It’s not a game
Mischa felt the roller coaster cart shudder. It was spinning and the choir were being thrown around and something just didn’t feel right. They reached the peak of the coaster, and the feeling of wrongness just got worse.
And then he heard the screech. When he looked around, it was clear the rest of the choir had heard it too.
There was something seriously wrong.
But there wasn’t time to panic, because then they were all plummeting towards the ground, bracing for impact and…
He glitched.
-
Mischa was back online, in a game he hadn’t been in for years.
When he was ten, Mischa had glitched into his favourite video game, a game of anarchy, traps and alliances. Fortunately, he’d figured things out quite quickly, found allies, built a base, and survived in that world until he’d been lucky enough to glitch back out. He’d gone back to the real world, back to safety. He thought he’d left this place behind for good.
But apparently not.
He’d forgotten how much glitching had hurt. His whole body felt like it was on fire, like each individual atom was being fried and shaken, but he was alive.
He was here.
And he was alone, in a base that he’d left behind in childhood.
Were his old allies here, or did they get out too?
And more importantly, did the choir get here?
Sure, it wasn’t a great place to be, especially if you didn’t know it, but it was better than being dead on the ground of some dead end town in Canada.
Mischa swiped his hand in the air, opening his inventory. Thank god his axe was still there from so many years ago. The iron was heavy in his hands, but holding it was easy. All of this was easy.
It was surprising how much he remembered.
As soon as he had his axe and armour equipped, he headed out. If the choir were anywhere, they’d be at spawn, probably snared in some sort of trap.
Mischa needed to get to them before anyone else did.
So he checked his inventory again, and was thrilled to see a speed potion there. Ten year old him was really coming through here.
-
With the power of the potion, he sprinted to the spawn area, looking frantically around for the choir. Had they made it? Were they here?
After ten minutes of looking, things were starting to feel hopeless. That was, until a familiar shrill voice cut through the air. Usually, it would be an unwelcome sound, but right now, it was music to Mischa’s ears.
“I am so suing that fair when we get back!” Ocean shrieked, and Mischa followed the sound of her voice.
Then he stopped.
It was hard enough surviving here as one person. But protecting five newbies? That was borderline impossible. Maybe he’d be better off alone. Maybe he should just leave them here.
But he couldn’t. Because they may not be his friends, but they were people. And most of them, all but Ocean, were okay, for the most part.
Mischa couldn’t leave them to navigate this place alone. The least he could do was drag them all back to his base and offer them supplies, something, anything to help them survive. Without him, they didn’t stand a chance.
So he kept running, following the bickering between Ocean and Noel. For once, Mischa was grateful they couldn’t get along, because the noise gave him some idea of where they were.
And then he saw them, stuck in a simple trap. Just as he’d expected.
“Mischa,” Constance cried out. “Thank God!”
“Where have you been?” Ocean demanded, polite as ever.
“Looking for you,” Mischa stated. “You are good at getting stuck in trap, obviously.”
“We’re in a video game,” a voice said, and Mischa looked at the choir. They all were gawking at Ricky. Ricky couldn’t have said that though, right? “What? We’re in a game, and you’re going to pretend the weirdest part of this is that I can speak?”
“Well, I don’t know!” Ocean yelled. “How do you know we’re in a game?”
Ricky lifted their wrist, where a watch was clearly displaying not the time, but levels. And Ricky’s stats were HIGH.
“Mad wicked awesome!” Mischa announced as he used his axe to free the choir from the trap. “You have dope levels!”
“Heightened abilities,” Ricky grinned. “Gaming was always a good escape for me, anyway. Do I have a sword?”
Just as Mischa was about to answer, a sword appeared in Ricky’s hand, making the rest of the choir jump away from him.
“I do!” He looked thrilled. “My inventory carried over!”
“Can someone explain where the fuck we are?” Noel asked.
“A game,” Mischa stated. “Have been here before, years ago. Have some spare armour and weapons back at base.”
“How do we get out?” Noel questioned, and Mischa shrugged. He genuinely had no idea.
“I do not know,” he admitted. “Have gotten out once before, so maybe can glitch out again? No clue. For now, we need to survive.”
“Lead the way,” A girl said. One Mischa didn’t remember seeing before. She must have been on the roller coaster, and she looked just like the rest of the choir, in uniform and everything, so he thought it would be rude to ask her name. But obviously, he hesitated for a moment too long. “It’s Penny, by the way. My name. I’m assuming you forgot based on the fact that you were looking at me like I’m a ghost. Which realistically I could be. We all could be, and this could be purgatory. Side question, we all saw the roller coaster crash, right?”
