Halloween Hacker

Happy Halloween, readers! Here's my entry for Literotica's 2019 Halloween contest. I had a lot of fun with this story, a paranormal science fiction tale that taps into my love of video games. I hope you read and enjoy, and I would especially appreciate a five-star vote in the contest. Thanks again!

*

It was a dark and stormy night...

Or, at least, that's what the radio forecast called for later. But at the moment, it was somewhat pleasant and cool as Chris Samson drove home from work. His mind was fuzzy and his body felt drained after seven days sequestered at the office. All he wanted was to be home in his comfy little apartment for a few days.

"Damned idiots at the agency," he grumbled aloud. "I told 'em from the start this project was more than they expected, but it's not like anybody ever listens to me around here!"

Most days, Chris worked a standard nine-to-five job for an unspecified government agency. He used his extensive computer skills to hack various programs and security protocols they had designed to find the flaws before building solutions for those flaws. But this particular project was one with more problems than the agency had expected. When combined with the sensitive nature of the program, Chris's bosses had decided that his entire team would have to be sequestered onsite until the security issues had been dealt with. Thus, he only now got to go home after seven days solid.

As he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex, Chris made sure to drive with care. It was Halloween, after all, and the kids were still out for their annual Trunk-or-Treat near the front office. But as he passed by, they looked to be closing down early for the evening, not that he could blame them. Dark storm clouds were rolling in, so Chris hightailed it back to his apartment before the weather turned. He soon arrived at his building near the rear of the complex and trotted up the stairs to his door just as it started to rain.

On his way up, Chris paused to glace at the door across from his. That apartment had remained empty for a couple of months now, and he wondered if anyone was ever going to rent it. Not that he was complaining; if nobody lived there, nobody could bug him with loud music or screaming kids. Then again, there was always the minute chance that a gorgeous single girl could move in and fall head-over-heels for him.

"What I wouldn't give for a steady relationship with an actual human being..."

Shaking his head a few times, Chris opened the door to his apartment and latched the deadbolt behind him. After dropping off his briefcase in his office, he headed to his bedroom to change into something more comfortable. Unloading his overnight bag, the smell of dirty clothes was immediately apparent; having to pack light for seven straight days at an undisclosed location for government work tended to do that. He deposited all his clothes in the hamper to be dealt with at a later time and stripped nude.

As he made his way to his closet to grab some gym shorts and a T-shirt, Chris paused for a moment to check himself out in his floor-length mirror. He was of average height, maybe 5'10", had short black hair, and stubble over his face and neck. This made it easier on him with the unpredictable nature of his work, requiring only a beard trimmer once a week. His white skin was rather pale and lacking tan, pairing stereotypically with the rest of his thirty-year-old "dad-bod." In spite of not having kids, or a wife or girlfriend, for that matter, the look seemed to fit him perfectly.

Once changed, Chris adjourned to the living room for his much-anticipated evening of gaming. Just before his seven-day stint had begun, Chris's new PlayStation VR had been delivered, rendering him unable to try out his new toy until now. He had several games that were compatible with the new technology, but the one he was most excited about was his favorite action-adventure game, Evie Granger: Survivor. The series starred the best treasure hunter and explorer in the history of video gaming and had been around since Chris's childhood. But while the early games had been successful based largely on the oversexualized portrayal of the heroine, the most recent entries had rebooted the series with a more natural-looking Evie Granger, which Chris appreciated. This allowed the designers to focus more on gameplay and story, the strongest points of the series.

Normally, the player would spend the entire game in the role of Evie, but the addition of the VR prompted the designers to release a bit of DLC, or downloadable content, in which the player took control of her partner, Jeremiah. As the game was set in Israel's Negev Desert, the visuals were nothing short of stunning, and Chris hoped they would be even more so in first-person virtual reality. After firing up the game, he placed the VR helmet on his head and began the chapter.

