Get Your Head in the Game

I’m running, I have my shot gun loaded and ready to annihilate. I hear Josh yell out ‘get to cover’ I run as quickly as my body allows behind a crate, I see the enemy standing in plain sight... What’s he doing? I stand up slowly; I aim and shoot, a clean and precise head shot. I hear foot steps behind me, I turn quickly. There’s a man approaching fast with a brick. I bend down, pull my knife from my leg strap and brought it up to his stomach. He began shaking his head and begging for mercy. He really didn’t want to be wiped from the system… I took the brick from his hand and smacked it to the side of his head; he’s out, but not dead. There is just me and two other players left, I cannot lose this. I sat beside the crate, I bring my knee’s to my chest and stared at the unconscious man, the amount of people I had killed, had wiped from the servers today. These poor people won’t get to see their friends again… this poor man in front of me will just be spawned into the next game after they re code him fit and healthy again to just be put into another fight. I need to win this to be a part of the program, I can’t be deleted.

I hear breathing; someone is nearby, maybe on the other side of the crate… only one way to find out. I have two sticky bombs left, I shouldn’t waste them, but I need to locate the enemy. I throw one sticky bomb over and to the other side of the crate; I hear a quick shuffle and gasp, I cover my ears and set off the detonator. A burst of heat rushes from over the top of me, I hear hysterical screaming. I move my knees down, lie on the floor, roll onto my stomach and covered my ears with my hands. Everywhere soon went silent, couldn’t even hear the wind… I wonder if Josh is still alive, there is one person left in the game, it’s me vs them. I got up slowly, shaking. I began to walk around the other side of the crate, I peeped around the corner, just to see an African American, burnt blacker than he already was. That means it is me and Josh. I walked out into the open screaming out his name.

Josh has been my life long partner, we began having ambitions to become a part of the program, it is a big thing and you mean nothing if you aren’t a part of the program. He and I both had an accident, the cutest little life changing experience… I named her Ariana but they took her away from Josh and me… We were lost in Skyrim, hiding out in Winterhold, it was cold, we had been adventuring for days and a lot of things happened to just send me over the edge in love with him. We rented a room at an inn before heading back to the game central but that’s when we conceived Ariana, she was born 9 days later, we ended up staying within Skyrim for the time I was pregnant with her, by the time I was okay and Ariana was okay the program came looking for me because of the explosion in my code due to Ariana. They took Ariana from me, they shut me down for an hour and Josh still never told me what they did to him, he said I’d never forgive myself. So we lost our daughter that day, they deleted her from my code so I could never find her, it is why we aspire to become a part of the code, I would have access to every existing code, so Ariana’s as well. So, Josh and I joined a sort of games, to prove that we have what it takes to be a part of the program, we are at the last level and now it’s just him and I, whoever wins goes on to be a part of the program, they become someone, someone feared and someone you wish you knew sooner.



Josh came running and hugged me; he kissed my cheek and lifted me up then hugged me tighter. He began to tear up. “Gamma, you need to get Ariana, you need to get our daughter back… do whatever you need to okay? Promise me you will make sure she is safe”

‘I can’t do that Josh, not without you’

‘You don’t really have a choice, it’s you or me and we know what that decision is Gamma, you have to okay? I’ll always be in your code, I was your first so you have every memory of us, just watch them, once your in the program, you get full access, even to my thoughts and to Ariana, you can do it’

‘Josh please don’t, we can just stay in this level forever, I don’t want to lose you, I know why…’

He cut me off.

‘Gamma, get to Ariana’

I went to speak but he put his fingers to my lips and shushed me, he moved his fingers below my chin and pulled me in for a kiss, it was long and passionate. I began to cry, this is the last time I’d be feeling his lips against mine, I don’t want him to go, I don’t want him to have to do what he has to. Being a part of the program means losing him, I don’t want to be a part of it. When we entered the games we thought it was a top three, not last man standing when it came to the end.

Josh let go of me, tears were streaming down his cheeks and he didn’t want to go either. He backed off but I kept going in and hugging him, I can’t lose him. We know what must be done but now it’s here I just cannot let it happen. He finally pushed me back and spoke

‘It’s time’

‘No Josh, it doesn’t have to be…’

‘Go get our little girl; I believe in you, your strong okay, you have all the skills to head this nightmare if you really wanted to do so’

‘No Josh’

‘Gamma, shhh’ he put his fingers to my lips again. ‘It’s time, don’t forget me’

‘That’s impossible…’

‘Right, I love you Gam, stay tough my little cookie’ he began to cry and put a gun in my hand.



