Jason was currently moving down a long corridor, a wide double door located at the end of it.
'War Online? What do they know about war? Just a bunch of civilians running around and shooting things with health points.'
Jason scoffed in his mind and directly forgot about the topic. Having arrived before the door, he pushed it open and rolled in.
The space beyond was a large hall filled with various workout and physical therapy equipments.
Some patients were exercising, with a few nurses moving around and attending to their needs.
Jason turned to the empty pull up station at the far corner and wheeled towards it.
On the way, he noticed a medical bed by the left— an out of place item for a gym house.
However his expression showed either his lack of interest or his familiarity with the scene, most likely the latter considering who was laying on it.
"Well it's been a while and the army's currently going through some reforms but it shouldn't be that severe right?" Major Lazer who lay on the bed in the gym asked the young soldier standing close-by.
His nurse was helping him perform passive range-of-motion exercises.
She gently flexed and extended his elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles to keep his joints from stiffening.
"It's not that severe Sir, only sudden. It seems the army is trying to gain a foothold in the new game—War Online." The young soldier looked to be in his early thirties, dressed in full military camouflage with the rank of a Captain on his shoulder.
At that moment, a young man on a wheelchair wheeled passed them.
"Done with your therapy, Jason?" Major Lazer asked as he noticed Jason passing by.
"Major."
Jason gave a short reply barely glancing at them before moving on.
"What an arrogant little prick. It's no wonder he got here this early. Passing a superior without even a proper greeting." The captain fumed.
"Excuse me for a moment Sir." He saluted and made to go after Jason, but the major's next words stopped him cold in his track.
"You ever been court-martialed, Dillard?"
The captain, Dillard stopped cold in his tracks. His eyes widening as he turned around.
"What do you mean by that Sir?"
"Give us a moment my dear." Major Lazer spoke and his nurse quickly moved away to give them some privacy.
"Come help me out, boy." He beckoned and the captain immediately took over what the nurse had been doing.
"You go after that boy Dillard and you're gonna have one of two endings, none of which will be in your favor."
"If he doesn't snap your spine himself, then the court-martial tribunal would do it for him. So if you love your life and your job you're gonna stay far away from that boy."
Dillard's eyes widened the more, his pupils trembling.
If you ask any military personnel what they feared the most, the unanimous answer would be—The Court-martial tribunal.
"Who is he?" Being a captain, Dillard was of course no fool.
Major Lazer sighed.
"Ever heard of Sparta?" He asked.
"Sparta? Sparta's a myth, a legend told to inspire young soldiers. I mean come on, a ten-man unit with legendary track of successful suicide missions including infiltration, espionage, search and rescue and even behind-enemy-line assault. It's all just a good story." Dillard responded with utter confidence.
"See that's where you're wrong. Sparta is very much real and everything said about them is the truth."
"And that kid there, is the last known spartan of Sparta. They said he was found fifty meters from a cliffside missing both legs and bleeding out, yet still crawling forward." Major Lazer's words directly shattered Captain Dillards worldview.
"I only told you this because you're my son. If that unit were still active, l myself wouldn't have known what I just told you."
"What happened to the others?" Dillard asked in curiosity.
"Don't know. But, you see a rude young man, I see someone still fighting a battle that ended a while back." He said.
"I trust you understand the implications of this information enough to keep it close to your chest?" Major Lazer asked and Dillard nodded.
"Anyway that's that, get me my nurse, think I'm through for the day."
Seeing Major Lazer change the topic, Dillard knew the conversation was over and thus withheld whatever question he had left.
Meanwhile, the subject of their conversation was already performing pull ups on the pull-up bar.
A male standing by the side to help him operate the mechanism for raising or lowering the bar when he gets tired and wishes to return to his wheelchair.
Jason soon lost himself in the workout. Oblivious of time and not bothering to count his reps, he kept on going. His arms burned and muscles ached yet he didn't stop.
"Keep going at that rate and you might just lose your arms as well." A stoic voice sounded from behind, pulling him back to reality.
Turning to the owner of the voice, for the first time since the morning nightmares, an emotion flickered across Jason's eyes.
A weathered man in his late sixties was now standing beside the nurse dressed in full camo and a beret. The name—Samuel Moore displayed on the name tag.
