[ WP ] A man time travels into the future . However , there is nobody there to greet him in person , as everyone is busy in a virtual reality .

The world around Jack Hall crumbled as he turned the machine on and felt the engine shudder and scream. His heart pounded in his chest and sweat clung to his face. He grit his teeth so hard he felt white hot pain shoot through his body but remained focus on the disappearing world infront of him. The walls blurred and then faded away into darkness. The ceiling crumbled and disappeared and then the floor turned into an endless black pool of nothingness. All that was left was the sound of the machine's engine screaming and his heart thumping in his chest. 
 
 Seconds felt like hours, minutes felt like a lifetime and as Jack thought he was about to fade into oblivion he shut his eyes tight and....nothing. The machine stopped. The screaming faded and he felt heat caressing his sweat-covered cheek. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at the world before him. 
 
 Red, jagged rocks stretched on for miles and the rising sun greeted him with a warm, orange glow. The early morning light left menacing shadows on the ground and as he looked about he realized the world was quiet. Too quiet. 
 
 Roads snaked around the rocks and rusted cars littered the landscape like tombstones, like a relic of a lost world. Jack rose from the machine and stretched his limbs. 
 
 Where was everyone? He thought. Had he really travelled so far in the future that humanity had wiped itself out? The thought left a cold chill down his spine and he quickly kept his thoughts optmistic and positive. As he turned, he noticed a large sign that read `` 2,657,987 players online''. 
 
 Odd, he thought. The neon green glow from the letters flickered and the sign itself was rusted badly. He made a mental note of where he left the machine and walked past the sign toward the city that stretched beyond. Skyscrapers towered overhead and as Jack walked, squinting against the rising sun, he noticed many of the windows in the skyscraper were smashed or poorly maintained. The glass glistened like diamonds and Jack kept his vision focused on the eerie quietness that was greeting him. 
 
 More empty cars lined the streets and the buildings which stretched on and on gave no sign of life. Jack Hall was about to give up and head back to his machine when he noticed a buzzing noise coming from a nearby billboard. It must be sensor activated, he thought as he turned his attention to the sign. A thick, Southern American accent greeted him as a a barrage of lights, sounds and endless statistics flashed on the screen. 
 
 `` Welcome to the city of dreams! What we have here is the BEST damn game in the WORLD. We currently have more users than... hell, more users than ANY other game in the world! All y'all got ta do is log into this here computer'' 
 The sign showed a pretty standard laptop from the 24nd century at this point, 
 `` stick the headset on and plug it into the VR adapator and BANG you're in! Simple as that!'' 
 
 The billboard flickered ad again, the world was thrust into silence. Jack Hall stood for several seconds before thinking about this sign and the sign at the front entrance to the city. Over 2,600,000 users online? Users... online in the game? He walked toward the next building, this one an office building, with its door hanging on its hinges and stepped inside. 
 
 The smell of rotting flesh and mould invaded his nose and he clutched his mouth to stop himself from being sick. His eyes widened and he screamed in horror as he saw endless rows of humans attached to the laptops infront of them. Their flesh clung so tightly that their bones showed and their clothes hung in bits off of them. Several of them were dead, face down on shattered laptop screens. A voice behind Jack sent shivers down his spine. 
 
 `` Oh, I see we have an offline user... well, this really wo n't do will it?''