I need to do this; he can’t do it himself or its game on with endless waves of programmed assassins to make sure I’d be wiped from the games. His hair is beautiful, black as night. His eyes were piercing, icy blue staring straight into my eyes, I watched them glistening with tears as I pulled the gun up aiming for his head. It would be the quickest way; I don’t want him to feel the pain. It’s sort of inevitable but the least pain is good enough.

‘Tell Ariana I love her’

‘I will Josh’

‘Goodbye…’

‘Bye…’

One last sniff from me and I pulled the trigger, I watched as half his head was decapitated and he dropped. He’s gone, every little thing I fought to stay alive for is gone, Josh is gone… I need to get to Ariana as quickly as I can, I need to get to Josh’s data as quickly as I can.



A portal opened, program is ready for me… here we go…



Chapter 2

The portal is glowing a light green and black… I walked into it slowly, it beamed upwards and I went straight upwards into a glowing bunch of sparks. It was an amazing sight; I soon regained my eye sight and saw a beautiful figure before me, she spoke like a computer.

‘Welcome to the program, your future awaits’

All around me began to glow; I soon was blinded by light again. When I regained my eyesight this time, I was in a white apartment. It was quiet, soft elevator like music in the background and it smelt pleasant. Everything was pure. There were no doors in the room, just a bed. I sat on the bed and looked up at the roof; it just looked like a white galaxy.



A beam came into my room. There was a figure, a man this time. He spoke.

‘Hello Gamma, welcome to the program, you are with us now. Anything you wish is to your leisure to seek out, but you do have duties to program certain things to send into the games.’

He handed me a note then a beam took him away. The note said:

You are required to make a series of beings to make players in the games lives hard, make sure they don’t make it to the next level, the more we have the more likely they aren’t going to make it out alive and into the program, you have proven that you have what it takes, congratulations, you are one of us now!

Your computer will spawn once you have finished reading this note, a door will also spawn, you have full access to clothing stores for two days so grab what you want/need while you can, this also includes food and technical stores, I greatly insist you grab every little thing available as when the two days are up, all you will have is yourself as you don’t have a partner or child.

Welcome to the program

Sincerely

The Program



‘I do have a child you just took her away assholes’ I watched as a computer and headset spawned, a door spawned not long afterwards. I put the headset on, it was silent. Not even static was coming through. The computer loaded itself up and displayed a whole range of classes, body shapes, personas and powers. I had no stock of any type of these things; I guess that’s what the technical stores had in them. I probably should go shopping while I can, like the note states.

I walked through the door; it spawned me in this centre, full of stores, clothing stores, techy stores and food stores, time to go ballistic! I first walked up to a food store, there were stacks of so called ‘precooked dinners’ it said on the instructions just to open the packet and you have a steaming hot meal… so I grabbed a lot of them, I lost count, I just filled up my trolley with them, I next went to a clothing store. When I had spawned all I had on was white pyjamas, well not pyjamas but that’s the only way to describe them… all the clothes were so glamorous, it was all one size fits all, I guess they just go to suit the person. I grabbed handfuls of skirts, shorts, tops and jumpers. Everything I’m purchasing is being taken back to my apartment, this is so cool.

I next went to the techy store, it was all little chips…they didn’t even have labels so I just started sliding them off the shelves into my trolley, I must have grabbed like 2 K of these things, god knows what I got.

I began to head back to my apartment; every person I passed looked at me like I was a criminal… I just walked faster. Everything was waiting for me in its correct place except the chips; they were waiting on the bed in a pile. I picked up a handful and walked over to the computer. There was a little slot on the side of the monitor. I began inserting the chips one at a time, I kept going back and forth from the bed grabbing chips and inserting them into the monitor until there were none left. I turned the monitor on by touching the screen. It came up with coulombs of skills and types of people, clothing, weapons and personality traits. I guess I select what I want them to be like and have. I didn’t want to make killing machines, but I did want to test this out. I chose an angry personality, female, very revealing clothing and a knife, with powers to conjure flames. It gave me the choice to test it out on current in game players, so I chose to. I watched as my newly created soldier murdered 7 players before being shot in the back of the head with a shot gun. This was actually kind of fun; I should have installed her with some super reflexes. She could have wiped out a lot more players…

Why this sudden rush of evil, god knows, but this could get fun…



CHAPTER 3



I continued going through what the screen displayed. I put together another soldier. A female, ninja like clothing and a samurai sword. I sent her into the game; she only killed 2 people before she was silenced. The more lethal these soldiers are the more likely they are to wipe out players…



I sometimes forget how hard it was being in the games. Everyone, even the soldiers that were sent in wanting to slit your throat, I am lucky that I had Josh to rely on until the very end. I continued making characters but I decided to save them all in a folder and then send waves of my creations in. I created more soldiers and soon I had a folder full of them, none of them were lethal enough to kill a lot of players, I wanted to see how an army of lower standard soldiers together went. I sent them all in; they only killed off half of the players. A lethal group would have killed them all; maybe even just 4 lethal soldiers could have done the job.



