Kai slowly opened his eyes, they were heavy as if weights were strung upon them, the blue neon light of the BVR sign across the street pierced through the window, flickering rhythmically, when switching on it made a sound similar to bug being zapped, a bug he thought, the hunger was coming back.

Two minutes that's all there was of leeway from opening his eyes and the hunger pangs. It had been five days since the last food drop and his hands wouldn't stop trembling. He looked at his mom on the other side, whose eyes were devoid of thought. She seemed to stare at the brown stained ceiling, where drops of rustic hued color dropped on his brothers forehead "Aregat", he did not stir.

Aregat had finally succumb to the hunger and gone into the machine, a body virtual reality, where all your senses were immersed in a MMORPG, it was heaven before death, it was a magical world, where food was abundant and one could choose from many a profession, there Aregat was a Paladin of the human folk. It all seemed so silly. He clenched his fist.

?!?!

A loud horn, similar to that of a bomb siren, ripped through the sky and a young woman, early 20s, voluptuous, black hair pulled in a bun and heavy red lipstick stood in front of the suffering people saluting.

Kai hated the military outfit she was wearing, it mocked the Freedom Mens efforts to stop the expansion of the FLODAR power company. Whom had polluted the soil and ended earth, too many silent good men, his father would mutter. He had fallen in the war, he'd been used as fertilizer for their Alpha Centauri effort, as did all of his comrades, as a thanks they had sent a card with a picture of the same woman saluting, with the words Can't wait to see him grow.

"Heyyy" she waved and bent over and gave all the suffering people a kiss.

"I see you're all hanging on" she moved her body side to side and put her finger on her mouth as if pondering something.

"I see a lot of you still haven't gone in your caskets....ups" she giggled

"I mean life pods... totes but why not hmmm, it's much more comfortable there, we promise we will be back for you as soon as the 10 percent of carefully picked people have been boarded and sent towards Alpha Centauri"

"fucker..." Kai muttered.

There was truth in her words however, as the only escape was BVR, one way trip to a dirt nap.

"oh and remember, FLODAR takes no responsibility for the quality of the soil, that's global warming duh" the girl in the tight skirt had her cleavage showing as she did a peace sign and finished it off with

"stay safe comrades" her smile was the epitome of evil smiles, even Kai felt a shiver at the nape of his neck.

Her mothers gazed moved like that of a machine time had not treated with care, her eyes now peered at Kai, she looked at his son, how mothers who let their kids off to war look, a bubble of feeling had suddenly burst, mixed with love, regret and pride, there was a spark there once again.

"I've seen it son, you can live... in the simulation... it's all coming back to me"

She had worked on the BVR when she was younger, a game fanatic, a woman fresh with life like a summers day at the park, her bright blonde hair and eyes awaiting the future.

" Mother it's a fertilizer machine, it makes us part of them"

" No, no, no... well yes but no" Her air ran out and she coughed,

she picked herself up with all the power she could muster and limped towards the console and started writing a series of code in haste.

" There isn't much time, this will boost your status,, and you will remember yourself, find your brother, in your inventory will be an item that will help people remember their real self, they wipe a large part of memories when you enter for easier control, but not all are affected, from within you can possibly end this calamity and destroy FLOGAR once and for all, you'll be downloaded in to the mainframe, there you will work as a sort of virus"

She pushed the button that opened up the machine, blooms of smoke rose up from inside, the light was blinking red, like the door to the netherworld, then the machine spoke.

" Thank you for your sacrifice mwah"

" Not very subtle is it mom" Kai said

She laughed, it had been a few cycles since he heard her laugh. Kai climbed into the pod.

"what happened... to us mom"

She gave a doleful smile and kissed his son on the forehead.

 Suddenly a banging on the door jolted her mother, she quickly waved goodbye, the machine shut, a bullet pierced her mother, a flower of blood burst from her forehead, her hand smeared the glass cage.

"Mo..."

Then everything turned black, so fertilizer he thought to himself, I guess keeping others alive is somewhat honorable, he would have cried then if he could have.

The men dressed in military wear, scouted the room, shoulders lax as if there was nothing that could harm them.

" Fuck, she actually put the fucker in fuuuck, Janus" the cigarette dropped from his lips, as he rubbed his balding hairline.

Janus kicked Kais mother off the pod, with his military boots, she fell to the ground limp and then he saw Kai inside, he scratched his beard where the scar from an old battle wound rested, his jaw tightened.

" He's inside, I told her that we should have fixed this before, this be pro...ble..matic, he's in the main frame, and he can think for himself,we need to get ready, there's already too many boys"

He took his gun from his leather holster and emptied the clip into the pod while grinning.

"You ain't even worth the fertilizer" he and his friends laughed while they dragged her mother out.

That's when Kai awoke.