TWO

  Pain… So much pain. The only thing more consistent than the pain was the utter darkness and the feeling of suffocation. Adam spent the majority of the time trying to cry out, praying constantly but unable to move or speak. Time passed in an instance, but lasted for days. From what seemed like a lifetime of suffering, he inhaled a gasping breath of stale air. He breathed greedily, as if the next breath was going to be his last. Once his brain gave the go ahead that he wasn’t going to die from suffocation, he tried to take stock.

  The pain was gone. He felt around and determined he was laying on metal grate flooring. He tried to open his eyes but they were stuck shut. He kept feeling around, discovering he was covered in a thick, goopy slime and naked as the day he came into the world. He tried wiping the goo off of himself, realizing he was not as weak as he had originally thought. He rolled over and got to his knees, then carefully to his feet, not standing completely straight. He stayed bent over with his hands on his knees–then was suddenly and completely assaulted by water pressure on all sides.

  Gasping and flailing at the all-encompassing water, he realized the icy cold shower was being sprayed at him. He took a quick moment, cupping his hands over his mouth and taking a deep breath. He held it and started scrubbing his body frantically. He was able to wash himself clean. He wouldn't be mistaken for an alien slime creature after the water subsided. The world's most violent shower was surprisingly calming and his breathing was steady and his heartbeat was calm.

  Something pricked at the back of his mind. He moved his hands back to his stomach. His eyes shot open and he saw abs. Actual definition in his abs. No longer hibernating behind his self-proclaimed fluffy protection. Adam gave himself a cursory once-over, noting the muscle definition now visible across his body. He stretched out his muscles and took note of his increased range of motion. With a raspy clearing of his throat, he murmured, “What is going on?”

  Looking around, Adam noticed the very cramped and dimly lit room, light shining down from a hole in the ceiling. End to end it was only a few yards across. The walls looked like they were out of focus and hard to see details. “Deep breaths. Don’t panic. Everything’s peachy keen. The walls definitely aren’t going to close in.” As he walked towards the wall, a thin line of light slowly made the shape of a doorway and lowered into the floor. Adam shielded his eyes and stept back on the cold metal floor, waiting for whatever was going to come. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the flood of new light before lowering his hand. While he waited patiently, nothing stirred, nor did anything make a sound from the other room.

  Adam pressed himself against the wall and moved in closer to the open door. His heart stayed steady as he peered into the room. It was not much bigger than the room he was in. There was only a sturdy metal table and what looked like a door on the far side. He crept in slowly and went over to the table. He pulled on the linen pants and the leather tunic, followed by the old-looking leather shoes. His eyes lingered on the last two items on the table. A large hammer and a wooden shield. The hammer looked like a large forging hammer, too large for someone to use practically. He grasped the leather wrapped handle and hoisted it rather effortlessly.

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  Giving it a few practice swings and a spin he placed it down and hoisted the shield and fixed it to his forearm.

  “What are you?” Adam picked up a coin-size iron disk that was laying under the shield. It was unremarkable and completely smooth, void of any markings of any kind. “I guess that is for another time to worry about. Okay. Think, think, think. Where am I? Better question, where is Damien. WAIT! The conference.” The wall behind him began to glow and an image of a grey mechanical alien appeared and spoke with surprisingly fluent English.

  “We will be opening your doors in two minutes. You have been recruited to provide support to our cause. Your objective: Retrieve the Command Console Transmitter. Secondary objective: destroy the Druid people and their allies. All hostile actions towards our people, your hosts and benefactors, the T.G.R.I., will not be tolerated. Punishments will be swift and decisive. The Terrestrial Galactic Restoration by Infusion improves all of our willing volunteers and outfits them with our bio-engineering enhancement program, along with our Augmentation of Combat Evolution–ACE for short.”

  “Druids? I thought Druids were usually nature-loving and peaceful. What am I saying, druids aren’t a thing. But neither are mechanical aliens,” Adam pondered.

  “Be silent! Last but not least, you may have noticed a small, Iron Coin on your table. Place this in your mouth to initiate the ACE programming. In the past, we have had volunteers that choose not to consume their coins. Their deaths were swift. Your reward for completing the primary goal is going back home. Prepare yourself.” The speaker disappeared. “Huh. Well that guy was rude,” He looked around. “And obviously watching me. Now, about this coin” Adam looked down at the Iron Coin out and considered it briefly, shrugged, and threw it into his mouth. “In for a penny, in for a…” but his thought was interrupted by an all-consuming grey-blue light. Only a few seconds passed. painless. When he opened his eyes, the world was different. A soft, female voice spoke as his vision produced semi transparent words.

  Initializing…

  Please wait…

  Installation successful. Welcome to the Hive.

  …

  Would you like to begin the tutorial?

  “Well ain’t that something. You know, besides the whole kidnapping, torture and my objective to destroy a whole community of Druids or die a horrible death, this isn’t half bad. Sure. Let’s begin the tutorial.” The shock dropped Adam to his knees and in a blink of an eye, the information was transferred to his mind. His eyes rolled around in his head as the understanding of how the HUD and UI worked was absorbed and, now, was second nature.

  He looked up and the same outline that brought forth the first door, opened to a second door. When it fell, a vast, rocky terrain laid before him. A breeze of fresh air blew through the pod and stirred Adam back to the present. He used his shield to push himself to his feet. Rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck, Adam drew in a long, deep breath, “Brother, I’m coming for you.” He walked out into the warm sunlight to meet whatever fate laid before him.