A Collection of my Writer's Games Entries

Video Games: Task 2 (Gwen Minty)

I only remembered everything going black, right before I heard that girl – I couldn’t recall her name – screamed. I slowly opened my eyes and tried to sit up. I couldn’t get up. One side of the room was a mirror, the remaining three sides were a blank white. The only interesting things in this room was the number 13 above the door – which blended in with the wall – and the several machines that beeped around me. I felt like I was in hospital – a mental asylum even. I was strapped to the bed and I had a drip in my arm. I knew one machine was measuring my pulse. Beep. Beep. Beep. I didn’t have a clue about the other machines. The number 13 scared me a little. I was a very superstitious person. And in my superstitions 13 was a bad number – a very unlucky number. Hence the reason why I had been kidnapped and taking to a mental asylum. Stuff this! I ripped out the needle in my arm. I gritted my teeth and let out a small scream – they made it look so easy in the movies. The machine started beeping rapidly after that. At least I was still in my normal clothes. If they were going to kidnap me then I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I ran to the door and grabbed the handle. I gave it a twist and pulled. Nothing. It was locked. I cursed loudly – I can thank my parents for my wide range of curse words. I was considering shouting obscenities at my kidnapper but it’s better to be silent in a time like this. I rattled the door for a few more minutes before I started to get pissed off. I grabbed a machine and threw it into the mirror. I smile crept onto my face as I heard a satisfying smash and the glass scattered.
“Have fun cleaning that up!” I grinned. I spotted a needle on the floor and an idea popped into my head. Lock-picking! I grabbed it and went to the door. I jiggled the needle around. It felt like an eternity until I heard the click. I sighed in relief, and opening the door, I decided to keep my needle. I clutched it in my hand. I heard someone shouting in the next room.
“…if you don’t let me out of here I swear I’ll shove your head up your bum hole and..” she shouted. I think you get the picture. Number 15 was on the door. I shrugged and opened it. They must only be accessible from the outside. She caught sight of me. Her room was a complete mess. Everything turned upside down, every wall had dents or needles stuck in them.
“What the f_” she stopped,
“Oh, don’t stop now.” I said, leaning against the door frame, “I’ve already heard enough,” My mouth pulled up into a smirk.
“What do you want?” she spat, “And how’d you get out?”
“What’s it matter,” I shrugged, “I’m out so if you want to come,”
“I’d love to get out of this hell hole,” she smiled, “I’m Olympia,”
“Didn’t we meet in the van?” I asked. I remember now: that was her! The same girl!, “Gwen,”
“Gotcha,” she winked and bounced down the hall, “Any idea how to get out..” she trailed off at the sight of a bulky man.
“If you follow me, no one gets hurt,” he said in a husky voice,
“Sure thing,” I said quickly before Olympia could say a word. We followed him through a maze of corridors until we reached a crowd of children and adults. The door – that was labelled ‘Gaming Room’ – opened and we were pushed inside.
“Go to the numbers that were in your room,” bulky man ordered. I sighed and went to number 13. Unlucky. We each had our own booths, a mini wall separated us. Olympia was only a person away from me.
“You will have 30 minutes to build some kind of shelter. Anyone who doesn’t complete or refuses to do so will be eliminated,” a robotic voice said, “Begin,” The screen in front of me lit up to display Minecraft. Good thing I knew how to play. What harm could it do to obey? Maybe there would be some type of reward. I changed a few controls so I could work faster then got started. I decided on using dark oak planks for the outside, making a rectangle box. Then I used birch planks for the floor. I cut out the top left quarter and made a quick balcony for viewing, then added stairs up to the second floor. I put in a double chest, crafting table, two furnaces and a bed. Then I added in a 4x4 glass pane window along with some spruce wood doors. I put a few flowers in flower pots out the front then fenced off the front yard. I flew back a bit to admire my handy work. It looked pretty flash. I was thinking of putting some oak trees out the front but only got one done before a buzzer went off and the screen went blank. I heard a few curses – some of us probably hadn’t finished.
“Time is up!” the voice screeched, “Please make your way to the wall to your left!”
