Day One

Jake and Constantina get a game they have been waiting forever for and get their friends to join them.

Jake paced about his room, impatiently waiting for a new game to release. He had followed its development since he heard of its concept. Today, November thirteenth, 2015, it would be released at precisely 12:00 PM in his time zone. He told this girl he had met playing online all about it and she promised also to wait for the game to come out with him. He did not have any reliable way of communicating with her, but she seemed a trustworthy enough person. Since it was still 1:00 AM, and Jake some time to kill, he decided to bother his friend Gary.

“Gary!” he typed excitedly into the online chat service he used to communicate. He waited a while without receiving a response only to realize most people are not awake at one o’clock in the morning. With a sigh, he threw himself onto his bed and gazed at the ceiling. He reached up and grabbed a small toy from the shelves that hung rather dangerously over his head and began fidgeting with it. It was just a plastic trinket, but it tended to soothe him when he was anxious. Or bored, which was the present case. After a few moments of staring silently at his bleach-colored ceiling, he heard the familiar ‘swip’ of him receiving a message.

“Whats the matter?” read Gary’s reply.

“oh sorry. it’s nothing. i just realized the time.”

“You sure? If youre all right, Ill go to sleep now.”

“well, there’s no otherworldly tentacle monsters or disembodied space presences here, so i guess this is good night.”

“Yep. Goodnight.”

Jake yawned, hopped back in bed, and fired a bolt from his foam dart gun at the light switch.

About this time, the aforementioned gamer girl was holed up in her pitch-black bedroom, playing online. She had been there since getting up the previous morning at 5:30 AM. She grinned slightly as she blew the head off a guy who accused her of “playing like a girl.” Even with her fatigue-blurred vision, she could easily “pwn all these n00bs.” Of course, she would never admit to being tired at all. She saw her phone was lit up with a message from her friend Frank as she grabbed her water bottle.

“You’re not still up, are you?” it said.

“Heh who ratted me out” she answered, quietly chuckling to herself.

“C’mon, Constantina, you gotta sleep every once in a while.”

“I did” she sent in one message. After a short pause, she sent another one saying, “yesterday…”

“That’s right. You should get some rest.”

“But Fraaank! I’m not even tiiiired!” Suddenly, Constantina shivered when the oscillating fan in her room turned towards her, prompting her to grab a pajama top from the mess of clothes littering her floor. “So maybe I’m a little tired… fine. You win”

“Goodnight, Constantina.”

“Goodnight Frank”

Constantina turned off her laptop and fan and crawled into bed. She was sleeping peacefully within seconds.

After this exchange, Frank gave a relieved sigh. Constantina was usually only awake at such unholy hours when something was wrong. He did not mind staying up with her when something was seriously upsetting her, but when she was only playing a video game, he wasn’t about to let her deprive herself of sleep or do so himself. She needed as much as she could get. He climbed into his own bed and set an alarm for 7:30 AM. He liked to get a start on the day, especially when there is a good missing person to investigate.

Gary went to bed with similar relief. Jake normally would be up until this time when things were “OK.” When he would admit things were bad… the poor kid was lucky to get sleep.

He’s probably just excited about that game he’s been talking about.

Gary made sure to set his alarm for noon. If he had to get up, he may as well be there to receive Jake’s fanboying.

⁂

Jake awoke at precisely 12:00 PM and immediately leapt to his computer. After checking to make sure he had not received any more messages, he opened up his favorite online game store and typed in the name of the game: “At the End of Forever.” Being the first buyer, Jake got two free copies of it. He checked his friend-list to try sending one to his gamer friend, whom he knew only by her handle “ConstantHuntress” or “CH,” only to find out that she had just bought it at the full price of fifty dollars moments before. Having no one else to share the game with, he decided to message Gary again.

“hey, Gary, you up yet?” he sent.

“Yeah. Just woke up. You all right?”

“yes! i just got an extra free copy of at the end of forever and wondered if you might want it?”

“Sure. If theres no one else you want to have it.”

“great! i’ll send you the link!”

Jake excitedly sent his best friend the link to the game, closed the window of the chat service on his computer, opened it on his phone, and opened up the game on his computer.

