The Eternal Sleep

I'd hate to shoot a fellow sniper

“Remind me what we’re doing again?”

“Simple, it’s a general war simulation.” Jay’s grin was far too wide to be considered sane.

“And tell me again, why I always letting you choose the quests?” Luca struggled to pull himself out of the armlock Jay had pulled him in.

“Because it’s always exciting and unexpected?”

“Jay has a point.” Rena pulled her hair into a ponytail and began braiding the end with expert fingers.

“In case you don’t remember, his last quest nearly killed me.” Luca grunted, resorting to stepping on Jay’s foot in an attempt to escape.

“I have to admit, I’m up to some mindless shooting.” Olivia was sifting through her inventory, pulling a couple weapons.

“Yea, home has been a bit of a mess with collage choices lately.” Armando was strapping on his wrist blasters.

“You to, huh.” Luca sighed, finally pulling out of the hold and messing up Jay’s hair in retaliation.

“Yep.” They were under a bridge, organizing their equipment and armor. The competition was a fighting simulation that allowed them to win coins per ‘kill’. Jay had given them a choice between this and another ‘lost and find’ quest but the team had voted for something with a little more movement and mindless work.

“Alright, is everyone ready?” He was met with a chorus of affirmative grunts, they immediately created a defensive circle, weapons at the ready. Jay gave a malicious smirk and sent his confirmation for the start of the quest.

They were immediately surrounded by two-metre-tall creatures on all fours, skin green and claws at the end of their paws. Growls echoed in the still air, teeth bared in snarls, black tongues hanging.

The team tensed, and in seconds they were off, darting to high positions with superhuman strengths and speed. Luca pulled the CheyTac Intervention to his shoulder, a long sniper’s gun with a strong scope and a kickback so strong that it took Luca far more health than he was comfortable with to properly learn.

Olivia snapped her whip, a blue blade flashing and slicing though several of the creatures, turning them in to gold dust. Rena was jumping on their shoulders, the small and almost endless supply of blades placed expertly in their necks. Jay carried a semi-automatic rifle, hardly aiming, each bullet hitting its mark.

For a moment, Luca was struck with the thought of how dangerous his team was, how strong they were. They had determined looks on their faces, aim far too perfect to be considered fighting childish quests and games, Luca realized just how much he would miss these people should he never meet them again.

These were the people that understood him, fought with him, let him talk his mind. The team that came together because of their lives, came together because they shared the same thoughts, similar pains and had the same longing to belong to crew that worked like a well-oiled machine.

Luca knew he had to do more than just give up on something that brought them together, this game couldn’t be impossible, there had to be a way to win. They were already two cards in, they had more clues to find more cards, this was possible.

He shook his head and teleported to the top of the bridge, taking out several of the creatures in seconds. With a yell of warning from Jay, he teleported mid-air, shooting at his original spot and taking out several more creatures. Another teleportation, he was standing behind Olivia, protecting her back.

Rena called his name, a simple movement, he was beside her and teleporting her next to Armando. The genius cleared a small area with his wrist blasters, Rena and Luca picking off those that dared to stand up again. Luca moved back to his original position, kneeling down and covering the rest of the teams’ backs.

The fight was over in a half-hour. Luca whistled at the share amount of coins that they’d managed to earn. “That was amazing!” Armando and Rena were still cheering, their nerves still alight with the adrenaline. Jay was leaning on Olivia as Luca paced the small space under the empty bridge.

“Gotta give it to you, Jay. You’ve once again managed to pick an awesome quest.” Luca gave him a fist bump, sitting heavily against the wall.

“Told you so.”

Miraculous laughing interrupted their post quest relaxing and healing. Luca was immediately on his feet, Jay and Olivia standing beside him, Armando and Rena looked on curiously at them.

Slow clapping filled the area, echoing as the sound bounced off the walls. Footsteps clicked loudly as the unknown group closed in on the team. Luca didn’t want to take any chances, swiftly pulling out two pistols from his inventory and passing one to Olivia, Jay already holding one in his hand.

“Not bad, quite the show I must admit.” One of the men came to the light, an adult with a mohawk, a bullet proof vest and camouflage pants. He had rifle in his hand, another strapped to his back. “My crew had fun watching you scramble around like a bunch of toddlers.”

“Is he an NPC?” Rena whispered, eyeing his gun and pulling her own knives, Armando adjusted his blasters.

“Nope.”

“Just some fool with a gun.” Luca jerked back as a shot went off to close to his foot.

“I don’t appreciate being called a fool.” The man spat out the stick he was chewing on, “It’s not nice.”

“What’s not nice is you shooting-“ Luca grunted as Olivia yanked his jacket back, nodding her head at the people that had surrounded them, their weapons ready to fire. There had to be at least ten more people, all armed to the teeth, dressed in vests and camouflage pants, steel-tipped boots and a variation of colored bands around their head.

