Hour 3

Emi had thrown a couple of sheets over Conner's and her mother's bodies and had taken his shotgun, not that she knew the first thing about using it. She sat down next to Alex on the living room couch to discuss the current situation, which seemed like an absurdly bizarre thing to do knowing there were 2 dead bodies behind them in the kitchen. They huddled over her phone which read

New objective: laser tag

Under the new message was a link. Emi said, "Before I press this, let's go over what we know." She motioned to her phone as she began, "Guessing by the mass amounts of deaths reported overnight, I think it's safe to assume that anyone without a cellphone was disqualified from the game and... died." Alex responded "Anyone with one was presented with an order and a number, one that counts down every second. If the timer reaches 0 before you complete your order, you die." Emi said, "Right. Regarding Conners, it looks like I stole his time when I kil..." She swallowed hard, her mouth almost too dry to continue speaking. "When I shot him, it looked like I somehow got his time added to mine. I know for sure my number would've been much lower, plus I got a new order indicating I passed the first one." Alex replied in an equally dry-sounding voice, though it was more of a whisper than anything, "So basically, I have to kill someone, or I die." Emi was silent, she wasn't sure of what the right thing to say was. He looked at her with the eyes of an innocent child and said "I don't wanna die, em. I don't want you to die." She reassured him "I don't want that either, and I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure that doesn't happen." She thought of her father and her mother, both robbed from her. Alex was all she had left and she was the only one who could protect him. He took his phone out and said, "I'm down to 0:043:21:09." Emi tried to reassure him, "That's a little under two days to figure something out." She brought his attention to her phone again with a nod. "Let's see what this is about, the link I have." Hitting the link brought them to a site called "laser tag map." It had a detailed map of their local area with multiple question mark icons spread out across the landscape. As she zoomed out, she saw hundreds of question marks across the entire state. zooming out further revealed they were all over America. "Guess this probably really is going on across the world if all of America is involved." She zoomed back into her location and found the closest question mark to their house in a park about 15 minutes away. On the map, she could see the cursor that resembled a pixelated version of herself at their house, long blond hair and all. Moving her body in real time moved the cursor on the screen exactly the same way; it was definitely her. She almost jumped when her phone began to ring; she was too deep in thought, trying to figure out what their next move should be. The caller ID displayed "Congratulations!" And she felt a pang of anxiety deep in her chest. She reluctantly answered her phone and heard "Congratulations, it seems as though you've made it to the next phase." The voice on the other line sounded like it was right next to her ear but somehow far away at the same time, a voice that chilled her blood and choked her heartbeat. It wasn't the voice of a human, it was the croak of a mummified corpse speaking through decayed vocal cords for the first time in centuries, it was the voice of midnight in a place you couldn't find your way out of and it was the voice of the last dream you had as you died in your sleep cold and alone. "If you're hearing this, then you've just accessed the website and begun the second phase. All you have to do is go to the designated spot and proceed to the next phase." Emi immediately thought, "There's no way it's that easy, not when the first test involved killing someone." The otherworldly voice continued, "Now, to make the game more interesting, I'll be adding a store for you to use. Please, do your best. I look forward to the next phase." "Wait, hold on a second!" Emi started but the other line shut off with an electric snap. And that was it, the call ended as abruptly as it had been placed. "Store?" Emi thought in confusion, a state of mind she was starting to become very accustomed to. Alex asked, "What's going on?" And she said, "Hold on a second," as she searched her phone for anything different that stood out. She noticed on her home screen there was a new app, one that was a round blue sphere and simply said "store" in generic yellow lettering. She pressed the app and she was brought to a screen that looked very similar to any online store venue. It looked similar at first glance, anyway, because all it took was a second of concentration to realize something was very different about this app. It said "Welcome, Emily" in big letters at the top. Under that, it had a list of Items in the "popular buys!" tab that included "2 minutes of invisibility, enhanced speed, instant calories, 1-hour pain negation, change location." Emi looked over all the peculiar services offered by the site and, out of pure morbid curiosity, clicked on "2 minutes of invisibility." Clicking on it brought her to a checkout menu with terms and conditions. It read "2 minute invisibility, great for getting away from danger or bringing the danger in secret. Be careful, though, you can still be heard, and don't let the rain hit you because your outline will stand out against the water! Cost: 30 hours." "30 hours," Emi mouthed, but no sound came out. She thought, "You can exchange your time for these things...?" Alex, who had been watching what she did, said, "No... This is bad, emi." Emi turned to him, and he said, "This not only makes it more dangerous for us, but people with more hours to spend have an advantage, meaning it's going to promote even more killing. And the more they kill, the more they can buy. It's an awful cycle." Emi thought, "What's the point of all this? What did mom have to die for? what are we fighting for?" Alex nudged her shoulder and asked, "What should we do now?" Emi said. "The next game takes place at the park. I don't know what to expect, so we should go prepared." Alex said. "But I haven't completed my task yet, and if I don't, I'll..." Emi replied "I have an idea. If this is some twisted game then there must be some kind of conclusion, an ending. If I can beat this game before your time runs out, then you won't have to kill anyone." Alex's face brightened slightly, but he still had a hint of worry in his voice as he asked, "Are you sure you can do that, em?" Emi said "I'm sure that I can try like hell. Now, let's get prepared."

