Monsters
Video games with vampires, werewolves, and zombies are fairly common. Real life vampires, werewolves, and zombies behaving as though they were in a video game is slightly less common. A group of fellow supernatural apocalypse survivors and I were on the run from these creatures, and we were all possessed weaponry and inventory systems reminiscent of several first person shooters I've seen people play. Every time we shot one of the enemies, a disembodied voice exclaimed "Hit!" or "Head Shot!", and the inflicted damage appeared above the wounded foe. However, as much as this resembled a video game, the consequences were undoubtedly real. Several of our group were taken out and joined the vampiric, lupine, or rotting ranks. One member, scratched by a werewolf, only transforming half way, and gained the so called "Red Moon Rage" where she went berserk and did extra damage and was seemingly immune to the transformative effects of the enemies. She used this mode to buy us enough time to get to a house where we could better defend ourselves.
As we made our final stand, a strange thought dawned on me. Every single one of the people taken down by the monsters came up as one of them. No one was sucked completely dry or entirely consumed. Furthermore, the monsters all seemed perfectly intelligent and free willed, even the zombies. I called out to my comrades and told them to surrender. They were more than a little reluctant, but I finally convinced them that surrender would not mean death, merely different lives.
A vampire got to me. He was pretty nice about it, assuring me that it wouldn't hurt too much since he was always careful to sharpen his fangs. When I recovered, I was the same old me except super strong, super fast, immortal, and hungry. I had a slice of chocolate cake in the house that I had been saving, but the bite I took was not as good as I'd hoped. Then I noticed the vat of blood the other vampires had collected. I drizzled some on top as though it were a raspberry sauce. I cannot describe how delicious it was. I ended up sharing chocolate blood cake with all the other vampires and having a grand old time.
The Almost Musical
I went into the theater hoping to watch the Almost Musical, a movie that supposedly had nothing to do with musicals and yet seemed reminiscent of one anyway. After taking my seat, the ushers passed out tablets decked out with the old fashioned tan plastic cases that 90s desktop monitors sported. Then, the film began...
A girl in her late teens flew across the sky, landing at last on a giant floating keyboard. She seemed as perplexed as the audience, but she decided to try hopping on the control and windows keys to see what would happen. Seemingly in response to her actions, the tablets we had in the theater displayed what looked like text printed in command prompt.
"A civilian has detected us.
This should be remedied.
She is no ordinary civilian. She has fought the red before.
Send the confederate."
The girl had not seen any of this. Without knowing what else to do, she flew off and landed behind a teenaged boy crouching in an open field. Casually, the boy straightened up and turned to face the girl.
"Anything?"
"Well, apart from a weird floating computer..."
"That's always been there, and that's not what I meant."
"I know, and no. I can't remember anything else. Between fighting it the first time and waking up with you hovering over me..." her voice trailed off and the boy released a sigh. He balled his left had into a fist that immediately iced over, while his open right palm cradled an orange flame.
"I can make fire and ice without a problem, but I can't do anything to help you."
"Don't worry about it," the girl reassured, clapping the boy on the shoulder, "If it hadn't been for you, the red beast would have taken way more than my memories. I've got to get going for baseball practice, and you should go home instead of standing in fields all day."
She flew off, leaving the boy to trek through the grass in the opposite direction. The tablets beeped and displayed a single line of text.
"Confederate sent."
As soon as I finished reading the line of text, a crash boomed through the theater. On screen, a man in a confederate uniform had flung himself into the girl, pummeling her with blows while she tried to shake him off without flying into a tree or the ground. Eventually, with him strangling her from behind, she let herself fall from the sky back first. For the first two bounces, the confederate kept his grip, but he slipped just enough on the last for her to disentangle herself and escape.
Meanwhile, the worst coach in all of history tried to give her team some tips. I did not hear much of what she said, however, as her three foot long hot dog hat required all of my attention. When I recovered from the shock, I realized she was just getting reading to put her "Westside Wieners" through some drills when the girl from before stumbled onto the diamond and nearly collapsed. A boy that looked somewhere between body builder and male model caught her before she could hit the ground. Distraught, he cradled her while the rest of the team huddled around.
"I must wake her with a kiss!" he declared with heartbreaking sincerity. He leaned in and gave a kiss that would have given prince charming a run for his money. Her eyelids fluttered open, she saw the handsome man locking lips with her, and she punched his lights out.
"Gah! Gerald, what the heck?!" she exclaimed, recovering her balance.
