Jason quietly moved down a corridor after leaving miss Helen's office. Heading towards a wide double door at the end.
'War Online? What do they know about war? Just a bunch of civilians running around shooting things with health points.'
After that, Jason directly forgot about the topic. Having arrived before the door, he pushed it open and rolled in.
The space opened up to a large hall filled with workout equipment and other equipment for physical therapy.
There were some patients exercising, with a few nurses moving around attending to people in the gym.
Jason turned his attention to the empty pull up station at the far corner and wheeled towards it.
On his path to the pull up station, 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 beside him.
His nurse 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 man who looked to be in his early thirties, dressed in full military camouflage with the rank of a captain on his shoulder replied.
At that moment, a young man on a wheelchair passed by them.
"Done with your therapy Jason?" Major Lazer asked as he saw Jason pass by.
"Major"
Jason gave a short reply barely glancing at them before moving on.
"What an arrogant little bastard. It's no wonder he got here this early. Passing a superior without even a proper greeting." The captain fumed.
"Excuse me Sir." He saluted and made to go after Jason. But major Lazer'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 Sir?"
"Give us a moment dear." Major Lazer spoke and his nurse moved away to give them some privacy.
"Help me out, boy." He said and the captain took over what the nurse was 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 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-men 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 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 waterfall missing both legs and bleeding out, yet still crawling himself 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 today."
Seeing Major Lazer change the topic, Dillard knew the conversation was over and thus withheld whatever question he had.
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.
Yet Jason kept going, oblivious of time and not bothering to count his reps. His arms burned and muscles ached yet he kept on.
"Keep going at that rate and you might just lose your arms too." A stoic voice from behind, spoke up 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 other Spartans. It's just Jason McCreed now sir." Jason replied again.
"What happened to you and the rest of my kids that day? Even after three years you refuse to open up to even me?" The Colonel stopped and circled to his front.
"Why have you come here today sir?" Jason changed the topic earning 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 crippled in war online. Would you?" Colonel Moore replied with a question.
"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 their best." He further clarified.
"So? interested?"
"Negative sir."
"As expected. I'll still leave a login helmet in your room, in case you change your mind." He replied and returned to pushing Jason forward.
"Sorry sir, but my fight is over." Jason replied.
"Yeah I doubt that."
Soon they both left the housing building into the outdoor facility for a leisure stroll.
*****
It was late afternoon when the colonel left and Jason decided to retire to his room.
However, as soon as he entered the 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 to arrive as well." Another said raising another bout of laughter.
"It's already past three, the thirty minutes server gateway opens at 3:30pm you better hurry. We'll wait for you inside." Another said and most of them nodded.
At that moment Frank noticed Jason staring at them in silence, but the flickering of 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 yapping about it?"
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 crap." 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 with an opening of thirty minutes so I gotta go, look it up and place an order before the next opening." Saying that Frank hurriedly departed along with some people.
Jason soon 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 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 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.
Soon 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.