“What do you want?” Jay had a murderous look on his face, “If it’s coins, I’ll think about it.”

“Coins?” he smiled, looking like he knew something they didn’t, “No, no, no darling. I heard you lot had something far more… important.”

“Oh?”

“A little bird off the street told me you have something worth far more than coins.”

“And what’s that?” Luca edged to the end of the group, trying to shield Armando and giving him the signal to raise a flag. Armando shook his head, the darkness of their position would immediately give away his plan.

“A card.” The team froze, surprise making them hesitate too long to make up a reasonable excuse.

“You’re mistaken.”

“Am I?” The man that they fought in the race, Brexiet, stepped around the leader, a furious look on his face.

“So, what is this, a revenge story?”

“No, this is just me looking for out for my best interests.” He grinned and held out his hand, “Now hand over the cards.”

“And if we don’t?”

“This happens.” Several more shots went off near their feet, forcing them into a tight circle.

“Fine, we have the cards!” Armando shouted, pushing himself in front of Luca. “I hand them over, you leave us alone.”

“Mando, what are you doing?” he whispered harshly, now was not the time to be sacrificial, it was a game, if they died, at least they’ll die not giving up. Armando gave him a look, a look he knew too well, the young genius was bluffing.

“See, at least someone is sensible in this game.” The man walked up to him, easily towering them. Armando swiped his hand and pulled the cards from his inventory, handing them over peacefully.

“Good, shoot them.”

“We made a deal!”

“You made a deal; I don’t remember agreeing.” He disappeared into the shadows.

Luca yelled a warned, grabbing Armando and teleporting behind the shooters. Rena managed to shove her shield in front of Jay and Olivia, some of the bullets ricocheting off and hitting the enemies.

It became an all-out fight, Jay leading them out from under the bridge and allowing Luca to cover his team’s back by weakening their health enough for the others to take them out. Fighting other players was not the same as fighting creatures, it was a lot harder and required far more hits.

Both teams were formidable fighters, each giving out their own hits and landing a lot of damage. It was very clear, however, that Luca’s team had a good deal of training, their shots actually hitting their targets, but the others knew how to team up on a single person. They easily outnumbered them two to one.

The fight went on much longer than Luca was comfortable with, he was worried to know how a fight like this would be like in real life. People willing to attack others for some impossible dream, tearing each other apart for mentioned treasures.

He was distracted, not noticing the shadow crawling up behind him. Luca placed the scope to his eyes again, aiming to the man standing to close to Jay and firing. He shifted to find Rena, a loud shout from her calling to his attention that she’d been surrounded.

He froze as the barrel of a gun pushed against his head. “Lower the weapon.” It was a woman, her voice strong, her posture and steady hand suggesting that she was confident with her weapon.

“Or what?”

“I’d hate to shoot a fellow sniper.” Luca growled, hoping that one of this team members saw his dilemma. He lowered the gun and with a rough nudge of her gun, he dropped it.

“Why fight us, your guy already has the cards.”

“Turn around.” He followed her instructions, moving slowly, his silver eyes meeting blood red.

“You know this is just a game, right?” He tried to reason, the sounds of fighting fading as he focused his attention on barrel that was aimed between his eyes. “You could just take the cards and go or do the right thing and earn the cards yourself.”

“Your argument is convincing but tell me something, if you’re giving me all this chat about morals, why do you fight back?”

The question stunned him for a second, why were they fighting back? The other team shot at them first but there was no reason to retaliate, they could’ve just gotten themselves out of there. She smirked, knowing that she’d managed to prove a point, shifting her hand to pull the trigger.

Luca made a reckless decision, grabbing her hand and teleporting to the other side of the bridge. They tussled, fighting for the gun and with a stroke of luck, Luca managed to toss it to the side. He was surprised to see that they were evenly matched in their hand-to-hand combat, she wasn’t just a sniper.

“So why are you fighting back?” He grunted as he ducked a punch, sweeping his foot under her to no avail.

“Simple, I enjoy the rush.” She smirked, her movements graceful and calculated, “In the real world, there are so many rules and morals, in this game, you could do anything without consequence.”

“So, you don’t limit yourself, you rob and kill like a criminal?”

“Your point?”

“You do this here, you build the confidence and remove the barriers built in your mind, what stops you from doing the same thing in real life?” She seemed the consider the question, the duo separating from their dangerous dance, “What exactly is then stopping you from stealing, from pulling that trigger in real life?”

“What are you trying to get at?” she picked up her gun, Luca cursed in his head for not noticing how close she was to it. He wanted to teleport, but the wall was behind her and if he turned, she’d certainly shoot him.

“If you shot me now, what’s stopping you from shooting me in the real world?” the gun was aimed at his head, he rushed her, pulling her hand down and teleporting under the bridge.

“Hmm, I guess nothing, sweety.” She pulled the trigger.