Covered Correspondence

At least I didn't miss the Apocalypse

 I opened my eyes and everything seemed more clear.

"Mark," Chase, yes, I knew who he was, sat up. "You're awake."

"Yeah...what's going on?" I asked, "shoot, did I miss the apocalypse?"

"If you're wondering if the world went insane and all chaos and order was lost while you were asleep, I guess the answer is technically no--though that's not saying much," Chase stated

"Well, that's good," I said...and then noticed his expression. The guy was slouched over, his elbows resting on his knees. He looked downright depressed and angry at the same time. I was glad we were on the same team. Whoever Chase was mad with is going to wish the apocalypse had gotten him!

"Wait," I started, "where's Piper?"

Chase opened his mouth, I thought to tell me off, but instead he just closed it, keeping his eyes set on the wall before him.

"You got a plan?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbow.

Chase kept his focus set on the wall, his jaw tightening. "You remember that one game. It came out five 'er so years ago?"

Instantly I knew what he was talking about.

"The 'Unbeatable Jessie Hebrew ' they called it," he said.

"Cuz that's what it was called," I added. Chase glared at me, but ignored my comment and went back to staring at the wall.

He continued in a sincere voice as if looking back on his whole life...(if his life was full of tragedy and hardship). "You went through a million levels to defeat him and every time, he knocked you down, but left you with enough lives to go on. Remember, you'd wake up and that assist lady would give you a Band-Aid--,"

"The Heal-Belt," I corrected, smirking slightly.

"Anyway, Finally you got to the end and found yourself at Jessie's lair. You thought you had him trapped, but it was just the other way around. The one thing that the assistant lady said could defeat him, he'd somehow found out about and used it on you. And you would lose...except that's not what would happen, was it?"

"No, I later figured out how to..."

"How to cheat."

"Yeah, cuz when you got to that dusty, paper filled lab for the first time, and as the ruble was raining down upon you because Jessie'd collapsed the roof to cover his tracks, who was standing there? No one but that sweet little lady, with her Heal-Belt. She was it. She was the unbeatable Jessie Hebrew," I remembered that.

"She knew all your weaknesses," Chase added, "literally, the game picked up on your skills and hesitancies and weaknesses. It made her unbeatable."

"Exactly, but what does that have to do with--?" I started.

Chase leaned, forward and tapped my chest. I looked down to see a wrap over my bullet wound. "Imuy," I said, "that's the name of Fin's company. We know."

"No, look at it again," Chase said.

I glanced down. I wasn't that great at reading from above, but I did alright. "It says...you...me. You-me?" I asked, sounding out the words.

"Yeah, say it again," Chase prodded.
"Yumi," I said and then choked. "Yumi? Like Yumi? From the agency?"

Chase nodded. "After the first time I lost the game, I played it through again. And when it came to the end, I didn't use what the little lady had told me would kill Jessie. Instead, I used--."

"The Heal Belt."

"Exactly, the only thing it didn't heal was..."

"Injuries to the lungs."

"It suffocated her. After that, I used the actual tool she told me too. It was so hard to do it too...it felt so real. As the room exploded, cuz she'd still rigged it before my arrival, I ran into that back closet/room and found nothing. Literally, empty white pixels for ever and ever," Chase said. "That was a terrible game."

I could picture that in my mind. I remember that game...everything about it. Since I'd been a bit young when I'd played it, I'd grown attached to the lady. She was like an aunt and every time I saw her at the end of the level, it was a promise that she'd be with me. She would inform me of what to do next. No, I didn't cry when I killed her. That would have been weird. It was just the moldy cheeto dust down in the basement that made me sick so I spent the whole rainy--yes rainy Christmas break of 2010--in my room, staring at the ceiling, wondering what to do with my life. "So, Chase you're saying that?"

"They've kept us alive for the last and final battle...the last battle with Unbeatable Jessie Hebrew."