Game Over
“Defeated, We lost the lead, Mamma Mia, Failure…”
Horror Action
CW: Violence and suicide references.
The TV screen shows Game Over. Four high school friends curse and holler in their friend Randy’s room.
“Failed again!” an announcer declares within the game.
“Man, fuck this!” Hugo says.
“Oh, come on, man. One more round. Let’s see if we can beat this level,” Rafael says.
“Alright, alright, let’s do it.”
“Yeah, come on,” Randy says. “We gotta beat it this time.” He checks his watch and it’s getting late, but his parents are out of town this weekend and his sister is at a sleepover. It’s a Friday night. One more won’t hurt.
“You guys suck,” Devon says. “I’m not gonna keep playin’ if you guys suck ass.”
“Come on, Dev. Let’s go then,” Rafael says. “You’re no better. Focus, guys.”
The new game starts. The four characters in the game are in a house they need to defend from enemy thugs that come out of their vehicles and one by one invade and shoot at them inside their fortified house. The objective is to kill all of the thugs and after the waves die down players can advance to the next level.
The new game starts and the four players all rally inside the abandoned house. Rafael and Randy are stationed on the top and Hugo and Devon are on the bottom floor. They shoot and reload covering each other and killing the enemies with headshots mostly.
“Cover me,” Devon says sternly. But he gets hit and dies.
But they have three lives each round. He respawns and appears in the back of the house running with his character inside to shoot and cut back the suited thugs.
The criminals laugh wickedly whenever they kill one of them. But the four are skilled, and determined to win and advance. They cut back the second and third waves with ease and then the fourth wave comes.
Big brutes with armored vehicles and bulletproof vests storm the house. The friends switch to armor-piercing rounds finding them in hidden boxes and crates throughout the abandoned and dark dwelling.
Each teen has one more life left as they shoot violently but hide in cover when they need to reload. Covering one another, the friends switch from different windows and doors avoiding being seen and aiming with precision. They cut them down as Hugo with the final shot kills the last one.
Devon dies in the shootout.
“Ha, see!” Rafael accused him. “You suck, bro. You died twice!”
“Save it,” Devon said shaking his head.
“Dude, yes!” Hugo said.
“Nice, we’re finally moving ahead,” Randy says happily. “Man, that took longer than I thought.”
The screen goes black and the next level comes up but this time it looks unusually different.
The level in which they play in, displays itself on the screen. It looks like the outside of Randy’s house.
“What the hell,” Randy asks confused.
“Yeah, what,” Hugo says stunned. “Why does it look like your house, Randy?”
“I don’t…”
“Yeah, that’s… is that my car on the bottom of the screen,” Rafael asks.
The level is still loading as it shows different shots at different angles of the course. But the graphics look like reality. It looks exactly like his house. Randy’s bike is on the ground in front of the garage just like he left it when he came home.
“Fuck,” Devon says. “Mine too.”
Randy stands and slowly walks over to the window of his room. He sees his friend’s cars and the night sky. The full moon shines on the quiet town. Then he sees black cars and SUVs pull up and stop right in front of the house.
“The, the game is starting, Randy,” Hugo says terrified as he gulps.
“Guys,” Randy says horrified. “I-I think they’re…”
The game begins as men outside his house in real life come out and start to shoot rapidly and mercilessly like they are programs in a game. Randy ducks as bullets fly into his room. The boys clash to the floor and Devon gets under Randy’s bed screaming in terror.
“What the?” Hugo holds his head down.
“Randy, what the hell is going on,” Rafael shouts furious. Fear has the boys in its grip suffocating them.
Scrambling on the floor like flopping fish, the bullets continue to fly as the assault rifles rapidly fire.
It stops.
Then Randy hears the wicked laughter sounding freakishly familiar just like in the video game. Horrified, he opens his bedroom door and jumps out. He sees cases and crates. He opens two of them and steps back shocked. Inside placed in the boxes are weapons. Assault rifles, pistols, grenades, and magazines are all ready to be handled and shot.
“Guys, look,” Randy says rushing in. “There’s all these weapons in here!”
“Shit,” Hugo and Rafael say in unison.
Devon is still on the floor. He quickly gets up.
“What’re you guys doin’? They’re guys shooting at us out-” Then two bullets hit him and he drops dead. A pool of blood splatters on the white walls.
Randy and his friends rush to the corners cursing and screaming bloody murder. Randy doesn’t have the words to explain what is happening. Hugo starts to cry and Rafael consoles him.
“Come on, man,” Rafael encourages. “We gotta fight! Alright?”
“This isn’t happening,” Randy yells. “This is crazy.”
“Well, it is, Randy! Come on, you guys, we gotta kill ’em. For Devon!”
Randy nods. “OK.” He breathes heavily, anxiety looming over his head.
“We don’t know how to actually shoot and kill people, you guys!” Hugo sobs. “This isn’t a game anymore! It’s real! We can actually die! Oh my God, my Mom’s gonna kill me!”
“Come on, mi amigo! We gotta get up and do this,” Rafael screams.
“We’ll do this together,” Randy says crouching down. Bullets spray again.
“You can’t hide forever,” a terrible voice calls out. “We have all night!”
“We gotta fight ’em, bro.”
“OK, OK,” Hugo agrees. “But I can’t look at that.” He refers to Devon’s bloody corpse. Randy quickly puts his comforter over his fallen friend avoiding bullets.