We all shuffled to the left of the room, I stayed beside Olympia the whole time but I felt like I was at Poke-Fest all over again. A bright beam flashed in front of us. I turned away but turned back as I heard a ‘thunk’ sound. A glass wall cut us off from the rest of the room. A wave of confusement swept over everyone but then came a chorus of swears and ‘let us out’s’. The room went dark and suddenly beams of light flashed around us. I closed my eyes and gripped Olympia’s hand. Suddenly a breeze wisped my hair around. I opened my eyes to see the house I had just created on Minecraft. I tripped over my own feet. I grasped for Olympia’s hand but she wasn’t there. It was like my own personal island with my house I had created. I ran for it. For a moment I actually forgot about the kidnapping and forgot all my worries. I ran through the gate and past my oak tree. I stopped an arm’s length from the house. Then, slowly, I brushed my fingers on the dark wood. It was as soft as I imagined. I ran inside and bounced on the bed. My own house! Just for me! I suddenly caught glimpse of a cobblestone box outside my house. A girl – a lot older than me – walked out, she looked a little confused. I ran out to her to get a closer look, her brown spiky hair made her look like a pixie.
“Oops, sorry!” she said in a giggly voice, “I’m trying to get to the shop but this is waaay to confusing,”
I stared at her for a moment, “Shop?”
“Well, you know, you can’t live without food or water. I’m Maysilee by the way,” she shook my hand despite my attempts to stop her, “I’ll be off then,” she started back but I grabbed her wrist.
“Wait,” I said. She was a little bit of a flutterbrain – as Mum would say – “Do you think I could come too?”
“Why not?” she shrugged, “What’s your name?”
“Gwen,” I smiled at her. At least she was friendly. I got into the booth with her and she shut the door. Buttons from 1 – 20 ran down the screen. We were on 13 – my number that I had been seeing. Off to the side was a button labelled ‘Shop’. I got on my tippy-toes and pressed it. A gust of wind came through – even though there wasn’t any gaps in the booth – and the door clicked.
“You’re good at this,” Maysilee said as she opened the door. Surrounding a barn house – which had green letters indicating that it was the shop – were crops of fruit and veggies. Along with a few farm animals. I recall seeing it on an app. Farmville! That’s it.
“Do you think it’s possible we could be in an app?” I asked Maysilee. She rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t think it was possible but here we are standing in Farmville, so obviously,” she grabbed my hand in hers and ran off towards the barn house with me in the tow. I soon spotted Olympia – her hair was a dead giveaway.
“Olympia!” I called, she turned around and waited for us to catch up.
“New friend?” she smiled at me. I hated being the youngest around here but at least older people would be nice to me.
“This is Maysilee,” I said, quickly ripping my hand from her grip.
“Hi. Olympia? That’s an odd name,”
“Just as odd as you having a name from the Hunger Games,” she shrugged. I wanted to say ‘nice comeback’ but I didn’t want to hurt Mayilee’s feelings.
“So do you have any idea what to do?” I asked, breaking the silence that had overcome us. Other people also wandered around.
“I guess we get some supplies and wait. It’s not that bad here,” Olympia answered,
“It’s freaking heaven here!” Maysilee said loudly, she got a few glares from others, “We have our dream house:  mine’s not finished but it’s still cool. I’ve dreamed of this day since I was little,” she looked off into the distance.
“She’s crazy,” Olympia bent down and whispered to me,
“At least she’s nice,” I whispered back then added louder, “Let’s get some food,”
We went into the Shop to find not too many choices, I settled on a few bottles of water – 4L in total and some apples. It was 3 apples for 2 coins, I didn’t see any harm even though I didn’t know about the currency. At least the water was free. We went back to the teleport booth together with bags in our hands. I didn’t pay attention what the other two got but I knew they got water. It seemed as if we were preparing for something that we didn’t even know about.
“Well, I’ll see you guys later!” Maysilee waved with her free hand and disappeared into the booth.
“Finally!” Olympia sighed, “She’s a little weird,”
“She’s just friendly,” I defended Maysilee,
“Whatever. Anyways,” she went on, “I have a bad feeling about this place. So promise me, no matter what happens, us three will stick together,”
“I thought you didn’t like May?” I said, a little confused.
“Nicknames, now?” Olympia smiled. I just shrugged, May was easier to say then Maysilee, “So, I’ll tell May the same thing, right? It’s better to have more friends than enemies, yeah?”
“True,” I nodded in agreement. But I never really had any friends in the first place.
“Stay safe and I’ll see you later,” Olympia hugged me then disappeared. I stood frozen. That’s what it felt like to be hugged. My parents never showed any affection towards me. I snapped out of my daze and went to the booth and pressed number 13. I put everything into my chest and lay on my bed. I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but I knew one thing was for sure. Dad had always said that good thing don’t just happen for free. That was life – nothing is for free. That was my life. We couldn’t just get all this for free and expect to live like Kings and Queens. Something was up, and I was going to make it my duty to find out what.