Game On Level 1.1

Game On Level 1.1

Level 1: Orium

The ‘gang’ crowed around me and an unusual sense of nervousness filled my stomach. I really had nothing to truly be nervous about. Video games were my element, the only skill I truly had.

The mouse was slick from the moisture of my palm. I tried to convince myself that it was the heat.

Just before I started the game I remember turning around and seeing black and white fur. After that nothing.

Floating in a white abyss is where I ended up with half opened eyes. The whiteness was harsh on my sight as the defining silence almost drove me to lunacy. Time and time again I tried calling out. I wanted to scream upwards to the heavens but my mouth wouldn’t move. I wasn’t in control of my own body. I just floated. I thought I may have been dead. However that was ruled out once I heard a familiar voice mock me.

Well, we’re screwed.

I was enraged at that moment. I was trapped in this bleak whiteness and the only thing keeping me company was a figment of my imagination. Again, I tried scream. This time my voice worked. As soon as my mouth opened there was a sudden jolt in my body. I then realized I was plummeting hell wards.

My eyes slowly blinked open. The heat was beating down on me merciless. A bright shining sun sat proudly above my head in a cloudless sky. I didn’t remember heading outside. When realization hit me I tried exceedingly hard to scrambled to my feet. I failed and hit the ground with a thud. Sand greeted my fall happily. I sat on my knees and spit out the dry sand from my mouth. With the back of my hand I rubbed my tongue harshly. My eyes flashed open and I stopped mid-lick when I noticed my surroundings.

From as far as I could see there was nothing but sand. I bit my lip trying to stop myself from panicking. It was futile as I started to run in any direction. Little Alison was talking in my ear but I ignored whatever she was saying. I just kept running. My eyes were bubbling from tears which quickly dried in the desert.

I don’t know how long my legs moved for nor did I really care. Eventually after pure exhaustion - and slight dehydration – took over I fell back down on my knees. Little Alison was still fruitlessly trying to get me to hear her but I wouldn’t. My breathing became labored and I went to pull at my clothes. Instead of the comforting hoody I previously had worn a piece of hard metal greeted my fingers. I looked down and studied my new attire. My torso was covered in detailed and integrate amour both leather and metal. Darkly tanned leather slacks comfortably fit my legs as did the sturdy leather boots which curved perfectly with my calves.

It was impossible. The whole situation I had been thrusted into was completely impossible, yet there I was. In a desert, with what seemed to be battle armor. At first I didn’t recognize the desert.

My thoughts drifted back, all we were doing was playing a game then-

Ding, ding, ding we have a winner! Little Alison angrily yelled.

“Im-impossible,” I croaked, through dry lips.

Then what other explanation do you have? She questioned, putting her hand on my shoulder as a form of comfort. Ally, look over there. She pointed just ahead of where I had collapsed.

It was a dune. The very dune from the game. I tried to think back to what was up on that dune. Suddenly the chest came to my mind. With a new found will I sprang back to life and raced towards the dune. Twice I tripped on hidden rocks buried in the sand. Each time I picked myself up as Little Alison mocked me. Eventually I reached the chest in the exact same spot it was in the game. I shook away my disbelief as I bent down ready to try and open it. I stopped mid-way as I remembered what happened next in the game. I stood straight and looked at the horizons. There was no sign of any army vastly approaching. I put together my knowledge of video games and came to the conclusion that if I touched the chest then the army would appear.

Whatever is in that chest must be important, said Little Alison. See if you can find a way to open it before the army comes.

I stumbled back down to the bottom of the dune where I tripped on the rocks. I picked up the biggest one my spaghetti arms could carry. With Little Alison niggling in my ear, I was half way to the top when I heard something.

“Somebody! Anybody!” the voice was in a state of panic.

I dropped the rock just barely missing my feet and raced back down the dune and towards the voice. Never had I heard something so sweat as Kern’s voice as he hopelessly wandered through the desert.

“KERN!” I screamed with all the powers left in my lungs.

He spotted me and his face lit up like a Christmas tree.

The two of us collided in a heap tangled in each other’s scared embrace. The two of us nervously smiled at each other. His emotions mirrored my own: scared, confused and very thirsty. He was also wearing the male equivalent of my own outfit.

“I can’t believe I found you,” I said, on the verge of tears.

“God, Ally where are we,” he asked, not letting me go.

“I…”

I didn’t know how to explain my theory. If I did he would define me as being completely insane. In the same situation, I know I would. Yet it never came to that, I didn’t have to explain. Kern had the same theory.

“You’ve played the game before,” he mumbled, holding me at arm’s length. “What was in it?” He almost yelled the question.

“A desert…with that same dune,” I told him pointing to sand heap.

Kern let go of me and started to walk in that direction. I explained about the chest and everything I had played. He didn’t say a word as I re-called everything to him. The only detail I left out was that the game wasn’t really mine.

You’re still feeling guilty?

I felt even guiltier than before. The mess we had suddenly gotten into was my entire fault. Was it karma? At that time, I believed it to be so. This was my punishment, my retribution.

We searched for my original stone but the yellow sand held it captive. Since Kern was the strongest out of us he picked up a much more impressive stone than my old one. With an uneasy feeling shared between us we reached the top of the dune and stared at the chest.