“Come out and fight!” The men outside curse and taunt the boys.
“Let’s go!” The three pull out the weapons from the crates. Each friend takes an assault rifle, one pistol, and three grenades. Then as they finish suiting up, a single grenade comes hurtling inside.
“Look out! Grenade!” Rafael jumps down the stairs as the other two dart down after him. The explosion deadens their hearing.
“Fuck, that’s a lot worse in real life,” Rafael screams.
Randy stumbles down the stairs and gets up fast. He goes into the living room. The whole house is dark as bullets fly shattering the windows. He ducks underneath the windowsill. He signals to the other guys to both be at the opposite window near the stairs.
“Just like in the game. Come on! On me!” He stands up, aims, and fires. He goes to the side of the window as bullets are shot in his direction. He fires again and hits two hostiles.
“Guys, there’s auto sights just like in the game!”
He laughs with glee firing and dodging around. It’s as if his muscle memory from the game works and is utilized in this strange reality in which they now find themselves. He rolls profusely on the ground and fires at different intervals hitting the thugs.
Rafael shoots out, gets a headshot, and laughs.
“Oh yeah! That’s awesome! Just like the game, Hugo. Let’s gooo!”
Hugo gets up seeing Randy run and jump around like his character in the game and suddenly knows what to do, how to roll, and how to aim and shoot. Killing in the game though is different out here, he finds out.
He shoots one dead and his soul is gripped with confusion and sadness. But in the heat of the moment, they all deaden their hearts and focus on killing the gunmen.
They complete the easy level as the next wave comes. They have time to reload and catch their breath.
“Damn, this is a lot different than in our room,” Randy says.
“Yeah,” Hugo says. “We gotta take it easy. I’m tired.” He throws down his gun.
Suddenly, the start of a new game is heard. Music from the sky echoes in the silent night just like in the video game. Then Devon appears in the corner respawning in time.
“Devon? Oh, my God,” Randy gets up and hugs his friend. “What the hell happened?”
“That hurt, bro. But then I was dead, like-like I just saw darkness but then…”
“What is going on?” Randy asks eerily and shakes his head. He moves towards the window.
“That’s crazy bro.” Rafael bro-hugs him. “Glad to have you back. This guy cried for you,” he laughs mocking him.
“Shut up, bitch.” Hugo wipes his tears and fist-pumps Devon. “Glad to have you back.”
Then the vehicles that were previously on the road are gone. New armored trucks come in crashing onto the lawn. The huge brutes come out yelling with rage.
“Guys,” Randy says. “We have company.” The boys go for more ammo in the crates upstairs and shoot and kill as many as they can.
“When is this gonna stop, man?” Rafael loads armor-piercing rounds and kills three in one round before heading for cover.
“Devon, just like in the game,” Randy teaches Devon as he nods in agreement. They fight like hell and go on for a while but Randy gets shot three times and dies quickly.
Before he blacks out, he sees Rafael go to his side, then he wakes up in a dark place where he can’t move.
He looks around and sees a deadened light above. Alone and helpless inside a well-like chamber, he is filled with sadness. He doesn’t know if he will ever escape it if he dies two more times and he can’t bear it if that comes true.
Abruptly, Randy appears at the bottom of the stairs of his house again.
“Congratulations!” a deep voice announces.
They win again, and advance to the next level. Randy is relieved but Rafael has died too. He appears in the living room as they see each other and then run out of the kitchen together. They can see their health and lives left showing in their own eyes.
“Three lives. Two more left,” Randy says gravely.
“This sucks,” Rafael shouts, his anger rises and his chest tightens. “When are we gonna be done with this? I don’t wanna play anymore! I don’t wanna play anymore!”
“Hey, hey!” Devon comes and tries to calm him but Rafael backs away more ferociously.
“Don’t touch me, you fuck! I don’t wanna play anymore! Help me!” He runs into the corner as Randy follows him. “Don’t you fuckin’ follow me! Are-are you in on this? Is this some sick joke,” he accuses.
“No, man, no!” He fires a whole round into his friend’s stomach and Randy dies again.
He wakes in the utter darkness. “Oh, my God, oh my…” He cannot believe what is happening. After a while, he appears in the backyard as he hears shouts and cursing. Devon lays dead again on the bloody floor as Rafael shoots him. His friend points it again towards him.
“Rafi, stop, man,” Randy urges. “It’s me! We don’t know what’s going on but we’ll figure it out. Alright?”
The eerie music plays again and pierces their ears. Rafael screams shooting all over the room and despairs. He shoots the floorboards and ceiling of the living room. Rafael then points it inside his mouth.
“I’ll wake up!”
“NO!”
Randy drops to the ground. He looks up and more thugs with guns come and surround the house. Devon appears in front and is shot almost as fast as he appears drowning in his own blood.
Randy yells furiously as he gets his weapon flipping the coffee table for cover. Bullets soar toward the table hitting it mercilessly. He screams and shouts with all his strength. Hearing Hugo being slain and gutted like a fish by multiple thugs, he is filled with fright.
He uses the table like a shield as he is overcome with hundreds of suited bloodthirsty men laughing maniacally programmed to do one thing: kill.
Randy appears in darkness once more but this time sees no light. He is in complete darkness and he cannot speak. He can’t tell if his friends are in the dungeon with him. No screaming is heard, no sound except for the game music playing its ugly tune in the far distance.
It seems it will play forever.
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