It's strange to get claustrophobic in an endless black void, but the longer I waited, the more I could feel the VR pod holding me in a tight cocoon. It had to be my imagination since the neuro-link blocked everything about the real world. No sights, scents, or sounds could reach me. Any bodily discomforts were for the homeostasis regulators to deal with. So, I shouldn't be sensing the molded plastic lid one inch from my face and chest. Yet ... my elvish skin was itching from the lack of space to move and air to breathe. And still, the message flashed before me: "Please wait for all party members to join."

I was going to kill Josh.

I couldn't be sure it was him holding things up. But I knew it was him. It had to be. He was still probably trying to pick a class, the indecisive bastard.

It wasn't like I'd been quick about it. Spending a week in The World of Feronia was nothing to take lightly. Not when every day equaled an entire month inside the game. I was going to be in the skin I picked for a long time, so I knew I'd better be happy with it.

I'd gone with an elf ranger, lean and muscular. A pale blue sheen covered my exposed flesh, and my hair hung down my back in a cobalt-blue worrier's braid. I'd fine-tuned every facial setting, not to mention the settings for my *ahem* body parts (Fenoria was extremely realistic). I wore light-brown leather armor, and my starting weapon was a bow.

And now I waited in nothingness for my three friends to join me. I knew Mack would be ready. Mary Mackenzie was better than any of us when it came to knowing what she wanted.  She hated the name Mary, and her family called her Meg, but we all called her Mack. 

Tanner would also be done all ready. He might over-analysed everything to death, but that only meant he'd end up making the smartest choices of any of us. Poor, shy Tanner. I really hoped living in a virtual world for a while would get him out of his shell. I'd caught glimpses of the carefree him when we were LARPing, but it never took him long to see through his own masquerade and become self-conscious again. 

That left Josh. He'd always been scatter-brained and reckless. He'd probably go back and forth on his selections, but still end up as some dim-witted, muscle-bound barbarian. That was the way he was. It always seemed that we were getting him out of trouble or helping him pass his classes. But he could be a hell of a lot of fun. And if I was honest, some of the messes he got us into, managed to get me out of my comfort zone (not an easy thing) and ended up being the best times of my life.

We'd all been friends since college but hadn't seen much of one another since. Graduation had scattered us, sending us to different parts of the country, where careers kept us busy. Although, none of us had manged to settle down or make any friends as close as the four of us had been. (At least, I hadn't. I guess I shouldn't speak for the others. Maybe they had thriving social lives? Nah!)

This total-immersion game was the perfect vacation for us. We only needed to travel to our local mall and climb into a pod at the Game Center. And we'd get to hang out for six-months going on adventures and visiting wondrous fantasy realms. I was burning to get started, except ... "Please wait for all party members to join."

Finally a new message came up, the words filling the space in front of me just above my head while a voice spoke with the confident tone reminiscent of James Earl Jones.

Like there was much else I could do.

"I wonder where we'll end up?" Mack's voice filled the void I floated in.

Tanner said, "From what I read online there are eight Tier 1 zones. Spawning is supposed to be evenly distributed, but a higher percentage of people report starting in The Borderlands. Its totally old-school D&D with a ruined castle and a bunch a caverns to explore."

"I don't care where we start," Josh said. "I just can't wait until we get to our first town. I heard there are brothels and everything."

"After all this time, you're still a fucking pig," Mack said.

"Um, guys," I said. "That must happen all the time. Right?"

Mack whispered a slow drawn out: "Fuuuuuck."

Tanner said, "No need to worry. The technology is foolproof. It has to be for the government regulators to allow them to hook peoples brains directly into it. It probably is just a problem with the rendering of our zone. It'll be sorted out in a minute.

The system announcement had grown whiny and mechanical, like a 1960s sci-fi movie computer, and static frizzed at the edges of the consonants. 

"Fuuuuck."

"Yeah, fuck is right," said Josh.

"Hey, nobody panic," Tanner said, clearly starting to panic. His voice had gotten all tight and high-pitched, the way it did when he forgot to breathe. "It's reinitialize and everything will be fine.

It trailed off in a shrill buzzing.

"Fuuuuck."

"I'm sure the technicians at the Game Centers will know what to do. They'll abort our sessions and get us out of the pods," Tanner said in what sounded like a single long word.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Mack said. "The kid who strapped me in was all of sixteen and higher than Seth Rogan."

"What happens if it really crashes? I mean, if server goes completely dead?" I asked.

"The chances of that are infinitesimal," Tanner said.

"But what happens?" I asked again.

The void filled with silence as he tried to figure out how to tell us. Or perhaps, he just didn't want it said aloud. Either way his hesitation didn't bode well.

I new massage came up with the burst of trumpet fanfare, and it was spoken in a decisively female voice.

"Um," Mack said. "By 'things to play with' she means the game. Not us. Right?"

I was about to say, "I hope so." But suddenly my feet hit grassy ground, and the rush of gravity sent my naked body rolling onto the sunlit meadow.