Young Writers Society

"No, no," Winthrop said, "I'm quite sure I was elected with 54% of the popular vote and 290 electoral votes in 2020 and was sworn in on January 20, 2021--"

"...lady, it's 2020. Godfrey Smith is president," Emma interrupted. "Y'know, former Speaker of the House? Bratty dude from Memphis? And soon enough my grandfather will be president."

"Smith? I don't know a Smith. To my knowledge, there's not been a Smith as Speaker of the House in American history!"

"Yeah, he became Speaker in 2012!" Emma persisted. "And he became president after someone nuked dozens of US cities. It's a mess-- the Senate's tearing itself apart because Smith isn't doing his job right. Nashville, New York, DC, Baltimore... so many are gone now."

"Wrong," Winthrop replied, face turning red and eyes twitching with fury. "Lies, all lies-- I won, fair and square. We weren't nuked, although we've had a secession crisis."

After wandering around for a few minutes longer than his pride wanted to admit, Jam eventually seemed to hear some human voices. Once he got close enough to distinguish the sounds, all he could understand was that people were discussing alternate histories?

What kind of world has he stepped into here? First, a clear apocalypse-ridden city and now alternative universes might be tossed in? Good jolly. Jam rubbed at his forehead while staring at the bickering people. He didn’t want to know anything about anyone.

The more specific he knew about other worlds meant nothing good for the rest of them. Maybe as he was thinking harder about it, he had read too many conspiracy stories, but some of them actually came true, apparently, so this deserves that kind of overreaction.

But wait, did they know they were both wrong?

“You know you’re both wrong, right? Or, at least behind on science fiction books. Alternate universes are so last year. Am I right?” Jam said, blinking at them.

This was becoming a massive headache.

"It's 2019," Levi said. He glanced over at the newcomer to their group; he envied him thinking this was just talk about tropes. Levi wished it was just a book discussion. He had just wanted to go home after GSA and experiment through Minecraft. Was that too much to wish for?

He was slipping so much right now, but Levi was just too irritated by this whole thing to keep up the goody-two-shoes, straight A student act he usually had. "The last major nuking was World War 2, and secession only happened - and failed - back in the Civil War."

He turned back to the other guy.

"I wish we were just talking about science fiction tropes," he said, "but those two are convinced that they're from post-apocalyptic-"

Levi froze mid-sentence.

Then he glanced back towards the buildings surrounding their growing group, studying how human they looked underneath the overgrown plants. It wasn't exactly the same. He couldn't find any identifiable handwriting that reminded him of anything he had seen on Earth. And it wasn't from there, either. But they were clearly standing in some kind of post-apocalyptic place right now, so...

Levi groaned.

"Okay," he relented. "You might not be crazy. I've heard theories of other realities existing before, and standing here in the ruins of wherever we are is making me think they might have been onto something."

Skyler simply shrugged at that. Her lack of a strong reaction to that was from some lingering disbelief about the situation. She could believe that she was somewhere else at least, but throwing in alternate universes and apocalypses was a step too far. These kinds of things didn’t happen to people like her. She was far from average, but she wasn’t… well, worthy of any special treatment from the universe. As far she knew, this type of event didn’t happen to anyone.

“In any case,” she told the two who were arguing, “stop bickering. Getting angry over it helps no one and you both seem just as strongly convinced of your origin as the other.” She didn’t sound angry, although a firm tone had entered her smooth voice.

Her mind was at work as Sky glanced at the buildings for just a second again. There was little doubt that this place was abandoned except for them. She wondered how long it had taken the wildlife to reclaim the land and spread over the city. Was it ten years, or fifty, or two centuries?

Maybe everyone just had a lot of houseplants and left for a long city-wide vacation? No, she was just making up excuses now for something that was becoming harder to deny every second. She frowned, thinking about the letter in her backpack. That was something she’d done before, and it would have been better for her to have just accepted the evidence sooner.

“Well, why did something bring us lot here?” Sky asked, her accent resurfacing. “What are we supposed to do about it? I mean, I know one of us is claiming to be a President, but I don’t know who the rest of you are. I don’t see why anyone would want me for this, so I wonder why you’re all here too.”

