Nerd Art Online

Nerd Art Online Part 5

I look over at Chris and Lacey and they're holding hands while jumping up and down and squealing. I can see excitement in their smile but fear in their eyes. They know that they won't go back to the real world for a long time but it's too good of an opportunity for them to be too afraid. I understand how they feel. I walk over and Lacey lets go of Chris's hands and runs over to me. She gives me the biggest, sweetest hug ever and gives me a nervous smile. Still not letting go, she asks me, "You and Chris will be with me the whole time, right?" My heart stops for a second and I feel like I'm about to cry. I wrap my arms around her and say into her shoulder, "Of course, Lacey. We always will be." A third pair of arms joins in and Chris starts crying into my arm.
We stand there for a few minutes and then we finally let go. Chris wipes away tears from his eyes and soon Lacey and I find ourselves doing the same. A few minutes pass by before we fully recover. I hear a classmate start clapping and soon the whole class, including Mr. Harpers, applauds us. Chris starts bowing and Lacey giggles.
"Alright class, quiet down." Mr. Harpers brings us all back to reality, or the closest to reality we can get in a video game. "We can't all travel as a class for the whole game. We'll need to split into smaller groups. Choose your groups, then choose a leader and then that person will come up to me." The class starts talking and spreads into groups. Chris, Lacey and I all look at each other. "Who's gonna be the leader?" I ask. Immediately, both point to me. I let out a sigh. "You sure?" They both nod. "Yup!" "Yeah." I play with Lacey's hair for a second and then shake my head. "Fine. I'll do it. I gotta go and talk to teach." I nod to Mr. Harpers. "Be right back." I say with a smile at Lacey.
       Mr. Harpers gives us instructions and we all end up with a way to communicate with him. "A notification will pop up on your screen whenever I text you, and usually that will be telling you where to meet up and how to get there. Ok?" We all nod our head in agreement. "Alright, you can go back to your groups now."
We all split up and went back to our groups. Lacey and Chris were comparing weapons and powers when I came back. Lacey motions for me to join them. I take out my bow and arrows and Lacey runs her fingers across it. There's amazement and beauty in her eyes. "It's so pretty.." She whispers. Chris puts one hand on her shoulder and the other on my bow and nods. "Yep! Picked it out myself!" I kick his foot. "You did not." He crosses his arms and pouts. I roll my eyes. "So mature..." I say sarcastically to Lacey. She giggles and pats him on the head. "So mature.." She quotes. I'm starting to really love to this kid.
I look up at Chris, or what I expected to be Chris. I panic for a split second and then look down and he's laying on the ground in the most dramatic pose ever. "Blegh.." He has his sword in his armpit. "I'm ded." I glance at Lacey and then cover my mouth. I put my hands down and clench my fists. I reach over and pull the sword out of his armpit. Chris flails his arm and legs and then he lets his whole body go numb. I see Lacey covering her mouth with her hands from the corner of my eye. I grip the sword tighter and sniff. Then I widen my eyes and fall face first into the ground as if I'd just been shot. We lay there for a minute until Lacey kneels down next to Chris and gets really close to his face. We wait for a second and then Chris pops up and starts tickling her. She starts giggling at first, and then she just breaks into laugher and can't stop laughing, even after he stops tickling her. I sit up and start laughing too. Soon, all of us are rolling around on the ground laughing and none of us even know why.
Once we regain our sanity, we stand up and I check on my screen to see where the first quest/challenge is. Most of the other groups had already left. The first quest that pops up is that there are some beasts running through and ruining a village and we need to kill them. "Sounds pretty easy," Chris says. "Let's do it!" Lacey smiles and gives a thumbs up. I nod my head. "Alrighty then, let's go."
We start walking to the village and we get to know each other while we're walking. We learn a lot about each other and I even learn some things about Chris that I never knew. We arrive at the village in the middle of our conversation about Starbucks and what our favorite/least favorite flavor is. We look around and I see Lacey's expression become completely blank. The whole town is being destroyed. There are a few fires here and there and many things are broken and shattered. Chris pulled out his sword and starts running at one of the beasts. They're the same ones that we fought earlier today, but bigger, scarier, and are a lot more red. He slices through two of them before Lacey and I take out our weapons. Lacey whispers some words and a dark purple blast flies through the air and kills three of them. I shoot two arrows at the same time and kill two more.
