Item 224


Hans 'awoke' in a small, windowless bedroom. A single nightlight, plugged in near the baseboards, cast the room in a a faint light, just enough to see by. The walls were finished in a floral-printed pink paper, the ceiling painted cream. A nightstand by the headboard and a dresser at the foot of the bed was the only furniture. The simulation was in color, amazingly, but the saturation was very dull.

Hans sat up and looked down at himself, surprised to see he(or his avatar, more accurately) was clad in some kind of tweed jacket and penny loafers. Very odd. He stood uneasily and slowly moved his arms and neck. The whole experience was bizarre, definitely the weirdest thing he'd ever experienced in his life. He felt like he was there, but...not. His sense of touch felt diminished, as if his whole body was wrapped in thin paper. He reached down to open the nightstand's drawer, watched his hand wrap around the little ivory knob, but could hardly feel it.

This is fucking weird he thought as he pulled open the drawer. Inside, surprisingly, was nothing. Hans frowned and moved up to the room's door, finding it unlocked. He slowly pulled it open and peered into the next room, a library. It was clear, so he stepped out. There was another door to the left, which opened up on a long hall; the left side was lined with windows, two doors on the right side. Hans stepped up to one of the windows but it was pure black outside. The other doors in the hall were locked.

This is supposed to be a military sim? It feels more like a horror movie.

Hans reached a door at the end of the hall and pulled it open. The room beyond was a magnificent grand hall, a high ceiling accompanying the large fountain that dominated most of the room's ground floor. Hans found himself on the second floor mezzanine, two curved staircases wrapped around the fountain's base like a pair of arms. Across from him was a door, another one to the left, flanked by two windows. Hans walked over to them and found he could look outside, a dimly lit hedge maze visible. The hedges were tall, easily double his height, and he had to wonder why.

So far Hans thought the house felt normal, but if this was supposed to be a military simulation then he could only guess what kind of surprises were waiting for him. Being unarmed made him feel...naked. Vulnerable. It was a distinctly unpleasant feeling, but he had no choice but to press on. The team would pull him out if the Coalition made an appearance, so he wasn't in any particular danger.

The door across from the one he'd come through was unlocked, and opened up on a hallway that sharply turned right some twenty feet down, the floor furnished in dark red carpet and the walls finished in dark green paint. Hans walked slowly down the hall, feeling tense. He peeked around the corner and stopped, a little perplexed.

In the middle of the hall, lit by two wall sconces, was a life-sized nutcracker doll, facing away from him. Dressed in red and wearing a black hat the doll was seemingly just deposited in the middle of the hall for no reason. Hans walked around the corner, curious about the door at the end of the hall. The house didn't seem like it was that big, though it was certainly grand. Very much like an 18th-century mansion or-

The nutcracker moved.

As Hans neared the life-sized doll it turned in place to look at him, face immobile save for the camera lenses for eyes. Built into its right hand was a knife, the blade pointed down towards the floor. It lifted its right arm and began rolling towards him on squeaky wheels, the permanent leer unsettling.

Hans turned heel and quickly walked back the way he'd come, closing the door behind him once he was back in the main hall. He could hear the nutcracker's wheels squeaking for a few seconds, fading as the doll went back around the corner. If that was the only one, then clearly what ever it was guarding was important.

He pushed away from the door and decided to head downstairs, his dress shoes thumping mutely on the carpeted steps. As he neared the bottom the absurdity of what had just happened finally dawned on him, and he paused.

A giant nutcracker with a knife tried to stab me, its little wooden wheels hidden in its shoes creaking and squeaking. What the fuck is this?

Hans shook his head and looked around the first floor area of the main hall, three sets of double doors lined around the room. One opposite the fountain, and two beside it. He tried the door opposite the fountain, likely the front door, on principle, but of course it didn't budge. The handle was fixed to the door, as far as he could tell. With just two other options to pick from he went for the doors to the left of the front door, a greenhouse beyond. He stepped inside, pleased to see there were no killer nutcrackers inside.

What a life this is...

The greenhouse was verdant and well-kept, though why or how he had no idea. The four walls of the room were lined with planters, various shrubs and flowers growing out of them. In the center of the room was a long table lined with planters, more flowers and bushes reaching up for the ceiling. There were no other doors in the room, though there was a spade lying on the center table, which Hans grabbed. He figured he'd check out the other pair of double doors and then go back upstairs to clobber the killer-cracker.

