CH 1: Where did it all go wrong?

The sky was cloudy as the day darkened. There was a distant hoot from an owl as the soft evening breeze rustled the leaves of the trees in the forest. Gentle ripples formed over the lake which laid at the opening of the forest. At that moment, everything was calm and mysteriously beautiful. 

Then, the peace was broken. 

"Please! Don't一 mmph!" a terrified girl screamed but her mouth was covered by a big calloused hand. As she struggled to break free, a hard, muscled arm wrapped around her body. The petite girl was no match to the man's strength. Tears streamed down her face as the group of men held her firmly immobile and dragged an unwilling lanky man towards the lake. 

As the girl continued to struggle, the bald man leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Shush! You know it has to be done. Adam is already doomed. No one can save him now." 

"Yeah, Clara. Hush now. Unless you want to doom us all!" another man growled lowly at the girl as he helped a tan-looking middle-aged man drag the boy into the water. 

The boy knew that there was no hope for him but continued to struggle against his gag and restraints. He didn't want to die. At least, not like this. Like many others before him, the boy was afraid of the pain that is to come.

Frustrated, the middle-aged man groaned and coldly talked to the boy, "Would you rather turn and make your little sister see you like that? Look at her. She is terrified and in pain. But this way, it will only last for a few moments. If you turn, she will have to live in anguish for the rest of her life. You know Clara. Do you honestly think that she would just move on once you've turned?" 

Adam glanced at Clara. Her similarly brown eyes were now filled with sorrow. Then as if resigning to his fate, Adam's body went limp and he stopped resisting. The middle-aged man nodded grimly and called out to the bald man who was holding on to Clara, "David, face her away. I don't want this to be her last memory of Adam." 

"Yes," David said as he turned and walked slightly away from the lake. 

Once the girl was unable to see the lake, the middle-aged man with the help of the other man, pushed Adam's head into the water. Loud splashes were heard as the boy thrashed violently in the water as his lunges ran out of air. After what felt like an eternity, the splashing stopped and a few bubbles surfaced. The water became calm again. 

Adam was dead. 

Not so far away from the men, a member of the group stood on the side and watched in silent horror as the events unfold. He was a lean boy in his 20s and looked like he was about to either faint or scream. In resignation and disgust, the boy thought to himself, 'No matter how much violence and killings I had already witnessed, I can never get used to it. I know this as I, Jared Deason, am not a killer. I don't belong here.' 

Jared sighed. 

*

*

*

'When had it all gone wrong?' 

'Was it when Adam had mistakenly picked berries from a bush without checking to see if it was safe to do so?'

'Or was it when we had decided to leave the safety of our homes to travel across this land?' 

'Or was it way before I had even arrived at this place?' 

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[305 days earlier一 10th June 2021...] 

"Come on, Nic! Shoot!" Jared growled into his earpiece. 

"Yes, I'm doing it!" Nic yelled back through the earpiece. 

"Bro, we are getting slaughtered here! Pull your weight!" someone else yelled at Nic.

“Dude, I’m trying!” but as soon as Nic yelled back, the enemy in the game had successfully cornered them and killed off all of their characters.

“You see?! What did I say?! You are too slow and sloppy! Even my Grandma moves faster than you do!” an angry voice complained.

“Well, how about we play a different game? Maybe one where the game avatars have superpowers or something?” Nic asked.

“You can’t even play this game right and you want to play a game where superpowers are involved? That would be harder for you! It would have been nice if you had the same motivation when we were playing this game!”

“Come on, Omar. No use being upset over a lost game. This game is old and一” Jared began to reason.

“C.L.A.S.S.I.C! The word you are trying to say is CLASSIC! This game is a freaking classic!” Omar ranted.

Jared rolled his eyes. He knew that once Omar got started, there was almost no chance of stopping his ‘lecture’. Omar was one of the few people in the world who still played and enjoyed the simplicity of the game. Combative Shot had been around decades before the three of them were even born. The game commands and layouts were basic compared to many of the newer games. Moreover, there has been no updates or modified version of Combative Shot since the year it was made.

‘Well, to be fair, if there are no glitches and the game has been working well for decades, I guess that it could be deemed as a decent game to some.’ Jared thought to himself though he preferred games where the characters had superpowers and there were multiple levels or a sort of adventure kind of mode. Jared was the kind of guy who got easily bored over a game and having a change of pace every now and then was always welcomed.

“Dude, I get it. You’re right. Oh. My. God. Can you please stop? We have heard your ‘speech’ on so many occasions!” Nic was already whining over the earpiece.

Jared snickered. It was tiresome but always funny whenever Omar begins ranting and Nic is pushed to the verge of tears一 basically of boredom from hearing the same thing over and over again. Nic could have easily disconnected from the group call but he actually loved his friends a lot and would just stay on. There was an occasion when Nic had fallen asleep when this happened. At the memory, Jared actually had to mute the call before his friends could hear his outburst of laughter.

Suddenly feeling thirsty, Jared reached out for an already opened can of carbonated drink from a table that had stacks of books and notes behind him. As he grabbed the can, a brochure was nudged out from a pile of notes that was hazardously placed at the edge of the table and fell to the floor. Normally, Jared would have decided to not pick up a seemingly unimportant slip of paper. He was about to take a sip from his drink and return to his call when something caught his eye.

The colorful design and images on the brochure were one of a kind and stood out distinctively when the whole of his room was decorated in dark and dull colors. Somewhat intrigued, Jared bent down from his gaming chair and picked up the brochure. 

The background of the brochure’s cover was of the galaxy一 with hues of white, pink, purple, blue, and black. At the bottom of the cover was a pair of glass-like goggles with intricate blue patterns that reminded him of binary code一 which was weird since it was not of numbers but circles and squares.

Printed out in the middle of the cover were big, bold words; ‘The Rift’. Jared then remembered receiving the brochure the other day when he was at the local mall, doing some grocery shopping for the household. As he was already carrying a lot of groceries that day and was running late to help his mother prepare for dinner, Jared had just grabbed the brochure that was handed out to him without a second thought. He can very vaguely remember the promoter’s appearance一 if it were even a guy or a girl一 though he was fairly certain that that person was dressed in some kind of shiny, futuristic costume.

Flipping open the brochure, there were an array of images that showed people wearing the goggles he had seen on the cover in various landscapes and garments. On the very first page, there was a short paragraph typed out in elegant white fonts as a contrast to a dark blue background.

[Gemini Enterprise proudly presents ‘The Rift’. After years of thorough research and perfecting its operations, Gemini Enterprise is opening ‘The Rift’ to the public this Thursday on 10th June, at Beryl Mall. There will never be a dull moment as ‘The Rift’ will一]

Jared squinted at the date and time on the bottom right of his laptop and smiled. It was indeed the 10th. 

Then, he unmuted his mic and interrupted Omar who was still ranting about how certain games are unappreciated for lacking special graphics and game elements.

“Guys! There’s this new game that I think you both would like to check out! Let’s go to Beryl Mall.”

Beryl Mall was the only one within a hundred miles. Inside of its four floors一 not including the three basement car park floors一 Beryl Mall was filled with various clothing stores, restaurants, cafes, and many other businesses that any other mall would have. There was never a lack of choices and thus, the locals faced no problems shopping at the mall.

‘Ah, I missed the days,’ Jared thought as he reminisced.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Nic half-yelled in excitement. 

‘Since I haven’t even said what kind of game it’d be, I’m pretty sure that Nic is acting like this mainly to escape Omar’s rant,’ Jared chuckled.