much?", he thought trying to make sense of everything around him.

Just like Hex he too received the same text from the A.I. asking him to follow the directions on the map. Not knowing what to do next he simply followed the directions on the map and walked towards the unknown destination.

Andre on the other hand didn't receive any text asking him to follow any directions, but he woke up with his hands tied behind a tree and a drone with a camera sat on the ground in front of him. He was confused and tried to free himself but as soon as he did the drone fired a bullet near his feet. Andre was shocked, he understood that the drone was programmed to guard him and was instructed to shoot if it sensed any movement. Andre slowly sat down and looked at it from a distance, there was a small barell attached underneath it!

"This drone is programmed to kill?", he wondered.

He always had a bad feeling about that Devonshire guy and he wasn't interested in coming here in the first place. It was Tim's excitement that brought him here. Now he's stuck here with his life in the hands of a killer drone.

"God knows what's gonna happen next... am I supposed to remain like this forever?", he thought and prayed for someone to come and rescue him... ...

"This is gotta be a joke... it's gotta be..." thought Megan as she too kept following the map on her phone.

The tall grass and weeds made walking a difficult task. Every now and then she would step into a wet puddles of mud and the water would seep into her shoes. The more she followed the map, the deeper she went into the jungle. She remembered that this was the same text that she saw on the game that Tim and Andre designed - that survival game!

She kept wondering about the others , she thought about her aunt- she was supposed to go back today- or was it yesterday? Was she a part of a game? If so who's making them play this dirty game. Her memories slowly began to resurface - she began to remember about the party, the food, Devonshire's speech and finally Serena and the guards who injected them with something.

"The answers must lie at the end of this map...", she said to herself trying to be brave- but deep inside she knew she was scared...

"100 metres to go...", said Hex reading the map on the screen. From afar he could see a huge tree and the silhouette of a person sitting under it. His hopes began to rise and he hurried towards it. But soon he saw another familiar figure approaching from the east. It was almost a few hundred metres away but he could make out that it was a woman-

"Megan? Could it be her?", he thought as he struggled to walk through the tall grass in the swamp.

It was indeed Megan. Hex waved at her and she waved back. Both of them hurried towards the tree from different directions until they were a few metres apart.

"Oh ...god...Megan...its so good to see your face ...", Hex said gasping for breath.

Megan looked at him and said-

"Hex? You too? where are the others? We were supposed to go back home..."

Suddenly a voice emerged from behind the tree-

"Hey...hey guys... I'm here...help me... somebody..."

Hex and Megan quickly walked towards the voice. It was Andre -his hands were tied and a white drone was in front of him.

"Andre? What happened to you....who tied you here?", said Megan as she came closer to untie him.

"Wait! No!", Andre yelled and the drone fired another bullet at him, this time closer to his body- barely missing his head.

Megan fell back in shock. Hex grabbed her arms and helped her stand up.

"What the hell is going on?", said Hex, "Why are we here?"

Megan looked at him trying to compose herself-

"Don't you remember anything!?", she asked Hex, " We were kidnapped by Serena and brought here to be a part of some sick game!"

"I remember now... they injected us with some kind of sedative...", said Hex.

"What do we do now? How do we get him out?", said Megan with her hands on her head.

"The drone will shoot if it detects sudden movements...bloody thing has a gun attached to it...I mean who does that? And why us?", remarked Hex nit knowing what to do.

"Hey...hey guys...Mr. Hex...", said a voice behind them. Timothy was walking towards them with great difficulty.

"Timothy? You all right man?", asked Hex walking towards him.

"Dude.. Mr. Hex, someone has copied our game and turned it into a reality... I understand now...damn... ah!", replied Timothy trying to catch his breath-

"God ... Andre why is he tied up?"

Hex explained to him about the drone. Tim was awestruck and sat down on the ground trying to think. Megan sat down too - she was starving and exhausted. Hex simply looked at Andre helplessly - nobody knew what to do next.

Suddenly Megan's phone began to vibrate- there was another text and a link to a video in it. She clicked it open and the guys gathered around to watch it- it was Mr. Devonshire in the video-

"Welcome to a brave new world my friends- a world free of fear and aggression, of lies and deceit- a world where justice will always prevail - under the watchful eyes of Orpheus!!", said Devonshire in the video sitting and smoking his pipe.

"I thank you ... really... for helping me build this amazing piece of artificial intelligence that can break all and any firewall, any locker and can hack into anyone's online activities ... really couldn't have done it without you. I just added a few tweaks of my own - thanks to your two innovative friends and also used a piece of my old tech...and now it can control anything and everything online ..."

Hex jaw tightened with anger while Megan simply couldn't believe what she was hearing- Timothy felt cheated.

"You must be wondering where you are and what's happening with you..." Devonshire continued -

"Well... I just needed to test the tech before I release it into the world. You are presently in an undisclosed location somewhere in the forests and Orpheus is watching your every move! You are all part of a game- you simply need to play the game and come out victorious- and you will be set free..."

"But there's a catch! Orpheus will need to make sure that you have repented for your past sins...Good bye for now...and Godspeed!!"

The video ended, Megan's face grew pale -

"More trouble?", she thought, " I am just a psychologist... I am not even supposed to he here..."

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

The drone began to buzz slowly as a red light on top of it blinked. Everyone looked at the drone with dread not knowing what will happen next...