Claude had almost nodded his agreement before he spread both hands in front of him and verbally expressed his desires. He’d been close to making a serious mistake in this place, virtual reality or not from his perspective.

  The tent was odd he finally noticed. There was no movement, he recognised the material as a tent but the fabric never shifted a centimetre. Entirely static and the cloth was familiar but wrong to his senses. A very small part of him was trying to tell him something deep inside but it was far too quiet for him to hear.

  Having a conversation with a backpack wasn’t the strangest part of his morning. The fact that he hadn’t actually experienced any horror was worse, there was something controlling his emotions. He simply didn’t care about the present situation, not enough to be concerned.

  The memory was there of being on his operational boat yes, of encountering something, he knew his life, his experiences but none of it was causing him to react. Something had been done to him, changed inside his mind. His body, he was ever so hungry. He wanted to eat, it wasn’t a case of being polite. His body simply wanted him to eat food as though he’d missed a full meal hours ago.

  The slime? The covering on me or the insect I threw up on the beach? Did that change me?

  ‘I’m agreeing to the….cream tea? Not the immediate dissipation. Yes. Uh..I’ll just take a seat then’ said Claude as he sat down at the plain foldable camping table on one of the two pop-up chairs.

  He forced himself to observe the rest of the tent he was inside. When he had been younger his family had often gone camping when his cousin Johan had come along. They had gotten on reasonably well due to their closeness in age but Johan was always a little distant.

  Claude hoped he was having better luck with his office job prospects than he was. The man had a bad temper and mild anger issues but he was talented in his own field of spreadsheets and financial instruments.

  The colour of the tent shifted from grey to a deep reddish hue and Claude wasn’t able to keep seeing the darker stains which has been clearly visible earlier. The white light above had dimmed a little creating a few shadows of the two humans in the room and the floating backpack.

  Interested in the colour shift, Claude reached out a hand to touch the walls of the tent. The voice of Karmyn stopped him as the figure crossed both arms and lower their gaze to the floor.

  ‘I...I don’t like people touching the tent. Please don’t. We uh….we’ve been here for a long time. Finding...candidates. Please don’t. You’ll learn why later, just uh...sit down please. The changes to your genetic code include a minor alteration to your morality codes and….stop staring at me!’ said Kamryn as the figure let go of Claude’s hand as though he had an infectious disease.

  The look inside her purple iris eyes and the sallow skin on her face gave Claude the impression that their thinness wasn’t one of choice. Still, he’d been isolated for so long on the boat that a little bit of human and non-human company was fine. Talking to a rough artificial intelligence and sending reports back home was far different from direct contact.

  As for physical contact he could relate. Part of the reason he had accepted the mid-term contract from the Acqua Foundation to work on an operational boat across waters and non-commercially owned zones by himself was to deal with a bad breakup with an old girlfriend.

  She was far more career driven than him and they had argued about it long enough that one day she had simply made it clear to him that he needed to change or their relationship was over.

  Claude considered that she simply wanted to emulate the success of others but when he had realised that emotionally and physically he no longer cared he had broken it off immediately. The next working week he had submitted himself forward for the project at the Acqua Foundation and training had begun, he had little else to consider back home.

  Besides, he wasn’t clear if the figure in front of him was a man or a woman and they were also obviously suffering some kind of trauma. He wouldn’t mind making a friend though but not someone who wasn’t willing to even talk properly.

  He simply sat down on the pop-up stool and crossed his arms lightly trying to avoid openly staring at the figure who had picked up her own chair and moved it to the other side of the portable

  ‘This is nice. I guess. Sally? Can I call you Sally? Do you need time to make the cream tea? I prefer coffee myself, got used to the flavour of Strikker back on Belphus but I’m happy to try tea.’ said Claude as he sat down and tried to make conversation to break the awkward silence.

  The pink backpack drifted across to the table as the top of the bag opened and three cups of warm steaming liquid appeared on the table as did three plates and a larger stacked one with multiple scones. Several smaller tubs appeared with a red jelly inside and cream.

  The smell of the tea and the scones was enticing to Claude. He knew that he was close to salivating as his stomach which he had thrown up the contents of, including his breakfast and anything he had drank from being in the ocean, ached with extreme hunger pains.

  He wanted to reach out and devour one of the scones but considered that politeness was one of his only actions presently. Also, he didn’t want to do anything further to aggravate the figure of Kamyrn as they sat there drawn in with arms folded and head facing the side.

  The smell wafted through the tent as the red colour of the walls glowed for a second but Claude was so focused on the appetising set of cream tea in front of him that he failed to take notice.

  The pink floating backpack floated over next to him, around his head height so he could hold a conversation with the bag as it spoke to him.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  [Claude. You may call me Sally for the moment. You are our guest, you have no need to wait for either of us to eat. I am a piece of luggage, while I could eat it I don’t need to. And Kamryn...well, they’re not hungry at this moment. Also, you threw up so much on the beach, all that nutrition and goodness gone from your body. You need a full stomach, and this will help you with your changes that you’re going to...experience. Please eat all of it, I made these earlier but they’re at fresh as the exact second they were produced. Eat.]

  An overwhelming desire to stuff the scones in his stomach and close to devour them whole was trying to overtake Claude’s body but he suppressed the desire with his will. He’d lived on mostly stored rations on the boat with the odd fresh fish or seafood he’d caught during his downtime when working hours were finished. Even the coffee he had was rationed. He was no stranger in the last few months to limiting himself from binging

  When the pink backpack with the unicorn logo called Sally bobbed in the air next to him and then drifted across next to the figure of Kamryn, Claude nearly lost his composure but forced himself to swallow his rising saliva.

