River of Lights.

M carried his two bags for life through the lobby to the lift in the high rise. Somalian youths were sitting on the concrete smoking weed. He pressed the lift call button and the youths eyed him suspiciously. The whole place smelled like piss and Ganga. One of the three stoners flicked a knife while the other two giggled uncontrollably. Their teeth looked like dogends mushed up in the rain of spittle. Knifeman melodramatically took an orange from his pocket and started peeling it. "Enjoy the game Mon" he said to M as he entered the multi colored interior of the lift. "Thanks, is that orange real by the way?" The three all laughed at this as M made his getaway and the lift doors creaked shut. He lived alone on the 13th floor. The lift shot up it's tube in a split second and he walked out with his bags. All the supplies he needed for his expedition up river. He put the plastic card in the door and it opened with a click. He put the stuffed bags for life down and clapped his hands as the lights were activated along with some low key ambient music.The apartment had three rooms: A living room, bedroom and bathroom. The living room was dominated by his Sandoz Multiplier game console. Synth food containers and half full water jugs covered the floor. He tipped the contents of both bags close to the console. The plastic containers of food were all covered in laughing young people eating the foodstuffs to be found within. M shovelled up the spent empty food containers into the bags for life and left them near the front door. Sirens and people screaming could be heard coming up from the streets. Up on the top floors like fifty three you probably couldn't hear anything he thought. That must be bliss. He opened a carton of synth kebab and started fingering the brown strips of artificial lamb in to his mouth. He checked his phone service on the Sandoz Console; no incoming calls. He stripped off his clothes. The apartment was hot enough for lizards as it was the middle of Summer. M put on the headset and immediately found himself in a humid jungle environment beside a river. The boat was still there as we're the three men in jeans and sportswear that he had eliminated the last time he played. They had jumped out on him and he had ended up dying five minutes into the game. The game had been mind mapped from three months of extensive dream coma under the influence of Yellow hop synthetic toad venom. He had gone too far into the dream realm and lost half his once extensive body mass as a result. One dose of yellow hop bought from Sandoz Tech meant there were no guarantees that you would come back at all. This was the front line of psychonaughtical exploration in the guise of game play. The yellow hop had given M the precise location of his old teacher and guru: K. He was hiding in a jungle compound up river although in realty he had been dead for many years. A digital ghost held every characteristic of a living person's consciousness, if it was uploaded at the precise time of death. This was all explained in the Sandoz book of the dead. M walked to the tethered boat on the ramshackle fresh water quay. Bright red birds screeched over head. A snake could be seen it's blue tail just disappearing into the long grass nearby. The smells of this place were of decay and pungent odours assaulted his nose and mouth. He felt like vomiting as he acclimatized.

A small brown monkey wearing green overalls sat in the wheelhouse of the boat. He peeled a succulent synth banana for the monkey and gave him the coordinates for K's compound. That's thirty clicks up river said the monkey as M shook his head in agreement. Just get me there and you're going to be rolling in bananas said M and the monkey giggled 

The river teemed with life around the clock. The immersive mind mapping of the game had installed creatures in the jungle from his deep rooted fears and phobias. The shiny green foliage of the plants and trees contained nourishment for the journey also there were poisonous plants arbitrarily placed along the route. The instinctual feelings from the game towards such plants were engineered by the yellow hop digging into any attractions and aversions a player might harbour. M picked of a leaf as the boat passed under a low hanging tree, he put it up to his nose, sniffed it and threw it over board. The little monkey gave him a thumbs up. A close call 

He opened up the olive green metal box on the boat and took an inventory of the contents: A machete maybe two foot long with a crude, hand fashioned blade, some rope, a Zippo lighter, a cordless DeWalt angle grinder, a heavy brass knuckle, some prayer beads and a plastic banana necklace. That's mine! said the monkey so he went and put it round his neck. Then the world was consumed in black darkness. It night now! said the monkey as the light was dialled back to resemble twilight with insects dancing along the brown river water.

M heard a commotion on the riverbank as tribal faces covered in white paint appeared through gaps in the trees. They started howling as one as wooden arrows rained down on the boats inhabitants like hail.

The monkey let out a little yelp as an arrow pierced his neck and he slid to the floor. M inspected his small lifeless body and took the wheel of the boat. He had evasive instincts to survive, mapped onto the game and he zig zagged the small craft until it got free of the attackers.

The night had now proceeded towards a black mysterious void. The boat just kind of meandered now until morning, occasionally clipping the river bank and needing to be corrected.

As morning came M tied the boat to a tree with the rope and dived into the water. The brown muddy water tasted like coffee made out of dirt. He grabbed a passing water snake and bit into its scaly hide. He sucked the cold blood of the animal until he felt his strength hit an optimum level. He dropped.the snakes carcass into the water and climbed back into the boat.

He guessed that he was maybe two hours from K's compound more or less. The early morning light was starting to vibrate with insect life. The inside of the boat was lined with arrows that had red parrot feathers attached at the rear. The heads seemed to be made from rusty nails fastened in place with leather strips like shoe laces.

He removed the machete from the box. It was heavy with a cloth grip. He swung the weapon in front of him. He would soon be meeting up with K his teacher. The molecules of the Universe had reconfigured to provide K with a living breathing human like form, so that M could ask him the questions that had been retrieved from his dream mapped coma. The power cable of the river plugged directly into K's neck. The question of how to leave this destroyed planet would soon be answered.