The noon of this particular November thirteenth saw ConstantHuntress sitting up groggily in her bed in a pitch-dark room. Not planning to leave her den this day either, she opened up her laptop which already had the game client running. After buying At the End of Forever, she checked to see if Jake, whom she knew only as “jakemorris69” or “Jake,” was online. She saw that he had already bought the game and, seeking to console him through his crippling buyer’s remorse, sent him a message.

“Hey Jack. You wanna play?”

She waited for a while without an answer. Being unaware of the fact that he was currently speaking with Gary, she began to suspect him of simply ignoring her.

Surely he has nothing better to do on a Friday than play this game he’s waited years for! She grumbled silently. Okay, CH, calm down. He’s probably fanboying to this ‘best friend ever’ he talks about.

“oh sorry! i was just talking to the best friend ever.”-- Called it. -- “i’ll play. just wait a minute, Gary’s signing up too. i’ll shoot you a message when he’s ready.”

“Do you know how this game works… or what it’s even about”

“yeah. so, when you sign up, it requires a dna sample from you. it uses that to create a character with your exact appearance, strengths, and weaknesses. you then pilot them through this crazy world of aliens and whatnot. i think there’s some story involved too, but it’ll probably be lost among all the shooting.”

“Well if you get your friend involved, I’ll bring mine in too”

“great! i’ve always wanted to meet frank!”

“It’s weird. I got two copies. Maybe it was a glitch”

“i also got two. i just assumed it was some ‘first customer’ deal. maybe it’s a limited time thing?”

“I dunno. I’ll go invite Frank. Bye.”

“bye!”

Frank sat at his computer. He had been there since 7:35. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, fixed his hair, took his medicine, and plopped himself back down at his computer. He had planned to seize the day… he ended up just seizing the computer. Swip.

“Hey Frank! I got the game Jake told me about and it gave me an extra copy for free! You wanna join us?”

“Sure! Do I need to perform some ancient rite, or…”

“I’ll send you the link”

Frank clicked on the link and downloaded the game. He had to sign up for the game client and then create an account for the game. He saw one of the optional fields asked for his address. He wondered if Constantina and Jake had filled that portion out as he skipped it and went to a much more worrisome field. “Spit in the disc drive.”

OK. Computers can do some pretty wild stuff, but this feels a little much… he thought as he spat in the disc drive. The screen then said only the words “Waiting for 2 more players…” against a black background.

Gary had the same experience at the same time. He saw the words “Waiting for 3 more players…” before it quickly switched to 2 as Frank had just signed up. He also refrained from giving his address, hoping the others did too. Even as he assumed CH has two more friends who would be joining, Frank supposed Jake’s friends would be hopping in.

Alexis started from her slumber when her phone vibrated underneath her head. Apparently she had forgotten to set her alarm again. She pulled her phone from her pillowcase and saw she had received a text message from Tabitha. She got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair, and then returned to her phone.

“Hey Alex! You up yet?” it read.

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“So I heard that game Skitz has been raving about was released today.”

“Kay. And?”

“Aaand his little boyfriend’ll probably be with him.”

“Are you trying to set me up with Gary again?”

“Hey. I’m just saying you like him. Here’s a chance to be with him. Do what you please with this gift-wrapped opportunity.”

“How much is it?” Alexis bit her lip nervously as she asked the question which almost always prompted the following answer:

“Don’t worry I’ll pay.”

“No. You always pay! Why can’t I pay for once?”

“Because you don’t have money or a way to earn it, and I have oodles.”

“Tabitha…”

“Too late. Already bought it. It came with a second copy free! Here’s the link.”

Tabitha sat at her computer, satisfied. She had just finished signing up and saw the message “Waiting for 1 player…” She only hoped her best friend in the whole world would get in soon enough. She got a text from Alexis reading, “Okay. Logged in.” and the waiting text was replaced with, “We noticed you didn’t fill in your address! The aliens won’t know who to spare when they reach Earth!” There were two buttons. Cancel Continue

All at once, the six clicked continue.

⁂

The third-person 3D game started out in a sort of common lobby. The scene was of a clearing in a dense forest. For supposedly being a science fiction game, the lobby had a distinctly fantastical vibe to it. The players were more shocked, however, by the fact that their avatars were all bare. Jake and Constantina swiftly fled into the bushes, but the other four blundered about awkwardly before stumbling into cover. In that brief moment of panic, however, each player observed that their avatars looked exactly like themselves, just as the game had promised. Hiding in the bushes, they each saw a small hut in the dense greenery.

