~*~
The next afternoon, once school let out, Skank, Mike and Ralph rushed to their homes to log into the game, and meet up on-line. Rabbit, as arranged, was already on-line waiting for them. The foursome quickly punched through the opening credits, and reached the beginning of the game, where the screen went totally blank.
“That still freaks me out when that happens,” Ralph whispered.
“Yeah, it’s like walking into a vacuum or something.”
Mike was the science guy of the group, always comparing things to space phenomena.
A small white dot appeared, and flew straight at the boys. It quickly became a set of fangs, dripping with blood, and whipped past their heads, making the three friends duck out of the way. Even though it happened before every level, they still hadn’t gotten used to it, even ducking in their real-life seats. Skank turned to the side, and noticed that Rabbit hadn’t ducked out of the way. He stood ramrod still, as if he hadn’t seen anything.
The first level, which took place in a forest, appeared around them. Skank bent down and leapt into the air. It was his favorite move in the game. He was not only impressed at the height he received, but at the agility of the flips he was able to do before landing. Ralph was swinging his saber around and chopping off the bottom of the branches while Mike was fingering a set of throwing stars. Rabbit simply stood and waited for what was to come.
A sudden rush of air blew past the foursome. They could feel the wind and smell something like rotted meat. The sounds of snarls and breaking tree branches filled their ears to the point of almost being deafening.
Suddenly four creatures were staring at them. They appeared to be gorillas, until beams of sunlight hit them. Their faces resembled Doberman pincher faces, with their ears laid back in an attack mode. Their lips were drawn back in snarls to reveal mouths filled with razor sharp teeth. But their most striking feature was their eyes. They were a solid, bloody red.
The moment the creatures attacked, Skank jumped in the air. Ralph swung his saber, and Mike launched the first of his stars. They had been through this together before.
But Rabbit was a complete surprise to them. He sprung into action like they could never have imagined. Usually, the boys suffered some damage before subduing these first level creatures. But Rabbit’s flurry of activity destroyed all four creatures before any damage could be done. It was so sudden and surprising, that the other three weren’t even sure what it was that Rabbit had done. It was certainly the easiest they had ever completed a level. Maybe having Rabbit along for the ride wouldn’t be so bad.
Those same results repeated themselves level after level. Rabbit never spoke, but when an attack came, he was like an invincible warrior, cutting down demons, and monsters at an astonishing rate. The boys were beginning to think that this was their chance to get past level 12.
~*~
When they got to the alleyway of level 12, it looked just like the previous times. Skank, Mike and Ralph began their leap-frogging maneuvers from obstacle to obstacle, as they always did. Suddenly Skank stopped and looked down the alley. Rabbit was walking straight down the middle of the alley.
“What’s he doing?” Mike asked.
“I dunno. He’s gonna get creamed when those things come out!” Skank whispered.
“Hey, don’t they usually attack from behind?”
Ralph was looking around trying to figure out where the attack would come from.
When the attack began, it was as sudden as always. Fanged creatures flew from every direction, including from above. They seemed to be able to fly. No matter how fast the three boys fought back, they just couldn’t seem to fight them off. They were too busy fighting to even notice the flurry of activity happening further down the alley.
Skank looked back and saw Mike on the ground.
“Mike’s Down! Mike’s Down!”
His own throat got slashed as he said it, and a gurgle of blood was all that came out of his throat as he was removed from the game.
~*~
He was right back where he had been the previous day: staring at the 90 second countdown and listening to Ralph continue to fight.
“Still playing that dumb game?”
Skank’s brother was back, and still going on about the rumors.
“We’re gonna get to the next level today. Just wait and see.”
“Whatever.”
His brother turned and left the room.
~*~
With 10 seconds left on the counter, Skank had his helmet back on and was ready to rejoin the game. It looked like Ralph and Rabbit were still fighting. When the timer hit Zero, he punched back in and found himself back at the alley. Mike had already re-entered the game, and was standing with Ralph looking around the alley. The ground was littered with dead bodies. Rabbit had somehow fought most of them off on his own.
“What are these things?” Mike asked. The creatures had long fangs, and talon like fingers at the end of long, thin arms. What had originally looked like baggy shirtsleeves were in fact wings, stretched between their arms and bodies.
“Well, that explains how they could fly so easily,” Ralph said as he kicked at a winged body.
“How many did we kill?” Mike asked.
“I don’t think we managed to kill any. He did it all,” Skank explained, pointing to Rabbit, standing still at the far end of the alley.
“I guess we better go catch up to him.”
When they caught up to Rabbit, they saw that the end of the alley led to the next level. They had finally passed level 12.
~*~
Level 13 seemed like a whole other world. When they entered, Skank suddenly felt ill. There was something very different about this level.
When the white dot turned into a set of fangs, and flew past them, the boys found themselves on the main street of a small town, much like the one they lived in. The detail of the setting was unbelievable.
“Can you believe this place?” Ralph said.
“They must have put a lot of time into programming this one” Mike responded. “It doesn’t look like a game at all.”
