Welcome Back

Simon slowly blinked his eyes open, It was completely dark with only the sound of a whirring computer fan breaking the silence. He tried to move his arms to sit up but he was being restrained at the wrist and ankles. Simon struggled a couple of times to test the strength of what was holding him down but it was definitely quite secure. He closed his eyes and tried to think how he got there, had he been captured, was he in hospital, he felt strange but didn't feel injured. Flashes of laser fire, explosions and running down towards the engine bay were coming back to him. "maybe I died, maybe this is my heaven and I am stuck in a dark room tied to a bed for eternity!" he thought. He struggled again but still no movement.

"Hiaohh"

Simon tried to say hello but only a croaky noise came out that didn't really resemble a word.

Very soft red lighting came on around the edge of the ceiling but wasn't strong enough to illuminate anything in the room, he moved his head slowly from side to side, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the red LED but there did not seem to be much in the room. More images raced through his mind, coming under fire from unknown ship and then being boarded without permission, pain from his leg and blood from a would on his arm.

"how did they get through the security?"

"why cant I feel any pain now?"

"we must have been rescued and this is the medi-bay on their ship"

Simon let out a gentle sigh and relaxed back down into the bed,

"That must be it" he thought

"Hello" Simon managed to say out loud but it didn't sound like his voice and was still a bit croaky.

He shook his head and the light level increased slightly around the room, low level music started playing from a corner of the room before a soft computerised female voice started to speak.

"Please remain calm, your fully immersive game has ended and you are being brought back to reality. There may be some confusion as your game and own personalities cross over, game personalities should fade quickly"

"What? What are you saying to me?" Simon spluttered.

" Please remain calm and allow yourself to come back. The lighting changed from red to a soft white light and the music continued in the back ground.

"Baia Gaming solutions would like to welcome you back to your own life, a Baia colleague will be with you shortly to help you with any medical needs or any concerns you have. They will also unplug you from the life support systems you have been linked up to for the past 982 days."

Simon started to panic as he thought about how he and his crew had been under attack and they were trying to get to the engine room to cut them off, a flash through his mind showed James and Sarah hiding on the other side of the corridor as an explosion sent debris flying past them. He kicked hard against the restrains and shouted out garbled sounds.

"Thank you again for choosing Biai Gaming solutions and we hope to welcome you back again soon for another visit. We hope you enjoyed your game."

A door opened and the room filled with light before going back to the soft white light. Simon could feel a a tingling sensation in his fingers and toes as an assistant leaned over and pushed a green button on the wall beside the bed.

"Hi, I am Andy and will make sure you are well before we switch everything off. You are Simon Green, have you got much of your memory back yet?

Simon shook his head and grunted "No!"

"That's ok, it should all come flooding back soon, just relax and allow all the feeling to back to your body before you move too much.

Thank you for reading this story and I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it and if you would like to support me and my writing you can help boost my moral and buy me a much needed journal or a coffee, this would be very much appreciated to encourage me to keep on writing new stories.