At first, Chris was dumbfounded at how beautiful it all was. The graphics were stunning, and seeing Evie Granger standing in front of him was nothing short of surreal. She seemed so lifelike that he had to remind himself not to try to reach out and touch her, much as he might enjoy that possibility. Even though she was just a digital rendering, Evie was the embodiment of Chris's dream woman; she was smart, beautiful, and had incredible athleticism, not to mention her jet-black hair, Chris's favorite. Her 5'6" body was lean and all muscle, but her soft face, brown eyes, and trademark chin-length bob gave her all the femininity a guy could ask for. True to form, she wore her red spaghetti strap tank top and khaki shorts, complete with her dual Colt Python revolvers holstered at her hips. With all this, plus her sultry Australian accent, it was a wonder Chris wasn't drooling all over his controller.

Chris, as Jeremiah, followed Evie through a desert canyon on a mission to rescue a group of hostages from the villainous Keystone organization. The game's story was set in a fictional version of the modern world in which the warring in the Middle East had reached a fever pitch. Israel was being attacked from all sides and on the verge of collapse. With the fighting as a cover, Evie and Jeremiah had snuck into Israel to track down a legendary treasure said to be worth more than even the Dead Sea Scrolls. But along the way, they crossed paths with Keystone, a paramilitary group bent on wiping Israel off the map. Worse, their leader was a man who genuinely believed this treasure to possess mystical power enough to accomplish his goals.

For Chris, the best part of the game was the large open world it took place in; he was looking forward to exploring that world in virtual reality once the mission was complete. But as soon as the hostages were rescued, the screen faded to black and a message popped up in his VR headset.

Thank you for purchasing the PlayStation VR.

"What the hell? That's it?!" Chris snorted. "I bought this expensive headset and the DLC, and all I get is this crappy little mission? I can't even explore the full game?"

In cases like this, the average gamer might have just packed up the PlayStation VR and attempted to return it or, at worst, kept it and ate the loss, but Chris was far from the average gamer. Besides being an accomplished hacker for the U.S. Government, Chris was also stubborn as a mule; he would never quietly accept the limitations Sony had placed on its system's VR capabilities. After removing the VR helmet, he exited to the main menu.

"Try to limit me, will ya?" Chris muttered with a grin.

Being the curious techie that he was, Chris had hacked into his PS4 many times in the past, so this presented no issues for him. It took him a few minutes more to hack into the game itself, but he soon found what he was looking for. In most video games, there existed a part of the program called the debug menu, designed to allow the game testers to access and modify all parts of the game for debugging purposes. Though hidden and inaccessible for the most part, the debug menu was a crucial tool for anyone attempting to hack a game's program. The menu itself was not user-friendly by any stretch of the imagination, being written only in code, but it was a relatively simple task for Chris to turn off the map limitation for the VR segment of the game.

"There you are. You were hiding from me, weren't you, ya bastard?" Chris chuckled as he input the necessary commands into the menu.

By the time Chris had finished his task, the rain outside had worsened into a tropical thunderstorm. Chris wasn't worried, though; he had powerful surge protection for all his electronics plus a backup generator in the event things got rough. He smiled in anticipation as he restarted the game and slipped on the VR helmet. After a moment, he had to turn up the volume to hear the game over the wind and rain pounding his apartment building. With everything set the way he wanted it, he took his controller in hand and selected the DLC mission he had played earlier.

"Hopefully I can explore more of the game this time."

While the mission was loading, the storm outside reached a crescendo, unleashing several terrifying cracks of thunder. This was followed by an eerie silence, which led to one last bolt of lightning that struck the roof of Chris's building. Electricity surged through the walls and into his PS4, eventually traveling into the VR helmet itself. He could feel the heat from the electrical surge and tried to remove the helmet, but it was too late. As his game was about to begin, the screen flashed a blinding white and Chris blacked out in a fuzzy haze.

*****

When Chris next opened his eyes, he saw exactly what he expected to see. A vast expanse of rocky desert stretched out in all directions, its beauty only matched by the clear blue skies above. Best of all was the gorgeous Evie Granger standing a few paces in front of him with her back turned.

"Damn, these graphics are amazing," Chris marveled. "Beautiful."

"You can say that again, Jer-"

Evie had started turning to face Chris, but stopped all of a sudden when she looked at him. Chris was beyond confused; nothing Evie was saying or doing was different from his first playthrough. He wondered if he had screwed something up during his hack.

"What the hell? Who the fuck are you?!" Evie growled.

