Rood Der: 20: World Above

By Douglas Christian Larsen

Rood Der: 20: World Above. The World Above reaches down to witness the Anomaly of the Red Door, and the Odd Ballz Club sets out on a whim, to explore their silly spreadsheet knock-off sim, but what begins as a lark becomes an up-close-and-personal experience with horror, and an introduction to a path that might lead these girls from the future into a realm of phantasmagorical terror.

How deep are we, immersed in this world we call reality? How many turtles down do we go, in this discombobulated, mixed-metaphor, rabbit-hole world?

Their world might be based on Ayn Rand, her writings, philosophies, and her U.S. Presidency, but how dense are their numbers compressed, and for how long will their simulation even run? This little group has been provided an exit, but would anyone be rude enough to dare and leave their very own reality?

Take the Rude Dare, and Cross over, where data is data, through the Red Door. From the author of Vestigial Surreality comes the new serial novel, Rood Der.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387032136

Book preview

Rood Der: 20: World Above

Rood Der: 20

World Above

The Sunday SciFi-Fantasy Serial

by Douglas Christian Larsen

ISBN: 978-1-387-03213-6

© Douglas Christian Larsen 2017

The classroom bustled with girls, with several groups bunched in various areas of the long expanse, their small old-fashioned desks nosed together. Nobody was in RL here, of course (nobody did RL university these days), and not even the room was an actual, physical location, but merely a cloud provision of the university, a hangout space for bored students with downtime, taking a break from the mandatory classes that actually provided credits toward their education. This was a Vestigial Surreality study hall, but most of the students used it as a gossip and meetup spot, running facile, silly simulations using the free VS beta software, with several clubs in attendance. Girls in the Chess Club were grouped close to the group in the Go Club, and on the other side of the room the Glamor Fashion Club squeezed in almost uncomfortably close to the snooty Victorian Fashion Club. Avatars were suitably attired, the fashion club girls wearing highly dysfunctional high couture, the Victorians in stately and impracticable period dress, the Chess Club girls in three-piece suits and heavy black geek glasses, with the Go Club girls in Asian costumes, or Russian Cossack attire, depending upon their faction.

Just terminate it already, the whole thing is boring, Lorraine said, slumped in her desk. She glowered at the others, daring them to argue.

We’re seeing it through, it’s almost done, said Iona, firmly.

Alycia snorted, but didn’t speak; however, she drank some VR coffee, making sure that she slurped loudly.

I agree with Iona, let’s just wait till it’s done, and then we can finally run your zombie apocalypse, said Vivienne, but making sure that she didn’t catch Lorraine’s eye. I don’t know why people still want to run zombie apocalypses.

Lorraine glowered at Vivienne, and her already rosy cheeks flushed scarlet.

I agree, piped in Shonna, ensuring that she offered Lorraine a big, California girl smile. I mean about sticking with it, our sim. Eye knows best.

Me too, there’s some interesting stuff, agreed Yvette.

Interesting stuff, spat Lorraine. There’s absolutely nothing interesting about it. Nothing significant has happened. The world sure didn’t improve. It just got stupid. Again, men started taking over, ruining everything. I don’t know why the hell we went with Ayn Rand. I still think we should have run the Hillary Clinton sim.

Nobody was ever gonna let Clinton be president, not even in a simulation, said Alycia, surprising them all. She generally didn’t offer her opinion, but even now, although she had spoken, she seemed detached, staring out one of the VR windows (it was snowing outside, while the next window over, it was a view of the beach, sunny and bright, and the next window down an underwater view of a brightly lit reef). None of these things actually existed any longer, so they were exotic, fantasy views of the world.

Scooted far away from the regulation and official clubs, was the Odd Ballz Club, a collection of the usual university misfits, snobs, loners, or new girls. This group had coalesced because each of the girls enjoyed running simulations that were highly unapproved, and usually improbable, and in some cases dangerous, while in their spare time they ran such singular simulations completely off the grid (and there were...rumors, about each of them). They often gathered here to compare their results, while maintaining a simulation in which they all participated, calling it, half-jokingly, Rand World.

Shonna, a very rich girl, who didn’t mind when the others referred to her as an airhead (she sported a certified IQ badge of 110, and seemed intensely proud of it, displaying the VR medal high on her left shoulder), usually was the spokesperson, as she, while lacking both great GPA and the enhanced IQs of the others, certainly had the most pronounced gift for gab. Her avatar was medium-sized and