Gideon listened quietly through all this chatter of America. He had never been, though he had several pieces in his shop that had been imported from their. His sister had been a couple times, as well. She had reported it to be a noisy, rude place but at the same time quite friendly. Gideon cared only for the industriousness of the cities there; he had heard that Chicago in particular was a sight to see.
The fact that one of these people--a woman, no less! Gideon didn't remember America being that forward-thinking--claimed to be the President was intriguing. It could be true for all he knew, but the young woman she was with appeared to be completely adamant that it wasn't.
Genesis, still above the group but out of sight, whirred back to Gideon, settling on his shoulder. Its winding spring was nearly undone, so he pocketed the beetle once more. It seemed it was time to make his entrance.

"Well, my grandfather was a senator, congressman, Secretary of War, and is running for president... So, maybe old lady and I could be hostages-- at least in theory... which... who are you people?" Emma started stroking her chin as she started to go deeper into thought.

"The idea that any of that could possibly be true is absolutely preposterous," Winthrop declared. "Who are you people, why have you brought me here, and who do I need to whack on the head--" she motioned with her free hand to her walking stick-- "so I can get back to running the country before one of the idiots in Texas or Tennessee starts an all-out war?"

It was at that moment that Gideon chose to come out from behind the building. "I expect none of us have anything to do with what brought us here," he said smoothly. "My apologies for such a sudden appearance--one cannot be too cautious." Gideon approached the group at an even pace, giving a disarming smile that quirked up to one side. "I have been listening to what you all have been saying and it sounds as if we have all been left in the dark. Unless, of course, there is a master deceiver among us." That seemed rather unlikely.

Levi was resisting the very strong urge to groan again.

He could walk away.

He should have walked away. Wasn't it obvious none of them had answers about what was going on right now? He had teleported up to the top of the nearby building and seen them all looking lost and confused. If one of them was the person who brought them here, they had to be a good actor.

...On second thought, Levi could see the hypocrisy.

Not everyone could teleport to the tops of buildings, but he assumed that they could at least read some of the body language. Either way, he was the only confirmed actor here. He couldn't go pointing fingers if he didn't want someone to start pointing them at him.

He took his glasses off and started furiously wiping them with the corner of his shirt again.

Stupid secrets and stupid gods. The easiest solution would have been to show them all his magic, but he couldn't run the risk of the gods discovering he was still alive.

He slipped his glasses back on.

"He's right," he said, glancing at the last member of their group. "It seems like we all don't know why we're here - or where here is. You don't have to believe what I said, but I think the only way we're going to find our way out of here is by figuring out what happened to this place."

He gave his glasses a little push up.

"It's a classic video game plot," he finished. It wasn't something he had seen an exact replica of, but lost protagonists always had to figure out the story of where they were to figure out their connection of it. And even though video games weren't always real, Levi knew he couldn't afford to think this wasn't the case now.

"A... video game?" Emma said slowly, pausing for a moment as she tried to process that. "The last video game in America that I remember was Pokemon Go back in July almost four and a half years ago..."

"You've not missed anything if that's true," Winthrop admitted. "More jaywalking, more vehicular accidents, the works. Finally had to create special parks for those Pokemon Go-ers to play their game so they weren't a danger to the general populace."

"That sounds rather Jacksonian," Emma pointed out, "so I'm going to guess you're an authoritarian Democrat like Smith."

"I prefer democratic socialist," the older woman snuffed, "and I actually voted against it, alongside two Republicans, a Libertarian, and four Democrats. Not a very fun Senate re-election campaign that year."

"...good for you. Anyways..." Emma turned to Levi and looked him over. "How do we know that, assuming you are correct, you aren't merely part of the game instructing us how to play?"

Jam wished he could protest in some way, as he would rather link their current situation to something from a novel rather than a video game, but the guy had a point.

Maybe he should get specific names to call these people by instead of just describing them as what he viewed them as a first impression basis. Also, maybe someone should step in to make sure they weren't all going to view each other as suspicious individuals.

"Er," he said, stepping closer to where most of the group stood. "I figure if we're supposed to work together, we should start with our names. I'm Jam. Yes, it's a nickname, yes that is unnecessary information."