"Huh, that's odd," Chris muttered.

In a flash, Evie lunged forward and kicked Chris square in the chest, pinning him on the ground under her boot. At the same time, she reached behind her back with such fluidity that Chris didn't even realize she had a Bowie knife until it was pressed against his throat. Chris struggled to breathe as a million different thoughts ran through his head.

What the hell is happening here?! This... this isn't a simulation! I can feel the heat of the sun, the rocks on the ground... not to mention the knife at my throat. Where the hell am I?

"Talk!" Evie demanded. "Where's Jeremiah? What have you done with him?!"

"Nothing! I swear!" Chris replied in desperation.

"You're lying," Evie sneered lowering her face closer his. "He was here just a moment before. What have you done with him? Tell me."

"I don't know where he is! I don't even know how I got here, Evie!"

"So, you know my name? I'll bet you're with Keystone."

Keystone? Wait, isn't Keystone the villainous organization in the game? Holy shit! Am I actually in the game?!

"Last chance! TALK!" Evie seethed, gripping her knife tightly.

"I'm not with Keystone!" Chris replied.

"Then how do you know my name?"

Chris gulped. "I know almost everything there is to know about Evie Granger because... where I come from, you're a fictional character in a video game."

The knife relaxed a centimeter as Evie's expression changed to one of bewilderment and confusion. "You'd better start making sense."

"Put the knife away and I'll tell you everything I know." When she hesitated, Chris continued, "C'mon, look at me. I'm not exactly a prime physical specimen. Tell ya what, if I misbehave, you can totally kick my ass. Deal?"

Evie gave a wry smile at this and replied, "Deal." After sheathing her knife, she helped Chris sit up. "So, what's your story? How the hell did you get here?"

"No idea. Name's Chris, by the way. Chris Samson."

"Evie Granger," she responded, shaking his hand. "Though it sounds like you already know that somehow."

"Yeah. Like I said, you're a fictional character where I come from."

She studied his face for several seconds. "I can tell you believe that, Chris, but I'm pretty sure I don't believe you. You take a hit to the head?"

"Nope. If you'll hear me out, I can prove I'm telling the truth."

"Ok, fair enough," Evie conceded.

Chris cleared his throat and began, "Your name is Evie Granger. You are a globe-trotting adventurer, treasure hunter, and archeologist."

"Not hard to know that, but go on."

"You're the only daughter of Wally Granger, not only a successful archeologist, but also the best explorer and guide in the Australian Outback. He was respected for his knowledge and skills by both Anglo-Celtic Australians and Aborigines alike."

Evie cocked an eyebrow at this. "Someone knows my old man, I see."

Chris nodded and continued, "He was the man who taught you everything you know about adventuring... at least, until his untimely death." Softening his voice, he added, "You were only sixteen at the time."

Evie's face turned dead serious and she drew her revolvers. "How do you fucking know about that?" she whispered with a fearful voice.

"Your father was climbing up the Olgas in the Outback ten years ago when an accident occurred," Chris said without flinching. "He fell to his death. And even though it was ruled an accident, you've always suspected that foul play was involved somehow."

"Shut up! I've never told anyone that! How could you possibly know that?!" Evie shouted, her hands now shaking.

"And to keep your father's memory alive, you have his picture in the grips of each of your Colt Python revolvers," Chris finished, remembering the opening cutscene from the game.

This revelation struck Evie like a bolt of lightning. She had only just put her father's picture in her gun grips last week, right before setting out on this adventure. Nobody knew about it, not even Jeremiah. How could this stranger know? There was only one explanation she could think of.

"You... you're telling the truth?" she asked, falling down to her knees. "I'm really just... a character? How can that be? I'm real in every way I can think of."

"I'm sorry, Evie," Chris sighed. "None of this makes any sense to me, either, but I can't deny the reality staring me in the face. Somehow, I've been sucked into a video game."

"How did you manage to do that?" she wondered.

Chris grimaced at remembering what he had been doing. "I, uh, was kind of hacking your game when my apartment was hit by lightning."

"Huh? That doesn't seem like something that would cause this to happen."

"Well, it also happened to be Halloween night," Chris admitted.