“Does it look familiar?” Ralph asked.
“Yeah,” Skank said, “It looks a lot like Shannon Hills. Wonder if they used our town as a model.”
“Maybe Shannon Hills just looks like every other small town,” Ralph suggested.
The town, the surroundings, even the air could not only see seen, but felt. It was an odd sensation, even for a game using a VR rig. It just seemed more real than the previous levels.
“Welcome to the new age of gaming!”
The deep baritone voice boomed out to them. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.
“Prepare for your final game… ever.”
Out of the side streets and alleys, a line of attackers formed and slowly walked toward the foursome. The line formed a complete circle around them, forcing three of the boys to stand back-to-back in order to face them all, with Rabbit standing at his now customary ramrod straight stance in the middle of the triangle.
The attackers were mainly human in size and shape, except for the fangs in their mouths, the long, sharp fingernails, and the blood red eyes. These three features seemed to be common to the creatures fought in each of the previous levels, but somehow, they looked much more ominous in level 13.
“They look like standard vampires,” Ralph whispered.
“They shouldn’t be too tough to fight, then. Right?” Mike said, a slight tremor in his voice.
“Switch your weapons to anything vampire related,” Skank ordered, “I think I picked up a sort of wooden-stake machine gun earlier.”
Mike pulled out vials of holy water he had almost left back in level 6. Ralph had found a box of silver bullets for his semi-automatic pistol, but didn’t know until now why he would need them. He quickly loaded them into his empty clips. As usual, it seemed unnecessary for Rabbit to prepare. He could switch weapons, fire off rounds, and avoid attacks with unbelievable
speed.
When the vampires attacked, it was with a ferocity the trio could never have expected. Before they knew what was happening, they were being swarmed under by the onslaught. Skank held the trigger on his stake-machine gun, but only managed to kill a few of the vampires. He felt razor sharp nails clawing at his body.
Mike threw stars, flung stakes, and tried to hit as many of the monsters with holy water as he could. But it didn’t seem to do much good. There were just too many of them.
Ralph had similar results with his silver bullets. He managed to subdue and destroy a few of the attackers, but that only seemed to bring out more of them.
As Skank fell to the ground under a horde of vampires, he saw Mike’s already lifeless body lying on the ground. Ralph was on his way down, and looked to be done in as well. Rabbit was nowhere to be seen.
Somehow, he sensed that this was much more than his character dying again. As he felt a set of fangs drive into his neck, he actually felt the blood leaving his body. He didn’t understand how it was possible, but he could feel the life leaving him. He was surprised that he wasn’t seeing the familiar 90 second countdown on the computer screen. Instead his whole world went black.
~*~
Rabbit kept on fighting, even after the trio of kids he had entered the game with failed to return, as they had on previous levels. Their bodies simply remained inert, lying on the ground. Some of the vampires appeared to be feeding on the bodies of his companions, while others continued to attack. For his part, Rabbit continued to change weapons, dodge their attacks, and fight back as best he could. He didn’t understand why he was so much better at the game, or why his reflexes were so much faster than the others, but it seemed that he was practically untouchable when the enemy creatures attacked.
After an extended fight, the vampires simply retreated back into the alleys, leaving Rabbit alone with his three dead companions at his feet. Their badly mangled bodies seemed to have been withered, and all of the fluid seemed to have been sucked out by the attackers who fed on them once they were down.
“Congratulations,” the baritone voice boomed out of the darkness.
“You have won the game. Your IP has been recorded, and you will be contacted by Blutsauger for additional levels. Play them… if you dare.”
The evil laugh that followed was enough to send chills up Rabbit’s spine.
~*~
Dwight had been watching for quite some time, as his nephew played the new game. He wasn’t much a gamer himself, but he was fascinated when it came to watching how fast Rabbit’s hands and fingers reacted while playing a game. Dwight could tell when they were between levels, because Rabbit would suddenly stop moving, as if in a trance.
When he heard the booming voice come out of the comm device, he was surprised at how clearly he understood the words. Rabbit had won the game? He had heard about how difficult the game was. He had even heard the rumors about kids dying while playing, but had dismissed those reports as rumors, just like everyone else had. But he had never expected Rabbit to win the game his first time playing it on-line. Maybe on-line gaming was yet another talent Rabbit possessed, something for Dwight to look into as another therapeutic tool.
He took the VR rig off of Rabbit’s head, and helped him to remove the gloves.
“Did you have fun playing with the other boys?”
Rabbit didn’t respond. He simply got up, and walked straight to his room at the back of the store. It was strange, even for Rabbit. He was usually so jumpy and energetic, and although he couldn’t speak, he generally would at least react when Dwight spoke to him.
~*~
Later that night, Rabbit had slowly returned to his normal, overactive self. He and Dwight were watching the local news, when a story came on about three mysterious deaths, all in one afternoon. The odd thing was, they all happened in the same small town of Shannon Hills. That’s when Dwight started paying more attention to the news than to Rabbit. It was the same small town where they lived.