Hans quickly crossed the main hall and opened the door to the right of the front door, a yellow-painted straight hallway beyond. On the right side of the hall were four windows, also lined with black. The hall was devoid of décor and well-lit, so he simply began walking its length. It was a nice house, even for a simulation, he had to admit that much. If he wasn't so pressed for time he'd probably enjoy looking around, taking in the modest beauty and-

Three-quarters of the way down the hall the third window exploded in a shower of glittering glass as a wooden dog was shot forward on a catapult and dumped onto the floor, turning in place and quickly darting towards him on unseen wheels, a whirring sawblade build into its mouth. Hans tensed, waiting, and kicked the faux mutt in the chin as it neared him, sending it sprawling across the floor. He crouched next to it, found a conspicuous panel on its left side, and opened it. Inside was a simple switch, which he flicked. The sawblade slowed to a halt and the wheeled feet stopped spinning.

Hans was truly bewildered by how stupid this whole thing was. He approached the broken window and looked inside, marveling at the little tunnel and the tracks the catapult had ridden on. It was a simple trap, and he was convinced that the only way it would work is if someone was laughing too hard to properly ward off a rudimentary toy dog with a saw for teeth.

This is a military sim... What a joke he mused.

The door at the end of the hall was unlocked, a basic but cozy study on the other side of the door. There was a fireplace opposite the entrance, a few nice leather chairs strewn about, and the walls lined with packed bookshelves. In the corner, by the fireplace, was a chess table. Hans stepped into the room proper and looked around, curious. The room felt more...built than the others had, with more décor and more going on, as if it was important somehow. There was nothing on the mantle above the fireplace, so he looked the bookshelves over. The books were real, amazingly enough, but as he began checking he realized they all had blank pages.

Frowning, Hans put the books back and looked at the chess table. The game was set, but all the pieces were rooted to the board on tracks, which Hans found strange. He moved a pawn along the track, then moved it back. There was a little drawer built into the table, locked, and Hans figured to unlock it he'd have to 'play' the game.

Trouble was, he knew almost nothing about chess. He sat down at the table and looked the board over, studying the tracks. They were laid over every square on the board, running from end to end, allowing any piece to anywhere at any time. He moved one of the white pawns, then one of the black ones. He tried moving the same white pawn again, only to discover it wouldn't move. He tried moving it to the left, which also didn't work. He tried right, and that did, and then he realized he'd have to remove every piece from the board. The edge of every square had an open end for the track, though he suspected some exits were unusable.

Hans began with the pawns, moving them here and there, to and fro, along the board. After a few minutes he realized certain 'locks' in the tracks could be released by having pieces in certain spots, and he realized a few minutes later that releasing one lock would activate another. After ten minutes all of the pawns were removed from the board, and this continued among the royalty until at long last only the white and black kings remained.

He moved the black king, and one of the track's locks clicked. He moved the white, and another lock clicked. Each move of each king affected locks all across the board, and despite how frustrating the puzzle was becoming he had to admit it was well-crafted. Or would've been, had it been real. He was beginning to forget he was in a VR simulation, which made him a little concerned. After a few minutes of maneuvering each king they were getting closer to each other, though weren't quite there yet. He continued moving each piece back and forth, across and away, until eventually he moved each piece for the last time, the two of them facing each other.

Nothing happened.

"Christ's sake," Hans said, and tried yanking the drawer open. Again it did not move, and he figured he'd missed something. He tried moving the two pieces again, but they were completely rooted in place. He turned one, which to his surprise turned the other in the opposite direction. The black king faced left, while the white king faced right. He turned the white king right, towards the black king, and it turned, the two pieces facing off again.

Hans chewed his lip and had an idea. He turned the white king left, and the black king turned left, the two facing away from each other. He turned the white king again, and the black king did not move. Tentatively he turned the black king right, so that both pieces would be facing the same direction, and the white king turned right. He turned it again, and now both pieces were facing the same way. He turned the black king left, and the white king turned left. He turned the white king right, and the black king turned left, their backs to each other, and suddenly the drawer popped open, bumping into Hans' knee. He pulled it open, glad to see that inside was a key. He slipped it into the pocket of his pants and marveled at the chess puzzle again, sure there was some kind of hidden meaning to it all.

