Real Zombie Shit

“You know, I didn’t really mean it when I said you should live in the video game world.”

Everyone was in the backyard of the Anies’ house, where a big screen and several pods were placed. All of them looked at the technology with confusion with the exception of M’rell, who just stared at the screen with a huge smile on his face. Royce looked up at the words at the top of this sleek and advanced computer, reading them out loud.

“Virtual Reality?” he then turned to M’rell. “You really serious about this?”

“Yeah!” M’rell nodded with excitement. “I set this up last night while you went out with Alexa. It’s pretty advanced, but I think we’ll be able to-”

“Whoa, wait,” Ciara interrupted. “Where’d you get this? How’d you pay for it? Does my mom know about this?”

“Um, Auntie will know about it,” M’rell chuckled nervously, then shrugged. “Eventually.”

“The question should be if he actually paid for it,” Aliya mumbled.

Romyn’s eyes widened. “You did pay for it, right?”

M’rell put his hands up. “Hey, hey, hey, let’s not ask too many questions. Let’s just say I know someone in the video game business and they let us try this out for the day.”

“So you brought us here to play video games?” Raven raised an eyebrow.

“But this is different!” M’rell exclaimed. “Instead of just staring at a screen and playing with a controller, we’ll actually be in the game! Isn’t that hella raw?”

“Hey, that actually does sound fun,” Brandon nodded and faced Ciara. “Wanna do it with me?”

“I don’t know, baby,” Ciara said. “I thought we were supposed to work on filming today.”

“Eh, but the contest isn’t until September,” her boyfriend replied. “C’mon, I’ve always wanted to be in the video game world! I could finally be apart of Call of Duty!”

Ciara giggled at his excitement. “Okay, fine. Only because it really does sound like fun.”

“What about you guys?” M’rell asked the others.

“I was gonna wash my car today,” Roenz said. “Chowder needs a wash.”

Yes, Roenz did in fact name his car Chowder.

Aliya rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? How many times are you gonna spoil that car of yours?”

“Hey, my car is beautiful! You see how big my spoiler is?”

“As big as your ego?”

Roenz opened his mouth to say something, but realized he had nothing against her statement. Instead, he just looked away and pouted.

“I was thinking of job hunting again,” Ray said.

“Ooh, I wanna come!” Raven squealed.

“I was gonna work out with Om,” Cliff scratched his head. “You know, ‘cause I’ve been feastin’ a lot lately and I’m getting fat.”

“Shut up,” Ari put her hands on her hips. “You’re like a rock!”

“I need to buy new Converse,” Dylan looked down at his slightly torn shoes.

“We can go to Fairfield mall,” Paige insisted. “I was gonna go there anyway.”

“All I wanna do is get something to eat,” Jack said. “I’m hungry.”

“Ugh, I know, right?” Raven agreed and held her stomach. “Michael, you should buy me food!”

“Didn’t I just buy you McDonalds?”

“I’m still hungry.”

“Anyway,” M’rell continued, ignoring all of the chatter. “You guys gotta try this! It’s summer and this is something that’s hella crazy and new. I mean, think of all the possibilities. Nobody, and I mean nobody is gonna be able to experience this like us. We got this shit for only one day and all that stuff you guys plan on doing can be done any other day. So I say we do this. Are you guys with me?”

Everybody just exchanged glances of uncertainty, unable to speak up. They all waited for someone to break the silence while M’rell just sighed and decided to forget the whole thing altogether. Maybe this was a dumb idea. They were all young adults and had no time to deal with video games. Some of them already graduated and they all needed to get ready for the real world. They needed jobs, they needed money, and they needed to grow up. This virtual reality computer was all a waste of...

“I’ll do it.”

They all turned to Om, who had finally spoken up. He stepped forward to one of the pods and looked at M’rell, who just stared.

“Really?” M’rell was surprised.

Out of all of them, Om was the one that decided to step up.

“Yeah,” Om nodded. “So far this summer, I’ve only been looking for jobs, helping with summer school, thinking about college, and doing all kinds of other responsible stuff. I mean, these are things I should be doing. But I realized they’re not things I wanna do. It’s summer and I want to have fun and try new things. Like M’rell said, we could do all those other things any other day. But today, I’m gonna experience virtual reality. What about you, guys?”

Aliya smiled. “I’ll do it, too.”

“Me, too.”

“Me, too!”

“Same here!”

“Okay, I’m in.”

After being a little reluctant to join in, they all decided to try it out and each of them stepped near a pod. Om and M’rell were right about doing something interesting for the summer. So yeah, they were all going to head out into the world soon, but they weren’t going to stay young forever. Some of them were leaving and they had to make as many summer memories as possible.

There were a total of fifteen pods, which was enough for each of them while the younger kids watched. Justyn, Romyn, and Maddie were gonna watch the teenagers enter whatever video game it was that they were entering, almost like watching a movie. M’rell didn’t step into his pod like the others did, and walked over to where all the buttons were. He pressed a red button and the screen and all of the pods lit up, the doors of the pods sliding closed, and the kids’ faces watching in pure amazement.

