Disclaimer: I do not own any of the popular media references in this story. The idea and the plot are however, mine.
Prologue: The Device
Larry Thompson sat up as he awakened at his usual early hour. It was Saturday, and as he did not have to work that morning, he almost went back to sleep. Then he remembered what he had picked up the night before. It had taken him nearly three hours of standing in line waiting his turn to pick up the highly-popular creation of John Call: The World of Dreams, or DreamLand. An instant hit across the world, it was a computer that was roughly the size of an iPOD. It was capable of projecting an image directly into your mind and was connected to a huge network called DreamLand.
Mr. Call had been ridiculed for creating the first Matrix, but he replied that humans controlled this machine, not the other way around. At first the market had been uneasy about purchasing the device, but after the first month and many positive reviews later, sales took off. Larry saw no reason to chastise John Call about his device, except maybe for the price tag.
Larry got up. His small apartment was crossed in only a few strides to where he had set the DreamLand device on top of the mini-fridge. He pulled it out.
The thing did look like an iPOD, but it was remarkably different in purpose. It was jet black, and in addition to head phones, the device had four extremities: two sensor pads to put on your temples and another two sensors to attach to your chest. It had two earpieces that went into your ears so deeply that ear wax would come out after even the shortest time of use. Should something go wrong, such as death inside of DreamLand, or a strain on the heart, the system would then immediately wake you up.
Larry plugged the device into the wall. He then applied the pads and earphones where the instructions told him they went. As he fired up the device, he fell into a deep sleep, courtesy of the World of Dreams' ability to stimulate the parts of the brain needed to simulate sleep. The sleep that overtook him was not the kind that would offer life-giving rest, but one that would ultimately make the user more exhausted than when he started...as the Warning Label pronounced on the device itself.
What Larry did not realize was he would personally go on an adventure that would test both his body and mind, and that he would have to rise to the occasion time and time again to avoid insanity, or else the possibility of his own ultimate demise...