“Obviously!” Ocean yelled. “That’s why I’m suing the carnival!”
“What’s the point of suing if we’re stuck here?” Noel exclaimed. “If we’re dead this is definitely hell, because you’re here. Well played, Satan. Well played.”
“Can we go?” Constance asked, and Mischa heard a noise behind her. More people. All armed with swords.
Shit.
“Run!” Mischa yelled out, dashing off back towards the base. “And follow me!”
-
Mischa dragged the whole choir back to the base and equipped them with all the spare armour and weapons he had.
Well, all but Ricky, whose stuff was well above Mischa’s level. It was actually quite ridiculous how overpowered he was here. Impressive.
Constance was armed with damage potions, Noel was given a bow, Penny took a crossbow and Ocean snatched up a trident. They had basic armour, but hopefully, it would be enough to keep them alive.
And anyway, hopefully they wouldn’t be here for long.
Mischa would find a way to get them out of here if it killed him.
Even if it did, he’d respawn.
And just as he was thinking that, he felt something slam hard against the back of his head.
Then everything was black.
-
Mischa respawned on the other side of the base, and he hurt like hell.
Definitely needed to get back to the supply room for potions.
But as he was headed back over, he heard shrieking. Ocean, again. Did she ever shut up?
“Oh my god!” She cried. “What did you do? Where did he go?”
“What the hell?” Constance asked.
“The fuck just happened?” Noel chimed in.
“He’ll respawn,” Ricky stated. It way impressive how calm he was, like this was his world. Like this was where he was supposed to be all along. “And so will you, if you don’t explain, you sons of bitches.”
Mischa had no idea who he was talking to, but he thought maybe he should step in.
Standing across from the choir, weapons in hand, were his old allies. All four of them. The very same people who’d helped him when he was a kid.
They were older, obviously, more experienced, but still clearly them.
“Where the fuck have you been, Bachinski?” One of them, Pax, according to their username, yelled, pointing a sword at him.
“I glitched back to real world!” Mischa stated, raising his hand in the air in surrender. He could summon back his axe if he needed it, but right now, it was best not to have it.
“We’re all from the real world,” Ricky stated, stepping in front of Mischa and holding out his sword, ready to a fight. “And we’re looking to get back.”
Mischa noticed that Constance had a harming potion in hand, and both Noel and Penny had their bows drawn. The tension in the room was palpable.
“I knew he got out!” Another ally, Ozwald, called out. “I told you! He was offline, there’s only one way someone gets offline when they’re stuck like us! He glitched back!”
“Then why the hell is he here again?” A third ally, Felix, apparently, questioned, talking more to their own group than to Mischa. “No one ever comes back.”
“How did you do it?” The fourth, Imogen, asked. She pulled back her weapon, switching it for a healing potion that she handed to Mischa. “Get out, I mean. We’ve been stuck since, well, since you left!”
Everyone seemed to take that as a cue to calm down, and weapons were lowered and put away.
“When did you leave?” Ocean demanded. “When were you here?”
“I was child,” Mischa stated. “Was back in Ukraine, stuck here for a year when I was ten. No idea how escaped, was just a glitch.”
“How’d you get back here?” Felix asked suspiciously.
“We were about to die on a roller coaster,” Penny chimed in. “Falling to our deaths. Then we were here.”
“Not that we know where here is,” Ocean muttered, earning a glare from Noel.
“I have a question,” Noel started. “If I kill Ocean, will she respawn?”
No one answered, but Ocean stepped a little further away from Noel, grabbing Constance’s arm.
“We’re in a game,” Imogen cleared up. “A survival game. And I guess we’re your allies.”
“I’m assuming you’re trying to get back to earth?” Ozwald questioned, and the choir nodded. “Okay. So, I’ve heard a rumour about a portal that can cause glitches, but I don’t know how true it is. You wanna try it?”
“You’d help us?” Constance asked.
“We can’t promise it’ll work,” Pax chimed in. “But if it does, we’ll use it. We’ll help you get back to earth if you’ll be our test subjects. Deal?”
“Deal,” Mischa nodded, reaching forward and shaking Pax’s hand. “Let’s go.”
