Wrecked life

Chapter 1

The day started off like any other at the Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade. Despite threats of thunder storms later that afternoon the arcade was full. Every game had at least 2 or 3 players patiently waiting their turn. Mr. Litwak had hired his older son and a friend of his sons to set up and run a snack bar where the players could get ice cold drinks, pretzel's, and pizzas. His second son kept track of a ticket booth. To his delight adding tickets in order to get little trinkets had made his arcade more popular and kids now played not just to win, but to win tickets that they could redeem at the counter. His son Barry had claimed it was gambling for kids it just seemed that addictive. Mr. Litwak was inclined to agree. The ticket booth didn't mean money to him though, it meant his young and not so young customers could enjoy themselves even more.

As the day passed by and kids began to drift home broke but pleased and moaning about tomorrow being Monday and a school day. Litwak wondered around briefly to check his games for any out of order signs he might have stuck up. There were none. He was rather pleased. The door opened and a woman walked in. It was hard to tell her age. Her face was childlike but the eyes behind her glasses held weary cynicism and it was hard to say if she was trim or not under the baggy shapeless clothes she wore. A name badge proclaimed her one Daniel Mcdeal. Mr. Litwak smiled apologetically.

" I'm sorry miss. We're closing but we open at 8 in the morning."

The woman smiled at him warmly and reached out to shake his hand. " I'm here to calibrate your machines and upgrade some of your older ones."

" Oh yes YES of course terribly sorry, usually a man comes here once every 6 months or so. Gerry something..."

" Yes he trained me he's retired now. I brought in some more roles of tickets, I'll check your machines and make sure their filled as well as your token machines. I'll leave extras for you during the week. Half a minute and you'll be able to put your money in your safe."

Litwak nodded and went to the back to unlock a door to his office. He came out with a long bag and his key. Daniel followed him patiently around listening to his chatter as he opened each machine to empty it of the money within. She didn't bother replacing tickets yet as she had alot to do. Once every machine was empty of it's money and Litwak and his son struggled to get the bag into the safe for counting early tomorrow they made she had a key to lock up.

Daniel bid them farewell and then sighed. This was her job. Upgrading machines, replacing ticket rolls, and when she was wasn't doing that she worked on the geek squad helping people with their computers. Although she didn't let this get around she was a rather good hacker though she had never used it for anything bad. However that seemed to be all she was good at. She didn't go out. She had few friends and no family. Her romantic life never active to begin with had gone downhill when she picked up a night job to help maintain video games. Still she was very well off and had plenty of money. Plenty of money however was a bit dull since she had no one to spend it on.

She pulled out a handy man's belt and she placed her tools and electric gadgets in it. Normally only the newest games got an upgrade. For example it was time to add new songs and dances to the Dance Dance Revolution game. A video card needed to be replaced in 2 other games as the screen had taken on a black line right down the center. Still one or two older games were showing signs of a video card needing to be replaced as the picture jittered slightly.

Daniel hitched up her belt and grabbed the bag of rolled tickets. The first thing she did was the easiest. She replaced all the ticket rolls. Then she moved to the trickier chore. Upgrading some of the newer games. On her back under the Dance Dance Revolution game she plugged in a card into a USB port and then opened her tiny little laptop on her wrist to give it the proper command. She waited until the screen flashed ' update successful '.

She climbed out of the game and carefully put the back on it screwing it shut. A Loud BAM of thunder caused her to jump slightly and she glanced out the glass door to see the rain pouring down with a vengeance. She sighed hoping it would be done by the time she had to leave. Other than that she gave it little thought. She opened another game careful with the wires and then pulled the video card out snapping a new one in places. She looked at the screen. Fresh colors infused new life into the background and the characters as they fought some zombies.

Daniel paused at a game named ' Fix Felix Jr ' She smiled at it. " God you were my favorite game when I was a kid." She murmured. Felix had always reminded her dad who she loved and had lost at a young age. He was the one who had taught her how to work with her hands. He had taught her to take a small engine apart and put it together again. No matter what, be it the house or the car, her father had always been able to fix it.

She frowned a little. Fix it was looking a little dull. She checked her pouch mumbling to herself " I wonder if I have 23-0 video card? It's such an old game...Ah yes..."

She wrestled the game away from the wall panting. After taking a rest she pulled out a plug from the console in the back and then removed the back panel. She winced at how old everything was. She pulled out the video card and popped a new one in. She also replaced two small chords that went to the controllers. With some 'yoga from hell' like moves she managed to twist up enough to pull the buttons out of the games shell and replace them with fresh buttons. She snapped these in took a small brush from her pouch and brushed away spider webs.

' Sorry Guys '

Well that was it. The colors would be brighter and the buttons wouldn't be so loose and wishy washy. Satisfied she took the chord and plugged it in. Unfortunately a horrible pain shot up her arm spreading relentlessly through out her body. Over her screams she could hear the roar of thunder. It sounded like Armageddon.

Her last confused thought before she spun away into darkness was ' Mom? Dad? What...'