I woman spawned behind me and spoke softly



“You need to control yourself, one soldier at a time; this is your first and only warning”



She then disappeared and a black cross was left on my wall above my computer. I didn’t know what to do, they didn’t put a restriction on what we could make and send forth to the games. They didn’t tell me anyways.



Later I was contacted by the same woman again telling me I was now being restricted on my allowance because of the ‘traitor alliance’ I was now classed to be a part of. I was requested to attend a meeting with this alliance.



I attended the meeting; everyone in the meeting looked gothic and complained about being obligated to attend the meeting… one person said something that caught my attention though.



‘Code the soldiers to go into central program’



That’s it. I know what I must do to find Ariana and retrieve Josh’s code.



Lethal soldiers lose in the Programs centre would become Chaotic, I could easily get Ariana and the code for Josh back and destroy the program…



I know what I need to do, kill the program.





CHAPTER 4



I have been up for days making lethal soldiers, beasts and weapons. Making absolutely chaotic murderers, setting them lose will be fun. Watch them burn for what they did to me and my life, the special people and the fact I had to kill one of them, the anger built up inside cannot be put into words or expressed. I will experience great joy in watching them suffer.



I have made a friend in the alliance. Leon, he is a cunt but he is a powerful person, he has also been creating soldiers to set off in the program. He’s going to be over soon with the spawning device he has worked on since he became a part of the program. He said all we needed to do was insert the disk with the soldiers on and then set a timer, the spawner will release them and that’s when we make our move. The soldiers are being coded to attack anyone but us and my daughter. It’s being coded to kill the top of the program.



He finally arrived. He handed my five disks and put the spawning device on my bed. I had filled 3 disks. All together we had 8 disks and many, many soldiers.



“Are you ready Gamma?” he asked

“As ready as I will ever be…”

“You don’t sound ready… it’s going to be okay, what’s the worst that will happen? There are two of us with an army 10 times as big as the program”

“Could this spawning device bring someone back if you knew their code…?”

“I suppose we could try, attach the code on a disk and give it a try”



I put a disk in the computer, saved the code on the disk and took it out. Could I actually get him back...



My heart began racing a million miles a minute; he could be easily brought back… so easily…





Chapter 5



The room filled with a glow, it was multi-coloured. The glow soon displayed what I believed to be his code… of his code; so many numbers were dashing around the room.



Everything went black.. I couldn’t see anything, I felt someone grab my hand. That smell.. I know that smell…

“JOSH! OMG YOU STINKY MOTHER FUCKER OH MY GOD!” I jumped on him, he held me back, laughing and crying, we were a sobbing love story ending.



I took the time to explain how we brought him back and what me and Leon were planning on doing…



He was all in, he kept saying things like he wasn’t afraid of death anymore because he has seen the other side, he said its not pretty but you get used to it…



I couldn’t stop touching him, even if it was my hand in his, my hand on his leg and hugging his arm and just walking with him like that, I wasn’t letting go, not for a while yet…



A letter appeared on my bed, I let go of Josh to read it…



Hello Gamma, you have right royally undermined the Program, we are coming to erase you and the two other beings within your room, you have one hour to say your goodbyes and get ready for your nonexistence.



With most sincere regret

The Program



The Program is going to be on their way, it’s now time to attack…



Josh held my hand, gave it a squeeze and kissed me.



Tears filled up in his eyes. “Gamma, you have killed me once, you have brought me back to life once… you can only love someone once but love is eternal, it never dies.”



“I don’t understand…” I started to cry.



“You are a strong woman… I know you can do amazing things… no matter what happens I love you, more than anything, I’ve proven that id die for you”



I put my fingers up to his lips to shut him up; we had one last passionate kiss. I stopped and faced Leon.



“Let’s pop a cap in these Dumbasses”



“That’s my Gam.”



We only had about 20 minutes before the Program will arrive at my front door.. We needed a bigger space to spawn and unleash the soldiers. I grabbed my shot gun and knife… Leon had the spawning device and Josh had grenades to throw before we sent a second disk of soldiers to fight the Program.