  At this moment, this second, all he could see was the food in front of him, the smell of the tea was so fragrant, he saw the rich redness of it. The scones were perfect, adding cream and red jam to them would make them taste divine.

  All his thoughts of why he had ended in this place, his discomfort at the treatment, the words they had talked to him. None of them mattered. His vision narrowed as his stomach squeezed with further hunger pains.

  Sitting inside the medium tent with the white light illuminating him, he took one of the plates as a knife appeared next to it, sliced a scone in half then added a generous helping of cream and jam before taking a bite.

  This….this tastes amazing. Aftertaste is...something but when I bite it. Amazing.

  As soon as he took the first bite, Claude nearly lost control of his composure as he understood how truly starving his body was. He lacked energy, nutrition and there was a taste he wanted so badly. He needed to satisfy that desire, that taste. He threw the entire scone as he extended his jaw until it hurt and stuffed it inside, short, fast bites before he swallowed it and reached for another scone.

  Kamyrn was watching him eat with a distant look in her eyes, she would glance at him before turning her gaze away and folding her arms. The red cloth walls of the tent glowed once more as Claude continued to devour the scones until he had finished all of them before he threw the empty plate to the floor of the tent. Next, he licked the contents of the tubs of jam and cream before he grabbed for one of the cups of steaming hot liquid.

  He didn’t care if it was hot or not, even if it was boiling, the smell of it had drawn him in and his body was now entirely acting on base instinct. He was hungry so he had eaten and then he was thirsty so he needed to drink.

  Pouring the contents of the cup into his mouth, Claude swallowed it as fast as he could, only pausing to take a breath for a short second before he emptied it once more into his mouth. The liquid inside the cup continued to flow, long after he should have emptied it in one smooth motion as it ran down his throat and filled his stomach.

  Claude sat there motionless except for the cup as his mouth, his held tilted as he poured the liquid into his stomach and finally he stopped when his deep hunger desire had been sated.

  His body was warm, his feet and hands twitched as Claude experienced a fullness which he had never experienced before. A sense of being physically sated. The taste had been delicious but this time he was calm enough to place the empty cup back into the plain portable camping table.

  His physical strength was stronger than before as a rush of energy came through him and he slammed the cup down. Then the heat inside him began to dissipate as Claude calmed down as he looked up to see the figure of Kamryn with a hand over their mouth and dry heaving.

  The large stacked plate of scones had been scattered across the table, the tubs of cream and jam lay at his feet but the other two cups of steaming liquid remained untouched and unmoved.

  [Good. So happy to see a satisfied candidate, I made them according to a specific recipe dictated to me by the Founder of the Tourism Board. He had to do a fair amount of research. The scones, the jam, the cream and the tea were all carefully selected. You don’t seem hungry or thirsty any more. Kamryn, do you want to ask our guest how he’s feeling? We’ll both need to say goodbye soon. I think one of the surviving villages would be a good starting point. Ah...your turn to talk. You need to give him advice and equipment after all. I’m simply here in a...supervisory role to check your full compliance and performance.] said the pink backpack with the unicorn logo.

  Claude was certain that he hadn’t fell this full or sated for a long time, his stomach was close to being completely full but he didn’t experience any form of physical discomfort. An ache came into his legs and arms as the heat returned, slower this time as it moved from his hands and feet into his lower and then upper body.

  Kamryn had stood up and was standing directly next to him, when he turned his attention towards the table and the other two chairs, even the plates and mess on the floor, all of it was gone.

  The tent material around them had shifted back into the original grey colour. The white light above shone brighter this time. Claude turned his attention to the figure as they turned to him.

  ‘...The Hunger Time is complete. For what it’s worth I’m sorry. Just...just stare at me with those eyes. I need you to read something. It may explain some of your questions but...we’re going to try out best to find you a good starting location. Even the equipment will be good quality. Enough to keep you alive for long enough to find your way around the island. Sally, you can leave us. I’m going to shift location. No, I don’t need your guidance. I’m a Tourism Operative, I just lost myself a little back there. And no, he’s not going back on the boat. I fully understand after the last plane crashed here. No rebirth events and memory wipe. Claude. Only this time, just once, hold my hand and close your eyes. Don’t open them. Please.’ said Kamryn.

  All Claude was aware of was that they had given him a decent amount of food, taken him from something bad and then changed him in some way. Even worse was that he didn’t really care about it. Not overly. His body was entirely sated and warm and satisfied.

  ‘I think I’d like to go back on my boat please and wake up. From this, from all this. Truth be told, this is one of the worst dreams I’ve had in a long time. I signed a contract with this organisation and if the work doesn’t get done, well the boss of it is a real stickler for finishing projects. And if this isn’t a dream then...just let me go. Open the tent, send me back to the beach, throw me in the ocean. Whatever. I’d like to leave this place.’ said Claude.

  Kamryn leaned in closer to him and blew air into his eyes and he shut them instinctively as a palm and fingers blocked his vision and another hand grabbed the back of his head once more. This time he wasn’t conscious for long as his mind fell into absolute darkness.

  The last words he heard were from the pink backpack. The voice was clearer, firmer and tinged with an undertone of anger.

  [….myoglobin is an essential ingredient in those dishes and drink Claude. Good luck escaping. I offered you an easy escape. Kamryn, you have fifteen minutes with him before he needs to be released. I’ll tidy up the mess here and outside. The predators would have smelled him from miles away. Those half-giants can go rot. Disgusting things.]

  ‘Welcome to the . Please confirm your destination to your chosen Seed world or Variant of the planet Belphus.

  All Visitors please register with your nearest available Tour Guide. The Tourism Board is Above All.’

  [This has been a sponsored message from . Choose yours today!]

  Nicholas A. Ostheimer [Original Founder of the Tourism Board and Creator of Fictional Realities.]