The Walking Game Chp. II

Chapter II
 

Me and my father spent the next few days going over the basic rules of the game. So that when the time came I would be prepared for just about anything. He told me that there would be other kids like me testing the game. Which made me feel better knowing I wasn’t going to be the only person trying to beat the game.

 

“How did you guys pick who gets to be a tester, and who doesn’t?” I asked my father in the middle of his 8 hour long explanation of things. I hadn’t meant to interrupt him, but the thoughts of playing, walking, meeting other kids, and did I mention walking? Was kind of top priority in my mind at the moment.

 

“Well, we gave out all the beta spots to kids who were going through a harder time than most of the others. People with cancer, amputations, suicidal tendencies. People that needed a fantasy world, in which they are the heroes. We know that they don't or may not feel like that in the real world, but it’s my hope that this game can make them feel like it, even if it’s for just a few hours.”

 

It made sense, actually it made a lot of sense. My father and the company we’re trying to a make a world, that gave kids hope. Hope that they just weren't gettin in the real world. I could grasp that concept pretty damn easily. All my life I had been fighting to feel normal, to feel like I could be just as useful as anyone else who was up and about walking. It never really worked though, somewhere deep down inside, I always crawled back to the thought that I wasn’t ever going to be that kind of person. I had been okay with that, until now. This game was giving me and the others the chance to feel worth it, to be the hero of our own story. I didn’t realize it till I saw my father staring at me, that I hadn’t stopped smiling the whole time we had been talking.

 

“You’re really excited about this aren’t you Aura?” He asked me, brimming with excitement that his always downer daughter was finally smiling her butt off about something. I nodded at him.

 

“Yeah this all sounds awesome! Dad you’re like a total genius, it’s no wonder your boss has started taking a notice to this.” My father rustled the hair on my head and gave me a big hug. I shooed him away and wheeled backwards. “Watch it old man! I’ll roll over your toe!” He laughed and sat back down.

 

“Anyways basically the game is a way to send out good optimistic signals and vibes to kids playing the game. While the company realizes that we can’t help everyones condition we hope that keeping the mindsets of all the kids, positive and hopeful, that the effects and feelings that the mind experiences in game will carry over into the mind out of game. Thus helping and speeding up some recovery processes of real life conditions.It’s a long shot but a lot of the people in the company have kids that they are willing to risk anything for.” He stared at me intently, a sort of fire burning in his eyes.

 

“Oh dad, please don’t start getting super sentimental on me!” I patted his leg, as I watched him blink back some dears. He was such a dork.

 

“Yeah I know, I know. You’re just my little Hot Wheels and I love you.” He winked at me...I thought we had this talk already? I also hated when he called me Hot Wheels, but he knew that. I shook my head and tried to think about if there was anything else that I needed to know.

 

“Oh yeah Dad, you never told me if there were any important rules about the game I needed to know?” He smacked his head and said “Oh duh! That’s what I forgot to mention! There are 3 very important rules you need to know about the game. 1. You aren’t allowed to kill any of the other players in the game.” He looked at me as if that thought had crossed my mind.

 

“Dad did you honestly think, I was gonna risk my 2-legged awesomeness by killing someone? You’re crazy.” I couldn’t lie though the thought had crossed my mind on whether or not that would be allowed. Glad to have had it cleared up though.

 

“Well you never know you could be a closet psychopath. 2. You can only stay within the game a total of 12 hours a day.”

 

“Why only 12 hours? You worried that we might get to into it and never want to come back?” My father shook his head suddenly solemnly. “Aura this is a serious rule, don’t stay in any longer than 12 hours. Remember this is a virtual game, so while you are inside your body here in the real world will remain in a comatose like state. If you stay longer than 12 hours you’re risking your body but leaving it unfed or malnourished while you’re gone.” I nodded my head finally understanding. You didn’t want your body stuck here with nothing to eat or not being able to use the bathroom.

 

“Wait Dad how do we use the bathroom while we’re in the game?” For some reason not knowing that bothered me more than knowing that my body would be in a coma.