We spawned ourselves in the middle of the shopping grid.. Leon set off the first disk. We watched as all these innocent, game winners were butchered like pigs… some of them would have probably been great allies but we couldn’t spend time working that out…



The whole shopping grid was clear… blood and severed parts everywhere. We watched as the victims’ bodies and random limbs away in numbers. We are now just as bad as the program, but this massacre is what will save the Program from being what they are, so it’s not all bad.



We heard running, I crouched and listened for the direction the sound. I saw a movement and jumped to it, pulled my knife from my ankle strap and held it to the… the child?! I lowered the knife from the child’s neck..



“Hey, I am sorry.. What are you doing in the program… you’re so young”



“I didn’t have to compete in games and I was an accident and they said I was a stray child!” the child seemed cheery about her situation.



“What is your story…” my heart began pounding…



“well” she smiled “THEY told me my mummy and daddy were stupid, so they took me away, I am the only kid they took away so I haven’t hung out with anyone my age, they started to scare me so I ran down here, I’ve always wanted to meet my mummy and daddy, when I am naughty they tell me that I am acting like them, they would be so much fun t-“



I cut her off and grabbed her “Ariana! Oh my god” I hugged her tight. Josh came and hugged us both; he enveloped us in his arms. He kissed her fore head and then mine.



“Why are you touching me?”



“Well we would be the stupid people” as soon as Josh said this I hit him



“We are your parents… the program stole you away.. Hey sweetie…”



Chapter 6



Well, this was a life changing find, my little girl, she looked about 6/7 years old but that’s just the aging process… she will stop growing when she gets to about 16 looking. I missed the crucial time of her life, but she’s my daughter, I love her and she’s scared.



Josh was holding her up on one side of him and holding my hand with his free arm. This must be what family feels like…



Alarms began sounding; Ariana pushed herself away so she could get down from Josh. She ran at one of the walls in the grid and kicked it. Full, leg straight up boot at the wall and smashed it. The wall just crumbled at her kick.



“She obviously got that from you Gam” josh winked after he said that.



“Well are you coming?” Ariana jumped through the wall into a black abyss, I automatically jumped after her and josh jumped after me, Leon followed after setting off another disk in this sector.



We fell, and fell… and fell.



We soon came to a new grid, it looked like a playground.



“This is my safe place, the Program has no idea it exists” she sat on the swing and began swinging herself. “They will never look here; they have no data or knowledge it even exists, I made it so I had a place to go…”



The whole place was lush green, multiple houses and places, even farm land, it was beautiful.



“Gam, what do you think? Want to stay here, with our daughter.. Be happy forever? Be safe forever?”

“I have a Program to kill… me and Leon worked so hard…”



“Gam stop, we have everything here…”



“No Josh, you have no idea what it was like to lose you! You have no fucking idea, I can’t just settle down with people like the Program still out and about ruini-“



He cut me off.



“Gamma, YOU have no fucking clue what it’s like to DIE for someone, little own be shot in the FUCKING head by them, see the other side, be brought back and finally have happiness at your fingertips and have someone a part of that happiness being so SELFISH!”



I turned and walked away. Leon followed me.





“Gamma” Leon always said my name with an accent. “stay with your partner, ill take care of the Program, I have nothing to live for… think of it as a suicide mission! I need to be known as someone great.”



“No, we kill them together…”



“Your family needs you and Josh is right…”



“I am going ALONE, you are STAYING and that is THAT”



“Stop talking to me like a child.. I understand how he feels but he doesn’t understand how I feel”



“Just be happy, you have more than any players ever will… just be with your partner and child”



“Josh won’t want to be with me after my little storm off let alone my own daughters not think I am a monster…”



“You might be surprised.”



I mumbled and walked back to Josh and Ariana. He was pushing her on the swing, he is the perfect daddy. I want to be the perfect mummy. I want the perfect family.



I hugged Leon and kissed his cheek. “You have given me everything… thank you”



“Don’t thank me” he gave me a big squeeze and lifted me up a little. “NOW, I have a world to unleash chaos on, if I survive, I will make the effort to come back, I’ll send messages.



Ariana jumped off the swing and ran to Leon. “Here’s the code to my special place, once you wipe them out, come back…” she handed him a simple little note.



“If I make it hunny.” he and Ariana seemed to know what they needed to do.



Leon beamed away. He was gone. I hope he comes back…



For now my stories complete, I have my slice of happiness… Ariana, Josh and I, a happy fambam! I feel happy…



Watching him and Ariana play, everything is in place, this puzzle is complete.