Ed sat in his room surrounded by computers and started writing in his notepad. The work was going well and he had progressed no end.

If any one knew what he was creating, he would almost certainly be killed and therefore no-one else other than him knew about it.

"Dinners ready!" shouted Ed's mum as the smell of baked beans wafted from the kitchen into the shabby bedroom. The bedroom itself was very large and had somewhere around 10 computers in it, wit alsorted equipment including a VR set, 2 modems, 4 phones, 1 CD player and a broken down radio controlled car which he had never had the time to fix.

He left the room in a hurry because he couldn't wait to get back to the computer and continue his research into brain waves.

Dinner hadn't taken long to eat and so he came back to his PC and took two pieces of wire and taped them to his head. He switched on the computer and then the CD player. It started playing his favourite song, Basket Case by Green Day, as he set to work again.

As the sun was setting he finally finished typing the program. He saved it as "Filename: Brian" after his model of the human brain which father had given him the day before he disappeared. He remembered the day well.

It was a dull day and out of the window was a flock of seagulls flying past almost like helicopters by the way they flew round the trees of the garden. His dad had crept behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"I've got something for you" he said quietly. Ed turned slowly to see a model of the human brain.

"I call it Brian" said Ed's father.

"Is it for me?!" asked Ed with excitement.

"Yes, it is. It's to remember me by when i'm gone."

"Where are you going dad?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you but I won't be gone for any more than a week."

Those words had stuck in his mind ever since and sometimes he would have horrific nightmares about it.

Oh well, he thought, back to the job at hand but before he type any thing on his computer he fell fast asleep.

In his dreams he saw strange images floating into his mind. He saw a massive brain with eyes, evil perching eyes. The brain slowly changed into Ed's father.

"Brian! Brian! Brian!" his father screamed whilst blood poured from his eyes like tears "Brian! Brian! Brian!" his father continued.

Ed awoke with a start. What did it all mean? Why did he keep having this dream? He did not know, but he did truly believe he would find the reason, one day, but not today. Meanwhile, he thought, I must get into bed.

It was morning and Ed awoke for a second time and pinched himself thinking that it could be a dream. It wasn't. He went back to his PC and started to set it up. This time he connected up the VR set first and then switched on the computer.

On the screen were the words "PASSWORD?"

Ed typed "YREEN DAG" and pressed enter.

Then the computer screen went from white to green and on the computer was printed:

PLEASE TYPE YOUR ALLOCATED FILENAME:

Ed typed "BRIAN" and pressed enter. This time the screen went back to the original white colour but this time it had a border listing everything possible that he could do.

He clicked his mouse on "LOAD" and then "PLANET". He put on his VR helmet and suit he had made and waited for something to happen.

Once the helmet was on he saw Brian the brain hovering in front of him. It was an exact copy of the one he kept beside his bed. The graphics were amazingly realistic and it looked so real it was as if he wasn't actually wearing the helmet. He looked round and saw another if his creations, the actual planet. It was a lush green planet with trees all around and just behind him he could her music.

He turned round to see an exact copy of the rock group Green Day playing "Basket Case".

This reminded him test his senses in the VR enviroment. He could obviously see and hear and so now he looked around for anything that might smell very strongly. He saw a patch of flowers made especially for this purpose and ran up to them and tried to smell one. The scent of the flower was also realistic as was the feel of it. Then he took a flower and put it in his mouth. He could taste it and, though it was a vile taste, he was very happy. There were two other tests, first was to test collisions. He walked straight into a tree, bumped into it and fell over. This led to the answer of his second question as he was in pain, but luckily it wasn't too severe. He looked at his arm and found it bruised. He turned to Brian the brain, who had been following him everywhere. He pressed a button on Brians head and this allowed him to take his helmet off.

Once out of the Virtual Reality enviroment, he looked at his arm. It was bruised, and that wasn't supposed to happen.

The only way Ed could actually reprogram a saved file was to go into the VR world that he had created with alot of things made to stop people actually reprogramming files. Ed knew that this was a bad idea but he had spent too long creating this program to give up after one stupid mistake.

He went into the file directory and loaded "Object: Edit Software".

The icon appeared on the screen. It was a reel of film with a pair of scissors cutting into it. He double clicked on it.

Words started to farm on the screen they said "YOU'LL BE LUCKY SON!" in bold red writing.

"Access VR Mainframe" typed Ed. The screen went black and on it appeared a picture of a robot which said:

BEWARE! YOU MAY ONLY ENTER BY USING A VR UNIT!

IF YOU DO NOT PASS THE TASKS SET YOU WILL BE ELECTRICULTED.

ONCE YOU ENTER YOU MAY ONLY EXIT ONCE YOU HAVE PASSED THE TASKS.

He put the VR headset and suit on.

The first thing he saw was around a million lights flying over his head as a sound like running water flooded his ears. He looked for Brian but it wasn't there. He remembered that he never actually put Brian into this file as that would make it too easy for anyone to fiddle with file.

From the darkness formed a corridor filled with boxes. Each of the boxes had lables. The first had a riddle on it:

My first is in danger,

But not in fear,

My second is in roar,

But not in shout,

My third is in decay,

But not in rot,

My fourth is in green,

But not in day,

My fifth is in morgue,

But not in death,

My last is in alien,

But not in space,

What am I?

Ed considered this for a second. He remembered typing it in before. The answer was dragon and he couldn't remember what the dragon was for, so he looked at the next box.

It was another riddle but the answer helped him even less. The answer was music.

I've got to really think about this, thought Ed, dragon could mean the Dragon 32 computer but then where does music come in. There must be a link.

Tapes, thought Ed, tapes are what they have in common. The Dragon 32 plays computer tapes and music can be on tapes.

He looked at the other boxes and found a riddle that meant tapes. After opening the box he found a key to open the door down the corridor marked "File/Edit".

The dragon box suddenly burst into flames and Ed charged to door which had changed to "Fire/Exit".

He tripped on a box and felt himself falling down a deep, deep hole.

THUD!

He must have broken some boxes on the way down. He was in immense pain, but this nothing as bad at the terror he was yet to face. As fire burned all around him he realised how bad it was going to get. Terror struck as his body started to burn and there was a smell of dead flesh. He was going to live out his worst nightmares and even if he did survive it didn't mean he would surive the next zone.

"Brian! Brian! Brian!"

Ed turned to face his nightmares to see the bloody eyed man who was supposed to be his father.

"Nooooo!!!!" screamed Ed, who had started crying though he couldn't decide whether it was pain or the terror that was making him cry.

"Brian! Brian! Brian!" Ed's father continued.

The demonic Brian of Ed's nightmares appeared. Ed tried desperatly with his mind to change the demonic Brian into the virtual copy he had created on his computer at home. It changed completly after around 5 seconds and that was a long time when your living in a nightmare. He launched his badly burned hand towards Brians control panel. He started feverishing typing "Edit File/Brian". Everything went black and for a moment Ed thought he was dead but then everything changed to green and a menu appeared. Ed worked out out everything in his head and did it straight away.

When the last words were typed he felt a sudden rush of relief and thought he was going to pass out. He had not only made the Brian file safer, he had also turned the lock on the VR helmet off.

He took his helmet off and was horrified to find his body badly burned.

As the world faded into darkness the last thing he saw was Brian the brain, the one thing that had always given him hope was now the last thing he would see.