6 chapter 6

Aaron felt the cool wind embrace him and kiss him like a mother. He was falling and the wind was kindly guiding him to his death. Any moment now he was going to fall to the ground and squash his bones to oblivion. However, to a close margin, that didn't happen. He landed on the dirt hard and his bones ached inside his flesh, but he was still breathing. Several more bodies plopped beside him.

"Level three," said the AI voice.

The trees swayed smoothly as the wind tickled it's bristles and combed through the leaves. And above the forestry was the black sky, spawned by winking stars. The trees looked down at the fallen bodies with pity. Not because of their unfortunate landing, but because of what lay ahead.

Aaron trembled. The forest was slightly cold. Not snow cold. But wind-cold. He feebly got up in search of Miles. Ruben and Lex had just gotten up and they were wiping the leaves and dirt from their clothes. Not a couple feet from them, Miles, was lying on the ground holding his chest, rasping. The knife had fallen off of him but he had already lost a lot of color to his face and his strength was draining. In a matter of seconds, the game, the world, and everything he knew would be gone.

Aaron crouched next to the curly-haired boy, and carefully touched his chest, trying to stop the spreading of the blood. "Miles, please stay with me. Come on. There has to be a way out of this, there has to be."

Suddenly Aaron sensed the glow of green light and he swerved his head around. It was Heather and she was miraculously levitating the green health on her hands.

"Maybe this will help."

She dropped the first aid on Miles and just as it had done to Aaron's hands, it spread all over Miles's body and made him glow green momentarily. Miles began to breathe like he had just gotten out of a swimming pool and then he chuckled.

"You're the best," he said.

Heather shrugged. "Something like that."

Aaron looked around the forest warily. "I wonder how many more first aids are out there. They're gonna be in high demand pretty soon."

"You're right. Not too far from here, I heard a girl scream as I was getting health. This forest is dangerous." said Heather.

"We should probably sleep and wait until daylight before we go roaming around. I say we split up and look around for tents. They should be able to hold us in for the night."

"You sure it's a good idea to split? We're more defenseless that way," said Miles.

"Sure but we have a better chance at survival if one of our groups ends up escaping than all of us being banded together and dying. You, me, and Heather will go straight. Ruben and Lex can go to the right trail."

"Like hell we are. How about we go straight and you guys go right? How about that President Aaron?" said Ruben bitterly.

"Whatever floats your boat."

Ruben and Lex ambled on the straight trail while Aaron's team treaded to the right trail. They had been walking for a couple of minutes when suddenly they saw a silvery glass panel appear to them in midair. It had lines scribbled all over it and purple, yellow, and green dots blinking on it.

"It's a map," said Heather. She had also seen something red pop up on the glass panel. But momentarily. It barely lasted for a second. She wouldn't tell the group, not yet. They weren't ready to lose their sanity.

"What do those purple and yellow dots mean?" Aaron asked.

"Yellow dots probably represent the random weapons you can pick up on this level. As for the purple, I think they're our ticket out of this level. But I'm not sure how many we are supposed to collect." Heather said.

After sweeping past a grove of trees and clambering up a small hill, they saw a small black tent resting behind a floating purple orb. The purple ball shined with regality and essence as if it had just descended from the sky. Aaron slowly ambled up to touch it. Just like the health, it gravitated to Aaron's and splattered like water. Aaron's body didn't glow purple, but there was a ringing sound as if someone had just accomplished something, and a tally appeared in mid-air beside the map. It read 1/10 in purple color.

Only ten? That shouldn't be so bad, Aaron thought. But deep down he knew he was overestimating himself. Perhaps there was somebody else in the forest that was much stronger and much deadlier than them and collecting them wouldn't be so simple. Perhaps.

"We'll collect the other nine tomorrow. For now, let's just rest here. Heather, you and Miles can have the tent. I'll stick it out and keep watch for the night."

Miles and Heather walked into the gaping hole of the tent, while Aaron sat down on the ground gazing up at the stars. It looked harmonic and peaceful tonight. It reminded him of his mother and Lydian. It reminded him of Laney. He wondered if she regretted not joining the game. It would've been perfect. The two of them. And now, he'll probably end up dying alone in this game. Well, maybe not tonight. Tonight he can just worry about how the stars formed an evenly spaced triangle. For a moment the triangle morphed into a heart. Aaron's eyes began to gain some weight and then not for too long, they were closed.

A shriek ripped through the air.

"Get off of me!"

Heather got out of her tent, looking distressed. "It's her again. We have to help her!"

Aaron got up and ran north from the tent, toward the direction of the screaming. Followed by the heavy muddied footsteps of Heather and Miles. The clearing began to get wider and wider until they saw a girl with blonde pigtails hung upside down on a tree branch. Her legs were cuffed by vomit colored vines and her arms were splayed out hanging like a hook.

"My heroes," she said giggling.

Lex trudged silently past the shadowy trees. Ruben kept a distance a few feet behind him. He felt a type of flame inside of him. A wave of resounding anger. His people back home were watching and they wouldn't be proud of him right now. Especially his friends.

