This choice: What was in that display case? • Go Back... “I’m glad you asked!” Bernie sniggered, dumping out the contents of the sacks onto the floor. “Reclaiming the property of stupid businessmen never felt so good!”
The bags were emptied and its contents spread out on the living room floor of the house. Even though it was pitch black inside, a candlelight cast a flickering glow over the room. Most of the items were standard things one would expect from robbing a research facility. Scattered on the floor were office supplies, tin cases of parts, wires, medical supplies, blueprints and schematics of machines, a few thumb drives, bricks of shiny metals, laboratory equipment, and one bag even contained a thick wad of cash!
“Nice haul, boys.” Amie smiled, sifting through the stolen goods. “I’ll find a buyer for some of these things and – who took these bags of fucking potato chips?” She picked up a dozen small bags of chips and set them aside. Alex chuckled, his deep voice booming, “What? There was a vending machine. I was hungry.” “Who steals potato chips at a laboratory?” Amie cracked a smile, shaking her head in amused disbelief.
“Hey, what’s that?” Bernie asked, pointing to a large metal box.
“That was the thing in the display case.” Alex answered, grabbing it and bringing it closer. “It looked important, so I took it.”
The metal box had no labels, inscriptions, tags, or anything that could describe the thing it held inside. It was a luminescent white helmet. The helmet seemed to glow by itself in the dark room, giving off an effervescent shine the moment Alex took it out of the metallic box. It had a glass visor extending over the front, a few plugins in the back, metal plating surrounding the exterior, and looked like something out of a cheesy 1980s futuristic film. Included in the box were plastic cables, spare plates, electric wiring, and a small paperback manual.
“Fuck that!” Bernie exclaimed, tossing the manual aside and holding the helmet in his outstretched arms. “Oh my god, is this the VirtuSim 3000?”
“That thing the news was talking about?” Alex mumbled, his neanderthallic eyes lighting up.
“It’s still in the prototype stage,” Bernie explained to your group. “Not scheduled for a commercial release for another 5 years at least. The Virtual Reality Simulator, or VirtuSim, is a technological breakthrough. It’s like how the computer was forty years ago. It will change everything!” He proclaimed dramatically. You all hushed him again, and Alex cuffed him in the back of the head again.
He added that the helmet would allow the wearer to experience reality from a different perspective. Although the exact working of the device was lost on a bunch of high school dropout thieves, Amie skimmed through the manual and understood it best.
"Wow," She said, adjusting her flashlight to flip through the pages of the manual.
"Wow what?" Bernie asked impatiently. "How much shit is this worth? I'm guessing thousands, we'll be rich!" You rolled your eyes, but nevertheless hoped that the stolen items would more than compensate the group for taking that risky heist.
"Does it work?" Alex cleared his throat.
"Don't know yet." Amie replied, setting down the manual and picking up the helmet. Rotating it in her hands, she added, "The manual only instructs on how to plug it in, establish a connection, and moderate its power usage. There's nothing here indicating how to use the helmet once you're wearing it. That's why the VirtuSim 3000 is still in the experimental stage. Still just a prototype."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bernie said. "Somebody try it out!"
Alex cuffed Bernie on the head again. You sighed, "We're in a shithole of a house with no electricity. We can't leave with the helmet without risking somebody seeing us. And since the heist just literally happened, we need to lie low for a while. Technology like this isn't missed for long."
"I agree with Jake." Amie said. "Let's stash the helmet under the floorboards of this house, then pick it up a week later and move it to someone's place. Not my own, just in case Olivia decides to interfere and fuck things up." She explained, while the boys silently agreed.
"Fine..." Bernie relented. "One week. We meet back here. Then the fun starts!"
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