Awaking

The wet grass forced its cold embrace deep into the child as he stumbled around the tiny clearing, confused, and scared, tears slowly crawled down his face. He awoke just moments ago not where he went to sleep but in a new place somewhere he had never been. He listens as sounds that he had never heard before caress his ears, birds waking from their slumber, wind through the leaves, these are not the sounds he remembered not the harsh bleating horns, the rumble of voices, the bangs and crashes as the train rolls by, the constant chaos of his world.

He once remembered going to the park and seeing grass and trees, but never so much, “Where am I he wonders?” Where is my mom? He mutters I want my mom. "Evee you there?" He says "I don’t know where you are?" Collapsing into a heap he cries.

A while later the tears no longer come and he slowly gets to his feet, if no one is here I need to find them, they may be lost too, Evee will be scared, maybe even too scared to answer me, she is my big sister but she is small and I need to protect her, moms says. He starts walking down the path that opens in front of him, he grabs a stick off the ground, Now I can hit the monsters if they come at me, he states just as sure as a hero marching off to war. He once again starts marching into the trees.

A family of deer spooks and jumps out of the brush, he freezes, they stare, he returns their stare in utter amazement, not one of fear but pure wonder, I know what you are, I seen Bambi his dad was shot, where is your dad? The deer slowly twitches their ears, but not sensing danger they shift forward towards the boy, noses reaching towards the unknown creature. The matriarch stands tall and looks over her shoulders, while last years twin daughters circle the boy. The boy reaches forward, the young doe twitches but does not pull back.

The matriarch bleats and jumps, both does spin and run towards her all three running into the brush, just as the boy recovers from the fright a large shadow envelopes him, snuffing out what little warmth the morning sun had brought to him. A massive rumbling voice says Well what do we have here? A manling? What brings you here little man? As the boy looks up he sees the dark scales that cover the massive mouth lined with pure white teeth the size of a fence picket, he screams……

What do you mean, Raymond said, what going on? Becky screamed “Why? Why did I leave it on?” “He was just being David, everything is a toy.” Raymond echoed his previous question “What do you mean what is going on? Becky collapsed into his arms “David, put on the cradle, he logged in, and now I can’t log him out.” Raymond looked over towards the anchor and saw a full set of lights, online, logged in, sync complete, he gasped as he realized his son had logged into the most advanced simulated virtual reality game ever created. “Realms, the game of Saga, Adventures, and Legacy where you are there!” the company motto echoed in his mind. There on the bed lay a 5 year old boy eyes closed, twitching in REM feedback, unresponsive to this world but captured by the simulation of another. Evee his sister touched his face wake up David you are scaring mom.