Forged Reality

By Kristen B. Smith

Awaking to find herself in a capsule on an alien and dying planet, Samantha discovers that her abductors have died, and she is utterly alone. As she explores, she realizes that the aliens utilized those they abducted as entertainment, watching their dreams and nightmares on giant alien screens.

Knowing the planet was dying, Mahlax, a sympathetic alien, left Samantha a means to continue her life. She must program that life and then reenter the coffin-shaped tube. While she awaits the finalizing of her self-scripted program, she fills her time watching the bizarre stories she found stored in the computer banks. What peculiar stories will she find hidden within the computer? What kind of life would you write for yourself, given the chance?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543475654

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Kristen Smith.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017919689

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5434-7567-8

      Softcover      978-1-5434-7566-1

      eBook      978-1-5434-7565-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/03/2018

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Contents

Forged Reality

Channel 32547: Chained

Channel 45713: Fish

Channel 74579: Reunited

Channel 45983: Short Holiday

Channel 54268: The Orb

Channel 52189: Disturbed Repose

Channel 4251: Ice Cave

Channel 562711: Virtual Death

Channel 781493: Confined

Channel 5483261: Mother

Channel 245781: And So, It Begins… And Ends

Channel 985473: Time To Go

Channel 758134: Complimentary Breakfast

Programming complete

FORGED REALITY

S AMANTHA WOKE IN a sweat, her blankets clutched in white-knuckled fists. That terrible dream had pounced on her once again. Every night, night after night, the same dream tormented her. Tears of frustration wetted her cheeks, as she pulled the covers up to her chin. How long will this persist? she thought, her fear subsiding slightly, giving way to anger. She hadn’t slept well in… she couldn’t remember how long.

She groaned as she leaned up to glare at her alarm clock. Ugh! Still several hours before sunrise, she moaned. She flopped her head back on her pillow and gazed up at the cracked ceiling. Images of the nightmare danced before her eyes, until suddenly she realized she was back in it.

The glaring red glow from the light before her face floated up and down in a constant rhythm. She lay prone with nothing to look at but the continuing path of the light, engulfed in a pervading silence that caused her heart to race. She moved her head, trying to see beyond the red glow, and found her movement greatly impeded. She lifted her hand to try to understand what was stopping her from moving, but her hand hit a solid surface just inches above her body. Unable to turn her hand palm up, she felt around using the top of her hand. Whatever it was, it was covered in a satiny cloth, which made her think of a coffin. This thought caused her fingers to tremble. Am I dead? she thought in panic. She twisted her body as much as she could, trying to be able to move her arm more naturally, only to feel her hip brush against the unrelenting surface of whatever held her in its grasp. Panic stricken, she kicked her feet, only to hear a deep thud as they met the surface of her confinement. She turned, lying on her back again, and brought her right hand slowly up her body as she tried to reach her face, trembling with unease as she realized she was naked. She winced as she felt a tug at her wrist. She lifted her left hand to meet her right hand and felt a tube taped to her wrist. She winced again as she brushed againt the needle that was pushed into her skin. An IV? she thought. Was I in an accident? She closed her eyes and lay still for several minutes, thinking back over what she remembered. Suddenly a loud beeping sound cut through the silence. When she opened her eyes she found herself lying in her room, the alarm blaring and the sun just peeking in through her draped window. Shaking off the dream, she crawled out of bed and made her way to the shower. The fear of the nightmare subsided as the warm water cascaded over her.

She concentrated on the computer code before her as she sat in her cubicle at work. She had received a commendation for her hard work recently, little did they know that she was so focused in order to waylay the nightmare from consuming her daytime, as well as her nights. She sighed, rubbing her strained eyes, at the mere thought of the dream, and forced herself back to work. The minutes ticked by and as it came time to leave for the day, her stomach began to tighten up, as dread of the inevitable night to come, washed over her.

She took her time walking home along the sleepy streets she had known all of her life. Brightly colored leaves fell down around her in the stiff breeze that would soon bring the cold greyness of winter. She smiled softly as memories of her parents flooded her mind. It was at this corner where her father had taught her to ride a bike, and where her mother ran to her with a wet cloth and a bandage to wrap her scraped knee when she fell. Melancholy wrapped itself around her as her thoughts drifted to the day her parents had been killed in a car wreck, and she had been left all alone. She reached further back in her memories to happier times as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She recalled going to Katy’s birthday party and the fun they had had that day. But the happiness of the memory soon faded, as her feet shuffled through the dying leaves on the sidewalk. She thought again of her walk home after the party. She had been humming to herself, doing a little dance up the street toward her house, when a bright light cascaded around her from above. Startled, she stopped and stared up at the unusual light, but seemingly only moments later awoke safe in her bed at home. That night had always confused her. She thought harder and realized that nothing had been the same since that night, though she could not quite put her finger on why.

Later that evening, as she gazed out of her darkened house at the quiet street, she still could not figure out what had changed since the night of Katy’s party. Although, as she continued to ponder, it dawned on her that she had been lonely ever since that fateful night. She couldn’t remember ever having seen Katy or her other friends again, though she did not understand why. She still lived in the same house, had continued going to the same school until graduation, but she, for some unknown reason, had lived a solitary life, bereft of friends from that point on. She shook her head, dispelling the troubling thoughts, as she made her way through the house, turning off lights as she went to her bedroom. As she crawled between the sheets, she prayed in a whisper that the nightmare would not invade her sleep again tonight. Her eyes closed as her head hit the pillow, then she opened them wide once more, only to find herself back in the tube-like coffin, the red light cascading across her face in the deathly silence.

A tear escaped her left eye and made its way down her cheek as she realized she was back in the relentless nightmare. Depression washed over her, almost blocking the fear that came at her from every side. She lay still, resigned to the fact of her entrapment, when the never ceasing light blinked out for a second. It immediately came back on, and afterwards, she wondered if she had imagined it. She watched it flow back and forth before her eyes for what seemed an eternity, when it suddenly blinked again and winked out. She gasped as silent darkness pervaded, her senses heightened as she waited for what would come next. In the stillness, she began to hear a beeping noise, that reminded her of a heart monitor in a hospital. It started out strong, but slowly came to a stuttering halt. The silence was so intense that she wondered if she had gone deaf. She tapped her fingers against the side of the tube she was in, relieved when she heard the tapping. As if in response, the coffin-like tube shook and a hissing noise sounded close around her. Her body flinched reflexively at the new sound, as another followed quickly on its heels. The sound was like air leaving a tire with a sudden pop that followed. Something above her face had moved. She raised her hand and felt the top of the tube above her. Her slight touch caused the lid to lift, opening a few inches. She trembled in the overwhelming darkness, not knowing what would come next. She listened, but there were no more noises, though she worried that whatever had confined her was now coming for her, moving silently through the blackness. When nothing happened, she slowly moved her left hand up the side of the tube, until her fingers found an opening. A black cloth moved against her fingers, exposing light on the other side. Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, she pushed the cloth aside and gazed out at the hazy light. The movement caused the lid to open further, so she moved to sit up. Her jaw dropped as her head came up and she gazed at her surroundings.

As far as she could see there were tubes like the one in which she sat. Some were silent and still, others she could see had the red light arcing back and forth, but they were obviously dimming, ready to go out any second. The tubes lined the flat desert sand, each with wires snaking from them in every direction. She looked down at herself and saw the IV strapped to her wrist for the first time. She grabbed the tape and pulled it from her and threw her legs over the side of the tube. She jumped down, feeling