Choose (A Choose Your Own Story Adventure)

35. Confront Linda

Mia musters all of her strength and swallows down her fear. She mentally counts to three before popping out from behind the boxes. "Hey, Linda!"

Surprised, Linda instinctively pulls out a gun from her belt. Mia's eyes widen. She hadn't seen the weapon earlier.

Linda fires before seeing who it is. Mia's mouth drops as the bullet hits her in the stomach. Only then does her boss realize who the person she shot is.

"Mia," she says breathlessly. She runs over. "Oh my goodness, I am so, so sorry."

Mia's knees grow weak. She falls to the floor. Linda sits next to her and rests Mia's head in her lap. "I-I thought you were someone else. Please...please stay with me."

Mia's eyesight is growing fuzzy. Linda's words sound far away. The pain Mia feels makes it impossible to talk. She swears that it's numbing though. She looks down at her bloody wound and her sticky fingers covering it. The sight of the blood only makes her feel dizzier.

She barely feels Linda pick her off of the ground and take her up the stairs. Mia's eyes close. She feels very tired. She wants to remain conscious, but she feels herself slipping.

Eventually, she embraces the darkness. She goes to sleep.

***

The room grows red and alarms sounds. You look around, panicked. "SUBJECT IS DECEASED, SUBJECT IS DECEASED," the computer blares. "INITIATING SELF DESTRUCT."

Self destruct?!

"SELF DESTRUCT BEGINNING IN TEN...NINE..."

Though you hardly process the words, your legs dash out of the room. Your breathing quickens. "The room is going to explode, everyone out!" you scream. You don't know how far the impact will go, and you don't want anyone downstairs to get hurt. Someone people look at you, perplexed. You point at the room you just came out of. "Everyone needs to go upstairs, now."

No one objects. Everyone scrambles into the elevator. You don't think you can stand still long enough in an elevator. You see a flight of stairs and run up them. Surprisingly, you get up faster than the elevator, though you're exhausted.

"Everyone needs to get out!" you scream as you run. "The downstairs is going to blow up!"

The crowd of employees are talking frantically and running out of all of the exits. You fling a pair of double doors open. You fall onto a field of grass, sputtering and gasping. Everyone stands around the front of the building, confused. You look ahead expectantly. Grace only counted from ten, meaning that it has to have exploded by now. Maybe it just hit the basement? If so, everyone would have at least heard it, right?

"What's going on?" someone shouts. He is running from his car, the door still open. He's going around to everyone. "What happened? Please, does anyone know?"

Finally, he approaches you. You're still trying to catch your breath. You manage to lift yourself onto your feet, though.

"Please," he says. His eyes are filled with feared. "My name is Trevor. I just got here. Why is everyone outside?"

"Trevor?" you ask. "Like the one Grace always talks about?"

"Grace?" His brows raise, his eyes showing recognition. He looks at you, confused. "How do you know her? You...you're not my replacement..."

You shake your head and look down at your feet. For the first time, you deeply regret what you have done. Sure, the lie has been a little nuisance in the back of your head all day, but you didn't think it was too big of a deal. From Trevor's concerned appearance, though, you assume that it may be more serious than you thought.

His soft eyes suddenly harden. He sucks in a long breath. "Come with me. Please."

He walks back inside. His colleagues watch him with hushed whispers. Hesitant, you follow behind him. Trevor easily makes his way down the elevator and into the room you have been in all day. You linger back slightly, still worried about the risk of the computer exploding.

Trevor opens the door. The screen is completely caved in. Wires underneath the desk are sparking and protruding from broken machines. Even the keyboard is broken and covered with random pieces of glass and metal. The destruction looks bad, though you're surprised that it only seemed to affect the computer.

Trevor picks up a piece of metal and strokes it with his thumb. The word "Grace" is written on it in sloppy handwriting. You stand in the doorway, feeling sorry for the man. From what you know, this is what he did for work every day. Now the computer's gone.

He looks back at you. He waves you over. You stand next to him. "I programmed the computer to explode if Mia died before she reached the age sixty," he tells you. "I did this because I figured that if I couldn't help her live a long life, then I should never do it again."

You're silent. It isn't his fault that Mia died. Is it necessarily yours, though? The computer should not have given you an option that would have ever killed Mia. It may have no known, though.

Why couldn't he just replay, though? That's the main thing that's confusing you. You have died in plenty of video games before. All he needs to do is respawn. This doesn't seem like the time to tell him, though.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" you ask. You certainly can't afford to get him another computer, but you feel obligated to offer something. You are some part of the reason this has happened, after all.

Trevor shakes his head. "Just tell me, how did she die?"

You think for a moment. Do you make it less intense then it was? He seems to really care for Mia. You understand. You get attached to characters all of the time.

The full truth seems like the least you can do for him. "Linda shot her. Mia found a secret basement where her boss was keeping illegal...stuff."

Trevor nods. He blinks frantically, trying to keep the tears in his eyes. He's still holding the piece of the computer in his hand.

"Thank you," he whispers. "Can you give me a little time alone, please? I'd appreciate it."

You nod. "Trevor, I'm so, so, sorry."

You could apologize a million times and still not be satisfied. He asked for you to leave, though, so you do. You stuff your hands in your pockets as you head back into the elevator. When you reach the ground floor, you see the employees slowly making their way back into the building. Some of them are giving you dirty looks while others are trying to get back to work as quickly as possible. You walk past all of them, your head occupied with your guilt and confusion.

Why did that happen? All over a game? It doesn't make sense to you. An idea pops in your head, but it's too ridiculous to ponder.

You call your friend to pick you up. It didn't really hit you how dark it is outside until then. That's not the weirdest thing that's happened today, though, so you don't think about it too much.

Actually, you decide not to think too much about anything to happen. It took awhile, but you finally accept that it may be too complicated for you to understand.

Congratulations! You just got the DEAD ending! Go back to "1. Morning" in order to try again!

Ending: 6/19