[h2]Preparations
[/h2]
Things were going slow. It was the first day, and only Chuck had made his way into the simulation. He had arrived far before them, and had almost all of his face covered by the helmet. If one was to glance at one of the monitors displaying what was happening within the simulation, they would find all but one of the three hundred blank. That monitor displayed only Chuck's character, one in a small white brick room, with a few chairs and no windows. One of the walls was made entirely out of glass. If Chuck squinted through the glass wall, he would be able to see four tables, each with five lumps placed on the top; these were the backpacks.
The other players were all asking questions, save the two or three that were completely unable to talk. All of them had their helmets on and had already been surveyed and asked how they wanted their characters to differ from themselves. The blood pressure checks had been completed. All they had to do was have the red buttons under each of their names pressed, and they would be in the simulation. Eleanor Murphy tapped her foot impatiently, and then proceeded to answer a few simple questions. "Is there any other last minute questions before we begin?" she asked. "If not, we can all go ahead and hook ourselves up to the machine and select our backpacks. I'm sure poor Chuck is getting awfully bored."