Maiden-In-Distress

Chapter 1

Maiden-in-distress

By LivelyOrange

All rights reserved. 2016

Please do not copy.

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"You ready for this?" Maddie grinned and I followed behind her on my hover board. "Yeah, of course! You won't beat me, but let's see how this one goes." As I trailed after her in my neon pink hover board, the HD worldwide TV screen slid the words across, "Fantastic new virtual world reality! Come to the amusement park to play your hearts deepest desires! [Currently in maintenance from Saturday till 12:00 a.m. Sunday. Thank you for your patience.]

We were just heading for it now!

"We're here." Maddie said cautiously as she reached a building's back door.

"Um, Maddie? Why are we here?" I asked her skeptically.

She was always up to tricks. Plus, this was a staff-only area.

She clicked her tongue and tapped at her head, "this is the thing I was talking about. "Wait what? That? So what do you want us to do, try to break in and get arrested?"

I crossed my arms, "I thought better of you."

"Well, this is the new world reality. You know.." She pointed at the sliding words on the screen.

"Yeah, but this is staff-only." I repeated her gesture at the door sign. Obviously.

She rolled her eyes and said, "we're going to break in." I widened my eyes, "you're crazy! Do you want to be arrested?"

She reasoned, "No they're not going to see ANYTHING, besides we are in the virtual world and we're hidden." "But-!"

"NO BUTS!!" She teeth-whispered and pulled me through the paint fumed staff-room. While we had been talking she picked the door lock. Unbelievable.

She pushed me toward a tanning booth tube which I assumed was the portal between reality and virtual. "Make sure to press the green button."

"Hey..Maddie..? How did you know how the machinery worked?" I asked her. But she was gone.

Oh my god. She couldn't have gone already to the virtual world. Not without me!

I spotted the hover board beside the tube. How could she be so careless? I picked up the board along with mine.

I couldn't remember what Maddie said to do to enter the VR. So I pushed a random button which so happened to be red.

Suddenly, I was sucked inside the tube and whoosh! I flew upwards like a rocket before I could shut my eyes I arrived.

I popped onto a clean shaven grassy ground and rolled over to a lumpy surface. I rubbed my back, what was I leaning on?

I turned to look. It was Maddie. She groaned, "Lina, you're crushing me!"

I tumbled off and turned to face her, "Ooh sorry, I had a bad fall. But.. why did you leave without me? It's dangerous!"

She rolled her eyes again, "You need to be more of a risk taker, think of how fun this can be! So I made sure you went after me." "Yeah, and you forgot to take your hover board. So I brought ours." I added. "Really? I forgot about it."Maddie said, "Where are they?" "It fell down here somewhere.." I searched the area. Nothing. Only endless green patchy grass. "Our hover boards are gone!" I screeched.

"SERIOUSLY LINA?! How will we travel now? Not to mention I paid 50 pounds for mine!" Maddie hysterically gasped.

"Sorry," I said sincerely, "I'm VERY sure I brought our hover boards here-"

"Wait, it's maybe still in the booth, it probably can't be transferred to virtual reality. Perhaps that's why it needed to be monitored by staff-we can't bring our things over here!" I ranted in a feat I'd never done before.

Maddie eyes widened, "You're right. I didn't think about that possibility, sorry!"

"We should go back, what if they found our boards?" I said to her, "We'll get into a lot of trouble."

Maddie looked stunned. "What's wrong?" I asked, looking at where she was facing.

I realized what was wrong before she said, "the booth's gone."

OH MY GOD. The booth was gone. "Maddie I thought you knew how the machinery worked!"

I anxiously patted around the patch to search for something round, circular, and glassy.

"No, we only needed to press the green button." She yelled.

I shook my head filled with disbelief, "I knew this wasn't a good idea. We're going to die if somebody doesn't find us fast."

"Stop being so dramatic Lina, let's walk around."

Then I remembered, it must've been my fault. I pressed a RED button instead of a green one. Right now, it doesn't matter whether or not I tell Maddie. All the same, we're still STUCK.

"I don't know, maybe we should just wait." I said.

"What did we come here for?" Maddie said, exasperated, "To have fun! Come on!" Maddie dragged me by my hand. "Ouch! You're hurting me. I'll come!" I said with a sigh. There's no helping it. I don't want her to get lost.

Maddie smiled wide, "Worry later, fun now." We ran across the meadow and onto a road.

And so, the game began.