As Real as it Gets

The Painful Truth (Chapter 12, Part 2)

The warm embrace of your boyfriend always made you feel safe, but you did wonder what the voice in your head meant when he said, 'pull him out.' Pull who out of what? It made no sense. The whole thing with the visions made you more and more anxious every time it happened, but you knew that as long as you and Rick were together, you would be safe. 

"I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to you." He  kissed the top of your head, "I love you, Babe."

"I love you too, Honey." You smiled.

"Pull him out I said!" The voice thundered once again.

-

There was a white light, too bright for Rick so he struggled to open his eyes. After a moment he realized he was wearing an orange jumpsuit and was being held in place by metal arms. "What the-" His eyes adjusted a bit so he could see the giant metal room filled with computers and wires, "-fuck?"

A giant insect with red eyes, dressed in a dark gray uniform stepped closer to him, "Wakey, wakey, Sanchez."

"What? How did I get here?" Rick looked around the room, tired as if he had woken up from a coma, "Where is Y/N?! What did you do to her?!"

"You never left, Buddy." The General spoke, "And Y/N, she ain't real."

Rick looked at him puzzled, "What? What do you mean she's not real? I was with her a second ago..."

The insect laughed, "She's not real because she's a program in that simulation you were just in."

"P- program?" Rick whispered to himself as he looked at the gromflomite.

"Yup. Are you getting it now?"

"But, I escaped from here... I destroyed both this shit-hole and the Citadel."

The gromflomite laughed once more, "No. No, you really didn't. We only made you think that you did."

"And Y/N..."

"Ah yes, the New Program. Specially designed to get close to you and gain your trust, only to later acquire the Dimension traveling formula attempt 37 or DTF-37. But seeing as that was unsuccessful we'll be moving onto DTF-38." The gromflomite watched in amusement as everything clicked in Rick's head, "Oh poor Rick Sanchez just lost the love of his life, how sad. You never wondered why she was so perfect? Why she always loved you so unconditionally? Now you know she was just a whole bunch of ones and zeros! You do realize that no normal, real person could ever love you like that? Nobody can stand to even look at you, let alone love you!"

Rick held back all the emotions that were bottling up inside him and just gave the insect a stern look, "Welp, your plan was all for nothing and you're back to square one. Can't wait to see what you come up with next, Chief."

"I can't wait either." The General hissed, "Take him back to his cell."

Two gromflomites released Rick from the metal arms and took him through several long hallways and threw him into a small prison cell. Everything came back to him. All the memories from prison came like a slap in the face. The room, the bed, the metal walls were just like he remembered them, dull and monotonous. He was lying on the bed, countless thoughts rushed through his head. One thought circled in his mind more than any other, you.

"How the fuck did I let this shit happen?" He thought to himself, "I'm a genius, this can't be happening to me... I had it all, now it's all gone. Y/N... was a fucking program this entire time? Fucking bitch."

-

Hours later, the doors of his cell opened and an automated message on the speakers directed all the prisoners to the canteen. Rick stood up and after leaving his cell, he started making his way out of the immense hall, as did many other prisoners.

A tall, muscular purple-gray alien with three yellow eyes started walking faster and caught up to Rick, with a pink, snake like alien by his side, "Hey Sanchez, where were you yesterday? You went missing for a whole day! Don't worry though, you didn't miss much."

Rick rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Great."

"You look like shit... more than usual." The snake added.

The purple alien grabbed Rick in a chokehold, but in a joking manner, "Why the long face? We can play throw the human across the yard today."

Rick wasn't having any of it and managed to break loose from his grasp, "That game is rigged and very unfair might I add. So spare me your futile company or any attempt of 'making me feel better' because you know, throwing me across the yard and breaking several of my bones didn't do the trick last time, surprisingly enough. So here's what you can do: Fuck off." He turned around and continued walking towards the canteen.

He couldn't eat so he just sat at a random table and stared into nothing. Moments later, various alien prisoners sat next to him. "Why aren't you eating, Rick? You know you need your daily nutrients." A chubby green alien spoke while spilling his food everywhere.

"Shove it." Rick barked.

"Oh, someone's a little tense..." An alien lady with long hair and curvy body stepped behind him and started touching his arms and shoulders, "I can fix that... if you meet me in the showers..." she whispered into his ear.

Rick cringed and removed her arms from his body, "No, get away from me for fuck's sake."

She was taken aback, "I tough you liked our little sessions?"

He shook his head, "That was before..."

"Before what?" She questioned.

"Never mind." Rick abruptly stood up, walked to the corner of the room and sat on the cold floor. He was thinking about how he could escape that place, but every room had at least ten guards, heavily armed, that would stop any and all of his attempts. He feared that he might actually live out the rest of his life there if he didn't think of anything.

An automated message spoke once again and all the prisoners went to the 'yard', it was a big open space with a tall ceiling and difficult obstacle courses. Rick quickly started making his way through the course to out run the aliens, at least three times bigger than him, who wanted to play 'throw the human' with him.

He was a good way ahead of them, but stopped when he came in front of a part were lasers appeared every few seconds and had to be avoided otherwise they leave nasty wounds.

"THROW THE HUMAN!" An alien yelled as he bolted towards Rick and grabbed him before he could run away. Rick was very forcefully thrown across the yard and collided with a metal wall, dislocating his shoulder.

The guards that saw everything laughed, "You passed the course in record time, Sanchez!"

Rick stood up with a groan, "You guys fucking suck."

The purple-gray alien with yellow eyes ran over to him, "Aw man, I told them you didn't like that game, but they never listen." He spoke after helping Rick put his shoulder back into place.

"Yeah, thanks Bob." Rick snarled.

"My- my name isn't Bob." The alien spoke with sadness in his voice, "It's Bardan..."

"I don't give a fuck." Rick left the yard started making his way back to his cell. 

The snake alien sighed, "That guy is a real piece of Gorgon shit. Don't waste your time on him, Bard."

"Something's really bothering him, Sylis." Bardan noticed.

Sylis chuckled, "Yeah, maybe life in prison is bothering him."

"I feel like it's something else."

-

Rick entered his cold cell and the doors closed behind him. He sighed as he laid alone in bed in complete darkness.

Note: *gasp* Does the book cover make sense now?! Also, the first episode of season 4 was so goooodd kgbakcuedlgh. I fucking love how Beth makes Rick ask for permission before taking Morty on adventures ohh too good.