Unable and unwilling to spend the time figuring it out he simply left the study and retraced his steps back to the main hall. From there he went up the stairs and back into the green hall, the left shoulder of the killer-cracker slightly visible around the corner. He pulled out the spade from his waistband and approached, weapon at the ready. As he neared it the killer-cracker turned, raising its right arm again. It quickly sprang down towards him, a thick *thwack!* sound as the coiled spring in its should released. Hans darted forward with the spade, striking the doll in the wrist. The gardening tool glanced off the thick wood, leaving it unharmed. The doll's arm raised and struck again, missing Hans again. He stepped forward and grabbed the doll's arm, but the mechanism was so strong it simply pulled his hand with it as it drew the arm up.

Hans swept his foot out, the nutcracker fell to the floor, and the arm sprang forward. *Thwack!* Unable to do anything but just lie there the nutcracker did this again and again, stopping only when Hans moved away from it, towards the door it'd been guarding. As expected, it was locked, and as expected, the key he'd found unlocked it.

Through the door was another hall, shooting left. One door on the left and another at the end. The good news was that there were no nutcrackers around, so Hans was free to walk the hall, warily watching the windows on the right-side wall. He tried the door on the left side and found it locked, so he moved on to the door at the end. Spade in hand he turned the knob and pushed it open.

The room inside, to his surprise, was some kind of lab. There were a few consoles and terminals strewn about, on desks and tables, their cables running across the floor. A few books and loose papers decorated the room as well, lying anywhere there was free space. In the left corner was a rumpled cot, a nightstand, and a chair-

-occupied by a woman.

Hans froze, the woman staring at him. She was clad in some kind of casual dress, her hair pulled back and tied in a bun. She gazed at him through thickly rimmed glasses, clearly unable to believe what she was seeing. Hans put the spade in his waistband and stepped into the room proper, keeping the door open.

The woman set down the pencil she'd been holding and stood, wary. "...Who the Hell are you? What are you doing here?"

There was no easy answer to that, so he just stuck to the basics. "My name is Hans Eckhart. I'm...a freelancer, from Berlin. I'm looking for something."

The woman crossed her arms. "If you're here then you can only be looking for Item 224," she said, her forehead wrinkled. "You're a freelancer? Like a mercenary? What's your company?"

"There is no company, it's just me" Hans said, and the woman sat down.

"...What year is it?"

Hans licked his lips. "2097."

The woman took her glasses off, set them down, and put her head in her hands. "Jesus..." she whispered, distraught. Hans just stood there, by the door, while the woman worked through what ever it was she needed to work through. After a few minutes she lifted her head, her elbow on her desk and hand on the side of her head. "What happened?"

Hans wasn't sure what to say. "There was a war. A nuclear war, between the United States and Ch-"

"I know who caused it!" the woman yelled. "I just...want to know if there's anything left. How did you get in the base?"

"The base was deserted... Germany still stands, but I won't lie to you, it's not pretty. We live in fear, anxiety, and squalor. There's still a war on, and I'm here to help the right people win it" Hans said. "Who are you? Can you help me?"

"Twenty years..." the woman whispered. "I've been stuck in this simulation for twenty years. Jesus Christ." She put her head back in her hands, overcome with grief. "They blew it all up, damn them to Hell..."

"Listen," Hans said, stepping towards her. "The group I work for is trying to make it all better. They're going to bring safety and stability back to Germany, and maybe one day the world, but we need Item 224 to do that. I'm told this is the only way to get in to the base's hazardous materials locker to retrieve the samples."

"Do you even know what Item 224 is?" the woman spat.

Hans shook his head.

"It's a cellular divider compound," she said. "When administered to any type of flora or fauna, it induces rapid cellular division and stimulates parasitic growth. What that means is it helps the host organism birth a copy of itself. Picture a full-grown apple with another one growing off its stem, that's what Item 224 does."

"Sounds incredible, and if you saw the state of Germany today you'd understand the good it could do. There is no clean water, little clean food, and Germans everywhere kill each other over both. My employer found a machine, a replicator, and they need Item 224 to help power it."

The woman scoffed. "The replicator, Jesus. Porsche's pet dream. Did you ever think to ask yourself why the machine needs Item 224 to work?"

"The manual I found said something about the compound being its fuel source."

"Correct, Item 224 fuels the process by which Porsche's pipe dream clones food. Do you want to know how it does that? I'll tell you; Item 224 induces rapid cellular division, like I said, but it's not quite as rapid as you'd think. Place an apple in the machine's replication chamber, insert the vials of Item 224, press start, and soon enough you have two apples. The machine combines Item 224 with water produced in a vapor chamber, to dilute the compound, and then carefully applies the solution to the apple's stem until another apple begins growing off it, at which point the machine pulls the cloned apple off and sends it down to what Porsche calls a 'rapid gestation chamber', where it finishes growing into a full-sized apple. But I can see it in your eyes: why not just inject Item 224 directly into the apple? Well, for one, it's unstable. Two, it's dangerous" the woman explained.

