Possibilities

Tyler

  Alica just killed my best friend. I said this over and over in my head, and I still didn't believe it. How could I believe something so truly awful? Alica would never hurt a fly. She had always just been so... Delicate. I guess that's why I had trouble accepting the truth. I wanted to cry and scream and shout about the sheer impossibility of the situation, but I knew that would get us nowhere. Chase was dead and that was that. We didn't have time to mourn the terrible loss, not if we were going to survive. It's not like I wasn't sad, the reality just hadn't sunk in yet.

Nothing this exciting had ever happened in my life, although maybe 'exciting' isn't the right word for the horror that unfolded. One minute, I was just a guy palying a game with his friends. The next thing I knew, my world was turned upside down. I didn't think I'd ever play a simulation again if I ever got out of that crisis.

What about my family? What would mom do when she saw that I was missing? What about Alica, Morgan, and Chase's families? At the thought of Chase, I stiffened. Who would tell his parents he was... dead. No one in the real world knew what had happened to any of us. I cursed myself for cutting virtual school that day. If I hadn't, none of this would have ever happened. I would still be a normal fourteen year old boy, with a dog and a little sister and... It pained me to think of my old life. 'Old life'. It was funny how quickly I had accepted this new world as life. Couldn't it just be a dream? No it couldn't. I quickly shook off the silly idea. This was too real, to vivid to be a figment of my imagination.

Then, I had an idea. I had learned some cheat codes to help me out with some of my more challenging simulated reality games. Maybe, whoever trapped us here hadn't remembered to block those commands. Maybe if I spoke the codes aloud, I could get us something of value to keep us alive, or transport us to a safer environment. Already, the sun was setting. Glowing eyes stared at us, and I got the feeling that come nightfall we would be attacked by any number of wild animals. Worse still, a volcano not more than one mile away from us smoked ominously in the growing darkness.

But the plan would never work. It was too far fetched. What if I got Alica and Morgan's hopes up, and then it didn't work? But what if I was right? What If the cheat codes did work? What if I never tried, and we died here. What if we could have survived, but we didn't, because of me? I figured that further destroying all hope was a risk I was willing to take, if it meant getting out of that nightmare alive.

I called the girls over to me and told them my plan. Morgan seemed to fill with life again, as if the mere possibility of staying alive was fueling her, feeding the light within her soul, "It wouldn't hurt to try!"

"Yeah, I guess that could work," Alica shrugged. I could tell that she, like me, had doubts.

I nodded and said aloud, "Give; player 870982// 3: item, 309." Instantly three eggs appeared on the ground next to me. Alica's eyes widened in surprise.

Morgan smirked, "Told you it would work. Get us a tent to spend the night here!"

I shook my head, "No, that volcano is on the brink of erupting! Plus, the wildlife will eventually eat us. I can probably teleport us somewhere new, assuming those commands work too. It'll be somewhere random though, so be prepared for anything. Plus, I don't know the identification number for a tent."

Suddenly, the smoke coming out of the volcano thickened. Ash began to rain down on us like discolored snow. Barely seconds later, lava oozed out of the volcano. It sent shimmering waves of heat through the air.

"Get us the hell out of here!" Alica screamed.

"Take; player all// place, 5!"

We appeared in a rainforest, surrounded by lush, green plants. I could see no immediate danger. So far anyways... A family of monkeys looked down at us from the treetops, confused by our presence. One of the younger males actually came over and sniffed us, finally deciding to climb on Morgan's shoulder. "I shall name him Tazer Apple Carrot Orange! Taco for short!," she announced. I was glad that at least someone was trying to find a way to be normal.

'Taco' pulled on Morgan's hair then searched through the now-tangled mess. I guess he was searching for bugs or something. Actually, there wasn't much hair to look through. Morgan liked to keep her straight, dark brown locks short and neat. I had never seen it tangled before. Hey, there's a first time for everything.

For the remainder of the day, I summoned a few fairly useless items into existence (a stick, a book on architecture, a paper bag, a pencil, and many more disappointing objects). Then, we built a lean-to out of sticks and logs. It was only large enough to fit two of us at a time. That didn't really matter, as one of us would have to keep watch anyways. I offered to take the first shift. Neither of the girls argued. After a few hours, I woke Alica. She groggily stepped out of our make-shift shelter and into the patchwork of moonlight and foliage.

Believe it or not, I fell asleep easily and wasn't tormented by nightmares or anything of that sort. Instead, I dreamed of my sister, Katy. She walked into my bedroom to find me gone and went all over the house, searching and searching for me, only to give up, muttering something incoherent about how I was probably our with my 'stupid' friends.

I was only awoken near dawn by a shreik that peirced the night air, and could have shattered glass. Morgan.