Game On

The Island (iii)

It had already been five long hours since the plane crashed, and currently the sun was sitting high in the sky. Fortunately the forest was cool, and with the transition of time the pained moans and distressed cries had fallen away into a stifling silence as everyone awaited for rescue. The six players had long awoken and gathered together to quietly discuss what to do.

"Everyone!" someone suddenly called, breaking the silent stalemate. Looking to the sound a thirty-something-year old man in a dirty white shirt and black pants was stepping forward determinedly. "Some of us have decided to go and explore the island to see if there's anyone who can help us, especially since we have individuals who need immediate medical assistance and we all need water and food. For those who want to join us, we'll be leaving in twenty minutes". The man who was the co-pilot then sharply turned to two other healthy looking men.

Aki, sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees, seemed to be thinking about something before coming to decision and getting up to walk towards them. Trailing behind him was the handsome seatmate Elijah who seemed to have taken an interest in being his tail and shadow. Additionally, four of the six players—the clean looking youth Danny, the delinquent looking boy, one of the high school girls and the beautiful and stylish looking woman--decided to reluctantly follow while the other two decided to remain behind.

After exchanging a quick greeting and swapping names, the group of nine started talking about which direction to head towards.

"Before the plane went down I remember seeing a few buildings" one of the non-player men explained. "But I don't know which direction it was in. Good thing is, I think we landed close to it".

"It may have looked closer from the sky but might be a distance to travel" the co-pilot sighed. "We shouldn't try to aimlessly wonder looking for it. I think our first priority should be finding a source of water and maybe some food."

After deliberating some more and coming to an agreement, the group then discussed what to take. Before, some of the uninjured survivors had gone back to the plane and around it, finding a couple of mostly intact things which they piled together. Taking three backpacks that weren't too damaged, they carefully rationed and took what they needed from the main pile of resources and then picked a random direction.

The four players walked behind them quietly whispering to each other as they started their journey.

"Danny why couldn't we stay with the others?" the high school girl timidly asked. Her face was slightly rounded and she had a smattering of freckles on her nose giving her a homely appearance.

"Do you remember how we get points to use for the system shop?" Danny instead patiently asked.

"We can only get it through completing the side-tasks. This one was figuring out the mystery of this place" the beautiful and stylish woman summarised. She had long discarded her red heels and now wore a slightly larger and broken pair of mismatched running shoes that she had stuffed with socks which looked odd and unusual paired with her outfit.

"If you think of this as a game this is basically the first level" Danny continued. "Levels after this may get harder or we may come across instances where we need to have supernatural powers to defeat our opponents to survive."

"S-supernatural? Like g-ghosts?" the delinquent looking boy stuttered with alarm. Danny nodded grimly towards the rapidly paling group.

"That's why we need to take initiative. We don't know what will happen or what we may need to buy later".

"How do you know there's no g-ghosts here?!" the delinquent looking boy tremblingly asked while looking around. Despite his fierce expression, the naked fear was clear in his eyes.

"I don't" Danny helplessly answered. "But I think we need to take some risks in this new world".

The high school girl wrapped her arms tightly around herself looking around at the tall trees and feeling a chill in her heart. "Will we ever get out of this?" she whispered.

They fell silent, not one person amongst them knowing the answer.

The group of nine trekked through the forest for an hour and a half, tying strips of cloths to trees so they could find their way back, before they came across their first surprise. 

There were other people on the island.

There were five of them dressed in brown khaki pants and bright yellow polo shirts and wearing red caps. They seemingly appeared so suddenly that no one had time to properly react.

"We finally found you!" the woman at the front said as she rushed towards them. She had a healthy wheat coloured complexion and a bright and relieved smile on her face. "We saw the plane go down early in the morning and we've been looking for the crash site since. I'm glad there's survivors and we weren't too late! Are there more of you?"

"Yes!" one of the non-player men from their group said, limply falling to their knees in relief. They were the first to snap out of the daze. "Oh my god thank you. We're saved".

"The others are back there" the co-pilot finally explained as he pointed out the trail they'd left behind. "Some of them need urgent medical assistance. We sent a message before the plane went down but I'm not sure if anyone received it. Have you been able to contact help and rescue?"

"Yes, don't worry. But we should quickly get to the other survivors" the woman said. She waved her hand to the group behind her who came forward with encouraging smiles, taking from their backpacks water bottles and some fruits. "Eat this and gain your energy back, then lead us to the others. Unfortunately the terrain doesn't allow us to drive our vehicles up here, but there are roads. If we can get the survivors to the closest road we can take them to the camp".

"Camp?" Aki questioned.

The woman turned her bright eyes towards him, her smile getting wider. "Yes, welcome to Camp Second Horizons".