"How so?"

"If you're really as pressed for time as you say then I'll give you the short version. Those sick, sick, depraved degenerates at IG Farben synthesized this horror show from a number of horrible serums I don't even want to think about and can not even begin to describe, and when they were done they needed to test it. They applied it to a number of common fruits and vegetables; apples, plums, grapes, corn, potatoes, et cetera, and it worked on every one, yes, but it was slow. Uselessly slow. So they asked us for help, and help them we did" the woman said. "The Bundeswehr and those sick fuckers in the Reichstag wanted to know if Item 224 could work on people, to regrow lost limbs and organs, and if it could do it faster. So IG Farben sent over a few dozen samples, the Reichstag sent over a few dozen undesirables, and we got to work."

"Undesirables?" Hans asked, dreading the answer.

"Mostly POWs of the Resource Wars. Little towel-headed sand-eating goatfuckers that no one would miss. We hacked off fingers, arms, legs, dicks. We'd remove a kidney, a gallbladder, the appendix, and then administer Item 224" she said, shaking her head.

"Did it work?"

"NO it didn't fucking work! It... Transformed them. The compound worked alright for little things, like fingers and toes, though the regrown digit would not have a nail. A full hand if the patient was lucky, but organs? The body would respond in strange ways; fusing the regrown organ with other nearby organs, or the organ would regrow in an incorrect orientation. Things like that were easily corrected through standard medical procedures, it was the...adverse reactions that stymied the project. A significant number of patients developed large and severely painful tumors when administered Item 224. Some of them were so large and grew so rapidly organs would be crushed, bones would be broken, a few suffered allergic reactions and their bodies would swell up, so much so the skin would split from being stretched" the woman said.

Hans frowned. "Did any of this happen with the food that was experimented on? Adverse reactions that caused the replicated food to be inedible?"

"Yes, if you inject the compound directly into the food. Instead of decaying or molding in days, Item 224 causes food to decay within hours or sometimes minutes if injected directly. Hence Porsche's machine diluting and applying it itself. We never figured out how to make the compound work faster."

"Good enough for me. So, how do we get in to the sealed room to get the samples?" Hans asked.

The woman rolled her eyes and stood. "I suppose there's no harm in helping you, but I'm warning you: there's only about half a dozen samples in the locker. If any others exist, you'll have to find them yourself."

"Don't you want to leave here? You said it yourself, that you've been trapped in this simulation for the last two decades."

"I... I don't think I could survive outside the pod now. I'm barely holding down the psychological trauma at being told I've been stuck in this dollhouse for twenty years, never mind the fact the world I used to know has been warped into a radioactive nightmare. I'm sure, at this point, that just disconnecting me from the machine's life support systems would kill me, which..." she said, trailing off. "Let's make a deal: I get you the code to get into the secure room, and in return you kill me."

Hans gave her a look. "If you want to die, then why not do it yourself? There's a robot dog downstairs with a sawblade for teeth, I'll turn it on for you."

"Because the simulation's safety settings are on, asshole!" the woman screamed. "I tried! I've killed myself probably about two dozen times over the years, and every time I respawn right here! There's no way out for me. I sure hope you've got some friends waiting to pull you out, otherwise you'll be stuck here too."

Hans nodded. "I've got it covered. If you really want to die, then... Deal. I guess at this point it'd be a mercy. So, how do we get the codes?"

"It won't be difficult, I'm sure. Here, follow me" the woman said, and approached the door. Hans let her by and fell in behind her as she started rummaging through her pockets. "I'm Erika, by the way." She stopped by the locked door Hans had passed and fished out a key ring. "When I heard one of the windows downstairs shatter I thought I was hallucinating, but I knew that couldn't be possible. I'm still lucid, thankfully, but I'd hate to see an MRI of my brain at this point, after being stuck in the simulation as long as I have been. The system was never designed to be inhabited long term."

Erika unlocked the door and in they stepped, the room beyond a viewing room, several dozen paintings, sculptures, and statuettes on display. Based on real pieces, as far as Hans could tell. He stepped in the center of the room, curious. "How exactly was the system designed to work? I'd never heard of a VR security program before today."