Jake ducked into the hut and found it furnished perfectly to his liking. He found a wardrobe filled with clothes also selected perfectly according to his taste. He quickly dressed and went back out into the clearing. Constantina came out fairly soon too, but the others took a while. CH was a fair-skinned girl of an average height for being a seventeen-year-old. She had long, flowing brown hair and a very sweet, shy expression. Jake did not know this, but as he was observing this girl, thinking her rather pretty, she thought he was quite handsome. It is true, he is wiry and his black hair is rather messy. One would not call his skin fair… more like pallid. As far as physical attributes go, CH was really only attracted to his green eyes, but she knew from playing with him that he was a kind and gentle person. While she would have loved to talk to this young man, something about actually having to communicate and having her actual appearance made her nervous, so she ran back into the shrubbery hoping to find Frank.

Next to step into the clearing was Tabitha. She had short, ash grey hair and a round yet cruel face. Everything about her expression showed her dislike for Jake. She wore a long red dress which, along with her natural mannerisms, made every movement melodramatic.

“Well hello, Skitz. You enjoy the view?” she scoffed, raising an eyebrow.

“Woah…” Jake replied, his attention clearly drawn away from the topic of conversation.

“I know. It was quite a view.” Tabitha struck a pose.

“The inflection is perfect.” Jake in real life was admiring the software’s work. “Evidently, the DNA analysis allows it to predict our tones and everything!”

“Are you even listening to me? Skitz!!”

“Huh?”

“Ugh. Never mind.”

“OK.” Jake was done talking to her anyway. She has always hated him, but he never really understood why. He could make a guess, but it did not cover everything. After a few moments, Alexis stepped into the clearing too.

“Oh. Hey, Skitz!” she said with a cheery voice. Her short white hair bounced near her chin. Her puffy, icy blue skirt swished about at her knees and her likewise-colored, sleeveless top came up like a turtleneck.

“Hi,” he sighed in reply. The nickname “Skitz” was Tabitha’s work. Alexis did not seem to pick up on its offensive intention.

“Have you seen Gary around?”

Just as she asked this, Gary stepped into the light. He was sharply dressed in all very formal attire. His blond hair and fair complexion contrasted dramatically with his dark clothing and eerie blood-red tie. Jake could not help but chuckle a little; this dark and brooding mystery-man was one of the gentlest people he knew. Jake felt dreadfully underdressed in his white T-shirt and baggy black sweatpants.

“You called?” Gary joked in his best James Bond voice.

“Why, hello there, handsome,” Alexis joked back with a smile and a faint blush, causing Tabitha and Jake to roll their eyes with a smile. Frank and Constantina then returned to the clearing. Frank was dressed much like Gary, but his hair was black.

“Oh?” Tabitha said with a slightly evil smirk.

Constantina glanced up at her and then back at the ground.

“Whatever could you mean by that?” The subtle warning tone in Frank’s voice was impressively translated by the computer.

Tabitha just shrugged her shoulders and walked over to Alexis in the middle of the clearing. When for just a moment everyone was clear of the center, a black orb appeared in it. It had printed in plain white text on its surface, “Slick Co.” Slick Co. created the game, Jake pointed out in the awkward silence that followed its sudden appearance. This orb shrank into the decorative topper of a cane held by a well-dressed man. His skin was just as shiny and black as the weird orb and he had no facial features whatever. His voice was slick like oil, but also calculating and pensive. It was likely the developer of the game inserting himself into it: a really garish thing for a creator to do with his creation.

“Welcome to At the End of Forever!” he announced. “I am Mr. Slick. I’m the one who is supposed to give you advice throughout this experience here.” He paused for a while. “Don’t die. Now, children, the sun is going down. You would do wisely to get to your huts quickly.”

The players quickly rushed into their huts and commanded their avatars to sleep. Looking away from the game, they saw that it was turning dark in the real world too, so they agreed to turn off the game and sleep. They would all play tomorrow starting at seven thirty in the morning.

End Day One

Reviews

[Ali]

Wow, I really like it! the writing was nice, though maybe a little too fast and I was a bit confused in the beginning when the perspective changed. All in all, the story seems interesting enough, Excited to see where this will go!

[Pascal Slick]

Thank you! Some of the confusion at the beginning (and in following chapters) is intentional, but I will endeavor to stay unnecessary confusion. Hope you like the rest too!