"Colonel!" Jason called out in surprise.
"Dismissed." The man said to the nurse who promptly saluted him and left.
After which he operated the mechanism and moved Jason's wheelchair closer as the bar lowered him.
"What are you doing here sir?" Jason asked after sitting on his wheelchair.
"What do you mean what I'm I doing here? I came to see my boy of course." He replied and grabbed the wheelchair handle after Jason settled in.
"Come, stroll with me." He said as he pushed Jason out of the gym.
"How are you?"
"I'll survive." Jason replied shortly.
"But it's not enough to just survive Baby." The Colonel said again.
"Sorry sir, but Baby Killer died that day in Africa, along with the rest of Sparta. It's just Jason McCreed now." Jason replied again.
"What happened to you and the rest of my kids that day Baby? Even after three years you still refuse to open up. Not even to me?" The Colonel stopped moving and circled to his front.
"Why have you come here today sir?" Jason changed the topic earning him a sigh from the colonel.
"The army needs you."
"With all due respect sir, if the army needs the help of a retired invalid then the world has ended." Jason said.
"But you won't be retired or an invalid where we need you" Colonel Moore replied.
"Really? And where's that?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow.
"War Online."
"War online?" Jason asked in surprise.
"Yes. Organizations all over the world are trying to gain a foothold in the game, including the armies. And for that they're sending in their best." He clarified further.
"So? You interested?"
"Negative sir."
"I thought as much. I'll still leave the login device with you, just in case you change your mind." He replied and returned to pushing Jason forward.
"Sorry sir, but my fight's over." Jason replied.
"Yeah I doubt that."
They soon left the housing area into the outdoor facility for a leisure stroll.
*****
It was already late into the afternoon when the colonel finally left and Jason decided to retire to his room.
However, as soon as he entered the living building, he noticed a small gathering close to the entrance.
At the center of the group, a veteran in his forties missing a leg and standing with a crutch was seen holding a box and beaming.
"Look at you Frank, smiling like a child on Christmas Eve." One of them said and they all burst into laughter.
"To me, it is Christmas Eve except even better." The one holding the box replied and the laughter came again.
"Can't wait for my own Christmas present to arrive as well." Another said raising another bout of laughter.
"It's the last day of the month, and it's already past three. The thirty minutes server gateway opens at 3:30pm you better hurry. If you miss it you'll have to wait for the last day of next month." Another said and most of them nodded.
At that moment Frank noticed Jason staring at them in silence, but the flickering curiosity in his eyes were Illuminating.
"Something you wanna say son?" Frank asked drawing everyone's attention to Jason.
"What's so special about this game that everyone keeps bringing it up?"
Hearing the question, Frank merely smiled. "For people like us? It's simple. In there we walk again"
"How real can a game be? I mean reducing health point recovering health point and all that gamers nonsense." Jason said.
"It seems you haven't heard of Full Synchronization. I don't have enough time, new players can only join once a month and that's today, look it up and place an order before the next opening." Saying that Frank hurriedly departed along with some of his friends.
Jason also returned to his room, closing the door behind him.
There sitting on his bed was a box identical to the one Frank was holding.
Glancing at the two stumps of his missing legs, Jason felt something stir in his heart.
"To be able to stand again, even if not real, how novel would that be?"
Peeling his gaze from the box, Jason slowly looked at his watch.
3:30pm stared back and he immediately made a decision.
Unpacking the box, Jason saw a black cyclist helmet-like headgear with a visor for covering the eyes and a long cable attached at the back.
Following the manual, he plugged in the cable to an electric socket and linked it to the facilities wi-fi network.
After setting it up, Jason stared at the slowly humming helmet for a while. Then movrd himself to the bed, got comfortable, slid it on and hit the power button.
The visor plunged him into darkness, but almost immediately words started appearing in the darkness.
[Initiating Brain Wave scan...]
[Scan Complete]
[Initiating Neural Synchronization.....]
[Neural Synchronization complete.....]
[T-10 seconds to deployment]
[9]
[8...]
[1]
[Welcome to Gato, Soldier]
As soon as the countdown hit zero, the letters seemed to suck him in and everything went dark.