He had joined Osiris to bring glory to Yellow Faction. It didn't matter about the money, his father made millions and he was living pretty well off before the game anyway. Five-star meals of lobsters, spaghetti, lasagna, escargot, and gourmet chicken every five hours during the day. A nice jacuzzi and swimming pool behind his house. Being surrounded by hot girls that were from the country every weekend. And most importantly, skydiving. He missed skydiving. He missed the nice rough air that punched his face every time he jumped a Hove. He missed the heart-pounding rush.

He didn't need the damn money! No, he needed respect. Honor. Lex had a mission. A mission to prove to his family, friends, and everyone in Yellow Faction that a person of wealth could make it in a game of skill, wit, and survival. And so far, he was failing that mission. He hasn't done anything remarkable or significant in this game. All he's accomplished so far was hiding, muster a few sputtering wines, and look like a bitch who doesn't know how to fight. His friends were already laughing at him back home.

"Always ambitious, aren't you Lex? Maybe this is good for you. Maybe for once, you'll actually learn how to lose." said Varell's voice, snorting with the figment embodiment of Lex's other friends.

Lex tried to ignore their voices. The biggest shame was that he had to walk with this psychopath Ruben as well. He could sense his depraved eyes staring at him, waiting to attack. Where the heck were they going anyway? They've been walking for fifteen minutes and they hadn't seen a darn tent in the nearest perimeter. Then out of nowhere, he began to see a silver glass panel materialize in the thin air above them. It looked like a map of the forest. It had a bunch of green, yellow, and purple dots on it. In fact, Lex saw a yellow orb just a couple of feet away.

"Hey Ruben, check this out."

Lex marched a little closer and slowly touched the yellow orb. Suddenly the yellow object morphed into a glimmering sword. Lex slowly picked it up. He felt a pluck of excitement vibrate through his body.

"You lucky bastard," said Ruben with fixated eyes.

Immediately Lex began to see something he didn't expect to see on the glass map. Red dots. They blinked at first but then they stayed, and they were gravitating in their direction. Lex's first instinct was to run, but holding the sword, he felt an unhealthy amount of confidence.

"We should probably get out of here," said Ruben warily, looking at the map as if it were going to bite him.

"And go where? We got this!"

"Your funeral money boy," said Ruben and he sprinted away.

The red dots got closer and closer. Lex grasped his sword harder. Not far ahead, there was a movement in the undergrowth and then something jumped out of the trees. It was aiming to attack Ruben, but Ruben ducked, marginally missing the animal's claws that swept over his head. The creature was huge with brown fur that hid under its rocky skin. It had two heads, yellow canine teeth that were on the verge of turning brown, and four venomous eyes. Its front feet were like human hands and its back feet were rocky just like the rest of its body. These beasts were known as orgs.

The three orgs saw their two lunch, but one of them escaped. Lex was the only one left standing. The map showed five more dots pop up. In a few seconds, this area was going to be swarmed with orgs.

"What the-," said Lex, shaking. Instantly realizing the dark solidity of the situation. Two orgs pounced hungrily but Lex shoved the sword in one of the org's eyes. Black juice dripped out. The org wined. But that was only a pinch. The second org turned around to attack Lex for a second round. Lex picked up his feet and began to run. He heard the mountainous roar of the three orgs claw right behind him. Their feet shook the ground like an earthquake and their snarls felt like tendrils clinging around Lex's neck.

Lex came upon a fence covered in moss and eaten with age. He was at a dead end. One of the orgs pounced but Lex ducked and it crashed into a fence. This gave Lex a clearing to slide into the org's blind spot and dash away. As he was running he saw a body thrown like a house doll. The body slammed against a tree trunk and slid down, limp, bloody, and broken. Lex passed the corpse with a heavy heart. Ruben was dead.

Feeling as if he couldn't run anymore and sensing the hot breath of the orgs behind him, Lex swung around and slashed his sword blindly at the orgs. One of the orgs head was sliced off. But two more heads were already drooling on Lex's face. Their huge feet stamped him to the ground so he couldn't move.

Then there was a bullet shot and one of the orgs fell like a dead dog. One org left. Lex picked up whatever remaining strength he had left flourished his sword across the org's head. The final org remained headless and its body fell. Black blood splattered all over Lex's face. Lex looked at the place where he heard the bullet shot. There was no one to be seen. Although for a moment, he must've been hallucinating, he thought he saw a silhouette. Just for a moment.

Miles walked around the tree to find something to cut the vine with. He didn't find anything but a yellow glowing ball. He hovered his hands to touch it and once it contacted his hands it transformed into a knife. Miles went back to the tree and slung the knife at the vine and the pigtailed girl fell on the ground.

"So you've found the knife? There must be yellow dots in this area then. Nice! Hehe! I'm Regina." said the pigtail girl.

"Regina?" said Heather wakingly. "Regina, where's the next purple dot at?"

"Just five miles south of here to the left. Why?"

The group looked at the new girl suspiciously.

"She's an AI," said Heather sharply.

Miles prudently pointed the knife at Regina. Regina giggled to herself as if this was the best show she'd seen in years.

"You're cute," she said to Miles.

Heather cleared her throat.

"Sure, maybe I'm an AI. But I believe there are bigger fish to fry. You really shouldn't be worried about puny old me." said Regina as she skipped around like a little girl at a playground.

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked.

"I mean I'm surprised you guys haven't been eaten by the orgs yet. But then again, they're nothing compared to the real threat."

"Who's the real threat?"

"We like to call her Grace."