Survival

Arrival: The Forest

Laying on the carpet floor of her yellow room was Quinn. She was scrolling through her tablet on a summer afternoon and was going through a very serious case of boredom, looking for a game to solve that problem. That's when she took notice of an rpg called "Survival". She looked through the display pictures of the game and the graphics were extremely well made, even the monsters looked realistic. She tried to look at the reviews but for some reason, there weren't any. Confused, she looked at the day the game was released and it had the same date as today. Quinn tried taking a look at the description and all it said was, "Survive." Humming a little, she pressed the install button and waited for the game to load. But something strange happened... Once the game finished loading, Quinn could see her hand disappearing into thin air. Just as quickly as she noticed her hand, she blacked out.

"Ugh.." There was an aching pain on the back of Quinn's head and she slowly sat up. The soft cushioned feeling of her room's carpet was replaced by a cold, rough texture, like concrete. Finally slowly opening her eyes to the sudden bright light, she sat in shock. What was before, Quinn's bedroom, has now turned into a temple filled with people looking just as confused as she is. She looked down at herself and she had a black cape draped over her body. Slowly standing up, she looked around and analyzed her surroundings, other people wearing the same cape as her. There was about 1,000, perhaps even more people in the humongous temple, at least, that's how far she could see. "Where am I?" As of on cue, a male voice boomed from every direction and a huge apparition loomed over the huge crowd. A person, seeming to be a man, draped with a more detailed robe similar to ours.

"Good day ladies and gentlemen. Congratulations for being chosen as a player for 'Survival', an rpg game specifically made for testing the limits and adaptation of humans! Lets get right to it. Here are the rules: you may be able to team up with others unless said otherwise, you are also allowed to kill one another, and you will be able to use any resources you find to your advantage. You will not be able to: Call for help outside the game, stay in one level for too long, or attempt to "hack" the game. Not that you can anyways. Now, to address some concerns, 'How do I beat the game?' Or 'How do I get out of here?' The answer is simple. Kill the masters of each level. There will be different biomes with different masters that are stationed at a specific tower. When you find the hidden tower, you will need to find the master and kill it. Once you do, you will be able to pass on to the next biome. There are, however, special exceptions to this rule. If one person from a group ends up killing the master by themselves, the whole group will be able to pass to the next level. That is all. In about 10 minutes, you will be transported to the Forest Biome. During this time, it would be helpful to look for at least one other person in your group. Time begins now."

Everyone is frozen in place, not having yet processed the situation they are in. Seconds later they quickly start panicking and running around trying to get as much people as they can in their team. 'I need to try and shove my way through the dense crowd. It's been 6 minutes already and I still haven't found someone to join me. Everyone is panicking too much..'

That's when Quinn gets bumped and looses her balance, falling backwards until she feels a pair of big hands on her back. Relived she didn't fall down, she turns around to thank the person that saved her from having a painful encounter with the concrete floor. "Oh, um, thank you very much." Quinn could finally see who her savior was. A boy who looked around 17 stood in front of her. He had black, thick, straight hair with soft round blue eyes. He looked kind.

"Yeah no problem... Hey, since we don't have much time left, do you think maybe we could team up? I haven't found anyone yet.." Quinn's shoulders perked up in excitement. "Yes! Of course I'd love to team up! I've also been trying to look for someone." He smiled in relief. "My name is Emilio. It's nice to meet you." He said, offering a handshake. Taking his hand, Quinn also introduces herself. "Likewise. My name's Quinn, it's nice to meet you too." When they finished their introductions, the temple suddenly started giving off a red light, a clock appearing in mid-air counting from ten seconds. Quinn glances at the timer. She sighs, "You ready?" Emilio nods in response. "See you on the other side Quinn." The two nod at each other before looking back at the clock, almost reaching zero. Once it did, they were once again blinded by another white light.

Quinn's vision cleared up and she looked at her surroundings. She was in a big forest with extremely tall, thick trees, their size hiding the view of the sky. Noticing Emilio a few feet away from her, she walked over to him. "Hey Emilio. You got any idea what we're supposed to do?" He noticed Quinn and replied. "Beats me, I'm just as clueless as you are." Interrupting our conversation, we heard a woman's voice coming from what sounded like a megaphone, it's voice loud with some slight static.

"Hello humans. Welcome to your very first biome. The Forest. I am the forest master and I will be explaining the gist of this domain. First off, there will be a timer in the sky indicating when a stage is about to begin. As you can see, the sky is covered by the trees, making it hard to see the clock. Well, not exactly my problem. If one day there is not a clock in the sky, there will be no stage. Now, what are stages? Stages are different rounds you have to beat in order to stay alive in this biome. These phases are quite deadly so make sure to do your best not to die in the very first biome. That would be embarrassing. Do what you need to survive." And with that, it goes silent.

Quinn looks at Emilio with a worried look. "What? What's wrong?" Quinn scratches the back of her head. "Well, it would be helpful to climb up to one of the trees to get a better view of the clock but.. I'm not a good climber and I'm also not very athletic..." His face gives off a sympathetic smile. Putting a hand on Quinn's shoulder, he says, "Hey, don't worry, I'll help you as much as I can. I'm pretty athletic myself. You can count on me." Quinn lets out a relieved sigh.

"We should stay as far away as possible from the other groups. The game master told us that we could kill each other. Knowing that, there's gonna be a lot of people who are willing to do what it takes to survive. Especially since there isn't any police force or government. People could go rouge..." Emilio agrees but questions, "How do I know you're not one of those people?" Quinn chuckles a bit. "Believe me, if I was, it would be useless to kill you. You have skills that benefit me. On the other hand, compared to you, I'm so weak and scrawny. I need someone to protect me. How would I know you're not a killer either?" Emilio responds, "You remind me of someone. I wouldn't be able to kill you even if I wanted to." Quinn give him a curios look but decides not to dig any deeper.

"Well then, let's get going. I'll go try to find a water source to camp next to. But first, we need to check if there's a clock in the sky." Emilio offers to climb and began heading up the nearest tree. After a few minutes he swiftly climbs back down. "Nothing. I think the master is giving us a head start."

"Ok! Lets get going then. We've got a lot to do." With that, the two venture off into the dense forest.