Evie started laughing at this and fell backwards on her ass. "You were hacking on Halloween?! You bloody idiot! I don't know a damn thing about hacking, but even I could've told you that wouldn't end well!"

"Come on! It was a freak thing, million-to-one shot!" Chris protested.

"Yeah, right," Evie replied, managing to sit up from her giggle-fit. "So, a hacker, eh? You one of those lonely losers that lives in his mum's basement?"

"I may be lonely, but I'm no loser. And I certainly don't live with my mom!" Chris fired back with a grin. "As it so happens, I use my skills in the employ of the United States Federal Government. I tell you anything more than that, and I'd have to kill you."

"You? Kill me? That's hilarious," Evie smirked. "So, if this is a video game, does that mean you're now in Jeremiah's place?"

"Maybe so. Not sure what happened to him, but it looks like I'm wearing the same outfit he does in the game," Chris replied, looking down at his dusty T-shirt and cargo pants. "But for some reason, I can't seem to remember where in the game we are or what's supposed to happen next."

"I wonder if that's part of being in Jeremiah's role?" Evie speculated. "It would make sense if he isn't supposed to know what happens next."

"Makes as much sense as anything else," Chris shrugged. "What were you two doing before I showed up?"

Evie's eyes lit up at his question and she pulled her backpack form her shoulders to get something out of it. "We were following a lead from this," she said.

Chris's eyes went wide as she pulled a statuette of a cherub from the bag. The angelic child stood with folded hands and bowed head as if he were praying, yet his wings extended and seemed to reach up to the sky at the same time. Chris could tell the carving was quite old, yet was well-preserved to the point that the carvings around the circular base were still visible.

"Incredible... what material is it made from?"

"Halite," said Evie.

"Salt rock? Are you serious?"

"Bloody oath."

"Huh. Odd material to use to make something like this." Inspecting it closer, he continued, "These marks at the bottom... looks like they're talking about a 'Treasure of the Dead Sea' or something."

"Wait, you can read that thing?!" Evie exclaimed.

"Yeah, I can," Chris replied, dumbfounded as she was. "It was as easy as English."

"Chris, Jeremiah could read it, too. He's fluent in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Latin. I'll bet that's why you can read it; it's written in Hebrew. You've taken his role in the game, meaning you've also gained his skills and abilities."

"Cool," Chris said with a grin. "Wait, now I recognize this! Your father dug it up on one of his last expeditions!"

"That's right," Evie replied, a sad smile on her lips. "Dad's last discovery."

"Oh, uh, s-sorry-"

"It's fine," she waved him off. "The way I see it, this was Dad's last gift to me. I just want to make the most of it."

"Well, a lost treasure of the Dead Sea would qualify in my mind," Chris agreed. "I know, or at least Jeremiah knows, several of the Dead Sea Scrolls detailed the locations of various treasure caches scattered across Israel."

"Yeah, but I doubt that's what we're looking for," said Evie. "Besides, I'd think the Romans would have eventually found and cleaned most of them out with as long as they occupied these lands."

"True. Wait, what's this?" Chris wondered, inspecting the statuette closer. "These two symbols, they look like... no. No, that can't be..."

"What are you talking about?"

"It looks like they say... Sodom and Gomorrah," Chris replied. "But that can't be right, can it?"

As Evie's brain went into overdrive, she said, "Actually, it might be. There would seem to be no logical connection between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the legendary cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but there is a hill in the southwest part of the Dead Sea area known as Mount Sodom."

"And if these carvings are leading us to an undiscovered treasure of the Dead Sea, Mount Sodom could be where it's located! But wouldn't it have already been found by tourists or previous archeologists?"

"Not likely," Evie shook her head. "For one, anything of that magnitude would have made the news by now. But more importantly, nobody is doing anything in the realm of archeological work in Israel right now, not with the country under attack the way it is. Hell, even tourism has ground to a halt."

"Which is how you and Jeremiah managed to sneak into this area: you used the wars as a cover!" Chris said.

"Exactly. Wait, how did you piece all that together?"

Chris scratched his head. "I'm not sure. It just appeared in my mind all of a sudden, like I had remembered something long forgotten."