Hang In There

Chapter 2

A bright light flashed in my eyes, and suddenly, I'm wearing a red spacesuit, with helmets and all, and a red rectangular backpack hanging from my back and standing next to a seat with straps.

I whip around at the sound of voices, some murmuring, others shouting. Everyone was dressed in the same kinds of clothes but in different colors. Nobody was wearing their helmets, so I took mine off too, discovering my brown hair was red now. A glance at everyone else confirmed that everybody's hair color matched their suits.

A teenager, a girl in blue, was saying quite loudly, "What in the world is going on? Is this some kind of twisted joke?" She had black eyes, which were currently narrowed.

The orange astronaut came to my right side and asked softly, "Kate, are you here, too?"

I look at him and see the person is Frank. He looked a bit sick: his face was pale, his eyes drawn, and he seemed to be wobbling on his feet, like somebody rocks back and forth. I asked (not that quietly), "Yeah, do you know what's going on?"

"I've got no clue. Though, I think we're about to get some help in that subject." he said, nodding toward the cyan-dressed astronaut, a young woman, who was walking toward the table.

She gently closed the laptop sitting in the center of the table and clapped her hands twice.

Only me, Frank, Black, and White, were looking at her. She sighed, and yelled, louder than all the other voices, "Hey, y'all want to know what's going on or not?"

The conversation stopped abruptly and within a second, every single eye in the room was on the cyan astronaut.

She smiled with satisfaction and began, "Thank you. First, let's give our names to each other. Not the real name, the username you're using. Let me demonstrate: I'm Bomb. Who would like to go next?"

The astronaut in green shouted at her, "We don't care about names. You promised an explanation, now give us one." Talk of agreement passed through the group.

Bomb responded coldly, her eyes narrowing a, "I said, let's give our names to each other. Since you spoke up first, why don't you start?"

Something about her made me feel uneasy, so much that my hands were sweating. I could tell, from the way everyone glanced at each other, that I wasn't the only one.

Apparently, the green astronaut must have felt it too because he backed down. "I'm Melon." His surprisingly green eyes were a bit wide in fear.

Cyan smiled. "See? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!" The words sparked a chain reaction among the crew. We went in a random order.

I went first. "Cherry."

Orange/Frank added, "Oranges." He still seemed a bit sick, but looked better, and his dark brown eyes looked troubled.

Pink softly said next, "I'm Boots." She had gray eyes, which looked down at her feet. Her hands fidgeted a lot.

Lime squeaked, "Lamp." Lime was also a bit fidgety and his black eyes looked at a person's shoulder when they spoke instead of their face.

Blue added on. "Sushi." Her posture was straight with her hands on her hips.

White said, " I'm Noodles." Her warm brown eyes were confused, but she looked like a nice person.

Black stated, "Chopsticks." His mouth was turned down into a frown and his eyes, which were brown like White, were narrowed.

Yellow glowered. "Mouse." Her ocean blue eyes seemed to hate the world as she stood in the corner with her arms crossed.

Bomb/Cyan clapped her hands and brightened visibly. "Okay, so now y'all get your explanation. Something in the server glitched and now y'all are in the game. Happy?"

"So it's like some virtual reality trick. Are we even, like, actually, here?" White asked.

Black smacked White's arm. "Hey! What was that for?" White looked at him quizzically, while rubbing her left arm.

His mouth quirked when he explained, "Proves we're here."

White glared at him. "You didn't have to hit me to show that!"

I turned my attention back to Bomb when Lamp/Lime asked curiously, yet cautiously, "What about you? Are you an illusion or are you really here?"

Bomb responded, "I'm really here. But try not to test it, 'kay?" she grinned at Black. The smile gave me goosebumps, but he showed a thumbs-up.

Bomb turned back and said, "Your tablets are in your backpack. Use that to look at the rules and the Skeld map and everything else. Any questions?"

Blue asked, "How do we get out of here? Do we wait, or play, or..." She trailed off.

Bomb said, "If y'all wanna get outta here, y'all will have to play! For now, we'll all need to wait for the lobby to fill," she ended cheerfully.

I was about to open my mouth to tell her the lobby was full but then I peered at Bomb. She was watching Mouse/Yellow, who was looking outside. As I looked closer, I noticed they had identical ocean blue eyes and blond hair. Bomb at me, like she knew I was watched. The look was enough to stop me cold.

Bomb walked to Yellow's side and quietly talked with her. Mouse waved her hand at the crew. Bomb looked back, and realization dawned on her face. She turned her back to the window and Yellow, and announced, "I must've miscounted the people. Anyways, the lobby's full so why don't we all start the game?"

The room started crackling and dissolving into a void. I heard someone scream as we got sucked into an unknown force.

The next thing I knew, we were in the Cafeteria, standing around the center table, with tablets, which were color-coordinated with our outfits, in our hands.

Hi. I know nobody reads this but if you do I'm really glad. Also, I'll probably posting every week, so be on the lookout for that! Thanks again for reading this!