"I don't know the details, myself, all I know is that the Bundeswehr, the military, was sure it was the future of security programs. A random code generator, keyed to any number of doors, buried inside a VR program the user would have to solve. They were convinced it was impervious to espionage; with the safety settings turned on the only way to get out is for someone in the real world to shut your pod off and pull you out. If a spy got in, they'd be trapped inside the simulation, released only by the MPs" Erika said. "I've heard of VR programs that simulate combat scenarios; filled with enemy combatants and even vehicles, with the safety settings turned off."

"What does that mean?"

"It means if you die in the sim, you die in reality" Erika said, and Hans grimaced. Who and why would anyone want something like that to be a setting?

"So what are we doing here?" Hans asked, gesturing around at the various paintings and sculptures. He watched as Erika began poking around at the plaques underneath each painting, pressing her hands to each one in search of something. Hans was about to ask what when she apparently found the plaque she'd been looking for, attached to a sculpture of a knight wielding a sword, the tip of the blade pointed towards the ground mid-plunge. She grabbed one of the stone knight's wrists and pushed up, and the plaque fell forward on a hinge. Concealed beneath the plaque was a key, which Erika took.

"Come with me," she said, and Hans had no choice but to follow her as she headed back out into the hall and towards the lobby. She entered the hallway with the nutcracker in it, still lying helplessly on the floor, and hardly paid it any mind as she stepped over it. From there the two of them crossed the main hall and entered back into the hall that led to the library adjacent to the room Hans had 'awoken' in. The scientist stepped into the library and let Hans in behind her. "There's a book somewhere in here with a little lock on it. If you try to pull the book out you'll realize it's rooted to the bookshelf via this thick steel cable. Let me know if you find it."

Hans started searching, pulling on each of the hundreds of books that lined the shelves. As a matter of interest he checked a few of them, unsurprised to see they all had blank pages, just like the ones in the study. "What exactly happens when we find this book?" Hans asked.

"I put the key in the lock and turn, and then there's a sequence puzzle we'll have to solve. A number of the books will pop out on tracks, and we have to push them back in in the correct order. That'll unlock the door to the hedge garden" Erika said, still fishing for the right book. "After that we'll- Aha, I found it."

Hans turned back and watched her as she pulled back on one of the books, the covers locked together. She inserted the key and turned, and six books around the library popped out on springs, ready to be reinserted. The two of them approached the books, spread across five shelves, and pushed them all back in. Nothing seemed to happen, as far as Hans could tell, and he looked at Erika.

She nodded back at him and the two of them headed back to the main hall, towards the door on the second floor mezzanine opposite the stairs. Hans stopped by it and looked out the windows at the hedge maze outside, eager to get out of the weird place. Erika put her hand on the knob and Hans was prepared to follow her outside when she turned to face him. "You remember our deal, right? I can't take another day here..."

"It's OK, I won't forget," Hans said. "I wouldn't want to be trapped in here either."

"Good..." Erika said. "Good. OK, so somewhere in the hedge maze is a terminal, and on that terminal will be the code that'll get you into the secure room. The code's supposed to automatically change every thirty minutes, but it shouldn't be an issue. The hedge maze isn't very big, but I have to warn you: it's guarded. Somewhere down in that hedge maze is a creature we'll have to avoid, a Wanamingo, which is a very-"

Hans put up a hand, his expression grim. "You have a fucking Wanamingo in this simulator? Jesus Christ..."

"You know what they are?"

"Yeah, I've had experience, unfortunately. They don't do well in tight spaces, so we should be OK in the hedge maze. Let's just get this over with" Hans said, and Erika nodded. She pushed the door open and they descended the narrow stone staircase to a quaint little courtyard, the entrance to the hedge maze marked by an iron gate. They pushed the gate open and entered the maze, keeping low. Right and left were clear, but Hans could hear the Wanamingo plodding about nearby. Getting caught wouldn't be a death sentence, since they'd just respawn, but Hans figured it'd still be a good idea to avoid the violently aggressive killing machine. He didn't need the trauma of being eaten alive on his psyche.

He eased up to the first corner and peered around it, another corner at the end and an opening halfway down, to the left. The Wanamingo sounded like it was on the left, so he decided to go the other way. At the left end of the maze's entry area the corner turned right and then right again, snaking around. Hans licked his lips and snuck around the bend, watching the thresholds for any sign of the abomination.

The two of them pushed forward, ever conscious of the Wanamingo's plodding and heavy breathing. As Hans thought about it, he wondered just how strong their sense of smell was. They didn't have visible eyes, so they had to track prey some other way. If it hadn't smelled them already then there was a good chance they tracked through hearing.

