The V suit

THE V SUIT

By Mordecai J Banda



He was a Gamer, which told everything about his personality, his appearance and his sex.

Mapco was a loner, pale and dishevelled, and male. Gamers never had any other descriptions, because they never strayed from their equipment and had no time for love. Yes, sometimes girls could be gamers too, but not usually. If they did they either had a major depression issue or felt ugly, these were rare cases with all the medication and proffesional counselling that went around those days. Boys apparently resisted these more, however.



Mapco was sitting at the table, for the first time in a long time he was waiting for something and not doing anything at all. The curtains had been closed and he stared at the door. Thinking of “Storm of the Lasers” and “World War IV: The game” the high scores ran through his head, and he thought of his nemesis gamer who named himself sledgehammer

The doorbell rang, and Mapco stared at the door, waiting for the package to be left and the delivery person to walk away. The person pressed the electronic bell and waited, then Mapco heard heavy grunting and a large thump, and footsteps then the light hum of the truck as it flew away.



Mapco approached the door as soon as the sound left, much like a cat. He pressed some buttons on the door, already missing the realms of SOTL and WWIV. Today, Mapco decided, he would take another stimulant doze, to catch up on the minutes he missed. It didn't occur to him that this would mark his third day awake if he did that.



Mapco opened the door and looked down instinctively, absentmindedly salivating as he thought of the new Virtual Reality Set that would soon replace his old set that day: his current model had kept on giving him a warning of destroying his health so he had ordered one of the latest in stock with apparently 'safer radiation'.

When the box arrived Mapco was surprised that the box was tall, taller and much wider than his thin self. Better than he expected. Mapco started tugging on it, when it failed to budge he stared at it as though willing it to move. Already feeling the burn of the sun against his skin.

“Hey, need help?”

Mapco turned to see what he labelled as a gangster, on a skateboard. He had an ipod in his ear and he approached Mapco. Mapco thought of running, if he could, back into the house, but he knew he wouldn’t make it: the boy was going to bully him: it always happened to Gamers who emerged from their cocoons because the neighbourhood was always pissed with them. This was usually the case because to be called a Gamer meant your family left you, as well.

“Need help?”

“H-h-hitting p-persons is against the law.” Mapco stuttered: eyes wide open as this healthy bouncing boy stepped close. He looked surprised,

“What? I want to help you, this thing looks heavy”

“P-police will ch-charge you with crime for trespassing.” Mapco managed, he felt feint surprise at the grittiness of his unused vocal cords.

“Hey, dude, its okay, like, I just want to help. It’s the season.”

“Not Christmas.”

“Yeah, whatever, you want me to carry it into the kitchen or your bedroom?”

Mapco felt the panic, but the want of the newly ordered V Set made him compromise, atleast for then.

“In my room. Mapco, what your name?” Mapco mumbled.

“Aw, I’m just a stranger, no need to know me.”

And with a smile he hoisted the carton easily and walked into the apartment. Leaving his expensive skateboard outside. Mapco felt the sun searing him and he wanted to walk in, but he decide to pick up the blue-neon flat board and brought it in, shutting the door and following the stranger. The stranger found Mapco’s room easy because that was where the fridge and the TV screen were. The stranger set down the box in front of the screen and whistled,

“That must be expensive” He said. Mapco looked at this strange guy and couldn’t help feeling better: he isn’t going to bully me because of my gaming habits. Mapco assured himself.

“How much?” The stranger smiled, he smiled very well. He pointed at the screen.

“I bought it. 1000 credits” Mapco felt his throat clear.

“Wow! You bought it, where did you get your money? Your pa-“

“Parents left me emptied my account. I played for tokens on Warcraft and sold them to other gamers. Get money like that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry… about your parents.” He sounded genuinely sorry

“Yes.” Mapco didn’t know why the boy was apologizing. Didn’t he realise that no parents meant more freedom?

The boy shuffled around a bit and waved at the box,

“So what’s that?”

“What?” Mapco asked; he had been staring at the box.

“The box?”

“Oh, new goggles.” Mapco smiled and searched around on the floor for something. He came up with a sharp hunting knife and set it on vibrate; he worked on the box in silence. Completely forgetting the stranger. The box dropped apart and Mapco started when he heard a whistle of admiration.

“Nice. But those aren’t goggles.”

“Yes, it’s very cool.” Mapco suddenly brightened up as he looked at the sophisticated coat hanger like contraption with tubing inside its neck. It had a suit suspended in the air and a transparent rectangular case stood on its side. Inside it were plastic rifles, tennis rackets, baseballs, swords and others. It also had a treadmill on it.

“Wow, this is the best virtual reality set I’ve ever seen. This is a Gregory VI huh?”

Mapco turned to him, “You know Gregory VI technologies? I though-“

“Naw, I follow this stuff too, only I can’t show it to my friends. I work hard to look normal.” The boy walked up to the thing.

“You want to help me set it up?” Mapco asked tentatively.

“Cool! Okay, but can I try for a while?”

Mapco stayed a moment before relenting. He guessed he owed the boy a turn from the help outside.

They removed the suit and read the manual in a few seconds, having done that the stranger removed his shoes and stepped into the suit. Zipping himself up and smiling eagerly. Mapco wore his goggles and initiated a game on the Holovision. He entered his profile while the stranger entered as a Guest user.