-
The trek to the portal took days, and every day got harder. Ricky was the only one whose energy seemed to stay high enough to keep moving, and all the others ended up complaining, taking as many speed and health potions as they could to keep going.
But eventually, they made it.
Just as they reached the portal, though, another group showed up behind them. A bigger group, at least a dozen people. And everyone sprang into action.
Noel and Penny were surprisingly good shots, taking down a couple of people each with their bows.
Constance did some damage with her potions, but honestly, more might have hit her allies than her enemies.
Still, at least she tried, which was more than Ocean did, cowering back while the others fought.
The allies fought vigilantly, and Mischa did his best, and though he was out of practice, he managed to take down at least one other person with his axe.
None of that held a candle to Ricky, though. Ricky had clearly been gaming for a long, long time, and knew all the tricks. His sword took down at least four people within about a minute, and when Mischa was struggling with the last one, Ricky stepped in and took them down quickly.
“Dude, you are so awesome in a video game,” Mischa gawked, and Ricky shrugged.
“I’m the same person I always was,” he smiled softly. “Just no one ever listened to me on earth.”
“We listen to you now, badass fighter dude,” Mischa stated, patting Ricky’s shoulder fondly. Ricky grinned proudly, and then someone spoke up.
“Guys,” Imogen murmured, looking at something on her watch. “We lost Felix.”
“Are you fucking KIDDING ME?” Ozwald sighed. “I’m not going back. When Felix gets back here, we go through this portal. We can wait here for now.”
“If it works, that is,” Pax chimed in. “We still don’t know if it works.”
“That is where we come in,” Mischa stated, and turned to the choir. “Portal is there, we’re going in.”
“For what it’s worth,” Pax started. “I hope you get through.”
“I hope so too!” Imogen grinned.
“And if not then at least we’re all stuck here as a group,” Ozwald suggested, and Mischa nodded.
Hopefully, this portal was successful. Back to Earth.
“So,” Ocean said, staring down into the dark cavern of a portal. It was black, with what looked like stars filling it, and she looked terrified. “Who’s going first?”
Her question was answered quickly when Noel shoved her forward and into the portal. She fell deep down, past where she could be seen, and everyone stood silently for a few seconds.
“If she didn’t come back, it’s probably nice in there?” Penny joked, making everyone laugh. “But seriously, how do we know if she’s okay?”
“I guess we don’t?” Constance shrugged. “We’ve just got to give it a try.”
“Are we doing this together?” Ricky asked, reaching a hand out to Mischa, and another to Penny.
“We do together or not at all,” Mischa nodded.
Everyone stood with their hands joined and shared one last look.
“I feel kind of bad for pushing Ocean,” Noel muttered.
“Apologise to her on the other side,” Constance suggested, and Noel shook his head.
“Over my dead body,” he smirked.
And then, the choir jumped. Down into the dark spiral, falling and falling and falling.
-
When Mischa’s eyes opened, his body hurt like hell, but he was alive.
On a hospital bed, but alive.
And he wasn’t alone. As he looked around the room, he saw the choir all in their own beds, looking the picture of health, though it was obvious all of their bodies were aching too.
Ricky legs were in braces, giving them the ability to walk a little bit, though they still kept their crutches at their side. The others were all slowly sitting up, looking uncomfortable and tired, but okay. They were all okay.
“Was that a messed up dream?” Ocean asked.
“If it was, I had the same one,” Noel agreed.
God, Mischa’s body hurt. What he would give for a potion right now…
And then he swiped his hand across the air, and his inventory opened.
“What the fuck?” He exclaimed, grabbing a potion from his inventory and downing it quickly. “Guys, are we still in a game?”
“It’s not a game.”
The voice was coming from Ricky’s corner of the room, but it wasn’t him. It was coming from his watch.
“I think it’s some sort of translator,” the watch blared. “I think about what I want to say, and it sort of comes out.”
“Dope!” Mischa announced.
“Anyway,” Ricky’s watch continued. “I don’t think this is a game. This is the real world. We’re just sort of… video gamey.”
“I guess that’s better than being dead?” Penny shrugged.
“Anything’s better than that,” Constance agreed.
Mischa closed his inventory and looked around at the choir. These were the people he was trapped in this situation with.
They were bonded for life now, in this surreal, confusing life, where reality felt so blurred with fiction that the line barely seemed to exist anymore.
It’s not what he would’ve chosen, but it was a life. And right now, he was lucky just to have that.