 

“We will connect a bag and tube for you to…Well you know.” He watched as I shivered in disgust. I would rather not have someone coming in and changing my bag and tube every few hours. So he added on top of that, “ Anyways I guess my best advice for you would be to use the restrooms before you go in.” I nodded my head, basically the advice every parent gave their kids before a long road trip. Once again seemed to make perfect sense to me.

 

“Okay that makes sense, what about if we die? Do we come back here or die forever and fail or what?” My father lifted up his finger like a lightbulb had just gone off or something.

 

“Ah glad you brought that up honey, see the death thing was one of the things I worked on specifically. I’m rather proud of that, you see when a character dies their soul leaves their body. If your body remains untouched for the next 10 seconds, you’re allowed to walk right back into your body and come back to life. However if an enemy touches or moves your body in any way, it returns to the starting town and you have to walk your soul all the way back there. It is a long tedious process. So keeping your body safe after death is why you have teammates, it really pushes for comradery.” He grinned like a proud father, and crossed his arms across his chest.

 

Dying did seem like a tedious process, so I was going to have to try my best to not do that. Oddly enough I never thought I would ever have to tell myself to try and not die. Even funnier so was that, I wasn’t really that scared to die in the game. I mean after all you would just come back to life.

 

“So dad what’s the goal of the game? Like how do you win?”

“Ah so basically the goal of the game is to fight your way through the hordes of alien monsters that are trying to overtake the world. Make it to the top of their ship and save a specific person. This "person" is specific and different for each player in the game. So your endgame save will be a totally different thing to you.” I tried to grasp what he was saying but my mind was still stuck on the fact that he had said "aliens". Aliens. My father made a game about aliens, I mean I knew he was a nerd but, you definitely couldn’t get anymore cliche than that.  

 

“Ah aliens, I see….Sounds fun dad really. I actually can’t wait to get started!” I smiled at him and held my hand in his. He squeezed them tightly and grinned at me.

 

“Oh yeah Aura...one more thing. All of the kids participating in this are signing a contract.”

 

“A contract? What for?”

 

“Well you see in order to keep thoughts positive and uplifting we made it a rule that nobody is allowed to tell each other what is wrong with themselves in the real world. This game is a fresh new start, and we want to keep it that way, no ties or negative thoughts keeping them from any of that.” My dad didn’t have to get me to even sign a contract for that. There wasn’t anyway I was going to tell anyone that my score against the universe was; Universse - 1 Legs - 0, and if signing this contract meant that there was no way anyone would know? I was more than okay with signing it.

 

“Alright show me the contract! Is there a penalty for telling someone?” My father put head down and nodded.

 

“You'll sign the contract the day of the Dive, and the penalty for telling someone about your disability is...Death.”

 

Wow. Hadn’t seen that coming.

 

“Dad doesn’t that seem a little extreme?” He nodded his head and then started laughing.

 

“I’m just kidding Aura! Come on of course it wouldn’t be death, but you do start back from level one again. We needed a penalty that is strict, but not to bad. Telling someone about who you really are could affect people and results that we obtain from inside the game, so we HIGHLY encourage against it. Starting you back from the beginning seems fair enough right?” I nodded it did seem fair enough, people would learn quickly that telling people about themselves was not such a good idea. And I assumed after the first few people restarted back at lvl 1, people would start to catch the hint. Everything sounded like it had been thought of, and with the amount of hours my father had spent on this game I would have hoped so.

 

“So honey get some good sleep tonight because tomorrow? You're going to need all the energy you can get for you first time walking!” Walking. I had dreamed about it everyday of my life. Just wondering what it would feel like, my mind instantly flashed to the green grass field in our backyard. I could feel myself shaking from the excitement and I instantly realized that I was NOT going to be getting any sleep tonight. Not one bit.

 

I gave my dad a little salute and rolled my way out of the kitchen and back into my room.
I could not freaking wait for tomorrow!!!