“Once we get near this thing an army will appear,” I said.

“What do we do after that?” he asked, looking at me for some kind of hope.

I rubbed my forearm nervously. Video games were always the one thing I was truly good at. Being able to live one out was a fantasy I had dreamed an uncountable amount of times. This felt more like a nightmare, and it killed me inside. The one thing I was good at had suddenly been stripped away from me.

“W-we…we should just try and survive,” I stumbled over my own tongue.

Gingerly, Kern got on his knees and pulled up the rock high above his head. The ground slowly started to shake. My head whipped to look at the horizon as a group of men appeared from either side of us. With a quick slam, Kern unlocked the chest and snapped open the lid.

A shimmer glint of silver emerged from the chest. It was a sword which I recognized as a two-handed claymore – since claymores origins lay in Scotland.

Without a second thought, Kern grabbed the sword. The two armies were dangerously close to the dune we stood on. The ran at each other will a loud bellow escaping their lips. A flurry of clanking metal and zooming arrows were sent back and forth on the battlefield before us.

For what seemed like an age, I stood transfixed on the battle. The army to our right had tanks for men but low numbers. The wore cosmic blue coloured armor. Towards the back of the army was – what I assumed to be – their leader. He commanded his small troop of arrow men. Or at least they looked like men from a far.

I was much more interested to the army on the left. They all moved in a noble fashion. Each of them wanted to be a hero. They risked their own lives in silly attempts to rescue others, they threw themselves in unnecessary danger and I had never seen anything so fascinating in my life. It was stunning to watch as they slowly began to overpower the tankish men.

Seeing an opportunity of escape, Kern grabbed my arm and yanked downwards off the dune. There was only seemingly one way we could go and that was through the battle zone. There was nothing on the other way and Little Alison kept bugging in my ear that through the battle was the right way.

Kern knows what he’s doing, just trust him, she said, with a smirk on her face.

“Stay close to me,” he said, clutching the claymore with rickety hands.

Kern entered the battle with me holding his shoulder. We were consumed by the pure violence. I turned my head to the side and saw a large chested man beat a warrior woman to death with his fists. Three other soldiers leaped towards him, they plunged their swords and daggers into his hard flesh. Blood dripped from his wounds and he crashed into the sand. The three men looked at their fallen companion with sadden eyes for a moment. After that sorrowful moment they leaped back into battle as if nothing had happened.

I couldn’t help but stare at the corpse. Her face was one purple lump, her nose had blood drained from it and her eyes terrified me. One of them was forced shut due to her swollen cheek, the other stayed wide open. I looked right at me. The hollow gaze met my own and I was rooted to the ground.

Unintentionally I let go of Kern’s shoulder. In that split second a soldier busted from nowhere. His sword was held up over his head and he charged right for me. Between the blank eye and the charging solider, I was stuck. I tried to tell my body to move but my commands were being ignored.

I stood with a scream lodged in my throat. A blade was a mere swing from my demise.

“Ally!”

Kern rushed between me and the solider, the claymore above his head narrowly blocking it. Kern broken my paralyzed spell.

The man was taken a back slightly at the sight of Kern. He went back for another hit. It was then I noticed a large cave just a quick sprint from where we stood. I grabbed Kern’s hand and pulled it into a dash.

“What are you doing!” Kern yelled, clearly disappointed at the lack of a fight.

With adrenaline buzzing through my blood, I was unable to answer him. We dodged, ducked, dove and dashed towards the cave. We finally reached the cooling stone cave with a few bruises and scrapes. Some people had seen us enter the cave but they paid no attention to us. I questioned why.

Kern and I hid behind the largest rock at the mouth of the cave. Every so often one of us would take a peek at the battle that still raged on.

I was able to watch the battle finally end after an eternity of waiting in that cooling cave.

In the center of the war were two men. One had skin paler than snow and golden fair hair which blended into the sand. He wasn’t like the tankish brutes previously seen. That didn’t mean he wasn’t muscular, far from it. His arms looked lager than Kern's thighs. However, he was much shorter than the man he battled against. The other man had jet black shaggy hair which was pulled back into a band. He moved like water as he fought. The strong man clearly was having a hard time keeping up with the taller black-haired fighter. With every strong jab the man easily maneuverer around and get his own hit. Finally, the black-haired man stopped toying with the brute. He whipped out his saber – which hadn’t left its sheath. With one easy flowing motion, he struck the man in his chest. Blood seeped through the fatal wound and he dropped dead.

I had gotten so engrossed by the fight I hadn’t noticed that I had stood up. Kern yanked me down.

“Do you want them to come looking for us?” he hissed.

I looked away from Kern and back to the battle. The leader of the cosmic-blue army called to his troops to fall back. The tankish men did so with hurting pride. The lilac army rejoiced in their win.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I slumped back on the rock.

“It’s over, those in the lilac won,” I said, with an unusual tone of cheeriness.

Kern wasn’t looking at me, he was transfixed by the claymore we found.

“Well, look what we have here?” a menacing voice said behind us.

Suddenly pairs of arms grabbed us and forced us into chains. The sigh of relief felt wasted at that previous moment it was let out.