VR

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“Hey, hey...what’s the answer to this riddle?” Albert asked to no one in particular, as he read aloud, “How is seven different from the rest of the numbers between one and ten?” He looked up expecting an immediate answer but got...crickets.

Eight pairs of eyes just looked at him. 

“Come on...nobody knows? Awww, this is the last riddle I need to answer before I will be given the directions to the Virtual Reality place.” Albert almost whined. “I really want to go.” He said, again to no one specifically.

“What virtual reality place?” Detective Miller asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, I just saw this number painted on the side of a semi-trailer left in the middle of an old field.” Albert said. “When I texted the number I was given riddles to answer, and was told once I answer all three riddles correctly I’d be given the address.” He explained. 

“I’d be careful with that.” Detective Miller said.

“Right...and nothing about that says...shady.” Garret added.

“Why? It’s just a game.” Albert said.

“Oh, geez and you call yourself a cop?” Garret asked sarcastically, “don’t you watch the news?”

“Is it just a game?” Miller asked. “Hurley, tell him what we saw at the last VR place.”  The detective said as he spun his chair around to face his computer.

Hurley cleared his throat and began his recollection. “We had several missing persons reports, all ages, all centered in this square mileage. When we interviewed all the personnel, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and friends of these missing people, we came to the realization they all had one thing in common...video games. After pinging cell phones and getting cell phone records, all these people were texting and communicating with one common number, that just happened to be to a VR place. It took us almost two months to actually solve the ‘riddles’ and decrypt all the clues to find the location, because each person was sent separate riddles.”

Albert just looked at Hurley and shook his head, “So. Is that it?” 

“Uh, a little help here Miller.” Hurley said.

Detective Miller turned away from his computer and continued the story, “We found twelve people in this VR place. It was a decrepit old farmhouse on some acreage. When we entered, we found the consoles of work stations with all the bells and whistles of a legitimate operation, but something wasn’t right. There were no operators. We found the missing people in the basement, a couple were still viewing VR while chained to the wall. All ill and malnourished. While they were living an extraordinary life through VR, they were not aware of what was happening in the real world. All their money and assets were being robbed right from under their nose, and in most cases they were given the information freely. The VR programmers had devised a program to get everything they needed through VR. Bank codes, passwords, credit cards, everything, and made a world where these gamers would rather live than exist in the present. The participants were so wrapped up in the VR world, they were not even eating or drinking. They would rather sit in their own piss and shit than take that VR off. VR was their drug of choice. They didn’t bathe or wash and the place smelled worse than a sewer. Of the twelve, half of them had died from hunger and disease from the rats that chewed off their fingers and toes. I don’t think I could ever give up my life for a...virtual reality experience.” When Detective Miller looked at Albert, he finished with, “hey, the answer to your riddle is that seven is the only number with two syllables. If you want to text that back - we can go save some people.”