Once we confirm that we'd killed them all, we put our weapons away and head toward a group of terrified people. An older lady turns toward us. "Oh bless you sweet children. Thank you so so much!" She traps us all in a big hug and then steps away to put her hand on a younger woman's shoulder. "Half of the town has been completely destroyed," the younger woman said to us. "All of us here lived in the part that was destroyed. We don't know what to do now." Chris starts tearing up and Lacey stares into space trying to think of a solution. Chris leans on me and whispers in my ear, "Omg that is so freaking saaaaad. I dunno how to help them thooooough." I let out a small grin once I see Lacey's eyes light up. She looks back at me and I nod in approval. "I think I have a solution." She says to the group. "Do you guys have people that could rebuild the town?" The older woman nods her head. "Alright then," Lacey continues, "There's a small, abandoned town near here." She says while pulling up the map on her screen. She points to it on her screen and shows them. "It's still in good shape, so it should be good to live there, at least temporarily." The younger woman jumps in, "But what if that town gets destroyed too?" "Well, it probably won't get destroyed before your builders finish rebuilding the town. They should also build some kind of fence or gate or something to make it less likely for this to happen again." The young woman nods and looks back at everyone who all look very excited and eager. "So, can you take us to this town?" Asks some guy near the back of the crowd. "Well," I cut in, "The people who are going to rebuild the town, do they have the supplies they need to successfully rebuild the houses and install a fence?" They all think for a second and then a young man steps in front and says, "We can rebuild most of the town from the debris left from our previous homes. And if that turns out too unstable, I know some people who can get us all the supplies we need for free." I ponder for a few seconds, and then nod. "That'll work, I guess. Although, I don't think that we should start rebuilding from debris if your friends have all the supplies we need to rebuild without the debris. Plus, it'll save us a lot of time if all the houses end up falling down because they were too unstable, and we end up having to call your friends again to get more supplies." I look around at everyone. "Does that make sense?" The young man nods and brings out his own screen to message his friends. "Alright," The young man nods as he puts his screen away. "I messaged them and they said that they'll visit our town tomorrow to see the damage and how much wood and stuff we need for the houses and the fence." "Ok, that sounds great. We'll go ahead and take them to their temporary homes." I reply with a nod in the direction of the crowd of people.
We start walking in the direction of the temporary village, with Chris leading and Lacey giving directions. As we're walking, I turn around and look at the crowd. I see tears in their eyes. Tears of sadness, tears of happiness, tears of fear, tears of gratefulness. It's amazing how one thing can strike so many different emotions in a person. Just the fact of not knowing what's coming next must be terrifying, not knowing whether we are to be trusted, young children not understanding the situation and not wanting to leave the only home they've ever known. All these emotions, all these thoughts, it makes me forget I'm in a video game. I turn around with a sad smile on my face and keep walking. I feel a slight tug on my sleeve. I turn around to a little girl looking up at me with bright blue eyes, sparkling with fear and amazement. She looks so oblivious, yet so aware. It gives me a small spurt of confidence for some odd reason. I give her a smile and she squeezes me in a hug. I hug her back and we walk like that for a while, then a woman calls out, "Allison! Get back here right now!" I assume that's the little girl's mother, seeing as the little girl ran towards her once she spoke.
I chuckle to myself and jog up next to Lacey. "How close are we?" She rolls her eyes, "We've got five hours left." I see Chris's eyes water and his face looks mortified. "F-five more hours!?" Both Lacey and I start laughing hysterically. "What are you guys laughing about!?" Chris says between sobs. "This isn't funny!" Lacey and I find ourselves on the ground laughing and the whole group behind us stops and looks at us while being very confused. We stand back up and Lacey pats Chris on the shoulder and says, "We were kidding." He glares at me and rolls his eyes. "How DARE you. You little-" He's cut off by Lacey covering his mouth. "There are children here. Watch your language." She says with the slightest evil grin. He lets out a disappointed sigh and she giggles. She takes her hand off of Chris's mouth and wipes it on her pants with a look of disgust. I laugh and we continue walking.
After about 15 minutes, we arrive at the abandoned village. "Here we are!" Chris announces. "Make yourselves at home, you'll be staying here for quite a while." We watch as the group splits off and find houses for themselves. It's a surprisingly nice town, everything seems in tact and it looks beautiful. Not to mention the gorgeous view it has of the rest of the city. It's at a high elevation so you can see for miles. I start to wonder why it's abandoned, but then again we are in a video game so some things probably won't make that much sense. I find myself wandering around feeling the bark of the blooming cherry blossom trees, watching the children run around in the grass chasing butterflies, admiring the view, and just taking in the beauty of it all. I wish places were as beautiful as this in real life. I start to wonder if they're considering just moving everyone out here, but then again, I don't know if their town is pretty like this since all we've seen are the ruins. I didn't get much of a chance to walk around or examine the nature and stuff.
       After a few more minutes, a man that looks like the leader or something of the group walks up to us. "Thank you so much for helping us. We all truly appreciate your help, but I believe we can handle things from here. Thank you again for helping us and I wish you well on your way back to wherever you're leaving to. Take this as a "thank you" gift." He hands me a book titled Monsters And Everything You Need To Know About Them. "I hope this helps you beat the game. Good luck young children. I wish only the best for you on your journey!" Chris and Lacey nod and thank him, but I stare at him for a while. I come to realize that he is the only one, it seems, that knows that this is a game and that we are trying to beat it. I wonder how he knows since he's a part of the game and no one else can play this game other than our class. "Wait!" I call after him. He turns around and raises an eyebrow. "Yes?" "How did you know that this is a game?" I ask him. Although he doesn't answer my question directly, it brings an interesting truth to it. It makes me think of the game differently and I begin to wonder. The words he said are, "Beat the game. Set us all free. You don't know the pain and loss we've been through. The rest have been brainwashed, but I am aware. They've forgotten what they left behind. But they'll remember once they're set free. Once we get to see them again. It's been years..." He trails off...