"I hope we can help each other out," Jam finished with a smile.

He honestly was a bit interested in what this world was going to be like, and what kind of weird tricks this would have versus what he had read. Nothing like getting hands-on experience!

"Gideon Josiah Deering, proprietor of the Clockwork Raven." Gideon dipped into a half bow. "Inverstadt, Germany, formerly a resident of Glasgow, Scotland." Jam, what an odd name. No stranger than the rest of this madness, though. Gideon was eager to learn how everybody fit into this world.

"Dorothy Winthrop," the older woman said proudly. "US Senator, President, resident of Maine, and last sane politician this side of the Atlantic."

"Emma Nightshade," the teen replied rather simply. "Anti-homework enthusiast, hardcore feminist, and Hufflepuff."

Before the man who had introduced himself as Gideon had emerged from his hiding place, Skyler had mostly been staring at the self-claimed President. Did she seriously just threaten to beat us with a cane? she had wondered, both amused and perplexed. At least it makes sense that even in alternate universes, America remains chaotic as ever.

She had remained silent as the discussion went on. Politics, video games, a possible deception. Sky wasn't really following it all, as she was mostly thinking about how she was definitely getting evicted if she couldn't get back soon. Returning, if it was possible, would most likely be her first priority. Unless there was something actually important to do here... Well, as long as it was worth her time, it couldn't be too bad. She'd signed up for adventure the moment she'd left Kyla and Ace, and it would remain an adventure until she got back to them. Somehow.

Now everyone was introducing themselves. Sky waited as each name was said, giving everyone a good look as if she was trying to see right through them to find whatever they were hiding. She didn't know if she could trust them yet. In fact, any of their names could be fake.

But what did she have to lose?

Sky was a teenager who was running out of money and luck. She didn't have any purpose beyond a day-to-day routine that she had to follow in order to survive. None of them knew anything relevant about her yet, so she'd keep it that way. For now, at least.

Even so, the words came out slowly as she spoke. "I'm Skyler." She wasn't saying her last name, even though it was almost impossible someone would recognize it from a newspaper headline. Almost impossible, but she wouldn't take that chance. She seemed to hesitate a bit longer as she softly added, "But you can call me Sky."

He didn't get a chance to slip in a word of protest against Emma's accusation before Jam started up a round of introductions, so Levi resigned himself to waiting. He was irritated, but he had some tact. He knew how to handle himself in tense, theoretically life-threatening situations.

He was just a little bit rusty right now.

"My name is Levi," he offered. "Levi Quinn. President of my school's GSA and Minecraft expert."

He looked over at Emma.

She was paranoid, but Levi really couldn't judge. It was a good point. Trust wasn't something that came easy to him, but he'd have to convince them all that he was worthy of theirs if he wanted to get through this. They were all here for a reason. He didn't know what the reason was, but he was sure they were supposed to stick together if they had all ended up in the same area.

He crossed his arms.

"I never said it was a video game," he said. "I said it's like a video game. There's a difference. If it was a video game, we'd probably get a tutorial NPC showing us how it works. If it's a world like a video game, we can just try using ones we know to figure out what's going on here."

He paused for a moment.

"Besides," he said, "if I was a NPC trying to show you the ropes, I'd do a better job acting like one. NPCs aren't supposed to be aware that they're in video games. You could be right that I have something to do with this no matter if we're in a video game or not, but I wouldn't be as open as I have been if we were."

He pushed up his glasses again.

"Hmm..." Emma's eyes narrowed as she slipped back into her old habit of overthinking things without speaking.

When surviving a nuked America, one could never be too suspicious-- or too careful. They still didn't know who dropped the bombs; similarly, they didn't know if one of them was an NPC. Indeed, Levi could-- at least in theory-- be some sort of complex NPC that served more as a McGuffin than as a legitimate person that was apart of the potential game. NPC Levi could maybe be telling them things they all needed to know to play the game without realizing he himself was apart of the game.

Was it possible? Yes. Plausible? Maybe. As such, Emma semi-suspiciously muttered, "Sure... yeah, I guess."