The two stocked up on essential items using a pair of old backpacks as storage containers. They packed them with water, canned goods, granola bars, and other essentials like scissors, rags, and flashlights. "I just thought of something," Alex said out of the blue as they were finishing packing. "What's up?" Emi asked. He answered, "Our phones, what happens if they die?" "Good question," Emi said as she checked her phone. To her surprise, the charge read 100%. "I don't think we'll have anything to worry about" she sighed.  Alex laughed, trying his best to make light of the situation. "Guess I didn't need to charge my phone earlier." Emi said, "Whoever or whatever is doing this has thought things through, seems our battery life won't be an issue." Emi thought, "A phone that won't die; under any other circumstances, this would've been pretty cool." She chuckled and she couldn't tell if it was a genuine laugh or a coping mechanism. Either way, they set out for the park.

The sun was setting but there was still a decent amount of light out. They loaded their mother's car with their supplies, and Emi reluctantly stole the keys from her corpse. She had given her mother one final hug and her dad's picture one final goodbye. There were no cars and no people either, for as far as Emi could tell. She held onto the shotgun in the front passenger seat and let Alex carry the .44 from her mother's room. On a normal day, this would've felt ridiculous, driving down the street with a shotgun at the ready, but today, it felt ruthlessly benign. Alex had asked for her phone when they initially got in the car so he could try something, and from  the backseat, he remarked, "Even though I haven't completed the first objective, I was able to get that store app on my phone." "Really?" Emi asked fairly impressed. He responded, "Yeah, I used the Bluetooth from your phone to share it with mine. It was confusing at first but I was able to get a download link. There wasn't an app store to get it from though, obviously. It just downloaded and appeared on my phone. I'm guessing it only worked because I initiated the share from your phone." Emi thought, "So while there are strict rules, there are some ways to cheat the system as well. Good to know." Alex asked, "Do you think you should buy something?" As he perused the menu. "There's some extra special items here in the bonus section... But they're kinda expensive." Emi replied, "I really don't have enough hours to buy anything from the menu that I saw, and I don't want you buying anything for yourself before discussing it with me. your hours are very important." The car was silent for a moment before she said "You can keep track of things that could be worth our time in an emergency, though." She looked back at him and said, "That would be a big help." He smiled and said, "Sure." 

 As they approached the park emi heard screams echo in the distance. They parked the car and cautiously moved out of the open and approached the park from the side with trees and hedges large enough to at least partially obscure their arrival. It was then that Emi saw what was waiting for them. In the field right in front of them were rigid layers of human corpses that looked to have been bisected by some kind of laser. Multiple dismembered bodies had been tossed around the area in a disorderly display of gore. A foot still in its shoe sat not too far from them, and an arm hung uselessly in a tree to their right. Singe marks streaked across the grass in elaborate black patterns like a satellite had fired a laser down on them and a thin translucent smoke wafted from some of the burn trails. Emi noticed there was a floating white question mark in the middle of the field about a foot off the ground, surrounded by all the bodies, none of which had made it very close. She thought, "I guess we have to get to that somehow." In the distance, she saw a squirrel run down a tree. As it approached the perimeter of bodies, it was suddenly cleaved in half down the middle by some unseen force, spilling its organs out in a sloppy flop. "This isn't going to be easy," Emi thought in an emotion somewhere between anger and fear.