"Well it worked!" he whined, his voice muffled by the hand staunching his bloody nose.
A scrawny looking boy wearing thick rimmed glasses scuffled over the the girl, holding out a cup of water and a damp towel. She accepted gratefully, ignoring the coach yelling at her for tardiness.
A large chunk of the movie after that point elaborated on the relationship between the girl and the geek. It seemed before her memory loss that they had been something a little more than friends. The boy even showered her pictures of them playing star crusaders, wearing welder masks and sitting in a cardboard rocket. The pictures were only a few weeks old, which embarrassed the girl to no end.
For a brief moment, the movie switched to an old man sitting in his chair while his wife came in and out of the room and issued commands. Then it switched once more to the girl, who was meeting the icyhot boy.
"It's waking up again," the boy informed her matter-of-factly.
"Already? Where did we contain it?"
"That's the problem, it was in a cave, but the cave seems to have more life in it than we thought. He's gaining strength. We need a better cage."
Inspiration flashed through the girl, "I know someone who could help." She flew both of them off to a suburban house, rang the bell and waited. Moments later, the geeky boy answered.
"Oh hey! What, what do you -"
"We need a dungeon," the girl cut him off.
"What sort?"
"Big and strong. You told me you've gone through lots of dungeons, so I figured you'd know a good one."
"Oh! Sure, you and your friend can come in." He let the two inside and led them to his room where he booted his computer up.
"I like going to this one. It's got lots of creative monsters and interesting loot," he said, showing them a dungeon in an online RPG. The girl's face fell.
"It's a game? I thought you were talking about real ones!" she sighed, flopping down on his bed. Her companion simply raised an eyebrow.
"What would you need a real dungeon for?" the geek asked, but before the girl could reply, a roar brought them all to their feet.
"Oh crap," the girl whispered, then screamed to her companion, "Start hitting the beast. I'm going to help evacuate." With that, she flew through the open window and was gone. The two boys exchanged looks.
"Aren't you going to do whatever it is she told you to?" the geek asked Icyhot. He just smirked and took a seat.
"Oh, I stopped helping her out a while ago." The geek stared in confusion and disbelief, then ran from the house to look for his love.
The view switched once more to the spineless man, whose wife was firing off even more orders.
"Oh, and I need you to pick up the boy again. I know I said I would, but I just don't have time."
The husband looked up as though waking from a trance. He muttered, "What do you mean, again? I've never picked him up?"
"Did you say something dear?" The wife chirped irritatedly.
"No, nothing dear," the husband replied. He turned to look at his bedside table, where a family picture including their son, the icyhot boy, stood. Beside that photo stood a portrait of the confederate in a frame labeled "Grandpa".
The scene shifted once more to the girl, who was directing children playing in the streets to hide in their basements. On the horizon, she could see the colossal, glowing red form of the beast. Once the children were out of the way, she flew to confront the beast. Up close, it looked like vaguely humanoid sack of fire. From its arms, it shot red beams that disintegrated every animal it touched. The girl could not come near it, but the trees she ripped out of the ground and flung at it could. The giant projectiles only served to stall the beast. She needed her friend, but he was no where to be seen.
Then, she spotted a group of picnickers, three young children and a 13 year old girl, running across the field from the beast. At this range, if she flew in, the beast would notice and pick them off before she could reach them. Her only hope was to distract it as long as she could.
While she battled, the youngest of the group on the ground tripped and fell behind. The 13 year old, pulling her two smaller companions, did not notice the missing member until a sizable distance divided them. She ordered the two with her to keep going and was about to run back to rescue the little girl.
"You can't come back, you'll die too!" she screamed through tears and snot.
"I'm not letting you die!" the older girl screamed back.
"That isn't up to you," the five year old pouted, then broke into a sprint, but towards the monster instead of away. In seconds she reached the beast and disappeared on contact, freeing the other girl to run away with the other two.
I was on the verge of tears in the theater when the movie cut to a view of the girl, standing in the same field, but without any trace of the beast, and staring in front of her, jaw hanging open. Thousands of people, sat on the open lawn, some just as dazed as the little girl, others clearly at home in the grass. A man stepped up behind the child. It was the confederate. He tilted his head and fixed the girl with a stare. She stared back, wide eyed but steady. The confederate nodded to her, she nodded back, and he wandered off once more.
I suspect, though I didn't actually see, that the beast brought the entire population of earth into himself, leaving the buildings and technology of our world behind and giving us a fresh start by force.
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