Chapter 3. 'Welcome to the badlands'

The house had begun to fall on it self, at that exact moment, they only had ten seconds of the game time, to find the clue around the house before it was completely taken down by the fire from the volcano eruptionn. Raymond tried all his bedt from the very first start, but his body was covered with sweat running from his head and arms down to his toes. He had one last try to find out what the clue was or they all met their end in the game world. Eventually, it meant their deaths in substantial life. The game simply had 'No way out.' The rules of the games were simple; it was either you struggled to complete it or the player died to end the game. Hayden, never wanted any of his family to go that option. Thereupon extensively making an effort, Raymond had to evacuate struggling, he attempted everything excluded in the game, but ultimately, nothing appears to be working out.

Without a doubt, he just sat down on a stool that was in the front of the entire room. He overlooked the floor and held his head with his two hands. His thoughts had already intoxicated his actions to act. He didn't believe he could do it anymore, he held up his head and turned to his right-hand side only to see his father, struggling to get the rope off his body. On the other side, his sister and mother struggle with all their might to hold on to the last floor that reminds them of the toom. Subconsciously, after he turned to look at what was in front, something caught his eye. It was a painting of a man, it looked straightforwardly at him. Slowly but quite steadily, he stood up from the chair and walked towards the picture, he eventually got close, and a very little illumination of light flashed his eyes when he looked at it. Raymond became curious, he felt something was behind the picture, 'But what?' he asked himself while he went closer to have a better look at it but as he got closer to the picture, the illustration on the illumination became brighter through the eyes of the picture. "Something is behind this wall! I must know what it's!..." He said to himself inwardly. Gently, Raymond extended his hand and held the picture, he brought it down slightly slower than normal, his thoughts were right, and through the eyes, lies the answers they seek. The picture was the answer the whole time. "Dad! I found it, I found it!!" Raymond exclaimed, "Yeah, so I will finally get out of this game" Raymond had his hope up at the wrong time; inside the wall where the picture was placed, three things were also placed inside the wall. Firstly, it was a timer, it had the time of the players in the game and once it went off, the game was over. Secondly was the key to the next level of the game and only a player or players who found it could find themselves in the next level. Third, it was a stone, and if you had it, you could go back to the past. He stood confusedly in front of the options thinking about what to choose between all three of them, two things hovered in his thoughts, firstly, he didn't want to die just yet and secondly, his family was his greatest responsibility, both of them were important to him. Shortly afterward, the time got almost to its peak, and when it struck noon on the dots, the game would be over without a second chance. Out of the 11:59 and three seconds, he had to act fast. Finally, his mind was all made up, he immediately took the time stone as the time straightly struck noon. Everywhere became blank…

******

Subsequently, the sun was rising shortly after a very terrible and heavy storm, for it was hot like it had been rising all through the entire year. It seemed to be a new day of the morning in a mysterious and anonymous world. The scorching sun burned aggressively, . It hit the barren land causing heat and dryness in the deserted desert. Shortly after the temperature came down, the brightness of the sky and the sunlight that shone on the entire family, made them open their eyes slowly only to find their self-explanatory lying on the bare ground in the middle of a deserted desert.The environment was unfamiliar to them all. Even though the land was deserted, It seems more beautiful than the real world. Immediately, Hayden noticed that the environment looked exactly like the one he made. Raymond had stood up earlier before them, he walked to the rest of them and helped them up. His father stood up to his feet without help of Raymond. After much standing in the middle of where they found themselves, there wasn't any sign of help coming, no one came to their rescue. They had to move from there when they saw it was becoming late, they moved and tried to walk towards where they could find help. However, their staggered became harder as they went fell, it got to the point where their legs couldn't take the pains from walking under the desert without water, and they all fell back to the ground after much staggering. Hayden could still feel the pains in his head and all over his body while still on the ground. Then without delay, their eyes closed and they passed out. 

"Dad! Dad!! Open your eyes…" Raymond tried waking up his father from his dream state.The echo rang inside his head, he heard the call from a distance between a slight space from his thoughts. He woke up and saw an anonymous man sitting close to him on the ground. He used his hands to massage his head with a piece of cloth soaked with water. His eyes were finally opened and he could see clearly. The middle-aged man quickly noticed that Hayden's eyes were now open, he stopped what he was doing and fell to his knees. "Your majesty!!" The man immediately addressed Hayden as his king. Hayden, looked curious about what the man called him, he knew he wasn't a king, and he still couldn't remember the setup of the gaming, soon, series of questions came to his mind, but does questions wasn't that important to him at that moment, all he wanted to know was where he was. "Ummm…! Where am I? How did we get here?" He asked out of curiously.

"Welcome to the badlands!" The man replied to one of Hayden's questions. He continued by saying, "No one comes here and goes alive''....

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