“Wow,” Justyn’s eyes did not want to blink as the screen turned on.

On the screen, the teens appeared and they looked like they were put in a huge mall setting. Everyone looked around and stared at their surroundings in disbelief.

Maddie was jumping up and down. “Look, look! They’re in the game!”

“Is it me, or does this mall seem familiar?” Aliya asked.

Justyn then looked at the area they were in and he thought the mall setting looked familiar, too. He looked closely at the stores in the background and recognized a few of them, bringing the conclusion to what game they could be in. “Are they in...?”

Romyn walked closer to the screen and said loudly, “How does it feel, you guys?”

Nobody answered and they all continued to inspect the virtual world. M’rell then said to Romyn, “They can’t hear you. You gotta talk in this speaker.”

He pressed a smaller button where a tiny microphone was next to it. Romyn leaned down and spoke into the mic.

“How does it feel?” she asked again.

“This is sooo weird,” Ciara answered.

“Wait, will we actually get hurt while in here?” Cliff looked at the ceiling (or wherever Romyn’s voice came from).

“Yeah, I wanna know, too,” Aliya crossed her arms. “Because I’ve seen a lot of movies where whatever happens to a person in the virtual world, happens to them in real life.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” M’rell said through the speakers. “We can’t feel pain in here. We can still get cuts, bruises, or some shit, but we won’t really get hurt.”

“Ooh, really?” Ari grinned and walked over to Jack. “Let’s test it out.”

She then proceeded to kicked Jack in between the legs, causing him to dropped to his knees out of instinct while all the guys winced at the sight.

“AHH, WHAT THE FUCK!?” Jack yelled, then stopped and blinked. “I...I didn’t feel anything.”

It was true. He did not feel even an ounce of pain. “Oh, fer sure.”

“Haha, shit,” Royce laughed. “You would’ve been fucked up if we were in the real world.”

“Hey!” Michael shouted. “Don’t kick my boyfriend!”

“Michael, you want a test kick, too?” Paige giggled.

“Go ahead, hooker!”

“Wait a minute,” Brandon said. “What game are we in, M’rell?”

M’rell’s voice came through the speakers again. “Oh, I think you guys are gonna love this one.”

Suddenly, Justyn’s voice came through the speakers. “You guys are in the Willamette Mall!”

Only Aliya raised her eyebrows at the name. “You don’t mean...”

“YOU GUYS ARE IN THE GAME, DEAD RISING!”

“Come again?” Raven gave a puzzled look.

They all turned to Aliya, guessing that she knew the answer.

“We’re in a...zombie game, “ Aliya explained.

Brandon’s eyes lit up. “Cooool! I can do this! I’ve fought zombies before!”

“But that was just us in makeup,” Roenz corrected.

“Yeah, we weren’t really zombies,” Cliff said. “Just hella cute ones.”

“Hella cute.”

“Hellaa cute.”

“Okay, I get it!” Brandon frowned. “Still, I’ve watched enough zombie movies to know the rules.”

“So what, we’re just gonna fight zombies?” Dylan shrugged.

“Here’s what we’re gonna do,” M’Rell said in the mic. “We’re gonna see who can last for six hours in a zombie apocalypse. Anyone who gets killed will be sent back into the real world. We’ll all be teleported into different places around the mall and try to survive as much as we can. By the way, there’s gonna be a bunch of weapons around so we’re not completely defenseless.”

“Six hours!?” Ciara yelled. “What time is it, anyway?”

“It’s 11:59 AM right now.”

“So we’re in until 6?” Ray said.

“Yeah! The game’s starting soon, so brace yourselves. I’m going in!” M’rell then stepped into his pod and pointed to the three younger kids.

“Justyn, Romyn, and Maddie, you guys are gonna stay here to watch and supervise or whatever. Press that big green button in twenty seconds, okay?”

“Gotcha!” Justyn made a thumbs up and yelled into the mic. “DEAD RISING STARTING IN TWENTY SECONDS!”

Meanwhile, in the virtual world, everybody was freaking out a little.

“I don’t know if I can do this!” Raven screamed.

“Don’t worry, Raven!” Roenz said. “I can protect you. Well, if I find you.”

“Guess this is practice for real zombies...” Royce sighed. “If it happens.”

“TEN SECONDS!”

“I got this shit,” Aliya assured herself. “I’ve seen Justyn play this before.”

“This is crazy!” Ari threw her arms in the air. “Six hours! Are you forreal?”

“FIVE SECONDS!”

“Ready, Ciara?” Brandon looked at his girlfriend.

“Ready!”

“FOUR...”

Ray cracked his knuckles.

“THREE...”

Raven held onto Michael.

“TWO...”

Royce looked confident.

“ONE!”

Justyn slammed his hand on the green button and yelled, “DEAD RISING STARTING NOW!”

Before they all knew it, there was a big flash of light. Romyn and Maddie looked up at the screen while Justyn had a big grin on his face.

The time was now 12:00 PM.

It has begun.