Small Truth

Around her pointer finger, Frankie twirled two keys while strutting back to the rain zone.

Katie marched by her side, beaming as she did. Behind them was Willow, happy that it all worked out- and, for some reason, the humiliated Maxine, overcome by shame as she hung her head low and got dragged along back to the treasure area.

Frankie took a peek up at the half-dark clouds.

“I was thinking about something… Willow, you didn’t help us back there, but when that boy stole our photo at the start of all this, you kicked him in the nuts.” She sighed. “So which is it? Do you care about us, or just your game?”

“Couldn’t you tell? That boy had no intention of playing. He just wanted someone to hurt, so I had every right to stop him.” The gamemaster affirmed. 

“You’re one weird lady…”

Past the bushes, they found the locked cave again. And above it, the same screen, repeating on the loop that same strange old video.

“What… is this, anyway?”

Katie was watching just as closely, but she couldn’t answer her sister. It all looked so familiar, yet… so incorrect. History, she guessed.

“When would this have been?” Katie turned to Willow, who was gleaming at the image with nostalgic joy.

The video was simple, stretching only a few minutes long before it restarted in an instant. As much as they’d learned in school, seeing this footage painted a different image of the old world.

“The later years BNG. Truly an awful time indeed.”

“Why are you smiling, then?” Katie asked.

“Something you’ll understand when you get older, maybe.”

“BNG…? But isn’t this… better than it is now?” Frankie squinted at the light of the affixed device.

While what they’d been told in the past weren’t entirely lies, they didn’t properly convey any of this. The previous era wasn’t a wasteland at all- It didn’t look like how they talked about it- a so-called dead planet, in need of resuscitation. Not at all. In fact, it was unlike anything they had now- far, far more advanced than that. While massive theme parks didn’t cover the land, it was more impressive than even the most impressive of attractions: the cityscapes were full of technological wonders they lacked, from flying cars to a far greater presence of robotics that put their mother’s collection of attractive androids to shame. It looked more like the far future than the distant past. It was a utopia like they’d never seen before.

“The one thing I disagree with him on is why we have to forget all this.

“You’re talking about Kidney, right?”

“Mhm.” She longed.

“Why do we have to forget all this? Why- why aren’t things like this today?”

“I think… explaining that much would be disrespectful to his wishes. More so than I’m willing to go.”

“I don’t understand either.” Katie piped up. “Why talk about the days before like they were a post-apocalyptic nightmare?”

“I think that’s how he saw them. Don’t misunderstand- the world was on the brink of total, unilateral economic collapse then. And he did save it. Some people just… might not understand that, if they knew the truth you see now. How it… really was, before he overwrote it. …What we lost.”

Maxine grumbled something.

“What, do you have something to say about this?” Frankie turned to the girl.

“I… just don’t get it.” She mumbled. “Not history or whatever, forget all that. I mean, like… why is this here?”

“I don’t follow.” Willow chose to listen to her.

“How does this help the game…?”

The elder laughed.

“You didn’t pay attention to the point of this, did you? I made this game… as a tribute to Kidney. And all the things I love him for, even the parts he doesn’t understand.” She put her hand to her heart. “I suffered a long time in that incredibly advanced world. I don’t know how I can repay him for finally taking it away. The most I can do… is this.”

Maxine scoffed. Frankie sighed. The old world was no better than this one. All it was missing was the forced theming the one this age possessed.

But then, she paid attention to one part of the clip she hadn’t seen yet.

Ever so-breifly, it showed an old forest, big and green.

Nobody in it. Just silence.

For all she knew, that could’ve been the last forest in the world, even then. But still, she began to long for it in an instant.

“Can I… open the gates now?” The girl distracted herself.

“Go right ahead.” Willow smiled ear to ear. “You’ve earned it.”

She slowly breathed outward, inserting her prizes to open the doors into the shallow cave. Looking into the darkness, she prepared to enter and claim her reward-

That was, before Maxine bolted straight in.

“I said the winner got the keys, not the treasure, dipshit!”