Throughout the game Mapco was gunned down each and every round by the stranger who was strapped into the suit. There were some moments when the person froze, however, and Mapco didn’t question these but took the opportunity to shoot his opponent in the game. Mapco noted that the stranger was very manoeuvrable and flexible in the suit. Suddenly a message came up on the game and It showed an error



>Guest user exited game.



Mapco removed his goggles and saw that the stranger was struggling to get out of the suit,

“Are you going?” Mapco asked with surprise.

“No, I have something you should try in this suit. A new Holodisc I got from the stores. I want to try it here.”

Mapco was suspicious, “Virus?”

“No, it’s very clean,” He produced a capsule which Mapco took and placed into the screen, adding to its mixture of holofilm information.

“Get into the suit, it’s the latest “Free roam and kill game.” He smiled with excitement and what looked like gratitude. But in reality it was relief.

Mapco licked his lips: he liked those games.



“Please don’t shoot me!” A woman screamed. She held her purse up for meagre protection, the machine-gun made short work of her.

“Nice shooting!” A voice crackled in Mapco’s ear. The game was fun indeed, the streets were full of depth. Mapco had never had so much fun in virtual realirty with any of his games, which had a lot of sensorship on blood and flashes of light. This game, however, splashed so much gore and light his visor filled with red. However, Mapco liked it this way. The suit was very smart technology which allowed Mapco movement around as much as he liked. It used the treadmill and a hook on the hanger-like thing to hold him in place as he jumped or ran. It was slightly primitive but less expensive and very fun for Mapco, who was actually exercising his limbs for the first time in streets he wouldn’t explored in his lifetime. He felt like staying in the game forever.

“Hey, dude, go on carnage, the cop chasing is really cool.” The stranger spoke again in the crackle. Mapco felt a fondness for this kind person who had let him try such an amazing game. He fell more into the game play, blowing holes into people and was walking to a cafe when he appeared in a familiar room. Mapco was surprised: His own TV room?

“Hey, what happened?’ After a pause the stranger answered.

“Oh, I just reset the settings for more people and deadlier cops. So the game, uh, automatically resets to your real-time position. This game has a GPS hook-up that lets you play in your home city it automatically details. It will be fun.”



Mapco couldn’t believe him. But indeed as he walked around in the room he saw everything was exactly the way it should be. He ignored the fact that his friend wasn’t there, he probably logged off and couldn’t be seen. Mapco stared around again at the realism of the place: the game really could place you in real-time locations! The graphics were also refreshed and sharper than Mapco could ever imagine.

Mapco eagerly anticipated seeing how real outside would be. When he did he was stunned at the intricacy of detail. The apartments that overlooked the street that was busy with hover-cars just like always. Mapco hoisted his machinegun and saw the computer-generated people stare at him. Mapco smiled and shot at the cars. There was screaming and they sped away. The pedestrians swore as well and took cover. This amused Mapco a lot and he laughed loudly. He didn’t hear the stranger anymore and figured that was better. He didn’t want the person to interrupt his enjoyment and probably ask for a turn.



Mapco walked up to a car with a woman and a baby. She was struggling to reverse, tears of fear on her eyes, to pull the car out of gear and Mapco did something he always wanted to do: He aimed the pistol at the baby and shot it. The woman roared in grief. She wailed and pleaded when he shot her too. Mapco smiled at how realistic the computer-generated people were, though he wasn’t a sadist he always had violent fantasies that until now he had never been able to accomplish, but now he had the chance. He laughed and blasted away with the slightly heavy machinegun, walking along the street and raking the sidewalk. Mapco was in bliss as he cut down an old man and an approaching policeman.

He walked into a car, waiting for the computer in the game to alert him of police, but it didn’t. Mapco smiled all the more at the realism in the game. He stepped on the accelerator of the abandoned car and surprisingly it was hard to manoeuvre. The game could never stop amazing him.



Mapco sped along the street, shooting with his machinegun into the faces of surprised computerized onlookers. Suddenly he heard police vehicles wailing their sirens behind him. Mapco smiled and did his best to skid to a halt. He turned into a busy highway and did just that; making sure he ran over two or three pedestrians. Mapco stepped out of the car, wondering at how everything felt exactly as it should. He could smell everything. And when Mapco realised he could smell he stopped in his tracks, startled. He hadn’t heard of-

“PUT YOUR HANDS UP. NOW YOU FREAKING GAMER!!” A policeman roared. Mapco stared at him and smiled slightly, raising his gun and-



-Feeling bullets punch into his chest. Mapco gave off a startled gasp and dropped onto his back. Feeling immense pain he had never felt. He tried to reset the game and step away from it, but no exit menu came up. In fact, Mapco finally noticed, throughout the game no Heads Up Display had been available. Mapco felt his lungs slowly fill with warm liquid and knew something was terribly wrong as his vision blurred.

He heard the voices of cops shouting,

“Psychopath! His a freakin-“

“You shouldn’t have shot him!” The other answered.

That’s funny; the game programmed the cops to argue. Mapco dazedly thought. He smelt blood and wondered what the ‘kind’ stranger had done for this to happen. Switched off the game and convinced him? Given him a real gun?

He smelt the blood again and panicked, and the realisation hit him that he was dying. He was really going to die! and he had really killed that baby… that woman!…everyone! Oh God!

Mapco rose from the tarmac jerkily, screaming in panic,

“I killed them for real! I killed them for real!” He wailed. He made the mistake of waving his all too real machine gun as he rose to shout his grieving realisation.

The cop was already on the edge and Mapco was silenced by a bullet between the eyes.