Game Over

Chapter 10 - Rollercoaster Tycoon

I had to hold Serah still for a second as we came back in the real world. She kept trying to jerk away, making me regret ever telling her about this. I didn't let go until the last pixels were back in place, and she jerked away gratefully.

"Oh my God Kairi, that was so much fun!" She exclaimed happily, now grabbing my wrist. "Why don't you wanna tell Nathan? This thing is awesome!"

"Because I haven't seen anything in the world like this. Mom and Dad invented this, and nobody knows there could be something like this…" I told her as she let go of me and I ran my fingers over the invention. "Do you know how many people would want this?"

"So?" She asked, unable to grasp the point I was trying to get across. "We could make multiple, copy the machines and we could make a fortune!"

"No, Serah!" I cried, jerking her to the machine. "Everyone would try to get it, whether they would try to buy it, or even worse…" I stopped, unable to speak of what could happen to us. "Something bad could happen to you two, and I won't let that happen."

"But we're fine, are we not?" She shot at me, getting next to my shoulder and having her hand straight out in front of us. "Just think of all the possibilities! We could go on a real vacation, just like Nathan said! We could get out of Vegas, out of Nevada!" She gasped after the sentence, breathing after speaking so fast. She got a hold of herself and put her hands on my shoulders. "Think. Just think."

"I don't have to think." I muttered, shoving her arms away. "Nathan can't know about this, he'd flip out!"

"No he wouldn't!" She said confidently, flipping her hair lightly. "Kairi, we're all gamers. We're the children of the best gamers in the world. He'd be ecstatic, and it'd be something we could all do together!"

"But he'd be thinking about what's best for us, not how much fun we could have." I countered, making her shoot me a glare and crossing her arms.

"But-"

"I don't care. He can't know." I lowered my voice to a whisper as I heard the footsteps on the other side of the door. Serah and I turned towards the door, watching Nathan poke his head through.

"Hey, you guys alright?" He asked, and we both nodded. "What are you doing in here?"

"I came in here to read." Serah said innocently, grabbing her book off the table and waving it in front of her.

"I came to find her." I answered, shooting a glare at Serah. Her jaw dropped at me, but turned back to Nathan.

"Okay…" Nathan trailed, staring at us like we were both crazy. He shook his head and left, making me sigh in relief.

"You are crazy, Serah." I whispered angrily as she gave me a toothy smile, making me want to slap some sense into her.

"I learn from the best." She laughed, and I copied her dropped jaw as she skipped away, leaving me alone in the office. Sure I was mad, but I couldn't be for long. I was more worried about her telling Nathan, or blackmailing me for it. But I knew the more people that knew, the more plans they'd get, the more excited they'd be, and more danger that would come with it.

But I didn't exactly want Serah to be in any danger, so of course when night fell I went down alone and flew into the next game… alone.

~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing I see is multiple people that all look the same. I mean, their hair was the same, face was the same, the only thing that was different were their clothes, but even then they were one solid color. I heard the joyful music in the background, the rides, the food stalls, and all the blue queue lines… And I smiled as I figured out what game this was. I was at an amusement park, with the blue skies, green grass that desperately needed to be mowed, but I didn't care. My games never have handymen mowing. Or at least, I thought this was one of my parks… but whatever it was…

It was Rollercoaster Tycoon.

I will admit, I was a little bit over excited. It was an amusement park, who couldn't? But the games usually had an admission fee, and the rides cost something too. But as I reached into my pocket and found the hundred dollar bill, I knew I was set for the game.

I walked up to the gate, but there wasn't a person standing there or anything. I walked right through, and I found my hundred go to eighty just like that. I was fine with it, it meant I had money for a lot more rides. If this really was one of my parks, the most expensive ride was probably Go Karts, which was maybe three bucks. Most were actually a whole dime.

I headed to the information kiosk first, buying a map and an umbrella. I knew the whole park in my head. I had all the rides memorized, and I didn't know how, but then again, I wasn't going to question video game logic.

I made my way to the Go Karts and went on that first. I was getting more and more excited as I got closer and closer to the ride, but waiting in line absolutely sucked.

"I need to go back and redo the lines…" I muttered to myself as I inched forward, watching the cars go. I just kept to my thoughts until I got in the purple car, and the countdown began. Three… two… one.

And I was gone, flying down the track like no tomorrow.

The other racers were probably thinking about miscellaneous things like me being in the front, but I kept  smile the whole time as I finished the whole laps in first. I exited the ride with my hands and head held high, and I headed to the next ride.

The next thing I hit was the water rides, and I didn't know why, but I never felt soaked, no matter how many times I went on Water Rapids. I never felt soaked, but I guess it was the programming in the game. Not like I wanted to get wet, but it was a thought.

I really wanted to hit one of my rollercoasters, because in this game, you build them yourself. Although usually when I play this game, nobody ever rides them because they're too intense or whatever. I stood in line for one of my better ones, but there were some people in line, so I had to wait. It didn't last though because a lot of people got on at the same time. I was stuck somewhere in the back, but I didn't care. Once the ride started going and we reached the peak, and I looked over my park for a brief second, I was ready for it.

Just as quickly as it started, it was over. I used to think I made really short coasters, but damn. That was too short. A drop, a couple turns, done.

"I really need to work on my coasters…" I muttered as I got in line for hopefully one that was longer. I watched the coaster go fast, but it was longer with more special track pieces, like loops, corkscrews, stuff like that.

I was next in line when I watch the coaster go up the chin lift, and then it goes flying down like normal. It goes in for the last turn, but then it flies off the track, launching into a field. I duck when I heard the explosion, and watched the large fire and smoke rise to the sky. Everyone began getting out of line, no emotion at all, but they all got into the next coaster line.

I could've died right there.

"Holy crap…" I uttered as I finally made my way out of line, and I decided to stick to rides that couldn't fly off the track. I went on the thrill rides like scrambler and gravitron, and some other simple rides, but after that, I hit every ride that wasn't a coaster. Next thing on my list of to-do's is to fix all the coasters.

"Well, I had fun, and hopefully I'll come back when the coasters are safe and with my siblings." I said to myself as I picked up the remote and hit next, zooming to the next game.