Page 29 of Game Over

I turned on the spot as I took in the flowered field we’d landed in the middle of, though the gentle curiosity didn’t last long, the first gunshot echoing through the clearing with an echo ricocheting like a warning.

“Incoming!” Jesse shouted, running past me as the floor started to shift under foot, forcing me into motion after him. It seemed the entire dais was a system of rotating belts that allowed us to walk, and even run, as the belt moved faster at Jesse’s quickened footsteps. I raised the rifle, taking aim as the first few enemies—alien-like monsters with tentacles and large pulsing gun-like weapons—came into view.

Tara fell into step with us, our trio mowing down enemies with ruthless efficiency. Though she usually used a tank hero with a sword, she was still a beast with a gun, I’d seen it often enough during streams when someone had already picked her main. Still, it was impressive as fuck to watch her move, hitting the floor to avoid a barrage of shots before regaining her feet to begin shooting again.

“Look out!” she shouted to Jesse, pointing behind him.

One of those tentacle aliens was right on him, hitting him super hard.

I ran up on it, guns blazing. I missed about half of my shots, but when I played games like this, usually I was a healer, and admittedly my aim was shit. Tara joined me, and together we were able to get the pressure off of Jesse.

Okay, so probably she could’ve done it solo. But hey, it was nice to be included.

“Thanks,” he groaned, his avatar using one of the healing kits we had. “So are the purple ones higher level or something then? I feel like my gun did fuck all to it.”

“Think so,” I said, looking around to see if there were any gun upgrades or items dropped. Surely there had to be a way to level up. “How do we get better weapons?”

“No idea,” Tara said while I clicked through the menus. “I think there’s another wave coming.”

I followed her gaze to the horizon, movement in the distance making my heart race with excitement. More aliens ran towards us, with a few more of the larger purple ones in the back. It seemed like this was a horde game, with lots of enemies coming at once with short breaks in between.

And luckily, as I’d hoped, a loot box dropped a few hundred feet away, probably with upgrades to help us take on the next wave.

We all ran towards it. Tara reached it first, she pressed the button and it opened like a gift box, with confetti coming in a mass of rainbow sparkles out of the top.

“A single upgraded weapon, a few small healing kits, and a speed boost,” she listed aloud.

“Jesse should take the weapons upgrade,” I said, knowing he was the best shot.

“We can each take a health kit,” Jesse said as his gun transformed, growing larger. “And you take the speed boost, okay sweetie?”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t mind going without.”

“Trust me,” I said easily, “You’ll have a much better time with it than I will. I’m better in the back.”

“Okay.” I wished I could see the expression on her face. The avatars didn’t do a great job of anything but moving the lips in asemi correct way to match the voices. She grabbed the upgrade and it disappeared, creating a purple ring around her briefly.

“Let’s get ready,” Jesse said. “We don’t have much time.”

They were right, the horde was much closer now. The first few insurgents already beginning to fire on us.

So much for strategizing.

We returned fire,periodically rewarded with better weapons and even explosives as we continued to level up between swells of enemies.

Our team worked efficiently, hiding behind the rocks and wooden barriers set up all around the flowered field as drove after drove of alien enemies continued to press us backwards.

The little soldier grunt types fell easily enough, but even low-level enemies were a pain if there were too many of them and we were soon overwhelmed, forcing us to fall back in the hopes of staying alive.

As we ran, the ruins of a crumbling farm came into view, offering valuable cover.

“Everybody inside!” Jesse ordered, holding the door open for Charlie and I to rush into the house. I crouched at one of the windows, pointing my gun through the shattered glass pane to continue shooting, picking off enemies as my teammates healed and reloaded.

The game was harder than I thought it would be, my skin warm under my clothes. I was sure that my head was sweaty, my breathing ragged as I tried to recover from sprinting.

Even if I could partially chalk it up to the adrenaline of it all, I really, really needed to make use of the gym in my building. There was no reason that a video game should have me so winded in just a matter of minutes.

Larger enemies began to arrive, and I continued to fire, tossing a grenade through the door as some dog-like alien monsters began to breach the porch with an explosion and a fair amount of animated blood.

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