The sun was hot as we wound through the dusty back alleys. We moved quietly past crumbling concrete walls vandalised with faded Arabic script. The trash piled up in corners between dark doorways and open windows. I caught a glimpse of a burka in the gloom of one of the houses, but it quickly disappeared. This was creepy, easy to forget it was just a sim. My throat was scorched from the heat. I wonder if I can cast some water right inside my mouth? I tried it. It worked. Felt weird, but so good. I kept my M4 Carbine raised, ready to fire, scanning the windows and rooftops looking for rifle barrels.

  We'd spent the last few weeks on game-casting scenarios, testing this technology to its (our?) limits on what could be done with the imagination. A lot of it had actually ended up just being us game-casters showing the rest of the team how to think like a game-caster. They'd improved a lot. Today, though, we were starting something new. Retired Platoon Commander Michael Everett was leading our team. He held up aclosed fist and we all stopped.

  "Listen up. You're approaching a live simulation of a high-risk detention site controlled by hostiles. Get comfortable with the idea of spending a lot of time here, because your assignment will be to learn how to resist, survive, and ultimately escape this site under the kind of pressure most civilians can't even begin to imagine. This is your crash-course in mental fortitude – which, as we know, is one of the three key skills we need in this program. You will not enjoy

  this training. Starting now, I'm going to teach you how to operate under stress, and get the hell out of this facility when the opportunity comes."

  Everett was... strange. I'd gotten to know him a bit in recent weeks, but hadn't quite worked him out. Calculating and intelligent as hell, but kind of disengaged. He watched you when you talked to him, you know, a little too intense. Always staring just a few seconds too long, or pausing unnaturally before barking out a laugh at something he found amusing. It was like everyone was an equation that he was trying to work out.

  "We are going in to the exact facility where I was held captive for ten months, before managing to escape. Every corridor, every sound, every pressure point, just as I lived it. Your mission is to escape. You won't be handed any answers. You'll have to think, adapt, and move like your life depends on it. You'll face cold, darkness, hunger, confusion, and... torture. I'm not here to rescue you, but I will coach you through in order to show you how to rescue yourselves. Every time you fail, the task will reset."

  "Sooo... it's basically Metal Gear Solid: PTSD Edition. Gotcha."

  "As you will have gathered," Winsford broke in, "... this is a high-stress scenario. It will not be easy" he said. "No one is forcing you to do this... however, if you want to remain a part of this project, this is a non-negotiable. This is going to take work and dedication. You must get through this scenario. If you want out, now is the time."

  The three of us game-casters looked at each other, a little apprehensive. Simon, the other guy in our party, didn't flinch and kept his eyes focused on Winsford and Everett. He generally kept pretty quiet.

  "Okay..." Ross started, "...let's say I am willing to volunteer to be tortured. What's to stop us thought-casting our way out? Every game is easy when you can turn on god-mode. Why not just source some fire power and blast the place? Or something more subtle even?"

  "You could do that... if you want to remain a weak-ass civilian with no mental fortitude" Everett said.

  Nobody answered.

  "You're going to have to play by the rules on this one" said Winsford. "The whole point is to increase our focus, and if we cheat our way out we're not going to accomplish that. You can thought-cast on this task if it helps you, mental maps or the like, but nothing that will enable you to directly interfere with your environ – and keep it first person too, I want you to find the answers piece by piece. Treat this like a real-world escape."

  "Time to go. Let's move." We all followed Everett, moving quietly through narrow back alleys, and watching every corner. He stopped, his back pressed against the wall, the alley opening up some metres away onto a main street.

  "We're here. I want you to really experience this. It's rubber bullets only, so it will sting but no kill condition. Your hits will count as though they were real. If they strike the red marker on your chests, your rifle disappears, and you're out –captured. Last man standing wins."

  "Wait," Ross began, "What red markers?" Everett motioned downwards with his eyes. "Oh." He'd sourced some pretty heavy duty looking laser tag panels, which were now strapped on to our chests.

  "No flying. M4s and pistols only – no tanks, no explosives, and no air force backup" ("Dang" Ross muttered). "Everything else goes. Your objective is to avoid capture as long as possible, and to eliminate as many enemy hostiles as possible. Most hits and longest survival time wins the exercise. I'll survey from the rooftop. It begins as soon as you step out on to the main street." He blipped out of sight.

  I quickly zoom-visioned around the corner to survey the street, looked like Chen and Ross were doing the same. I still wasn't used to detaching from my avatar in what felt like real time, but third person omniscient was definitely handy. I scanned the main street at drone level, looking for angles and holding positions. The two-story building on the left had a line of sight over half the block—likely sniper perch. Alley between the grocery store and the collapsed garage: flank route or ambush funnel. There was a burned-out car mid-street, not much good for cover, but handy at a pinch. The low wall near the corner shop might offer some cover, but was exposed to high ground. Again, not ideal. Then I noticed the mosque ruins near the far end of the street. Possibly a spawn zone – but perfect if we could take it and hold it.

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  Gunfire snapped me back to first person, looked like Simon and Winsford had crossed the threshold while the three of us were scanning.

  "Are you guys thinking what I'm thing?" Ross and Chen both nodded. "That mosque is gonna be the best spot." We all knew our best shot was to play together, and we'd all seen the mosque ruins while scanning. Time to move.We emerged onto the street to find Winsford yelling like a maniac and firing in every direction from behind the burnt out car. Based on how many hostiles he was taking out, he'd done a bit of gaming himself previously. Simon was nowhere in sight. We joined Winsford behind the car, crouching for cover.