Hans reached a T-junction and checked both ways before stopping, wondering where they should go next. As far as he could tell they were roughly in the center of the hedge maze, with the Wanamingo somewhere to their right. With that in mind Hans decided to head left, towards a bend in the maze. They reached the end and the path shot left. Hans eased up to the corner and peeked.

It was a dead end.

"Christ. No good, back the other way."

Towards the other end of the maze they went, staying quiet. They passed by the T-junction and proceeded on to the right side of the path, coming to another turn. Hans leaned around the corner and saw the Wanamingo standing in the path, its back to them. To the left was another path, splitting off into three other paths. Hans kept his eyes on the abomination the entire time they moved around the bend, wondering what his vital signs looked like. He hadn't seen a display on the pod when he'd entered it, so he could only guess. If the team could see his vitals then he had no doubt that Hilda would waste zero time pulling him out.

They moved further into the maze, away from the Wanamingo. Hans picked one of the three paths at random, following his gut instinct. He was glad that there was only the one Wanamingo in the maze, as far as he could tell. Small blessings.

The two of them reached a fork in the path, the two forks wrapping around a hedge in an oval shape. Halfway along the left fork the path sharply turned left, away from the center of the maze. The right fork wrapped around the hedge all the way, it seemed, and so Hans took that route.

At the end of the fork the path doubled back into the oval-shaped hedge, a large bank of flowers inside it. He and Erika moved in, relieved to see a terminal on a table in the middle of a gazebo, turned on and unlocked. Hans approached the terminal and crouched in front of it, looking it over. There was a code displayed on the screen, two timers above it. One read '5:00' and counting down, the other read-

Five...four...three...

Hans tensed, watching the screen. He was sure the code was about to change, and he was about to reach for his notebook when he remembered where he was. There was no choice but to look at the code and hope it was short enough to remember.

*DING!*

The timer hit zero and a bell rang, and instantly the Wanamingo was alerted. The timer reset to thirty seconds, the other timer reading '4:53.' He could hear the Wanamingo coming, its heavy footfalls thumping hard against the cobblestone. Only his team could pull him out, and there was no way to get a message to them, so there was no choice but to wait.

I swear to fucking God if they happen to pull me out right before it resets I'll lose my mind Hans thought. He shot a glance at the entrance to the gazebo area, tense and anxious. He shot a look at Erika, who was just looking at him. He licked his lips, unable to believe what he was about to say but unable to see any other way out.

"Erika... You're going to have to distract it" Hans said, one eye on the terminal and one eye on the entrance. There were just four minutes left on the timer, the five digit code just sitting there. Erika scowled at him, glanced at the entrance, and nodded.

"Fine. But please, please, don't leave me here."

She took a deep breath, hesitated for just a moment, and then took off running. The Wanamingo let out a short shriek of alarm, before it apparently 'spotted' her and began the chase. Hans stared at the terminal, wondering if he was sweating in the pod as much as he was sweating in the simulation. He listened to the sound of the Wanamingo thundering through the maze, chasing Erika. After a minute she started screaming; first in terror, then in pain. Hans closed his eyes, licked his lips, and tried to block out the sound of her agonizing wails as the monster devoured her.

My God... Even if the safety settings were off... he thought, wondering what he'd have done in her position. Being trapped in a computer simulation for the rest of eternity was a horrifying thought in itself, but between that and letting a Wanamingo kill him to escape the simulated Hell? Hans couldn't tell which was worse.

'3:20'

"Come on, come on..." Hans whispered. The team was meant to pull him out after an hour, but there was no way to know how much time had passed. He watched the timer count down in anxious silence, praying the Wanamingo wouldn't come back. Once they had the samples all they had to do was escape Installation 14, which would be cake if the Bavarian Coalition didn't show up. Just one more hurdle and then they'd be set. Just one more...

Hans saw the edges of his vision turn white, slowly encroaching on the rest of his vision. With three minutes left there was plenty of time to get to the door and unlock the secure room before the code changed, as long as he could talk when the team opened the pod. What little feeling Hans had in his avatar was fading, his vision blurring and disappearing.

The eerie veneer of the simulation stuttered for half a second, and then everything was back the way it was meant to be. The actors respawned, the doors automatically relocked, and a quaint silence descended over the little dollhouse and the hedge maze behind it, broken only by the thumping sounds of the Wanamingo's footfalls.