There were no clues, other than that the three victims were all teenage boys, and they were known to spend time together in and after school. All three were killed in their homes, apparently while playing video games. All three were wearing headsets and gloves connected to video game consoles or computers. There was no mention of what game or games they were playing, but somehow Dwight knew. It was Skank and his friends, and they were playing Blutsauger.
And Rabbit had been playing with them.
Dwight looked over at Rabbit, and saw that he had stopped moving again. His eyes were staring in the direction of the television, but there was no life in them. He was simply staring at nothing.
The news report went on to say that the bodies were already badly emaciated, as if a virus or something similar had killed the boys from inside. This information came from the older brother of one of the boys. The police and other officials would only answer the reporters with “no comment”.
This older brother also said that whoever, or whatever killed the three boys, attacked quickly. He had been speaking to his younger brother less than 30 minutes before he was found dead. Again, authorities offered no further information.
Dwight jumped immediately on the computer. He may not have been much of a gamer, but he was a whiz at research. In no time at all, he had found news reports from several other locations around the country with similar stories: A few young kids, all apparently dying at the same time under mysterious circumstances, and all being found in front of video game consoles. In many of the stories, the bodies were described as being shriveled, or quickly decomposing. Other stories failed to describe the bodies. And what was never mentioned was what game the kids had been playing.
Dwight started to feel a chill. Somehow he knew. He reached up to the shelf above the computer, where he kept the packaging for the games that Rabbit played. The Blutsauger box was the most plain of them all. No fancy graphics, no extraneous wording. Just the name of the game. Looking on the back, there wasn’t even an address or phone number for the company.
Dwight ran to the front of the store, looking for the packing slip for the case the games had come in. But it had been a few weeks already, and it was long gone. He had, however, kept the odd letter that came with the shipment, just in case the company tried to collect on any unsold games. He opened his file cabinet, and searched for the letter. When he found it, he was shocked to see that the letterhead had the name Blutsauger at the top, but nothing else. The company had failed to include any contact information. How had he not noticed that oddity before?
Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door. Dwight figured it was some kid ignoring the huge “Closed” sign out front.
“We’re closed!” he shouted. The knocking continued.
“Can’t you read? It says ‘Closed’!”
The knocking became more and more insistent. Finally, frustrated, Dwight stomped to the front door, and tore it open, expecting to cuss out some young punk. Instead he stopped cold. The man standing in the doorway was dressed in a finely tailored suit, and was well over six feet tall. But the thing Dwight noticed most was the piercing, black eyes.
“I’m looking for the gamer at this address.” It was the same deep baritone voice Dwight had heard come through Rabbit’s comm. device at the end of the game.
“Uh… he’s… he’s in the back. Who are you?
“I’m from Blutsauger. The gamer is a special individual. Only those with special talents can complete the game. That is why we trace the IP address of winners, and visit them personally.”
Dwight was dumbfounded, but he asked the stranger in, and escorted him to the back of the store, where he and Rabbit had set up their living area. As soon as Rabbit saw the stranger, his eyes grew wide, and his skin became pale. Dwight could see that his young nephew was terrified.
“It’s alright Rabbit. He’s from the game company.”
The stranger looked at Rabbit, and turned to Dwight.
“This is the gamer?”
/> “Yes it is. His name’s Rabbit.”
“Why does he not speak?”
“Well, he’s got a disability. It’s called Austism. He can’t talk. He communicates through the computer and playing games is sort of a therapy for him. It’s why he’s so good at it.”
The stranger only stared at Rabbit.
“How did you find us so quickly?”
“The game uses a new technology. Once the players reach the 13th level, they are no longer playing against a game. They are actually playing against the makers of the game.”
Dwight’s face showed a look of confusion to the stranger, so he continued.
“When a player is on-line, we can follow his progress. If he is a truly unique player, he will be able to pass level 12. Once that happens, our people enter the game and become opponents of the player. Our system also tracks where the player is connected from, so that if they win the game, we can easily find them and invite them to join us.”
Dwight felt something ominous about the way the stranger has said ‘invite them to join us’, almost as if it were a command, instead of an invitation.
“You said ‘if they win the game’. What happens if they don’t?”
Dwight suddenly realized that the kids who had died playing Blutsauger had most likely made it to level 13, but hadn’t won. He glanced across the room at the special headset that had come with the game. Rabbit had moved over to the game console and was reaching for the VR rig. The stranger followed his gaze.
“Ah, yes. You are wondering about the electronic rig.”
“And about the kids who have died playing.”
“You should worry not about others, and worry more about yourself.”
Dwight thought he saw a flash of red in the stranger’s eyes, but it could have been a trick of the light. What he was certain he saw was a flash of anger. Perhaps he had said too much. Or maybe he had hit a little too close to the truth behind the game.
“You said that your people enter the game as opponents in level 13.”
Dwight started to back slowly away from the stranger.
“That is correct.”
“And can you contact the players through those electronic rigs?”