  I sourced a transparent tac-map of the mosque ruins. "We take the high ground with angles on the tight entry points, control the flow, no reason we can't hole out and last for a long time."

  "Gotcha," Ross said. "Left alley's our route—less exposure, blind spot on their sniper angle."

  "Perfect" I replied.

  "I'll take lead," Chen said, already sliding out low and fast.

  "I'm in" Winsford said, as he ducked down to join us. Ross and I stood up behind the car to give Chen covering fire as she took off toward the far side of the street. There weren't heaps of hostiles yet, but they were steadily trickling in. We nailed five of them as the rest dove for cover. Chenmade it to the alley, and covered each of us as we made our way across.

  Looking for our next move, Ross nailed two more hostiles hiding out in a store on the far side of the street. "Two more at 3 o'clock. Let's move now before this spawn rate gets out of control. Something tells me that Everett is going to keep testing us until we break, and it's not going to be getting any easier."

  BRRT-BRRT-BRRT!!!

  Ross fired off three quick bursts, it was already getting a bit frantic. Chen and I ran low and hard along more store fronts, staying beneath the sniper position. We were exposed, but Ross and Winsford were getting the job done with some solid cover fire.Chen and I returned the favour, and it wasn't long before we all made the outer wall of the mosque ruins. We readied ourselves to storm the archway entrance.

  This was the risky bit. Almost forgot – time for another third-person stake out through the archway and found... nothing. It was quiet – no hostiles. "Feels like a killbox in disguise" Ross muttered. "That's because it is," I said. "But let's make it our killbox. Back to back, one wall each. Remember: they need a direct hit on our tags, and a few rubber bullets won't hurt us too much. Let's go."

  "Wait" Chen said. "Is there any reason why we can't just teleport straight up to the high ground? Everett didn't say anything about that. We can just take out the guys that spawn there as they come."

  We all looked at each other. Winsford grinned. "It kicks-ass to be a god."

  "Ok. Get your positions on a third-person scope out, and let's do this."

  I entered third-person omniscient again, and droned my way through the mosque. The courtyard dominated the immediate space before us, surrounded by a kind of walled parapet, with roofless pillars scattered here and there. Along with the half-buried prayer stones, there was a dry fountain near the east wall. Several rooms lined the inner perimeter of the walls on either side, once secluded but now exposed, roofless, and dark with soot. The central dome, which was half-collapsed inward, capped the prayer hall at the back of the structure. On either side of it were two broken minarets, one toppled into the courtyard and the other cracked but still upright. That was where we wanted to be. Three of us in the dome, one in the minaret, and we would easily be able to mow down the swarmers as they came through the entryway.

  "Ross, you go sniper in the minaret. I think the rest of us should hold the central dome."

  "Let's do this."

  BAAMMMFFF.

  We transported ourselves into position, expecting hostiles to start spawning immediately. Everett didn't disappoint. The swarmers immediately materialised along the parapet.

  CRACK.

  I pistol whipped one in the back of the head as he spawned in front of me, and he crumpled instantly to the ground.

  BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM.

  Four headshots and the other ones near me dropped like stones. Thank you four straight years of Halo training at university! The others made quick work of their swarmers too.

  We took up our positions, and the first wave came pouring through the main archway. It was like fishing in a barrel, we mowed them down before they could get more than two steps in on us.

  "Yeah boi!!" Ross exulted from up in the minaret. I couldn't help grinning.

  Probably at this point Everett was pretty riled up at us for teleporting, I doubt he considered it to be in the spirit of the game. Must be why he dropped in a small army of parachuting hostiles with automatic weapons.

  BRRRT BRRRT BRRRT BRRRT!!!!

  The stonework around us erupted and exploded as we dove for cover. "Dude! That ain't right" someone shouted. I managed to get inside the parapet with only a few hits on my body (which hurt, by the way). The hostiles parachuting hit the ground, and with no more cover fire from above, they started flooding the place. It was every man for himself now. I was stuck on a stair well, a doorway opening into the courtyard below me, and the way back up to the parapet above. Probably Ross was still in the minaret. I made the split second decision to join him again.

  BAAMMMFFF.

  "What the...?" Ross looked back for a second, he was still mowing down as many of them as he could.

  "Everett might not have liked the transportation trick, but we may as well keep going with a good thing. What's the situation?"

  BAMMMFFF.

  Chen joined us.

  "It's not good, they're flooding the parapet, and the courtyard is full of them."

  "Chen, take that stairwell, Ross and I will do what we can to thin them out."

  I joined Ross at the window, and started taking out hostiles. Winsford was being marched out by a group of six, apparently captured. He looked up at us and gave a lazy salute with a grin. "See you in a minute" he shouted over the gunfire.

  It was getting wild. Ten of them spawned on the parapet, ten more in the courtyard. Everett was having a field day watching us go down.

  "Screw this. Let's go."

  I launched out of the window, sailing down. CRACK. I spun in mid-air, pistol whipping one of them from behind as he stood on the parapet. It was satisfying to watch him crumple before he even knew I was there. I hit the ground and rolled, already firing as I rose.

  BRRRT BRRRT BRRT.

  Three of them dropped. And then they opened fire.

  BAM.BAM.BAM.BAM.

  But I was already running, pistol in one hand and I dropped two more of them.

  BLAM.

  My weapons disappeared, my vest flashed red. Dang. I was out. Everett was a lot better at this than the usual AI soldier flunkies were.

  Game over.