INSERT 25¢ TO CONTINUE : Into the AudoScape

Level 9: GAME OVER

Despite the Volkswagen being totaled, there were no casualties or serious injuries, as most kids were able to jump out of the way once they hit the tree. Before Allope and Freddie made camp in the woods the night before, she saw him store and use a small trap door in between the back seats. Fred had good intentions with storing this compartment; as it was filled to the brim with blankets, pillows, flashlights, first aid kits, clothing for both him and Allope, and a week or two worth of food for the kids. He likely didn't know that his van would support around 10 children, but he packed well enough to support a little girl and a football player.

The kids settled in quickly, bundling themselves in blankets and turning the van into a pillow fort; trading ghost stories as if it were just a usual slumber party as time passed. Allope unlatched the virtual gear off of her arms and legs, and placed it back into her backpack. Alongside the gear, she lifted her earpiece off and tucked it safely in a small pocket off to the side of the backpack.

Jack and Dewly watched Allope as she scooted down to the end of the van and left out of the back doors. She closed them roughly, causing Jack and Dewly to be concerned. They contemplated running after her as minutes of silence passed.

Suddenly birds flew up past the trees, and a loud scream bellowed through the forest. It startled the children, making them think that there was some kind of boogeyman in the woods, but the cry softened into mourning the quieter it got. "What happened in there?" Jack finally got to ask.

Dewly rolled his upper lip into his mouth as he attempted to come up with an answer, "Allope had to make a tough decision, I think." Jack grabbed the backpack with her hearing aid, and the two kids pushed open the back doors to comfort Allope. Allope was sitting far off, knees facing down into the cold snow, attempting to dig up something. Allope didn't want to hear herself like this, it would just remind her how 'weak' she had become.

Nobody had to say anything. Jack and Dewly just stood behind Allope as she pulled up the snow and dirt. Once the hole was as deep as Allope needed it to be, she placed her hand into her pocket to pull out the car keys, "This is all I have left of him. Well, other than the jacket; but I don't want to get cold. Is that selfish of me?" she turned around to Jack; Jack shook her head, and Allope threw the keys down the hole and started burying them. She stood up and walked near some trees, kicking off the snow below them. Beneath the snow were a pile of stones, which Allope started to place around the buried keys. Jack and Dewly followed along until a circle was completed around the patch of dirt. Allope put on a smile once more, as did Jack and Dewly to reassure that she was okay.

Perhaps the environment was fine now; but there was no future for these kids if that's all they had left. The car was totaled, cold and deadened by the cracks and broken windows, and barely had much of a difference in temperature from the outside. While they were deep in the woods; it could have been possible to move beyond the forest and back to civilization before the frost got to all of them; but then what? Below the watchful eye, could these kids really find any peace without a loving home and a demon laced into every wire? What else was there to do?

In its final fate before the batteries died, likely forever, Allope dug into the backpack for her headset, as she resolved to the answers of this world when her own won't give her one. She was still tired from Cliff's games, but desperate enough to lose more of her strength just to get out of this. Jack and Dewly just stood there with a lack of any other answers. Jack knew more than anything that this could be more harmful to Allope, but had built enough trust in the machine of impossible answers. Nonetheless, Allope was watched over carefully as she ventured into the void of the AudoScape.

Allope observed something, but didn't come completely to a perfectly satisfying answer. All she could do was observe; shifting her head slightly towards the van. "YO-ALLOPE?!" Dewly yelled obviously not remembering he had her earpiece in the backpack.